Willing Spring to Come

This winter has been painful.  Aside from the 80+ inches of snow we got, it's been so cold and windy throughout March and into April that I'm beginning to believe winter will never end.  EVER.  I've been willing spring to come--refusing to wear my heavy winter coat (I've been layering underneath my fall/spring jacket), pulling out my fun and funky spring/summer sandals and heels, even getting pedicures in March with Cindy was a signal to spring that it was welcome to come around.

Seriously, this is what I woke up to on April 1st:

April Fool's, suckers!

But alas, none of this is working.  To the point that a colleague who was born and raised in Boston commented that this winter has been so bad and has lasted so long that its enough to drive someone out of New England. 

Wow.  I expect a comment like that from me, but not from a lifer.

Of course by now you know that one of Dave's and my favorite warm weather activities is mini golf.  And I'm eager to continue the dominance that I relished in last season, what with my holes in one and beating Dave on more than one occasion (yes, beating him twice is considered dominance in my world.  As my dad says, you're only as good as your last game).

At Christmas-time, I'd noticed that our local mall had replaced the Gap/Gap Kids store with an indoor Glow Golf course.  Very intriguing.  While we had no interest in checking it out during winter break (mall rats and all), we kept saying that we should go do it sometime.  Finally, we decided that it might be an indicator to the Spring gods that we were ready if we did some mini golf.  So we went to the mall the other night and started our season early.

Guess what?  If you go to the mall on a school night after dinner, there won't be as many mall rats to annoy you.  In fact, there won't be anyone at all in the glow golf.

We had the place to ourselves and it was a pretty good set up.  They actually have 2 eighteen hole courses that wrap throughout the two stores (the stores adjoined in the middle) and for $9 each, we could do both courses and then if we wanted to, we could pick our favorite and do it again.  It's like less than 17 cents a hole.  Awesome date night value.  Although the clerk told us they had apparently run out of the little pencils so we weren't able to keep score.  Not necessarily a bad thing.

That dark circle thing in the middle of this hole is a loop-the-loop (two side by side).  And it's metal.  And when you miss the lead into it and hit the side, it makes a very loud noise.  Every time you hit it.

You know what's hard?  Mini golf in the dark.  Well, it wasn't entirely dark, because the glowing aspects were quite bright and neon.  And the course was hard.  They had a lot of stuff in the way (I know that's the point, but I mean there was A LOT of stuff on the greens in the worst places).  Plus, since it was dark, seeing the slight dips and bumps was very difficult.  And even the holes that didn't have a lot of obstacles required a 180 degree turn to get remotely close to the pin. 

The good news is that I got a hole-in-one on the second hole.  The bad news is that I was otherwise terrible.  The first course was a disaster--I probably mulligan-ed my first shot of the tee on at least 7 of the holes.  Dave had some do-overs, but wasn't quite as awful as me.  In the end we both ended up with two holes-in-one, but I know on the first course, he probably beat me by 10.  The second course was better and I think we were more evenly matched.  We opted not to take them up on the offer to play our favorite course again.

I don't know if we'll go back--I don't think I could tolerate it had there been a bunch of people.  And it would have been slow going if there were children.  But we did have fun, mostly laughing at how bad we were.  Maybe we were just rusty--after all, it's been months since we played.  Either way, we had a good time. And since we didn't keep score, I was able to convince Dave that I beat him and made him buy me ice cream at Dairy Queen when we were through. 

Putt U, Jagoff!

So remember when I said that the wedding on Saturday didn't start until 3:30 pm? Dave and I had some time to kill, so what else to do but find a mini-golf course!

We grabbed a local attractions guide from the hotel and found Putt U about 10 minutes from the hotel. With the slogan "Highest Degree of Mini Golf," we figured it would be a tough course and I threw down a challenge to Dave. Apparently the course hosted the national mini-golf championship tournament a few years ago. The winner did both courses in 87 strokes, which is the highest score a winner had ever won with. Yeah, tough course.

We got to the course and they actually have two different courses laid out. Not sure what the differences were, I asked the young woman at the counter, "I want to kick his ass, so which course should we go to?"


She laughed and explained the differences in the courses and Dave let me choose the Red course, which supposedly has less sand traps, but more water hazards.

And so began our morning. It was a great day, but a little breezy. The course was practically empty--only one other couple in front of us (about 3 or 4 holes ahead) and two or three other parties trickled in later, but we were all nicely spaced out so we could play at a leisurely pace. On our way out, I noticed many more people on the Blue course, but it was still pretty sparse.

The course definitely has a sense of humor. In addition to sneaky hazards and blind bumps and such on the actual greens, the signage was also rather amusing.


