Upon returning from Albuquerque, I bowled my league on Monday only to finish with a swollen ankle and two swollen toes. A visit to my podiatrist revealed an infection caused by a cut from the tape my GP told me to use to keep my broken toe in place. I now am dealing with not only a broken fifth toe, but an "ulcerated" third toe. The "ulcer", however, is healing much more nicely than the one I had last year. I'm probably looking at a month off the lanes between both injuries, but progress is good.
In the meantime, I've added some photos. The rest will come when we get to the end of Mrs.-Me's roll of film.
... or perhaps I should have said "the WEAK end"!!
I decided to make a second trip to the BTM, since I did well on Wednesday, and thought I could boost an 8-game total. Rick Ramsey was back, so we got a chance to meet up with him. I bowled the BTM one more time while Guin, Randy, Roger, Fred, and Mrs.-Fred shot the 40-frame game which was happening next to us. It became painfully obvious that they made the smarter choice. I don't think I broke 700 that morning. Fatigue had finally raised its ugly head. In fact, Rick mentioned to me that a few guys came in earlier in the week to bowl his tournament and stopped after three games because they, like I, were "gassed out".
We then caravaned out to the Sandia Casino to play there for a little while. This time I was on the plus side of the ledger, making approximately what Mrs.-Me lost that day.
After taking my gear back to the convention center to pack it up, the early evening had us hooking up for dinner with one of Angie's former co-workers from Michigan who happens to live in Albuquerque. I recommend the Outback (believe it or not, it was my first time).
Saturday had us up at 4-bleeping-15 in the morning, since we had to pack, fill up the rental (good luck finding an open gas station that early in the morning -- the Circle K finally opened at 5 AM), picked up Brian at his hotel (he was on the same flight out of town), then checked in and had as leisurely a breakfast as one can in an airport.
Atlanta found Brian headed to the D concourse while we were headed to B, so we said our good-byes and had about an hour-and-a-half in Atlanta. We enjoyed a Checkers lunch and then caught our flight home.
A great time had by all. As I said on the bowl.com board, you could not have hand-picked a better bunch of folks to throw together. I look forward with great anticipation to next year in VEGAS, BABY!!!!
Thursday began with a nice leisurely breakfast at Denny's, where the usual breakfast fare was enjoyed by both of us. I even shared some of my last night's winnings with two "sweet little old ladies" who to this day don't know who bought their breakfast. I overheard one of them say to the waiter that she was "not old enough to drink coffee". My guess is that she was probably in her late 70s to early 80s, but was just as spry as they come at that age.
After breakfast, it was time to hit the Santa Ana Star Casino, where I had won $30 in free play last night. We both went through the sign-in process, got our "players club" cards, and proceeded to play for about an hour-and-a-half. I dropped about 50 bucks, while Mrs.-Me netted just over $400.
Off we go to the stadium, where I decided to warm up not on the stub lane (for $12 or so) but at the Roto-Grip Challenge, a $70 two-game expensive practice session. I think I shot 320-something for the two games, but I was loosened up for doubles and singles.
My doubles partner was Don Andrews from our companion team. We were the "odd team out", meaning instead of bowling on 1-2 and 3-4, as our other doubles teams did, we were pushed to 5-6, then 7-8 for singles.
Game 1 riddled me with three splits (one of which I converted), but I finished strong with a turkey for 180. Game 2 led to three more splits and a couple of whiffed spares (I knew I should have packed that white dot) for my lowest game of the tournament, a 166. Game 3 of doubles was my strangest game, going 4-bagger, open, 4-bagger, open for 230. YES, a double-hambone game!! My 576 and Don's 571 gave us an 1147, which will cash, but not very high.
My three games of singles were my most consistent, going 203-194-202 for 599. Five splits in this set, two of which I picked up.
All in all, 1812 for all events, which should net me a few bucks. I have two super brackets and three senior super brackets which are yet to be decided. Could be a buck or two there, too.
