We had to leave Jeff's early because he had to take his roommate to the airport. We found a place to park and had breakfast. It was just cereal but it was tasty after only sleeping a few hours.
We found a place nearby with a course and watched the sun rise there. I like images with natural and artificial things working well together.
Gateway Park was a nice, big park with a fairly new disc golf course carved out of the thick wooded areas. A lot of the holes were overgrown like this one but they had a general path from tee to basket.
This is another course where we encountered tons of butterflies. These ones aren't as scared of people as the other ones.
Joanna lost a disc on hole 3, where I gained two while looking for hers. There were more than a few times that we had to stop and look around for discs lost in thick grass or overgrown areas. We also had to avoid a disgustingly green, stagnant body of water that was dangerously close to several fairways.
One of the holes was unplayable and the path to one was completely blocked. By the end, we were cut up, itchy from the grass and annoyed. There were a few decent holes here but I wouldn't ever return. The sign should read: "Caution, Awful Course, Find Another."
We did that anyway. Bear Creek was suggested to us by another player yesterday so we checked it out. It was great. The first tee shot over a river or stream with a pipe leading you across to get to the basket.
Most of the holes were a little challenging in a fun way. A few others shot over ravines as well, which makes the course even better.
I made a great putt on one of the later holes from in a ditch up to a basket. I give this one a high rating, if only because it made me feel better after playing such an annoying course in the morning. Somewhere on the way from this course we hit 3,000 miles. I didn't get the exact time or anything but I'll just count the big ones like 5 and 10.. if I get there.
We went in to Fort Worth after the games to check out some museums. First up was the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. They only charge four dollars for students so it was a good deal.
There were a lot of artists' works in the museum that we had studied either in Art History III or Modern Art so it was nice knowing about the pieces. Everything on the first floor was really great though. Definitely a good museum. It wasn't the same without Hottle there to tell us everything about each piece.
Upstairs was a special exhibit of Andy Warhol's work. There were a lot of things I had seen before as well as collaborations, paintings and videos I had never seen.
My car was due for an oil change so I went to a garage downtown called the Downtown Garage and got it taken care of. It took about as long as a walk to the Super Target a block away to get finished. Do you ever wonder if mechanics take your car and hold it, not doing anything, and then charge you?
We came back to the museum area and checked out the Kimble Museum right across from the other one. There were a lot of older pieces and sculptures here but I still was familiar with much of it.
Michelangelo's first painting was on display with a long explanation about its inspiration and context. It was pretty interesting to see how he began since he primarily worked in sculpture.
We were told to check out the Stockades because it's "where the west begins" or something. It had an old west feel to it besides the cars on the road. The old stocks where animals were kept had been turned into a little mall with restaurants and bars and a place with a big honky tonk and a rodeo.
We just walked the streets, taking in the sights and this was probably the most interesting thing we saw. It's a mouse riding a cat riding a dog. There you have it.
Spiral Diner was so good that we had to visit again. I got the Philly cheesesteak... yep. It was so good.. we need to bring one of these places to the east coast. Really. I had a peanut butter banana smoothie for dessert and sadly left.
We came back to Jeff's later to stay again because the forecast was for rain and he was happy to let us stay again. This is the great room we had for two nights. Couldn't have been better.
I was pretty beat from not getting any sleep the night before as well as playing the courses and being out all day. I had no trouble getting to sleep this time.
Total distance: 108.8 miles. We just didn't get anywhere. That's all from driving to courses and downtown in Fort Worth. We ended up in the exact same spot as last night.
We took Jeff and his roommate, Jill, out to breakfast at IHOP for being so kind and letting us stay for two nights. Breakfast was excellent. Pancakes and eggs with toast for me. It was very filling and a nice change. We bid Jeff farewell and got on the road to get out of Texas!
The skies were not looking so friendly as soon as we started heading west. This opened up to a complete downpour after a short time. It was raining pretty bad for a while but it let up eventually and then it was just a little every once in a while.
I wish it hadn't been so cloudy when we drove through "the biggest wind farm in the world." It was massive. The towers were all over in giant fields as far as we could see into the distance. They made for great shots (this isn't one of those..) but the limited visibility was a bummer.
We weren't sure if we'd get to play because of the rain, but we found Levelland Park and it wasn't raining when we got there so we played. The first basket is just great, sitting atop a lighthouse with a hollow bottom so the discs fall out after you make the shot. Mine got stuck in the chains but it's a good idea anyway.
It was cold and really windy out, which wasn't helping our shots at all since the course was mostly a big, flat, open field like this. A lot of the shots were similar and some of the baskets were surrounded by water from the early rain.
The course seemed like fun but we called it after 10 of the 21 holes due to wind-related annoyance. Just go for the lighthouse hole and then check out... well, there's really nothing else around but a Wal*Mart.
We got on the road again and finally saw a sign that welcomed us to New Mexico--but, more importantly, ushered us out of Texas! The stuff behind the sign doesn't really work with the state's motto... I really don't mind Texas either, I had a lot of fun there.. we were just there for a long time.. it's a big state.
New Mexico brought new fun, especially when I saw flashing lights way behind me and realized I was going about 15 mph over the speed limit and knew they must be coming for me. I was right. To be fair (to me) the speed limit was going from 70 to 45 to 30 all in the course of a quarter of a mile.. it's hard to keep up.
He gave me a ticket, which was on a large sheet of paper that I had to sign on the spot and I also had to tell him whether or not I would be taking it to court or paying it.. I chose paying since I didn't want to travel back to Tiny Town, NM to sit in traffic court.. already did that in Jersey, thanks! I never get mad at the cops for these things though, I'm just mad at myself for not noticing the speed limit. Oh well, what can ya do?
We continued through the darkness to Albuquerque and to the apartment of someone we met on Couch Surfer. GPS is a lifesaver in situations where you need to find a specific apartment in a city you don't know at all. Don't forget about maps though, they're still useful and awesome.
We went in and met Candice and Orlando, who helped us settle in on the two couches in the living room where we put our sleeping bags and got to sleep pretty quickly.
Total distance: 662.6. That's more like it, we're finally getting somewhere again!
