vacationing from Orlando to North Georgia 3/31 - 4/7/12

[chainedwraith]

OK.. everything moved a week earlier so we are leaving this Saturday morning before the sun comes up. I wish I could adjust the dates in the thread title. Is that possible?

We won't be making it out towards Athens. I just won't have the time now that we need to be at the cabin by Sunday afternoon.

Itenerary is as follows:

Saturday 3/24 - play Freedom Park in Valdosta & be back on the road before 1:00p. IF I make good time and can be at JP Moseley by 5:00-ish I might try to get in a quick round before it starts to get dark. (what time does JPM Park close?) We will check-in at our hotel in Norcross that evening.

Sunday 3/25 - wake up early and play Alexander Park in Lawrenceville. Drive to cabin up near Cleveland, GA. I'll try to hit up both Meeks Park in Blairsville and North GA Canopy Tours DGC between Monday - Wednesday with NGCT having priority if I only get to play one or the other.

Thursday 3/29 - We check out of our cabin and drive down to Alpharetta and stay near the mall with the American Girl Store. Along the way, I might try for Cental Park in Cumming if the wife 'n kid are up to tagging along for a nice long hike.

Friday 3/30 - The wife 'n kid spend half the day at the mall doing the American Girl stuff while I try to play both Will's Park & East Roswell in the morning / early afternoon (East Roswell first and then WP if doing good on time). We then work our way south to eventually get a room as close to the FL/GA border as we can by the time we get hungry for dinner.

Saturday 3/31 - Play the Magnolia DGC @ Suwanee. Maybe camp there that night; otherwise head home.

Thanks for everyon'e input on this thread.. It's been very helpful in planning. If any of you guys can be a course guide on any of the days/courses mentioned, just let me know. I'm always down to throw with someone who knows the course versus going it solo without a clue. lol

 

[chainedwraith]

So I got rained out at Freedom Park in Valdosta today. bummer... but I made up for it by getting up towards Atlanta early enough to check out JP Moseley.. wow, glad I didn't miss out on this one! Several gorgeous epic holes where I was able to drop some mega-bombs.. extremely fun course. Finished +5 from gold pads with a few birdies and a nasty double circle 6 on the "skull island" hole, except I was re-teeing from the shorter pad as I did not see/know about a closer drop zone until the guys on the next hole pointed it out. Still a great challenging course and it was windy as hell too.

Great workout.. It was a little longer than I realized so I practically played speed golf just to get to finish the course before we needed to head to our hotel and get dinner but I'm so glad I did. Can't wait to play this course again someday.

tomorrow: Alexander Park.

 

[chainedwraith]

I'm having a great trip with lots of disc golf.

JP Moseley was awesome.

Alexander Park was one of the nicest parks I've ever been to and the course was great too. I shot +2 from long pads and my wife 'n kid were actually still having a good time when I was done. Usually they are texting me to know how much longer I have left to finish. lol

North Georgia Canopy Tours.. Hands down the highlight of my trip. A truly awesome disc golf experience. I had a great round, shot a 61 even from long pads. Can't wait to "rematch" this course and go for a below par round.

Meeks Park was a nice little course. I played this course right after playing North Georgia Canopy Tours so I was borderline exhausted when I arrived in Blairsville. I still had a good time but shot +2 from long pads and I know I could have done better. The natural tee pads are not my thing but the course is scenic, fun, and challenging as well as beginner friendly.

East Roswell - I would love to play this course again. I loved the course but I played terrible. I couldn't make a putt to save my life and the trees killed several of my drives.. I shot a frustrating +6 from long pads. The hole with the cargo trailers was really unique and was probably my best drive of the day putting it past the trailers and just 40ft uphill from the basket. Too bad I missed the putt! DOH!

Wills Park was cool, but the park was busy, and the fairways/holes a little close to each other. Thankfully I met up with a friendly local and he guided me around the course (Thanks Todd!). This is a great course to get in a quick round. I think I was done in just over an hour. We saw a huge alligator snapping turtle chillin' on one of the fairways near a little creek. My disc landed right by him! lol I finished even at this course.

We are staying in Lithonia tonight and plan to go to Stone Mountain tomorrow and being in the proximity I would also like to play Redan before we get on the road and head south. We'll see how it works out.

thanks again to everyone that provided some tips and recommendations. I've had a good time playing all the courses that I've made it to so far.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Sounds like you're having a great time, hope the family's enjoying themselves, too. :thmbup:

 

[chainedwraith]

Sounds like you're having a great time, hope the family's enjoying themselves, too. :thmbup:

Indeed the family is having a great time! They were having a blast at Alexander Park.. My wife couldn't get my daugher off the playground.

It almost started off bad when I under estimated the time needed to play JP Moseley and they got bored at the playground and came to find me only to turn around and walk all the way back to the car when I was on hole 10 and they waited in the car while I finished up.. Needless to say, I was a little rushed to finish Moseley and would really like to plan that better next time so I can keep everyone happy. I made it up to them afterwards though.

I went solo to NGCT while the wife 'n kid went with my inlaws to do some small town sightseeing. I met up with them in Blairsville and took my father in-law out for his first ever round of disc golf @ Meeks Park.. He hit a 50ft par save and at the end of the round he asked how much the discs cost and where the closest course to their house was so I think he enjoyed it.

