Dogs, Discs, & BBQ.

That's how I spent my Saturday. Hiking with Boo and the dogs around Morrow Mountain, then playing 9 holes of disc golf, and ending at a local BBQ joint. We arrived at Morrow mountain around 9:30am and it was eerily deserted. Not a soul in sight. The temperature gauge in my car read 19 degrees but the sun was shining. We hopped out the car, got the dogs in their harnesses, and headed down the icy trail. You could see ice in some parts of the trail. It made a nice crunching sound beneath my boots each time I took a step. The dogs did pretty well for it being so cold. Boo did really well too. We had hiked this mountain years ago and in July, so what I remember is lots of snakes scurrying away and over grown weeds creeping up on the trail. Today it was awesome. No snakes (thank goodness) and no over grown trails. Just nice graded, well maintained, crunchy trail. We started with a climb and it was a gradual climb for the first mile and a half, which was great, cause it warmed us up. It was a bit windy on top and on the way down, but I think that's because it was on the lake side. The next couple of miles has some amazing views of lake Tillery and then the last mile and a half was along the lake shore line. I got some great pictures of the ice that formed along the water. When we finished up, Boo changed out of his cold sweaty/wet shirt into a dry one and we were off to the Chuck Morehead Memorial Park's disc golf course in Albemarle NC.

We pulled up to the "ghost town" disc golf course. (Come on Albemarle! I know it's cold, but get your butts outdoors! You got alot of cool stuff to offer.) And since we were the only ones in the park, we parked as close as we could to the course. As soon as we got out, we knew it was going to be really cold. There was alot of wind blowing and Boo and was feeling it. I had on my down vest, fleece zip up, two shirts on, long johns, pants, gloves, hat, AND scarf. Yeah, I know it's alot, but I wasn't cold at all. My cheeks got a bit nippy, but other than that, I was OK. The temperature was hovering around 30 degrees. We put the dogs back on their leashes and walked over to the course that was hidden behind the local community swimming pool. It was a bit hard to find, b/c there were no obvious signs for it. Just a yellow arrow pointing in the general direction. We checked out the course layout on the bulletin board to make sure we didn't get lost. Then we were off! The description of the course on line said "forested, narrow fairways" and it didn't lie. It was tough, you have to use your straight flying discs for most of the baskets. What I liked about this course was that it was very well maintained and it had arrows directing you to the next tee. Very nice. I wish we would of played all 18 holes, but we were running low on energy and needed to eat something to keep us going. Not to mention we had thing 1 with us. I was reminded why he's never gets invited to go disc golfing with us. He's a great hiking and backpacking dog. But as a disc golfer companion, he's horrible. He whines at the tee's b/c we aren't moving. As a Labrador retriever, it's in his nature to chase and retrieve anything he sees flying near him. So imagine the constant jerking on the leash as Boo throws his disc and thing 1 attempts to bound down the fairway to chase it. Now imagine the crying fits he lets out b/c he's not allowed to chase discs he feels he's entitled too. It was a nightmare. Between trying to hold him back, him tripping me with the leash as he runs circles b/c he's so energetic, wrapping himself around trees, and his whines as he has to wait for me to tee up, I don't know what was worse. Thing 2 was great. She knows the deal, she's been disc golfing with us b/f and is not a retriever by nature, so we had no problems from her. After the 9th hole, Boo decided to call it. So we walked back to the car and I promised that we'll come back another time w/o the dogs, so we can get in a good round. Besides, we were both thirsty, starving, and Boo was freezing. As soon as we hopped in the car, the dogs went to sleep. Boo and I decided to grab lunch somewhere. We passed a little BBQ place and then it hit me that I remembered an episode on PBS by about NC BBQ. They mentioned that Albemarle North Carolina had one of the last real wood burning fire pits and served an eastern NC BBQ style pork. Having lived in eastern NC, I remembered and missed my vinegar based BBQ sauce. So I mentioned this to Boo and he says that it sounds great. I look it up on the I-phone and BAM, we got BBQ!

We pulled into the quaint Whispering Pines BBQ. It looks like a house converted into a restaurant. As we walk up to the door, I read that it's been in business since 1954 and they don't take debit cards, (Boo had to run across the street to an ATM to pay the bill. hahaha!) Boo points out the stacks of hickory logs in the back. YES! Real wood burning fire pit! We slide into the rustic wood booths and glaze over the simple but yummy menu. When the waitress comes over, we order BBQ pork plates (I get onion rings and the famous red slaw, Boo gets baked beans and fries) and a side of hush puppies. The plates come out and the portions are HUGE! Way more than I expected and way more than I can finish. I spot the vinegar based sauce and liberally splash it on my chopped pork. Boo tells me to taste it without sauce, b/c he wants me to to savor the wood smoked flavor. Yeah it's good that way, but I've been waiting to douse my pork with authentic eastern NC sauce. It's amazing. I love the zesty, hot peppery, flavor and am so glad we decided to stop by. Even Boo's beans were good and well spiced. Two thumbs up for Whispering Pines. We enjoy a well deserved BBQ lunch as we debate where the best eastern NC BBQ is. I still heart Parkers in Greenville, but this place is a close second and Boo tries to tell me he likes Elliots or Lancasters.... whatever. Love the mountains of western NC, but not their BBQ. Hahaha! After stuffing our faces and still leaving food on the plates, we return to the car and the sleeping dogs. It's a long sleepy ride home. Even though it was chilly day, it was a great day to be outside. Til next time.... GET OUTDOORS!!!