Day Gaming

Austin Ridgeline course

2009-10-18T10:14:00.000-05:00

I got to play Austin Ridgeline, Austin's toughest disc gold course yesterday. This course is "like Brusy Creek Rec Park" on steroids someone said. It's got a ton of great elevation changes and it will get a lot of love when it opens 10/31. It's at a church called Austin Ridgeline Bible Church and it was designed by John Houck who designed most of the best courses in the area.

It looks like Tony is trying to fly off the mountain.

One of the holes plays a lot like ski lift courses. It's down the hill, but it's got a fairly tight fairway lined with trees most of the way down.

Jud says, "congratulations. Houck spent hours designing this course so that people can't use Tomahawks and Thumbers and you still found a way to do it."

This course already has some wrought iron benches by some of the holes, a wooden scout-built bridge over a creek, and amateur tees set up as well as the pro ones on most holes.

Praying on Drugs, near Guitar Hero band name

2009-10-11T08:26:00.001-05:00

I almost called my Guitar Hero Van Halen band "Praying on Drugs" in honor of Brother Steve. Steve was an evangelist on the campus of Georgia Tech when I went to school there. His testimony I heard shouted many times.

"I was on acid at a Van Halen concert when I heard David LeRoth say, "Not even God can save you at a Van Halen concert." I thought, what's he talking about God for? Does he believe he's real? And Jesus? And then I heard Jesus say 'I can too save you at a Van Halen concert."

Steve would shout at girls in shorts for provoking lust, at guys wearing concert shirts for worshipping Satan, and for guys who walked together for being "homO-sex-u-als."

Fight the good fight, Steve. Yes, Jesus can save even at concerts. And if you listen close you might hear him speak.

Rainy Camping Games

2009-10-05T23:17:00.001-05:00

What do you do when it's raining so hard, you don't want to take your crokinole board out of the car?

We played Liar's Dice. I have a Perudo set and a laminated wager board from Bluff on Boardgamegeek.com. This turned out to be a very fun game that you can play under a tarp as the wind and water flow outside. One of the guys wanted to just drink whiskey out of his dice cup but we convinced him to play.

After we got a 6th player, I took out a dice from Pickomino to mark the bets. That meant Pickomino was the next game to hit the table. Fun and another game that can be played when it's moist outside. It always goes on ever so slightly too long, but I think we all enjoyed the game.

Other games played: Cash'N Guns, Transamerica, and (the next day), some Tichu. Ca$h'N Guns has to be played with just the right circumstances. Having a group pointing guns at each other was pretty good in a camping setting, even if I did occasionally find everyone pointing their gun at me.

Registered Blogo for Mac

2009-10-05T16:17:00.000-05:00

Now maybe I'll finally blog again.

We are doing another board game meetup at Plank's on Sunday. Last time saw some great games played. I even played Zombie Fluxx with some new people and I didn't hate it.

There was Age of Steam played, Hacienda, Tichu, a version of Clue based on Harry Potter, Ingenious as a partnership game, Guillotine, Race for the Galaxy as a two-player game, and Diamant. There may have been a few more that I don't remember as well.

I really couldn't have picked a better place than Plank's in Austin. They have a ton of board games around their restaurant. We had to put some reservation signs out to keep non-meetup folks from just grabbing a game and taking it to their table. Also, as we were wrapping up, I noticed another group of gamers meeting at the restaurant as well,

Disc wedge

2009-05-03T08:33:00.001-05:00

My Star FL got wedged in a disc at hole 4 Wilco during the Double R's bag tag challenge. It probably kept it from skipping into the woods. My second shot landed right under the basket.

The Double R had 33 people show up for two rounds, one at Wilco and one at OSP. I did fine at Wilco but my round at OSP was a disaster.

Jimmy won the #1 tag and the money.

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Tichu Mistakes

2009-04-25T13:56:00.002-05:00

Last week I made a huge mistake trying to set up a one-two when my partner called Tichu. I played a couple of high combos that went around and then a huge straight saving one card for myself. I figured I'd just pass until my partner went out. Oops! I'd have to lead (and you can't pass on a lead). I grabbed a card off then end of my straight and put it back into my hand.