I played East Roswell while wife 'n kid did the American Girl store and North Point mall. They tagged along at Wills Park and enjoyed the massive playground while I played a quick round.

All in all, everyone's having fun. It's so much cheaper to play disc golf in nice parks than to go to overpriced tourists attractions! Plus you get to see and do what the locals do, not just the tourist parts.

Today I took a break from DG and we hung out in downtown ATL all day doing what the wife wanted! tommorrow I'll butter her up at Stone Mountain so maybe I can talk the girls into tagging along with me @ Redan.. We'll see how it goes.

 

[12StonesScott]

Sounds like you had a great time -- glad you enjoyed it. I had hopes of being able to offer to guide at ERP and possibly Wills, but was out of town for work Tue-Thu and had too many conference calls and such get scheduled for Friday to be able to get away.

Noticed you reviewed most of the courses you played along the way, but not ERP -- some reason in particular, or just nothing you felt hadn't already been said?

"Frustrating" is a pretty common description of a first round at ERP -- six up from the black pads isn't bad at all for a first time out there -- a 62 was roughly a 930-rated round at the last A-Tier held there in 2010. Once you learn the lines it gets easier, assuming you can hit them. Cashing scores in the open division of our singles league the last couple of years tended to be in the even-par to four-or-five-over range most weeks, with mostly 920-980 rated players in that division (the below par rounds tended to be 1000+-rated former world champs, or the occasional fluke round).

 

[chainedwraith]

review for east roswell is now posted. I simply didn't get to it yet, that was all. My phone was ringing off the hook during the last couple days of my trip and so naturally my Monday back to work was hell and I simply didn't get around to writing the last couple reviews.

You guys all recommended some great courses and I enjoyed them all, but if I had to rank them in order of replay preference it would go something like this: (I also noted the scores I recorded from the longest pads available on each course and the number of birdies that the course allowed me to snag).

1. North Georgia Canopy Tours (61 - 6 birdies)
2. JP Moseley (65 -3 birdies)
3. Redan (57 - 3 birdies)
4. Alexander Park (58 - 2 birdies)
5. East Roswell (62 - 1 birdie)
6. Meeks Park (61 - 3 birdies)
7. Wills Park (56 - 4 birdies)

I almost made it to Perkerson Park while we were toying around in downtown but the wifey didn't feel up to it and didn't want to be left alone in downtown otherwise I would have played 8.

I also missed Freedom Park in Valdosta and the Magnolia @ the Spirit of the Suwanee in Live Oak, FL. Those 2 will just have to remain on my wishlist until my next trip in that direction.

 

[keith johnson]

Glad you liked NGCT and that you had a good time in the state playing in the metro ATL area.

Maybe with someone giving a non-biased opinion and who is a travelling reviewer saying they liked the course, will help get people to give it a chance.


Maybe next time you are in the area, or I'm down visiting the mouse, we can get a round in.

I'm also hoping that Connor will organize a meetup there like he did at FlyBoy (without the drama sometime in the fall so others on DGCR will get a chance to enjoy it also!

Keith

 

[Connor Jones]

Glad you liked NGCT and that you had a good time in the state playing in the metro ATL area.

Maybe with someone giving a non-biased opinion and who is a travelling reviewer saying they liked the course, will help get people to give it a chance.


Maybe next time you are in the area, or I'm down visiting the mouse, we can get a round in.

I'm also hoping that Connor will organize a meetup there like he did at FlyBoy (without the drama sometime in the fall so others on DGCR will get a chance to enjoy it also!

Keith

The drama was an april fools joke Kelly was in on Everything went perfectly because if people were ****ing around on my watch I would literally murder them .

There will be another as long as Kelly gives me the green light again. Now that I have a better feel of how events work(this was my first...) I'm more prepared.

 

[chainedwraith]

There will be another as long as Kelly gives me the green light again. Now that I have a better feel of how events work(this was my first...) I'm more prepared.

I would have totally been down to go meetup with you guys but I just couldn't make it work with the family tagging along and all. After visiting Stone Mountain, I was playing Redan while you guys were letting it rip @ Flyboy on Saturday. Sunday I was on the road all day heading home thinking about how nice the weather was to be out playing disc golf and how much I dreaded going back to work on Monday. :thmbdown:

I'd like to do flyboy B&B style someday. Sounds like quite an experience.

 

[keith johnson]

The drama was an april fools joke Kelly was in on Everything went perfectly because if people were ****ing around on my watch I would literally murder them .

There will be another as long as Kelly gives me the green light again. Now that I have a better feel of how events work(this was my first...) I'm more prepared.

Connor - I knew the "drama" was contrived - hence the smiley face.

I was asking / hoping you would do a meetup at NGCT (not another FLYBOY one) and you guys could stay in the Teepees and campsites and then do the Zipline tours if you wanted to also - I'm pretty sure someting could be worked out in the fall if you want to consider it.

I know it's NOT FlyBoy, but it is a really nice and challenging par 61 course that will test all your skills and have you throwing every shot in you bag.

PM me if interested in maybe setting something up and we can work together towards making it happen.

Keith