The evening brought a trip to Tucano's, a Brazilian eatery across from the convention center where it was all-you-can-eat brought to your table. Various skewers were presented containing beef, pork, chicken, veggies, everything you can imagine. Life was good -- and for a decent price, too.
One more day in ABQ ... a day to take it somewhat easy.
Our first full day in Albuquerque started out with a trip to the local Harley Davidson shop. My stepson is into the whole Harley thing, and we make it a point to stop at the local shops to get T-shirt souvenirs for various family members.
Next, we're off to the BTM, where Mrs. Ramsey was running the show (Rick had "gone home" for a spell). Randy, Brian, Doc, and I took our best shot at a 42-foot flat pattern. I came out of that with a 772 total, which may or may not cash in Senior Singles (last I looked, low was 778, but that could change as more bowlers bowl).
A trip to the hotel pool and spa, followed by a quick siesta (I'm picking up this southwest lingo pretty good, eh?), and we're off to the team event. We're on the 8:30 squad. Equipment inspection passed with no problems this year.
It is always exciting to walk down the center aisle at the USBC Open, but this year was especially exciting, since we got an added bonus. This is the first time I've bowled on the same squad with so many eagle winners. The defending Team All-Events champions, Browning Pontiac, received their own escort out to the lanes by Matt Cannizzaro.
Following the national anthem and a few minutes of practice, we're underway. I started with the sloppiest hambone imaginable, but I'll take it. One of them actually held pocket. My thought process was just stay clean and make good shots. Well, I stayed clean until the 9th, when I the 2 off the 4, then followed with X90 for 213.
The next game featured a turkey and a late hambone (which prompted Mrs.-Me and Guin to hold up imaginary "hambone" signs which would have made Rob Stone proud) for 245.
One split in game 3 with a lack of strikes (only two) had my visions of 700 in team going by the wayside as I finished with a 179.
The first two games held up my brackets, so I came away with a profit. $190 in, $498 out. YAY!! (that's for you, Guin)
We hung around for a little while (yeah -- a little while -- when's the last I closed a CONVENTION CENTER?). As most of you know by now, we were getting a lot of press on the boards as the "Forum 5". Except for Brian and yours truly, this was the first time we had seen each other live. We have communicated on line for several months (years), but this was a first meeting face-to-face. You could not have hand-picked a better bunch of folks to throw together. Brian Gottry deserves a lot of credit for getting this together.
This was one of those days. A nice leisurely (and cheap) trip to BWI for the flight to Atlanta and then on to Albuquerque.
We started out from our apartment complex to the Pentagon City Metro (free), then taking the DC Metro from there to Greenbelt (approximate cost $3.85 each). From there a Metro bus takes us non-stop to BWI ($3.00 each). Mind you, a cab ride from my home would be approximately $110, so this was, indeed, cheap.
We arrive approximately 90 minutes early for a 12:50 p.m. flight only to find out that our flight is now delayed until 2:10 p.m. This later became 2;30, then 2:50 by the time we actually took off. Fortuntely, we had a schedule layover in Atlanta of just over two hours, because by the time we actually landed in Atlanta (4:30), we had just 20 minutes to make our connection or be forced to wait until 9;40 p.m. for the next connection. We made it with just a few minutes to spare. Luck was on our side, indeed.
We got to Albuquerque and were shuttled to the rental car joint, where I was informed (did YOU know this?) that their only available mid-sized car was -- get this -- a PT Cruiser! A PT Cruiser doesn't even qualify in my book as a COMPACT, much less a MID-SIZE!! They managed to BS me into a full-size for an additional $50. At this point, we were thankful to be at our destination and bit the bullet. The Chevy Malibu is not a bad ride at all (this coming from a Ford man).
We then met up with our crew at the Convention Center and we spent the early evening watching the Lind's Lakers teams trying to carve out a shot. It looked the lefties struggled just a wee bit and I'd like to think that watching them and their lane play helped our team to have at least half a clue the next night.
Kudos to Michael at Homewood Suites (when we eventually checked in) for being so energetic, since we checked in at about 11:00 p.m.
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