Day 4. Finally everything starts to fall away

I woke up in Santa Cruz, California, where we will play the first disc golf course of our trip.

It has taken four days for my brain to stop cycling through to-do’s, worries and the nagging feeling I’ve forgotten something. (Not to mention the doubt lurking in my mind - are we making the right decision?)

On Monday we headed south from Oregon and spent our first 2 nights near Eureka California at Patrick’s point state park. The sound of the ocean worked to reset the rhythm of our daily lives. There wasn’t any cell service and since we were dry camping we carefully tracked our water and electricity usage. Have you ever considered the number of times you use the bathroom in a day?

Which brings us to Santa Cruz and arguably one of the most loved disc golf courses.

DeLaveaga DGC is a 29 hole disc golf course located next to an 18 hole ball golf course (where you can also play disc golf on Wednesday and Saturday nights with a tee time).

DeLaveaga is full of contradictions: welcoming yet challenging, forgiving yet brutal. It’s all in the angles of the fairways.

On the same tee box, you might find a surfer styled sign with information about trash cans, but it’s missing a tee sign. The pin placements can feel like secrets known only to the dedicated club of locals, but it only adds to the mystique. The players are skilled at disc placement (they have lots of practice on Dela’s technical fairways) but everyone on the course is in it to have a good round and help others have a good round too.

At today’s round, we searched for each other’s errant throws, got help in finding the next tee and were invited to play through more than once. It’s the course we needed, at the time we needed it. A place where the journey is more important than the destination, contradictions are normal and having a good time is a priority.

See you at the next course.