"Whoa! You can't do that. Not after showing your card to your partner." The opponent on my right made me put my card back on the table. All she'd have to do is pass and we'd have a -100 for my going out first instead of my partner.

Not realizing that, she played a higher straight that exactly covered mine. Whew! My partner made his Tichu and her partner said it was very sporting of her to play a straight covering my mistake.

Well, we still barely lost the game but had fun playing. I still love Tichu.

Early Birds Roost at Red Rocks

2009-03-23T09:35:00.001-05:00

The Red Rocks show was great this weekend! It's the most fun I've ever had playing disc golf. 5 regular Early Birds went and we played with Tyler who used to play with us a lot. It's harder for him to understand our frequent banter since he's deaf. He's a great guy and I'm glad he got third in rec (I think).

Jason, on the left, had his first throw as an open player bang the chains and spit out. He had a great showing in his first open division.

Kyle, second to left, completely creamed our recreational division. He says he'll move up next time he plays. He didn't know he should move up because he hasn't been in a tournament in a couple of years (which he also won in rec.) and he didn't do well the last time our meetup played at Manor.

Matt and I also got to play in the final round for rec. I think I probably got fourth out of 16 but left before the final tallies.

I don't go camping without games. We played Ticket to Ride, Crokinole, and Diamant. That was cool! Glad the guys are open to playing games and Crokinole is an easy sell because it's all about getting a disc into a target.

It's just great to wake up on a disc golf course for a full day of fun.

Games at Water to Wine

2009-03-07T21:52:00.000-06:00

Someone contacted me through our Central Texas Boardgames Meetup about letting us play games in their wine store. I thought it was a pretty good idea so that's what we did.

We had about 23 people show up. I played Crokinole, RA, and Dominion too and I like all of those. We finished up with a game of Wasabi.

Ed and Susan came. They even played a kids game called Animal upon Animal too.

Games played:
Scrabble
Yahtzee
Crokinole
Settlers of Catan
Pandemic
My Word!
RA
Agricola (twice)
Settlers (Germany)
Boggle
Animal Upon Animal

I even got a couple of the ladies behind the bar to play My Word! They seemed to enjoy that. To show our appreciation for the space, I bought a bottle of wine and so did Ed and Susan. I think several other gamers did too.

The Tournament with the Rat

2009-03-02T14:35:00.001-06:00

Somebody brought their capybara, a South American rodent, to Pease park. It was an interesting site during The Spontaneous Open at Pease on Sunday.

I thought this would be a good practice tournament for me. Turns out that if John Hathorn hadn't shown up, I'd probably have had to play intermediate. As it was, with him (a novice), and Kristi Gold (a woman) lumped together, we had enough to field a recreation division. That meant I won some plastic. I was leading by 13 after the first round. The good news is that I beat a couple of intermediates too so that was nice but they were having bad rounds. There were only 11 players in this tournament and I played worse than my rating so that's not good. Still, the $45 in plastic was cool. I picked up a Star Max for the wind, a Star Cro as a mid-range, and a Millenium Polaris LF disc.

I liked how the first round was mixed cards so I got to see how some of the better players play the holes. 2 was a killer for me with the water OB to the right and the path OB to the left.

Troy and John Gold contributed to the audio newsletter for the Early Birds.

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Crazy Wind today

2009-02-28T20:07:00.001-06:00

We still had 10 at 8:00 AM at Searight. That's a good number in the wind. We decided to play doubles. 3 groups tied, one group was one under us, and one group was one over us. We were all pretty well matched.

The birdie on 18 won it for Gabe and Ryan.

9 of us visited Disc Nation after the round.

And 8 of us hit SteepleChase in Kyle for a very windy round. Last time we played down south, only two of us were willing to go to Kyle so this was a huge group . Because it was so windy (gusts of up to 45 miles per hour) we played doubles there too.

There was lots of doubles going on today. The pro doubles championship, the amatuer doubles championships, we hacks messing around, etc.