On the back of the scorecard, they list "Stuff you Need to know:" including "Shirts and shoes required (Slacks, Shorts and Skirts are also encouraged.)" Beneath that, they list "Other Stuff You Should Know:" which includes "Full house beats a flush" and "She loves you yeah yeah."

A few holes in and Dave and I were pretty close. On the fourth hole, I hit the water hazard and took a 6 on the hole since my capacity to remember how to play the game sunk in the water as well.


Another unusual thing about the course were the moving tees. On every hole, part way up the green, they had a red dot called the "Kid's Tee," which I thought was a nice feature. On most holes it was set past the first obstacle. A few holes also had "Normal" and "Pro" tees, depending on how much of a challenge you wanted.



By the end of the front 9, I was down by one. Not to be discouraged, I decided to regroup for the back 9. Dave teed off, and then it was my turn. From tee to pin measured 54 feet, and it was a curvy sucker with some interesting rock placement.

Well, I didn't get a hole in one, but I came close enough for Dave to get nervous.

Yup, that's my ball, and that's the hole. Sooooo close.

Unfortunately that happened more than I'd like to admit. It happened again on the 14th hole (Dave had to take a mulligan cause he didn't get it all the way to the top level on his first tee. Or his second tee for that matter.) And on several holes, I just missed the pin or popped out of the hole, thus incurring extra strokes right and left.

This picture does nothing for the incline on the 14th hole. Or the three-tiered levels to get up to the pin.

The scores were close and I was having trouble keeping track of who was ahead because it kept changing. The last hole was a long one, 97 feet, and I did crap off the tee. I bogeyed the hole and thought I was done for, since Dave made par. As we walked over to the 19th hole/ball return, I started doing the math. I had to add my score up twice because I couldn't believe it. I beat Dave by one stroke! He was so disappointed.

On our way out, we saw the young woman from the counter and she asked right away if I beat him. I told her I did, and she said, "Good job." I think being mocked by a 15 year old girl might have been more damaging to Dave than my gloating.

So far this year, Dave 1 - Colleen 2.

Change of Plans

With the trail run a total bust, Dave and I went back to the campground. When we pulled in, I made Dave stop at the camp office/store. I'd noticed they had a bunch of pamphlets on local activities when we'd checked in, so I ran in a grabbed a bunch.

We headed back to our campsite, had lunch and looked through the information. We found a few things that we knew we'd enjoy. Not far away, in the town of North Adams, was a mini-golf course. And in the same town was Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts. And of course I was able to find a couple of ice cream parlors on the little map I picked up in the office.

We ate lunch, jumped back in the Jeep and headed out to North Adams, about a 20 minute drive. Soon we were at The Range. A few families were playing already, but it was a pretty quiet afternoon there. The course was pretty with lots of flowering plants and a couple water features. The holes looked relatively tame, too, so I figured we'd have a quick game on our hands.

We started and per usual, Dave beat me on the first hole. We tied the second. And then the unthinkable. On the third hole, pictured above, I did it. Hole in one! Dave was so defeated. I almost got another one on the fourth hole (it just missed). We tied the front 9, so Dave was starting to feel a little better about himself. And then I did again. On the 10th hole, I got another one! I was officially kicking Dave's butt, since both holes I got one, he got three. But not to be completely embarrassed by his wife, Dave got an ace on the 11th hole. I had the take this picture twice because the first time, Dave was holding the flag backwards.

We were pretty close for the rest of the game, and I think Dave was trying to get into my head. The 18th hole was pretty cute, the only one with a little theme to it. A testament to our proximity to New York State, but still loyalty to Massachusetts. Of course, we both went to the Fenway side.

Ultimately, I beat Dave by three, which is good enough for me. We turned in our clubs and balls, I mildly celebrated and then we headed through town, up to Mount Greylock.

Mount Greylock State Reservation is part of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. With a summit of 3,491 feet, the Scenic Byway to access it was steep to say the least! We made the slow climb up the mountain (it was a paved road, but at least Dave had his Jeep in the woods and his low gears definitely helped on the way down!), eventually reaching the summit. Hiking trails cross all through the area, as well as some ski trails. At the summit is the Veterans' War Memorial Tower (above) and the Bascom Lodge. We went into the Tower and climbed to the top. This is actually the view towards home! The haze and lower clouds limited the view, but on a clear day, supposedly you can see pretty far East. We live pretty close to Mount Wachusett. The lodge was closed for a private event, but we were still able to enjoy the area.

