Hey Abbotttttttttt!

Today was an early morning, hitting the disc golf course that is near my house. It's a little 9 hole course with big elevation changes, but pretty open. One of the goals have for myself is to keep the disc's out of the woods. On this course, that is almost an impossibility. Today, I actually tossed one through the trees and into the creek. I'm not one to let that go, so I headed into the woods to claim it. I knew the general area it went, so I looked for a way to get from the ledge, down to the water, about a 2 foot drop. The creek isn't very wide, but I have no ability to jump, too old, too white. I finally found what appeared to be the only spot that had a landing area, but it looked like it might be a little muddy. I was out of options, so I jumped. I was not aware that there was quicksand in Iowa and I was not prepared for the depth of which my feet would sink. My entire foot and a majority of my ankle was buried. I quickly pulled my feet out and scrambled up the bank. Here is a shot of where I landed, I went back and took a picture later.

You can see the deep holes that my fat ass pushed into the mud when I hurled my body over the ledge. And here is my shoe:

I was able to pull my disc out of the water, dried it off and tossed it in the direction of the basket, which I couldn't see from my position, in the woods and several feet below the elevation of the basket. Next problem, how do I get back. I can't go the way I came, not a chance in hell that I can jump UP the drop I jumped down. Not in a million years. I can't scurry up the bank on the other side of the creek, it drops straight into the water. I start walking down the creek, looking for a place to cross. Nothing. I see a tree that had fallen, or was placed, over the creek and try it out, but change my mind due to the fact that the limb was pretty narrow. I walk further down and find a thicker tree and decide this is my only chance, unless I want to hike deeper into the woods. I start to cross and I'm happy to see a limb sticking up that I can use for balance. I grab a hold as I climb up on the tree and the damn thing breaks off in my hand, leaving me to balance without anything to hold on to. At that moment, I realized that I hadn't told anyone where I was. Marcy knew I was playing disc golf, but I was planning on going to another course, but changed my mind at the last minute because it was so cold. If I fall off this tree, even though it is only about 3 feet above the water, I would probably end up hurting myself and drowning in this little creek, very embarrassing way to go. I started across the tree, no turning back now. After making it across, I took this picture of my "bridge."

The whole thing made me feel like I was in an old Abbott and Costello movie, if it could go wrong, it would. Just when I thought my bad luck was over, I went to the next hole and slipped on some wet grass. Don't worry, my elbow broke my fall. Now, on top of my shoes being muddy, now my pants were to:

These 2 holes took me 20 minutes to play, a record slow pace for me. The rest of the morning was very relaxing and enjoyable. There were a couple of woodpeckers that I stopped and watched for awhile. I watched a little finch looking bird fly right next to me and hop around on some low branches. A very enjoyable morning. A few things that you might not know, disc golf can be a dangerous sport. What's that? You ask why I would say something like that, since there is no way this is a dangerous sport. Tell that to the poor sap that lost his life on hole 6.

Another thing that you always have to keep an eye out for, is snakes. Now I haven't seen one on any of the courses, but there are plenty of sticks that appear to be snakes, just enough to give me a scare.


OK, as I look at them now, they don't appear to resemble a snake, but at the time, they did. There were a few odd things on the course. The first was, somebody dug a hole in the middle of the fareway on hole one. This is a public park and I have no idea what someone would be digging for. I'm guessing there isn't any buried treasure, but maybe they were looking for Indian artifacts.

Speaking of that, I found that this park was the stomping ground of the Coors Indians.

Apparently the Coors Indians are unaware of how to hang their containers from the trees and instead just throw them on the ground. The second strange thing was a guy pulled into the parking lot at 8:30am and sat there with his windows rolled up and his music blasting. I thought he might be waiting for someone, but nobody ever showed and he eventually drove off. Seemed odd to me. I said I would do a public service and show lost items here, so if they are yours, you can claim them. First up, this fine, bright orange, glove, found on hole one.

Next up, I found this stylish flip-flop:

After an exhaustive search, I was unable to locate its match. It appears its owner was traveling down the trail located right behind it, but I can't be sure.

And finally, I realized that when I play alone, I tend to celebrate and complain out loud. This is fine for most of the holes, but several run right along a sidewalk and I was busted complaining about a bad shot. Seeing as how there are a lot of trees in the area, I just yelled for "Bob" to see how bad my shot was. I'm not sure if the woman bought my cover and believed me that there was another person in the area, but at least I learned to watch my mouth in that area.