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Gonzo this weekend

2009-02-26T09:42:00.001-06:00

This weekend, Matt talked me into going to Gonzales and competing in a tournament. It's part of HOTT, the Heart of Texas Tours. Day 1 was recreational men and advanced. That skipped the Intermediate division who played on Sunday but this worked out for us.

Jason tied for first in Advanced, the highest amateur division after two rounds. After the play-off, he came out 3rd and that's really good for his first sanctioned tournament. Jason already has 3 aces this year but none of them in tournament play.

Matt got second place in recreation. He'll get a trophy after it is engraved. He also got $50 in a CTP throw-off after nobody hit the ace pot.

I recorded some of Jay Reading's pro tips for our Earlybird's podcast newsletter. It sounded like a wind tunnel but the tips were good. Jay won the Open (pro) division on Sunday.

I tied for 4th place recreational divsion. There were 17 in our division and that was the first time I played on that course so I was happy just to place. Matt tried to take a picture of me but he missed the button somehow.

It was nice having Matt pick me up at 6:00 and drive to the tournament. It's a long way to Gonzales. The course is nice but I wouldn't go there just to play it. It is a nice place for a tournament though.

In the recreation division, everyone gets a players pack. We got to choose $20 worth of items in the pro shop. I chose a Buzz from discraft in Z plastic. It had the stamp of the actual event on it. I also grabbed a tie-dyed towel.

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Games during Lunch

2009-02-23T07:56:00.001-06:00

A lot of people get to play games regularly during lunch. I know some of local folks at IBM play several times a week. That must be cool. I've also seen people playing games at some of the client sites I've attended. One cafeteria also had jigsaw puzzles out and people would come by and work on them while they ate and leave it set up for other people to work on next.

Last week a student in class who has been in many of my classes suggested I bring games during lunch. Games? During lunch? See, I'm really a food person too. I ran out to grab a quick Quiznos and came back in plenty of time to play a couple of games.

I brought Pico 2, a "war"-like game that's much better from Doris and Frank. It's a simple game with cards 3-13 and 16 with one being discarded face up. Each person plays their card face-down and the highest number wins. They take their card and put it away for scoring (dots on the cards) and the other person places their card back in their hand. The catch with this one is that if the other person plays double your card or more then you win. You switch cards and play it again and total your score. It's a decent game that takes all of 7 minutes to play including switching cards and playing again and it's usually even faster than that. This game is so small that it can always be with you for those times you want to play with someone else and not just play Scrabble on your Iphone.

Afterwards, we played one of my favorite two-player games called Subulata. Subulata is a Cwali game that reminds me of "pins" in chess. Your crickets have numbers on the back that you are trying to get into your opponents "home" area diagonally across from your home area in the modular board. Your piece can exactly one, two, or three places depending on whether it's on water, a flower, or a leaf. You can only go backwards unless you are capturing. We played with 7 subulatas instead of 9 like they do in the online version of the game. This speeds things up a little and we had 30 minutes total for our game session. In addition to the point value on back of your subulata, you gain one point for each subulata you have captured. I really should teach this to the kids. They both enjoy the chess club at school and this migh help scratch that itch in a quick game that's always different due to the modular board. I also took Clocktowers from Alan Moon but we didn't play it. It's the portable card game version of Capitol. The next day I brought Hive but my opponent had a test to study for. If I worked at the same place each day, I'd definitely start a lunch time games group. It was a fun break in the day.

We played Tichu for the first time in forever last night. Nick and Wayne came back from a huge deficit to beat Traci and me. I think this is the first time I've played Tichu all year. We've had several attempts but switched to games three-players can enjoy like King of Siam, Wasabi, Colossal Arena, and the like. Four more Tichu games and I'll hit 100 recorded Tichu plays on Boardgamegeek.con. That's a lot of plays for me. The online BSW Tichu fiends probably hit that each week.

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Valentine's at Pease

2009-02-14T19:48:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Dr. Steve, I came home from our Early Birds Disc Golf Group with some nice CTP prizes. I won the La Mirada Star Destroyer that Steve had made the CTP for hole #10.

