And Now for Something Completely Different

It was late in the evening, that time of night when everything seems like the best idea ever. Sam, Bryant and I had been speculating all night about how we could get out to Tufts to play a round of late night Frisbee Golf. However we were downtown and without Frisbees. But the ladies had already left for the night so the six of us were free to play silly. It was dark and cold, but somehow Carrie produced three disks so we had to play Golf. It was too late to go down to Tufts, so we played in Jason’s backyard, the Boston Common.

We walked out over Beacon Hill to the Common by the Statehouse. The teams came together pretty easily due to geographic similarities. Team Midwest: Bryant and Sam; Team Boston: Dave and Jason; and Team Crad: Craig and Brad. Out of all of us, Sam was the only one who was playing Frisbee regularly, but how hard could it be? Besides, we’d all had a few beers before we came out. We made up the course on the fly, in the true Jumbo way.

Basically Frisbee golf involves picking a target around 100-150 yards away and throwing the Frisbee until you hit it. The team that hits the target in the fewest shots wins the hole. If you can hit another teams Frisbee on the ground, you get to throw it as far away from the hole as you can.

Here it is for all you who plan to try it out.

The first hole was down the hill, around the Big Christmas tree, and hit the base of the second light pole. Sam and Bryant proved that they had the advantage in skill here. Team Crad came out last.

The second hole was the light post base next to the bench. You had to throw between two trees that grew along the intervening path though. No one was hurt during this hole.

The third hole was the top ribbed part of the column supporting the statue near the Boyleston St, T stop. You had to hit the back of the statue, to demonstrate your technique. We thought this was really funny. Here we got a lot of funny looks form people walking along Tremont street or cutting through the park from the T station.

The fourth hole was to center circle on the bandstand in the center of the park. This hole was complicated by the metal barriers around the bandstand we had to climb over. Once again Team Midwest produced.

The fifth hole was the “no dogs allowed sign” on the softball field fence. You had to go over the tennis courts to get it though. Team Boston had the advantage on this one. Home turf and everything. This sign was weird because it was on both sided of the fence. In exactly the same spot. Why?

The sixth hole was the back side of the entrance to the Common parking garage. This one was hard because you had to watch out for the people coming and going. It was on this hole that Craig and I started sharing my glasses for each throw. It made huge difference now that Craig could see what he was aiming at!

The seventh hole was the tail of the last horse in the life size “horseman of the apocalypse” statue on the Charles street side of the common. We had to be careful not to put the discs in the street. Craig was amazed the difference It made with spectacles. We actually came in second on this hole!

The eighth hole was the trunk of the biggest tree on the top of the hill in the common. To hit it you first had to go around the huge obelisk. On this hole, Team Crad landed close to Team Boston. They tapped our disc and got a free throw against us. Jason threw it all the way back across the field! We placed last again.

The ninth hole was the smooth part of the shaft of the huge obelisk. This was about 50 feet up on the thing. Imagine six guys repeatedly throwing the Frisbee up in the air, frequently missing the obelisk. It took us about fifteen minutes before someone finally got it. It’s a lot easier to accurately throw a frisbee horizontally than vertically. Sam was the first one to hit it, and I think Jason was the second. We stuck to it until everyone managed to get it.

The last hole was the cannon next to the obelisk. That was the end of the game because at that time the police drove by. Since I’m still wanted for questioning in Boston we had to go.

Team Midwest won the first annual Holiday disc golf tournament. Team Boston made a strong showing placing second. Team Crad placed last, but we would have done better had we figured out Craig was blind earlier.

Everglades

Last weekend I took a day trip down to the Everglades National Park. We wanted to see some alligators into hire natural habitat, since they seem to be making news lately for eating people in the peoples habitat. It was an amazing day and mercifully mosquito free. It has been very dry here for the past few weeks, unseasonably so. That meant that the mosquitoes hadn't come out yet. It also meant that the alligators were confined to the deep water holes. We took a walk over on of them and saw some huge gators!

Everglades national park is huge. We stopped at the Royal Palm center to take a walk over the big water hole there. This is gator central! There is a boardwalk the goes over the water hole. All along it there were alligators laying out on the shore sunning themselves. Later we saw some swimming around. One particularly large male was pushing around a smaller female, but she wanted no part of him. It is alligator mating season now so the Ranger told us that they were more aggressive than normal.


Pretty much wall to wall alligators!


These two were playing tag in the mud hole. The big one must have been 12 feet long!


Yet more alligators. By the time we finished with the water hole, we were not impressed with them anymore. There were just so many!


This guy climbed out of the water and up the steep bank to pose with me for the picture. He's a Florida soft shell turtle. He was looking for handouts and got pissed when we had nothing for him. He stomped off in a huff!


This is Laura and myself on the boardwalk at the water hole. That's an alligator swimming behind her.