Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Quagmire XII Planning Site A - Birmingham, AL

·         Courses – The RTJ Trail has two locations in Birmingham: Ross Bridge with one 18-hole golf course; and Oxmoor Valley, with two 18-holers and one par-3 course.  Other locations with multiple courses on site (Capitol Hill & Silver Lakes) are about 80 miles away from either of the above.  We may be able to make due with 54 holes of regulation golf and a par-3 course; or augment by driving to another trail site (not much longer than Mirror Lakes, I imagine) or sampling non-trail locations in the Birmingham area
·         Flights – 5 different carriers fly in and out of Birmingham.  A quick search, for some arbitrary distant date so I could locate cheap flights, showed the availability of $300-$350 round trip flight possibilities to/from Denver on SouthWest.  SW does not appear to have non-stops to Denver, but this web site says other carriers do.
Much fewer daily choices from Omaha, but one each way does exist
·         Driving – several of the cities of Quagmire origins are within an acceptable driving distance:
o   Lafayette – 8 hours
o   Atlanta – 2.5 hours
o   Knoxville – 4 hours
·         Lodging – Ross Bridge has a lodge on site.  It is difficult to quantify costs for this and the golf, as the trail web site touts numerous package deals available for golf and/or golf+lodging.  This web site gives a sampling of the hotels and restaurants available near the various trail locations, but not costs.  Some of these hotels are in the budget category, so I think housing will be in the standard price range for us.
o   http://www.rtjgolf.com/reservations/RTJTravelPack.pdf

Post info courtesy of the Judge