We also give an earliest solo birdie prize. Since it was Valentine's Day, Steve brought wine and chocolate. My thumber on hole 10 was pretty close to being under the basket and it was an easy birdie. Though several people had birdied prior holes, I was the only one to birdie hole 10. Earliest "solo" birdie is the criteria so I won all that with one lucky thumber. Most of my round was not so lucky.

Thanks again, Steve!

Iphone Wordgames

2009-02-11T20:57:00.001-06:00

Almost all of my gaming has been on the Iphone lately with the occasional Tichu. Tomorrow I'm traveling so I'm sure I'll play some Wurdle, a Boggle clone, Wordsmith, a game that is a lot like Bookworm, and Scrabble.

Gina played Roll through the Ages on Sunday. It sounds like the Catan Dice Game we enjoy with the kids will be more of our speed for a while with the family. It does like like the kind of quick and interesting game I might like though.

I really need to give Nick his Bridge placemat back. I put it in the car but I never remember it during Tichu. I'm sure he'll have more use for it at his Tuesday bridge nights at Chipotle.

I love the PDGA's new promotional disc golf video..

2009-02-11T18:38:00.001-06:00

New Name for Disc Golf Group

2009-02-03T23:37:00.000-06:00

After much debate, it looks like we've settled on Early Birds Disc Golf. This describes us well since we often have an early round before we play at 9:00 or 9:30. We've got a good tagline too--Early and Often.

On Saturday I'll be giving a prize to the person who gets the earliest Birdie. A Birdie is when you score one less than par on a hole just like in ball golf. By earliest I mean closest to hole 1. If two people get a birdie, it doesn't count. We're looking for the earliest birdie that one and only one person gets.

About 10 of the folks from the Meetup went to Waterloo's Ice Bowl last Saturday. I just couldn't bring myself to go. They had 180 people and I suspect that there was a lot of waiting. The Ice Bowl tournament was for a good cause and most people brought three cans of food with their admission for the tournament.

Our ace pot is at $200 right now. It would be nice to see someone hit it.

A Great Day for Disc Golf

2009-01-01T16:07:00.001-06:00

Four of us enjoyed 18 holes of disc golf at Zilker on New Years Day. Man, that course is crowded. Jason got there late and played with Eli, his buddy. I got a text as we were finishing up that he aced 4 North. He should have been with us and he'd be $200 richer. Jason was pretty fired up when we saw him. Glad to know that getting aces does not get old.

We ran into a generous guy from the Mad City Disc Golf Club in Madison, Wisconsin. He had a disc to donate to Waterloo for the upcoming Ice Bowl.

Steve and Matt are attending the ice bowl at the end of the month. I might do the same thing but I'm not sure yet. It seems that in Wisonsin, their ice bowls really involve ice and bad weather. The disc is signed by Barry Shulz.

Matt and I played an after-round at Wilco. It was fun but neither one of us were proud of our tying scores.

Golf round for Dec 30 2008

2008-12-30T18:51:00.003-06:00

Date: Dec 30 2008
Facility: Liberty Walk
Courses played:
Front 9 (9 holes)
Back 9 (9 holes)
Players:
John G
Scores per hole: 1:3 2:3 3:2 4:5 5:4 6:3 7:2 8:3 9:2 10:3 11:4 12:3 13:2 14:3 15:2 16:2 17:3 18:3
Total score: 52
Ken D
Scores per hole: 1:4 2:4 3:3 4:3 5:4 6:4 7:2 8:4 9:3 10:3 11:4 12:4 13:2 14:3 15:2 16:3 17:4 18:4
Total score: 60

This is the format of the email from the program Golfcard Lite on the Ipod/Iphone. I had the program send it to blogger to receive in draft mode. I guess it could be convenient if you are blogging the scores of your card in a tournament. As it is, it's just a novelty. I called the course Liberty Walk because the new course is also going to be called Brushy Creek.

Some guys on the course say there's going to be an 18 hole course near the Target in Bee Caves. That's a long drive from her but worth at least one road trip next year when it goes live in the Spring.

