Go, go, go. It's still difficult to believe it's been a year since we packed up and left Florida, but here we are in Buffalo, NY frenzily focusing on the 2007 Junior Gold tournament. Michael is blogging for USBC again and those updates can be found at http://www.bowl.com/articleView.aspx?i=13240&f=2
The kids have practiced at two centers: Airport and Transit, saving their priority ticket (essentially guaranteed entry) for this morning. We learned from last year and planned out which centers and when. This afternoon, they'll experience opening ceremonies at the local minor league ballpark, including a walkout onto the field. Hopefully, they'll have names on the Jumbotron, too. Tonight they'll have a quiet night before they start bowling for score tomorrow morning at 8 am sharp.
Yesterday was a tough one, we'd driven up from my dad's in Maryland, leaving at 10:30 pm. There was that family of possums that I think we probably hit, but otherwise the overnight drive gave us an extra day with family and saved us from another hotel night to pay for. We arrived just after 6 and waited until they opened at 8 to begin touring the vendor's booths and collected all the chatchkes we could finagle. Sport Bowling was handing out "collector's pins" because sadly the "step up to the challenge" of sport bowling has been eclipsed by the letters P-B-A. Chris Barnes was in town for the day, so it was nice surprise to say hi. Kim Terrell was representing Collegiate Bowling, and with her new job as head coach in Delaware, there were definitely a few people we introduced her to. In the merchandise room, we were extremely disappointed to see only polyester shirts (apparently 1974 is alive and well). But in another retro move, we purchased the logo-ed tote bag, so Michael could move lane to lane with 3 double bags and not have to worry about wheels or steps.
The hotel is a nice one--a little small, but with enough storage we're not crawling over each other. It just takes a little planning. We have other bowling families in the hotel, but not nearly as many as last year. There were just so many options in Buffalo, and very few actual suites hotels.
We have several first-timers this year, and I'm looking forward to all the kids bowling on the same squad--three for the last time as juniors. The cycle continues.
Posted by Angel Zobel-Rodriguez at July 8, 2007 05:55 AM