Mar 14, 2017

I worked at Memorial in an English class for the day. It was an easy day and it went pretty quickly. After work I went to Ryan's to play Aladdin for SNES and plan our ski trip. Aladdin was a lot of fun but much shorter than I remember. That happens a lot with older games. We got all our hotels booked and lift tickets purchased so we are ready to go.

I went to Becca's where we got the cooking underway. We made eggplant parm pizzas again. They never get old. They take quite a while to make, but they're so good. The olives, jalapenos, and artichokes really make them so much better. We ate and watched a couple episodes of the new season of Love before an early bedtime.

Mar 13, 2017

I had an easy day at Silver Run covering meetings. My first meeting was about 10 minutes and then I had off for almost 3 hours. I had another half hour meeting then an hour lunch before going back for a little over an hour to finish my day. For all the days I complain about work, these ones make up for it. I went right to PT from work and went through the motions, adding in a rice exercise that was surprisingly challenging. I went to Becca's later to watch Walking Dead before bed as we awaited the snowstorm that would never come.

Mar 12, 2017

Becca and I decided to head to Philly and figure out our day as we went. We started off at Sedgley playing a round in the cold. We played 9 holes by ourselves and as we started the back a guy pulled up and asked to play with us. He was nice, if a little talkative, but we had a good time. We decided to call it after hole 18 and went to get a coffee at Lucky Goat. 

While we warmed ourselves on a hot beverage we drove toward cold ones at Tired Hands. We started at the original brewery where we had a couple of amazing saisons, Blue Eyed Soul and Lord Invader, as well as a couple others before we headed over to the Fermentaria. The MimosaHands orange juice IPA was awesome and refreshing. They had a lot of good beers here.

The Rust & Decay II sour brown was awesome and there were a handful of tasty IPAs on tap. We went back up the hill for a couple glasses of the beers we started with and a plate of incredible curry potato salad to finish off our afternoon.

We had both independently thought of going to Loco Pez so that kind of inspired our trip to Philly in the first place. We got ourselves a seat at the bar, ordered our beers and nacho waffle fries (potachos *tm*) and enjoyed a slow time. The potachos were incredible of course. I nursed my Neshaminy Creek a bit since it was my last beer of the night and we ended up not getting charged for our beers anyway. Not a bad end to the day.

Mar 11, 2017

I got to the Insane Inflatable 5K early and got things set up. I had to rig up pieces of a tripod to hold the studio lights, but I got everything working. The photographers showed up and we walked the course to figure out what obstacles to shoot. There weren't a lot of great options unfortunately. This isn't like the ROC Race. Much smaller and less unique obstacles. We found the best places we could and I went back to start shooting the studio. I got busy in the afternoon, but it was still somewhat slow overall. The day went by pretty quickly and I was happy to be done.

After I got some food from Tropical Smoothie Cafe and uploaded the photos I went to the International Disc Golf Center at Wildwood Park north of Augusta. The Pro Shop was full of disc golf memorabilia and statues, discs, and photos. It was kind of cool to be in a place that had so much stuff related to the sport. The guy at the desk was really great and helpful too.

He suggested I play the Ed "Steady" Headrick course first. It was a great course with elevation changes, water hazards, and all types of shots around trees. I put my disc in the water shoot downhill over a piece of the lake. I thought it was gone for good, but I managed to get it back with a log and walking my hands into the deep mud.

When I got done under an hour he suggested playing the back nine of each of the other courses to get a little taste of everything. I played the back of Warner first, which was a lot of up and down hills, tight shots, and over a deep valley with a stream. I like this course a lot too. The Jackson course wasn't quite as hilly, but several holes threw over a treacherous ravine that I ended up in only once somehow. Some of the shots were on really steep edges. I finished up early, went to get myself a buffalo chik'n wrap and an amazing smoothie for dinner, dropped off my flash drive at the FedEx store and then headed to the tiny Augusta Regional Airport. My flights home weren't bad. We actually landed early, but the luggage took over twenty minutes to arrive and then we waited almost forty for the economy parking shuttle. I wasn't happy by that point, but I was really happy to be home and going to bed.