2008 in Games

2008-12-28T07:41:00.001-06:00

Last year, I probably spent 90% of my game time with friends and maybe 10% of my time with family. This year, I probably reversed that. I am playing fewer games away from home and my son Clint has gotten old enough to be included in a lot of the family games. This has made a big difference. Even if he was occupied with a video game nearby, my wife wouldn't play much because he was "left out." Even though I'm not as challenged when I play the games with the family, it really helps fulfill some family togetherness and child development goals. We've had some great fun moments and high-fives as well.

Several decisions I made entailed pulling back from the gaming I did in previous years. I chose disc golf over boardgames at every opportunity. This meant I rarely enjoyed full game-days. especially those where the commute would almost equal the time I'd spend gaming before I'd be ready to play another disc golf . I'm a bit like Goldilocks in that some games are too long and fiddly, some games are too light, and only a few games are "just right." Unforutunately this means I've played a lot fewer games and I've seen fewer of the new ones too.

Meetups were great when we had them. We took off for the summer and during December I was in Seattle and didn't get to host. In January, a lot of our regulars will be at an invitational convention on the 1st. The next week I'll be in Denver so I can't host then either. The thing about being full-time is that I don't get to say no thanks to some of the training opportunities that take me out of town. My sometimes irregular schedule has always kept me from having a weekly game night. The only thing I've done that has come close has been our weekly Tichu nights on Sundays. I've only missed a few of those this year.

It didn't work out that I could go to Boardgamegeek.con this year. I am salaried now and I had to work through Friday afternoon. I would have missed two days of the convention so I didn't go. Instead I bought a bunch of board games with the dough I would have spent for the hotel room.

Bridge. One of our Tichu guys started holding bridge class on Tuesday nights. This was a difficult time for me because my local class usually starts on Wednesday mornings. I also switched to a restricted, company-owned notebook at work where I couldn't install a bridge game and practice. I did find that I enjoyed playing the game at our low level and even reading about it in hopes of getting better. In the long run, I decided I didn't have much time to pursue the game to any depth. It was frustating for me to forget a lot of the strategy and conventions from week to week if I didn't play regularly. I'm also not crazy about Chipotle and their hard chairs for an extended game session.

Some of the games that I have enjoyed playing in '08 with my family include:
Colossal Arena. We have played this a couple of times and the whole family seems to enjoy it. This small box Knizia had been ignored up to now. We don't attack enough in this game. The "ad hoc" teams that form during this game based on who you bet on are a lot of fun as well. The next "gambling" game I teach the family will be Manila.

We played Reiner Knizia's Ilium and I wasn't impressed with that at all. It's just too dry and it's similar to Portobello Market in that you are striving for points on connections. We did like Lost Cities: The Boardgame. The rules are easy to understand and if you want to use some strategic planning based on what's on the board you can. Of course, your card draws may thwart you too. This has the same risk/reward scenarios as Lost Cities when it comes to starting an expedition late in the round. I think it would also be fun to play the "shorter game" as a one-round filler but I bet everyone I'd introduce the game to would want to play all three rounds. The random reward token actions scattered on the path make it attractive to pursue paths sometimes even when you don't have the cards you desire.

My daughter Savannah and I enjoy playing word games and we've played Crossword Pyramids., Boggle, Scrabble Express, and My Word!. I'm still enjoying the word games that are hosted semi-regularly through the Central Texas Boardgames Meetup. Savannah joined me for a couple of those when they fit into her busy, ten-year-old's social schedule for the weekend.

Army of Frogs has been an easily accessible abstract the kids love. They enjoy Uptown the same reason. Uptown, for me, would be better if it didn't always seem to end in a tie. I'm pleasantly surprised that the kids like abstracts. They are both in the chess club after school so the are comfortable playing other abstracts. I like two-player abstracts and my son and I played Oshi a few times.

Our play of Carcassonne was a lot of fun. The kids really enjoy the puzzle aspect of this game. This is the first modern boardgame I bought and my wife and I really played it to death before I moved to Texas. I also played it frequently with my Dad in Georgia beefore we moved out here as well.