Probably the most interesting thing about coming up to Mount Greylock was the activity going on behind the Tower. We had parked in the back of the lot, so the easier way to get to the actual grounds was to walk around the back of the Tower. As we came through the trees on the path, there was quite a crowd gathered. Turns out, when you're up this high, it's the perfect spot for para-gliding and hang-gliding.
We watched for about 20 minutes as this para-glider tried to take off, but the winds weren't constant or direct enough for her to actually lift into the air. There were at least three other para-gliders and two hang-gliders in line for it that also ended up packing their gear up, but we know that a few of them had gotten off earlier in the day. When Dave and I arrived at The Range (which also has batting cages and a driving range in addition to mini-golf), we saw a guy dressed in the same gear as this woman, pulling on some wires and wrapping up what we thought was a parachute. Turns out, the The Range is perfect landing spot from here. (When we drove back down through, we noticed the wind socks in around the driving range to help the gliders land.)

It was pretty cool to watch these people try, and the patience they need to wait for the right gust. I supposed if I was going to jump off a perfectly good mountain, I too would want the perfect conditions. We'd never seen anything like it before.

After walking around some more, we made our decline back into the town of North Adams. Again, the road was steep, but we made it. We had told the GPS to take us to an ice cream shop in town, so after we came down the Scenic Bypass, it took us back into town a slightly different way. We were on this "country road" and suddenly saw a road sign, intended for trucks: "Use Low Gear, 17% Grade"

I wish I would have taken a picture. After going through the Scenic Bypass, twisting and turning up the mountain, but still steep, we were literally being dropped into the town below. Dave came to the crest of the hill and suddenly it was like being on a roller coaster. I busted out laughing and Dave was totally flabbergasted that climbing a literal mountain was less intimidating than what was now a residential road in this town. The good news was, it took us a lot less time to get back into town than it did when we were going up.

We got to our little ice cream shop and enjoyed an late afternoon treat. Overall, considering our plans were completely altered after spending the entire morning on a defunct 4x4 trail, we had a great day. We got back to camp a little after 5:00 pm and while we were making dinner (yummy calzones!), Dave asked me if I thought the group was off the trail yet. I actually didn't; I had a feeling they didn't have nearly as good a day as we did.

Mulligans and Slap Shots

Dave and I love mini golf. We go a lot and enjoy trying new courses as well as going to the same courses again and again. We have a good time and generally create a pretty close match, with mild competitiveness and a lot of fun.


Last week we realized we hadn't been out at all this summer. Probably because it's been so freakin' hot this summer, we've preferred to spend our time in air conditioning or in the pool. So Friday night after dinner we decided to visit Mulligan's, the closest course to us. It's pretty fun and we definitely have both had good and bad games there.

One of the things we like about Mulligans are the goofy spinners at each hole. Each player spins the wheel and has to play the hole according to the rule the spinner lands on. Some of them can be beneficial--like if you get a hole in one, you can take 2 points off your score. Some are a little challenging--like stand on one leg for your first putt or hit the ball with the wrong end of your club. And there's the just plain mean--like you get to move any opponent's ball after their first shot.


We decided to play this game straight since it was fairly busy that night and the mischief can add time. The couple behind us was a little annoying, so I wasn't interested in feeding that fire. Although in hindsight, we probably should've played goofy since it may have helped my game (or hurt Dave's, which is just as good).


We had a good time, despite the fact that I started losing on only the 4th hole. I always suck on that hole, but Friday it was a particular challenge. It's a complete right angle, with the short leg going up hill and just because that's not challenging enough, they put a big rock right in the center of the corner where your ideal line would be to take the turn. I got my ball stuck behind the rock, completely unhittable. And then, when I went to place it out, I couldn't get it to stop rolling back down the hill. After several attempts, I looked at Dave and said I'd just take the 6 on that hole, defeated.


We still had fun, although that 4th hole completely messed with my mojo. I played ok, just not as good as I have before. I was keeping score and at some point I'd noticed that Dave was doing really well on the par 3 holes, getting a birdie on most of those. However, on the par 2 holes, he was mostly making bogey. We were nearing the end and I was ready to accept defeat when Dave just puts the nail in my coffin. Yup. A hole in one on the 18th hole.


He ended up 3 over par; I was...well, more than that. But we still had a good time. Mulligan's also has a little arcade and we noticed they had an air hockey table, which is also something we like to do. Except I'm really bad at that. Most of the time I can hold my own on the mini golf course, but I just can't stop the air hockey puck from going it, nor can I get those sneaky shots past Dave. But we have fun anyway.


We put in our quarters and Dave got his game face on. True to form, he started off kicking my butt; I think the score was 3-0. And then the unthinkable happened. I scored. And then I scored again. And then I was stopping his shots and making him nervous by getting more shots in and few really close ones. Could I actually win this game?


Turns out no. Apparently the table had a timer on it and our quarters didn't last long enough for me to make a complete comeback, so I technically lost the game. But I put on a pretty good show and am confident that maybe one day I'll actually beat him.