Mar 10, 2017

I started my morning driving through rain and traffic to get to the airport. It's a good thing I left early. Once I got on the plane I thought we were good to go, but we had to wait in line to get de-iced before we could take off. The whole flight I thought I was going to miss my connection. I got to the next gate in Charlotte just in time-- if they were leaving on time. It turned out that flight was delayed for mechanical work so I was fine. I got to Augusta a little late but without issue. 

My visit to the course for Insane Inflatable 5K went quickly and easily so I was able to grab some food and head right for the Hippodrome disc golf complex. I started out not loving the Old Glory course since the holes were not obviously laid out and there was a lot of artificial OB. A few holes in everything became much easier to follow and a lot more interesting. This hole that's sunken in the ground was one of my favorites.

I liked this hole on a hill too. There were a few holes that were hanging or hung up in a fun way. There was another drop-off island hole in the middle that was fun. One of the holes even had a bullpen fence around it. It was really weird and confusing, but good for them for finding novel ways to make unique shots.

Once I finished that course on hole 19, which features a bell tower with a basket hanging in it and a bell to ring when you finish. I started on the Hogback course right away to use as much daylight as I could. It was a much shorter and more traditional course with tight, wooded holes. It also featured this giant basket along the edge that you can see from the highway.

I liked this course as well, but after playing the first one I was in the mood for more unusual holes. Hogback does feature a lot of great terrain and risk/reward dropoff shots in the ravine. I put more than a couple discs down the sides of the steep ravine in this area. I was surprised that it was still light at 6:30 when I was finishing up. I think I made the most of the day.

The next stop was Savannah Brewing where I had to buy a little glass for $14 which I could get 6 pours in. Not too bad, but I wouldn't want to do it every time I went. The space is really great and open, with lots of tables and outdoor games. Everyone was really friendly and the pilsner and wheat beer were amazing. The other beers were just okay, but I think they have great potential. After my samples I went back to my hotel and got some things ready for the race then got myself to sleep at a reasonable time.

Mar 9, 2017

I worked at Memorial in an English class for the day. It went pretty well, and I had a lot of free time while the students took a test. After work Becca and I went to Parvin for a run, but I was so full from eating shortly before that I was going slow and not feeling it. We ran two miles and then stopped to walk the rest of the way. It was nice to just walk.

We went to the Pitman breweries later, hoping Kelly Green would have the coffee stout again, but we were disappointed to find out they didn't have it and the place next door was closed. I looked on PhillyTapFinder and found that Bainbridge Barrel House had several coffee beers on so we headed right for there after picking up a slice from Blackbird. We had some great beers, some not as great beers, but quite a few expensive beers. The Neshaminy Creek Coffee JAWN was probably my favorite. There really aren't enough coffee IPAs out there.

We got to the Barbary a little later than I wanted to, but the party was in full swing at Through Being Cool so I was quickly enjoying myself. I was enjoying myself too much to be able to leave before it was basically over at 2am. I'm glad we stayed. 

Mar 8, 2017

I worked for Ryan at Wood School during the day. He had 3 classes. One of them I had watch OK GO videos and the other 2 I took outside to be crazy on the playground. That was the best way to handle them. It worked out pretty well. The big breaks felt long though. Becca and I went to New Brooklyn Park to play disc golf while the weather was nice, but after 9 holes we were just not feeling it. It's confirmed that I just don't like that course.

We called an audible and headed to Cape May Brewery. They had a bunch of stuff on tap and a good amount we hadn't tried so we got some flights. The Key Lime Corrosion wasn't nearly as good as the regular, but the DemiSemiSeptCentennial was really great. The Geek Out IPA was good too. Avalon Coffee Stout was something I was looking forward to, but it was disappointing. I got a couple pints of the Demi which I enjoyed even more than the sample. We also had a little taste of their mango habanero soda which was surprisingly refreshing.