Chatea Roquefort and Los Mampfos are two Zoch games I am glad to have purchased this year. Both of these are a blast with the kids and I know they would also go over well with light-hearted gamers. Who knew waiting for the donkeys to poop in Los Mampfos would be so entertaining for them.

Duck! Duck! Go! This race game requires a little spacial thinking as you plan your card play to move your duck to collect your buoy tokens and win the race. This actually requires more thought than you might think so it's not really a party game for non-gamers. It helps to put the card down in the direction of your duck and figure out your move once you've chosen your card. The ducks are cute and the gameplay doesn't wear out if's welcome if everyone can see their desired moves without a struggle.

HeroScape was a surprise. I thought I'd hate it like most attack the monsters with dice games. It actually is pretty fun to play with the kids and they enjoyed just playing with the terrain and figures. I'd always want to play something different with adults though. I'm glad I waited and got this through Craigslist used. It was a great find at a good price but I wouldn't have wanted to pay anything close to what these creatures cost when they first came out.

Maya was a fun game for our family. I enjoy games that seem to have different stages or phases so it's kind of like playing more than one game. Hermagor is a little like that but I'm sure it would be too much for the family.

Thebes was a lot of fun. This one has a lot of theme and the drawing of tiles has a nice tension that doesn't feel like experiencing randomness at all.

Sushizock im Glockelwok. Like Pickomino but more fun and it doesn't drag on they way the worm game sometimes can.

Dominion is the best new game of the year for me. My wife and daughter picked up on the game very well. My son can play too if we help him with all of the shuffling. Despite how much I've liked Dominion, it kind of feels like half a game. I like the deck building mechanism but once it's built you should use it to build a city or something. As is, it's kind of like an appetizer. I wouldn't want to play this over and over again like some folks do I've seen online.

Aquaduct and Portobello Market were filler games that also worked well with the family. We also enjoyed Settlers of Catan the dice game. Hmm, I just saw there are some of Teurber's more interesting rules avaialble for that online. I'll have to try that version. Portabello Market was one of those games where the English edition came out not too long after I bought the German edition. Patience rules in the game market these days.

It looks like I enjoyed more fillers and super fillers than meaty games this year. Also, my daughter only wants to play something new. I may have created a gaming monster.

Next year I need to get the kids into auction games. Besides, For Sale, I wonder what a good introductory auction game is? Maybe I'll break out Fist of Dragonstones or something like that.

I almost forgot, this was the year I turned 40 and celebrated with GITHOT, Games in the Heart of Texas! I got to play Traders of Genoa, Hamburgum, Yspahan, Crokinole, Tichu and some of my other favorites there. I'm considering running another local game convention event. It may be in the spring. I have to call the hotel in January and touch-base with them again on room availability. Even though I had to pay the hotel cost up front, it was really easier for me to do GITHOT than the monthly meetups. Of course, i take too many games to the meetups but I like for people to have a lot of choices on what they may play and there's always that chance I'll get one of my unplayed games to hit the table and find out it's as much fun as I was hoping.

Just When you Thought I couldn't get Geekier

2008-12-21T18:22:00.001-06:00

I show up with an Ipod and a cool application that makes it easy to score our disc golf game and email the results from the application. One of the guys called it my "time machine."

We had 7 at the Rivery on Saturday and decided to play doubles with one of the players being "Cali." Our ace pot is up to $190 now. It would have been a good Christmas present for someone but nobody hit it.

We had a great group considering it is December and right before Christmas. The warm temperature helped.

Who's Having More Fun?

2008-11-18T10:22:00.003-06:00

The ElfenLand Folks?

The Through the Desert Folks?

Or the folks playing the latest game Comuni?

The good news is that everyone reported having a good time at our November Boardgames Meetup. My point is that there's still a lot of fun left in those classic games too. Jon thinks so too as he brought Hare & Tortoise (which didn't get played this time).

Chateau Roquefort

2008-11-18T08:53:00.004-06:00

This is a fun little game mostly for kids but it's fun for adults too. It requires a little memory, some strategy, and some luck. Chateau Roquefort is also a good introduction to "action points" systems since you have four actions each turn.

