Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Ludington to the Zoo

So after a week in Ludington I drove back to Kalamazoo.  The weather has significantly cooled down and autumn is in the air!  Unfortunately, this sets back some of my original ideas on my road trip and now have to think through other plans.

There is a long of list of items I need to get accomplished while I'm in Kalamazoo and I can't say I have made it through half of the list yet.

The courses I have played since last post are:
The Edge at Riverside Park - Scottville, MI
Labyrinth - Scottville, MI
Flip City - Shelby, MI

Thursday, September 20, 2012

The skinny edition

Great quotes from GloveAndBoots:

"And George Lucas will re-release star wars again...the skinny edition" -vertical video syndrome

"I find no honor in defeating the dj of Justin Bieber." -vid


On a long past note, long past being beginning of July:
Solved an issue with a Toshiba laptop for a friend.  After tearing apart the laptop completely to look for the jumper to reset the BIOS I found http://robplatt.com/index.php/2010/09/08/toshiba-satellite-bios-password-reset/.  After connecting the two pads marked XXX and booting up the laptop, it finally passed the password screen.  Bingo, problem solved, hacked past the password.

Sights From the Road

I tend not to carry my camera while playing disc golf, but here are a few sights I have captured while on the road.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, September 17, 2012

TC to Lud

Sorry for the lack of thought going into this post.  It's more of a day by day/play by play post.  Take some of the names and pray for them.



Wednesday, ran to Northwestern Michigan College and checked out the course on campus.
Thursday, rain.  So I visited "the mix", Bay Pointe Community Church group.

Friday.  Pray for Rachel, who I met at the Traverse City library, she took a Bible to read.  Pray for Walter.  I met him at the Osprey course in Benzonia Michigan and ended up giving him a ride down to Ludington and treated him to Subway (and requested an unbelievable amount of onions on his sub).



Ludington State Campground for the weekend. 

Saturday, Mason Country Park in Ludington Michigan.  There are three 24 hole courses: Beauty, Beast, and Goliath.  Highlight disc golf wise was throwing a 4 on a 707ft flat hole (well the first 100ft is downhill, but the remaining 600ft is uphill).
On Beauty I met Kevin and Tom from GR who both go to the same church and were up here camping.
Between Beauty and the Beast I briefly talked with Tyler in the parking lot and he loved talking about his discraft discs.
On the last hole of Beast, talked with Caleb and Chris.  Caleb asked me if I programmed much for the 68K (because I was wearing my CodeWarrior shirt...CodeWarrior was a popular IDE for CISC CPU architectures).  Anyways, I wish I had of had more time to chat with them.



My front derailleur is broken, so instead of a bike ride along the lake shore, I opted to do a three mile hike to the lighthouse and hiked back in the pitch black.  I was not planning on using a flashlight on the way back, but it was way too dark in the middle of the woods.



Sunday, small world, met Sean, was working for the His House in Ann Arbor but moved to Ludington. 
Played Leviathan in Ludington Michigan.  My arm is tired (after playing 96 holes this weekend).

Monday.  Rain.

Here's to hanging in hammocks.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Welcome to the TC

Sunday Sunday Sunday monster truck rally...I mean Bay Pointe Community Church. 

Excellent service and a challenge to live out our faith.  John 6:60-71.  As a drummer, the drums sounded great not caged (as most churches enclose in drum shields), especially with the great bassist.

More importantly however are the people.  Enter Chris and Jennifer, who sat next to me in the morning service.  In a few words, Chris and Jennifer are a blessing and an encouragement.  The Flap Jack Shack was delicious and talking with Chris and Jennifer over lunch was great.  Being able to articulate and openly talk through the ministry continues to motivate and remind of why I chose to drive around the good ol' US of A sharing the gospel on the disc golf courses.  Chris and Jennifer, thank you. 

Sunday afternoon, Miles Kimmerly in Maple City Michigan.  Great course and played with Glen, Ryan, and Jason. 

BEAR! Oh good, the bear is sleeping in the dunes :)


Monday, Hickory Hills in Traverse City Michigan.  Almost lost my disc, but found it in the dusk.
Tuesday, Carly's Playground (on Mount Holiday) in Traverse City Michigan.  Extra 650ft bomber hole and a hole in 2 on a hole 17 (495ft hole length, 500ft drive).

