Hey all,
We've been in Detroit, Michigan for the last few days (since Friday) and just been relaxing, eating at chains that I've never eaten at, and practiced on 3 different sports shots.
As for food, we ate at Cracker Barrel, Tim Horton's, and Steak 'N Shake. Cracker Barrel was good and quite filling for the price. It was interesting that right after entering the store, it starts off with a retro candy/game store that has all the good but oldies like mini plastic coke bottles filled with colored sugar water that were around when my mom was a kid, ancient I know. Tim Horton's was good and had quite the interesting combination--soup, sandwich, coffee....and a doughnut. All around it was good and filling. But the creme de la creme was Steak 'N Shake which I had a melt that was absolutely amazing with a side-by-sided shake of Razzberry (Yes i know it's spelled with an sp but i felt like being original), and Vanilla which was bomb. Great food... gotta eat there again.
Bowling balls:
-Uranium Solid: High hook.
-Black Widow Pearl: Distance and snap at end (2nd most hooking)
-Total NV: starts up a little earlier than widow but arcs more than snap and overall hooks less
-Avalanche: low hook, small arc, and roll.
-Plastic spare ball- self explanatory
Bowling wise, I've been quite happy with myself. So far, we practiced on a medium/medium shot (42 feet with medium oil), a long/low (47 feet with low oil), and a short/high (35 feet with high oil). For medium oil, I was able to either bowl straight up 7 with the Widow Pearl or swing it from fifteen out to ten and it came back nicely after the lanes started to break down a little, or swing the Uranium, my strongest ball, from 20 to 10 and it was fine, or NV straight up 12ish. Overall, I did quite well...at least I think so. Then, on the long pattern, we bowled on a one squad used (non fresh and slightly burned out) shot. I was able to bowl straight up 5 with widow, up 10 with NV, swing 20-15 with Avalanche, or swing Uranium same as I did on the short shot. It wasn't too bad but I'm also assuming the lanes will be different when we bowl on them for tournament with more oil and a fresh shot. Finally, came the short pattern. I bowled right up 10 to start with Widow, which burned up and I moved out to 7-5 and was fine. NV was kinda iffy, but after breaking down up 10 was fine. Avalanche was swing from 20 to 13 again and came in nicely. Overall I'd have to say that I most preferred the Uranium which I was swinging from 25 out to 10 and carrying back beautifully and threw that the best. It was a fresh shot too, but again, I'm assuming that it will be slightly more oily on actual tournament.
I believe that I'm ready for this tournament and I'll do just fine. Although it's my first JR gold tournament, I just won't get too hyped up and freaked and should be perfect. All I can do is bowl and try to bowl as damn best as I can. So, as I'm now ready and it's just past midnight, I really gotta go to bed. We bowl at 8 AM tomorrow so that means getting up at 6, eating, and leaving no later than 7 to check in and turn in our ball check in cards.
Night y'all,
Dustin