Of course, my son turned it into a game of "how can I attack my sister's mice?" which he played very well. We've also played lots of Dominion recently. Gina and Savannah both like it. Dominion also saw play at the last two Tichu nights.

One Disc Challenge

2008-11-15T19:35:00.002-06:00

Ten of us braved the wind and the cold (less than 55 LOL) for our one disc challenge.

Mark Mexica won. The Cobra was the disc he used and he was able to defend his #1 tag. That blue Valkyrie he's holding up? He won that too on the CTP on hole 12.

It was a fun day.

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Can't Believe We are Not in Waco

2008-11-04T21:18:00.001-06:00

A few weeks back we had a wacky trip to Waco. One o of the guys didn't understand about a road trip. He had young kids to pick up after elementary school and had to return after one course. NONE of us would have done a road trip up to Waco for just one course! We wound up coming back, dropping the guy at his car, and heading to Waterloo Ice House before playing an afternoon round at Wilco.

We played Woodway. It was an OK course. I shot a +1 and I wasn't even doing that well. I prefer more challenging courses.

Afterwards, I wrote kind of a treatise on road trips that everyone must read before signing up again:

Road Trips are very special for most of us. We often use our precious day off or a holiday weekend to travel someplace a little off the beaten path.

Road Trips have been done for:
Wimberly
Waco
Waco and Temple

More will follow. Road trips are one of the best things about the meetup.

If you are planning on attending a road trip, there are a few things you should know:

We don't road trip just to play one course. We often try to hit every course in the area where we are going. If you get tired before the group is done, sit by or in the car until we finish. We won't think anything less of you. Blisters are a pain.

Be courteous to your driver. Often, the driver will expect a contribution for gas and we usually buy them lunch too. If you had rather drive, that's OK too.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. This means if you had Mexican last night and everyone wants to go eat Mexican, you'll find a way to enjoy that meal with us or just watch the rest of us eat. If you have stomach distress, we may head to a drugstore and buy some Immodium AD and put you by the restrooms while we finish. If you have ANY time constraint, drive yourself or consult the driver and organizer in advance. Others have taken vacation for the day and we intend to enjoy it thoroughly.

Bring snacks and drinks. We often stop to refuel and it's a great idea to have your snacks in place.

Change of Shirt. Consider bringing an extra shirt to change into before our meal. It's not 100% necessary and yet it may make the ride home smell nicer if you tuck that sweaty thing away.

Ace Pot. If enough people join the road trip so that the road trip becomes an actual meetup, the ace pot is likely to be in affect.

Monitor all Communication. The idea for the road trip often begins in the discussion thread called road trips. When momentum builds and enough people express interest, it may become a calendar event. Read the full description in the calendar event AND any prior messages concerning the road trip that may be in the threaded discussions. It's very important that everyone is on the same page as far as their expectations on the trip.

Be on Time Be at the rendezvous point on time. Don't make an entire group wait on you. When the bus or van arrives for you, have your gear out and ready to go.

I have walked away from more people on that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" philosophy than any other disagreement.

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Crokinole was a Big Hit

2008-11-03T09:13:00.001-06:00

The Double R Disc golf club had their annual party Saturday. After 2 rounds of disc golf at The Rivery and a send-off lunch for Tony, I joined them

I took a Crokinole board and it turned out disc golfers really like that game. They called each shot to the center target an ace and referred to shots that went right and then curved left as hyzer shots. They also talked about the advantage one team had because someone was "putting down hill." We moved the table to a more level position and rotated around the table so that the slight "lean" affected each team equally. Jon Donaldson has a great setup on his property in Leander. He's got old shade trees, lots of room, a pool (JD jumped in with his clothes on to catch a disc), and a 9-basket disc golf course set up with 3 different tees for each basket. He occasionally does minis there.

Crokinole is a great game for sitting around in the shade. Wow, that was the first game I played since the last boardgames meetup. Clint and I played a game of Masons on Sunday afternoon. He won, so he did pretty well for an 8-year-old.

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