To give you perspective on 650ft, here's the bomber:



Traverse City is coming to an end quickly...

Monday, September 10, 2012

The Petoskey Run Down

Last week I was in Petoskey Michigan.  Here's the quick recap:

Tuesday, River Road Sports Complex in Petoskey Michigan.  Almost lost a disc but ended up finding a disc and my lost disc with the help of Ed and Logan that I met. 

Reaching out the the owner of the lost disc I figured it would be a guaranteed contact at Harbor Springs.

Wednesday, The Crowle Hole in Harbor Springs Michigan.  Nope, got a call from the guy saying he's having a horrible day and will not be able to pick up the disc.  When I asked if another day would work in the week, he said "for all I care you can keep it".  Not what I was expecting.  Anyways, I went and played anyways.  Ran into a group of six guys: Greg, Taco, Lawrence, Adam, Corey, and Roman.  Turned out great to be a great opportunity because I was able to clearly present the gospel to Corey who was also interested in taking a Knowing God booklet (2). 

Thursday, Boyne Mountain in Boyne Falls Michigan.  Walked up the mountain.  No one in sight.  Enjoyed the view on top of the mountain.  No one in sight.  Started playing and on hole 3 I saw a van that drove up and dropped off a group of guys.  I played realllllly slow, and they still did not catch up.

Friday, Avalanche Park in Boyne City Michigan.  Rain.  Rain.  More Rain.  So I played anyways hoping that there would be one other crazy person playing.  Nope.  There are 445 steps down the mountain.  I am always up for a good stair climb so I climbed up and down the mountain at the end of the course. 

Saturday,  Hanson Hills (long course and short course) in Grayling Michigan and Log Lake in Kalkaska Michigan.  Hanson Hills was a long course and a tournament was going on this morning.  Read, no group to join.  The Log Lake course I caught up to a group who was held to letting me play through.

Three days, five courses and no opportunities is a bit frustrating because at the end of the day disc golf is just throwing a piece of plastic at links of metal while walking in the woods.

Here are a couple pictures of the Mackinac Bridge and dinner at sun set park in Petoskey.

 
 
 
 
 
Off to Traverse City next...
 

Monday, September 03, 2012

Completing the Yooper Tour

Tuesday had time to hang out with my friend Tom.

Thursday I drove down to Marinette Wisconsin and played through the Marinette City Park disc golf course.  I had a chance to talk with a guy named Kevin.  Keep him in your prayers as he is searching for a job.


Friday I drove to the Bay de Noc trailhead in the Hiawatha Forest and hiked for 7.5 miles.  Not another soul on the trail the entire time.


Saturday was 17.6 miles of hiking in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  The start of this trip was somewhat of a let down because it was just a forest and nothing really amazing.  Once I arrived at the lakeshore, I remembered.  It is a national lakeshore, not a forest.  Amazing.  God's creation is beautiful.


Sunday I attended Bark River Bible Church.  The pastor, Brad, and the others I met (Roger and Ruth are the only names I remember) were extremely friendly.

That afternoon I continued onto Marquette to play the Silver Creek disc golf course (course is in Harvey, MI near Marquette).  Sebastion, Steve, and Tim were my tour guides for the course as they put it.  They were great tour guides because I had my second ace on hole #6.  On the nine holes I ended with a +3 (it would have been much worse without that ace).  According to Tim and Sebastion the ace would have been $250 if I was playing the league there.

The remainder of the evening I spent walking around Marquette and found the fallout shelter.  Dinner was yummification at the Pasta Shop.  The Pasta Shop had the mix feeling between italian architecture and college town joint. 

Monday morning came early.  4:30AM early.  That was to arrive at the mighty mac to walk.  While walking I met Diane and her family that had 4 generations represented and the oldest lady, Virginia, at 85 years just recovered from a knee surgery and a tumor removed from her neck (previoiusly she was paralyzed). 


The last stop in the U.P. was Doc Holle's Silver Mountain disc golf course.  24 holes that had some awesome altitude changes.  I managed to score 8 on one hole (I don't think I left the dense woods until the last put).  It was a great course.  Hole 15 (or 21) had views of Lake Michigan.  Does that count as a water hole?
 
The final number...37.4 (average mpg).  Welcome to Michigan.

More pictures to come...once all my software starts working.  grrr...