Excerpt of Poem from Bull Durham

Here is an excerpt from a poem that was quoted near the end of the baseball movie Bull Duram:

"Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

I found it from the poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray from the stanza:

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

The line from Bull Durham was when Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) hit a minor league record 247th home run to no notice by the baseball media.

I see that poem is also famous for the line:

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."

I don't know that my brain is wired for poetry...

Playing Golf in the Poconos

While on vacation last week I had the chance to play golf at a fabulous if little known course called Hide-Away Hills. The course was about 40 minutes drive from the townhouse at Camelback Mountain and was a very reasonable $30 greens fee with cart for play after 2:00 (twilight fee). The course features 18 quite distinct holes including several that had the tee box at the top of the hill and the green about 100-120 feet below. The photo at the right is a par 3 that played 230 feet from the very back blue tees. The tee boxes were on various tiers from blue, to two white tees, to the red and yellow tees. Steve and I tried to hit from the very back tees but we each did not make it onto the green so rehit from the white tees. The photo doesn't do justice to the elevation difference between where we were standing on the upper most tee down to the green.

Another hole had a similar drop for a par 5 that had you tee-off from the elevated green onto a landing area down below with the fairway sweeping off to the right. It was great to see the ball sailing out over the land and falling to the fairway far below.

The photo to the left shows another hole that was up hill all the way from the tee to an even more elevated green. This hole was listed at about 340 yards but played much farther with the continual rise. Steve and I hit just short of the green to a very steep slope and the balls bounded back and the the left for a very challenging shot that was like trying to hit the ball onto the roof of a 3 story house. Little did we know there was quite a bit of green to work with as we found out after getting up to the green.

I recommend this course to anyone wanting to play a challenging, fun, and very scenic round of golf. The panoramic views of the Pocono region were breathtaking and the golf was plenty fun as well. Be sure and invite me along if you go as you will need a guide to know where to hit your shots.

Photo of Steve on overlook to Bushkill Falls in the Poconos of Eastern Pennsylvania. We went on a hike that lasted about 1 hour and took us from the top of the falls to the very bottom. It was beautiful scenery and the photo doesn't do justice to the spectacular falls. The falls go from the level of the platform (just above Steve's hand on the wooden railing) to about 80 feet below.