Well, getting excited..  Leaving tomorrow for Albuquerque..

We are staying at the Staybridge Suites.

We are bowling on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I am taking a Kinetic Energy pin above middle finger, Black Widow pin above bridge, SHIFT (pin right of ring finger (tournament drilling of the sheet, (all 1000 AB), Total NV pin below bridge (2000 AB), and Roto Neptune drilled same as KE(Box), and Trusty Target Zone..

I am taking them in a Vise 3 ball tote and 3 ball Storm Tournament Tote.  I am traveling with a few people, including my mother, and I am going to have her check one of the bags for me.

Coming back on Thursday afternoon..

We also rented a car through priceline's name your own price service got that for 5 days for $102.  So not all bad there..

Will probably post trip reports while out there if I have an internet connection

Edited on 5/20/2008 2:20 AM

Edited on 5/23/2008 12:12 PM

Edited on 5/23/2008 1:46 PM

Just got back from Maloneys..  Good food, TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE service..  Good selection of beer, and decent looking women in the joint..  but TERRIBLE beyond BAD service...

The Hotel is good..  and the convention center is nice, but still chilly..

We are thinking about bowling the RotoGrip tomorrow.

Started off the day by going to Stoneface? Pub out by our Hotel (Stay Bridge suites)..  Nice pub..  $2.50 pints all day..  About 30 on tap or so..  We had nachos for dinner.  very spice pico sauce..


Nachos turned out to be a bad idea...


Aside from the indigestion from the nachos, which were very good, my knees were hurting from bowling the roto grip yesterday..  We collected our money, my dad was low with 386, teammate made 80 with 407 and I made 130 with 416, I think I was 5th or so..

Weighed in our stuff, teammates plastic ball was 16.03 lbs...  drilled miraculously drilled it out to 16.00 on the first try..  My Widow was too heavy on right 1 1/4 and he managed to get it to exactly 15/16ths..  Funny thing is, my widow passed last year..   whatever...

Put our stuff down,  Got into way too many brackets as this was my WORST performance by far.. and got our pictures taken..  the usual stuff...

Went out and talked to Beans for a few minutes..  Nice guy, enjoyed talking to him...

Headed out to the lanes and could not stay through a shot...  Knee bend was not there, too much upper body tilt, inconsistent slide, all equals poorly executed shots...  I had a good line to the hole, I just couldn't hit it every time..  Very frustrating..

My tournament average is around 190..  I shot an amazing .........489, I have never been under 500...  very disappointing and frustrating, almost makes me sick....

Did manage to make it to TD's Showbar before they closed..  Cute girls, but no one had real ones, if you know what I mean...   Decent place, higher cover than what I am used to, but clean inside and nice laid back atmosphere..

Bowl on 1-2-3-4 tomorrow for Singles and Doubles..  Just hope I can shoot something there that will cash and maybe make some jackpot money back...

I had a decent look outside, up seven or so during warm ups..  but it was speed sensitive..   I moved into 15-10, but couldn't execute..

My dad was up 10 and shot 611..  Two guys on the companion team were 15-10 sliding 25 and shot 611 and 675 (with a 170 finish)..   Dad was using Cell 500 abralon, other two were using a paradigm and a polished triumph tnt

Well, spent the day in the room all day...  Depressed from shooting 489 the night before, didn't even want to get out of bed...   But, I did wake up and my knees did feel better, so that was an upside..  We also attempted to eat the majority of the food we bought for the week...

We had the 5:30 D/S squad, left the room at about 4:20 and got to the bowl around 4:35..  picked up the whopping $20 I won the night before..  then hit the ATM for brackets today...

Paid the $12 to get my photo and throw some warm ups..  Felt a lot better than yesterday..  Timing was better, release was stronger and cleaner, and knee didn't hurt as much...  Was just finishing up warm ups as the announcements were started..  Never had any time to go see who was bowling in front of us..  We were on 3-4 D and 1-2 S

Arrived at the lanes, started with my 1000 grit shift with the tournament drill, started next to the ball return, inside 20, out to ten, never made the corner...
Switched to black widow 1000 grit, pin above bridge, moved right about 6 and didn't make the corner..  Tried a kinetic energy with 90 degree dual angle 1000 grit from 15  to 10, made  a bad shot and didn't make the pocket..  Went back to the Shift moved right and played there for 2 frames with no success..

Finally I grabbed my 2000 grit Total NV, stood 22 threw 17 to 10ish, went to a strong hand position and struck, light, but it struck, stayed in that area and shot 236 to start..  Second game 206 third game 201 with a 4-9 in the tenth...        I missed a 3-6, 1-2-10, and 4-9 in Doubles..  Shot 643, dad struggled to a 550ish for 1190's...  

Singles started out in the same area but was moving left ever so slightly..  I was standing 24 throwing just inside 20 to 10..  same ball same hand same speed..  Lot of strike, can't remember the spares (don't have the sheet in front of me) shot 255 to start..  Next game moved to about 30 on the slide, started front 4 then had two ten pins where the messenger missed just in front, then two bad shots the left a 6 and a four, then finished out for 225..  Final game started out front 6, then made a bad shot and left the big four for my first open of singles  ..  Had a 7 count converted then threw 2 more then left a 10 pin which I just went up and tossed at and missed..  238 finish for a 718..

So I shot 489-643-718 for 1850..   As of writing this I am in 104th in singles, just wish I could have finished the third game for 300 for 780 and put me in 4th, but I am happy as a pig in mud with this...

Ended up shooting two career scores this year, 483 career low, and 718 career high..  My two outstanding goals were shooting 700 and 1900..  a few years ago I shot 1898 and this year I shot 700, so one down and one soon to come...

After bowling we ate and Landry's SeaFood House..  Had the Chilean Sea Bass (not the madrid style) very very good..  Mom and the madrid style, and I thought mine was better..  portion was a bit small, but well worth it...  

After Landry's we went back to stoneface pub..   Good service, a few good looking girls..  But good beer, good service, good time...

We are leaving tomorrow at noon Albuquerque time to return the car, so there are a few things we didn't do that I wish we had...

Wish we would have eating at Tucanos and Sadies..  A local today told me of El Pinto out by Sandia which is supposed to be excellent..  And we never made it to the Library, which I really wanted to hit up..  but oh well...  There is always VEGAS BABY!



Edited on 5/22/2008 3:27 AM