Happy Valley Golf Course

The Happy Valley Golf Course is an eighteen hole, par 72 course that has a lot of trees, several ponds, drainage ditches crossing the fairways and some tricky sloping greens. It is located off Bypass 301 on Nash Road in Wilson, North Carolina and on Mondays and Thursdays in October you can play 18 holes using a riding cart for $13-unbelieveable. The course appears to be well-maintained, however it had received a lot of rain before we played so it was a little soggy in some areas and some of the tees hadn't been mowed yet for the day.

Playing at the Happy Valley Golf Course in Wilson, North Carolina would be an enjoyable experience under normal conditions, but Denny and I had the added pleasure of playing with a couple of gentlemen by the names of Glenn and Billy, who are native to the area. The two of us always manage to muddle through golf courses that are new to us but it's so much easier to play when there is someone along who can tell you where to place your shot (yeah Linda, like you can do that!) and which way a particular hole will dogleg. All of the players we came in contact with were friendly and courteous which was an added bonus to the day.

One of the benefits of playing with folks who are local to the area is learning about interesting places to visit, the best restaurants to try or just bits of local history. Glenn told me that the campground where we're staying was at one time a popular dance club (sorry Glenn, I'm having a senior moment and have forgotten the name of the club after you told me what it was twice--sigh). He said kids would come from as far as Raleigh to dance the shag on Thursday nights and that one of the local couples won a trip to American Bandstand when it was still based in Philadelphia. Glenn said a group of his friends piled into three cars for the trip to watch their friends dance the shag on the show. Dick Clark had the dance floor cleared just to showcase the couple for one dance. Wouldn't that be a great memory to have?

Days like today make it clear to us why we enjoy traveling, playing golf and schmoozing with the folks we run into--we have fun, learn about the area we're visiting and make a couple of new friends. Just don't ask about my golf game, okay?