A Test of Skill and Patience

After we got married I quickly informed Sterling that date nights are not necessary, saving money is. My wonderful accommodating husband let me have my way while we were in Utah but since our move to Iowa we have agreed to do one date-like activity each week. The dates increase the quality of time we spend together as well as our creativity.

Thinking of dates that fall within our allotted budget can be quite difficult. The following are some of the dates that we have done so far. We have found that watching a movie that we already own and buying or making a small treat is something we enjoy and can afford. Another date was spent walking, talking and discovering what parks, schools, walking paths, libraries, etc. are near our apartment complex. We went to watch the women's volleyball team which was free for Sterling and $1 for my ticket. A good and often chosen option is playing Settlers, Scrabble or a sport together and those keep us both humble, because everyone has to lose sometime.

Where am I going with this story...let me get to the point. One of our first dates in Iowa was a trip to the mall to see what stores were there and to do a bit of window shopping. We happened upon a sporting goods store called Scheely's or something like that and there we found these weird Frisbees for disc golfing. We decided that it might be fun to try that sometime and we left it at that.

Nearly two months later we (or should I say I) gave in and we purchased the discs for a date to the disc golf course. We had been to the course previously as a result of our neighborhood meanderings and from the looks of the first hole I didn't think it would be that difficult. In the middle of a wide open field there is a patch of cement where you tee off and then somewhere in the distance there is the cage type thing that you have to throw the Frisbee into. It couldn't be that hard could it?

Well first of all I have to say that throwing a disc is much different than throwing a Frisbee. Our first throws were a little crazy and both of the discs landed in the rough and when I say rough I mean it. We actually had to spend a couple of minutes looking for them because the grass was knee-deep.

So as you can see from the picture at the first hole Sterling's form is a little questionable but it can't matter too much when the course is nothing but wide open space. Well that is not his real form I just made him pose like that for the picture. But now you kind of get the idea of the cement platform from where you throw the disc and if you look closely you can also see how much smaller the disc is than a Frisbee.

Anyway we both did fairly well on the first hole. I made it with four throws and Sterling made it with five. The map of the course then lead us down a small hill, across a road and finally to the second hole which looked a little something like... A FOREST.

I'm not going to lie, I felt a little deceived by the ease of the first hole and thought that the creator of the course should have at least eased me into the forest scene. This picture is taken from the what I like to call launching pad and if you can't see the thing you are supposed to throw the disc into, neither could we.

So as you can imagine the trees add a little bit of a difficulty factor and test what skill you might have of throwing the disc. I don't know how many times we actually threw the discs straight into a tree. I would usually try to have some sort of strategy and every time I tried to miss a tree I would hit it causing my disc to return to my where I had just thrown it making me upset.

The forest continued to double as a disc golf course until the 11th hole where it was wide open spaces again. I was excited because finally I might be able to make it to the hole in less than six throws. It was my turn to throw first and I put all that I had into that throw. I carefully watched where it landed and then Sterling threw his disc. It of course went much further than mine and though I was a little distraught who was I kidding, it had been that way all day.

We quickly found Sterling's disc but locating mine was a little more difficult. In fact we walked around in the rough for about 45 minutes looking for that stupid disc. I think I would have given up after five minutes if I didn't care so much about leaving $11 lost in the bushes.

As I walked around looking for the disc I kept getting more and more angry. On top of getting angry I was blessed with the opportunity of walking into some poisonous bush which created large red welts all over my arms and hands and the best blessing of all, I pulled my groin. But in my stubborn determination I was going to find that disc if it took all day. I could barely walk through the deep brush but I wasn't leaving without it.

Sterling on the other hand nonchalantly wandered through the rough looking for the disc and without getting upset. In fact he managed to find two other discs that other disc golfers had lost. He stayed positive and even tried to move on to the next hole since we now had three discs but I couldn't, I wanted to find that disc so badly.

After complaining about my groin and not being able to find the disc for the final time, Sterling turned around and patiently starting looking again. He decided to start kicking the deep grass hoping that it would turn up somehow. I was watching him thinking "What is he doing? Does he actually think that is going to work?" when all of a sudden he said, "Here it is." Didn't I feel foolish.

Unfortunately because of my groin condition we were unable to finish the last seven holes so I can't tell you how the game turned out. What I can tell you though is that after nine holes Sterling had 50 throws and I had 51.

The disc golfing incident was a test of our skill but the test of patience was only for me.

DON'T BE JEALOUS OF OUR MAD SKILLS!