This week’s “Road Report” comes from the wonderful state of Texas. I decided to bowl with some friends in the USBC National Tournament, since this is my last chance to bowl for at least 2 years.  The bonus for me is that the Motel 6 Roll to Riches was going on in Dallas right before I’m scheduled to bowl, so I decided to stop by and watch the festivities.

Wednesday April 12th
I drove down to Dallas today to hang out during the Motel 6 Roll to Riches event. It takes place at the Main Event Entertainment complex in Lewisville, just outside of Dallas. I met up with CJ (Chris Johnson) at the Fox and the Hound for dinner and to watch our beloved Rangers and Mavericks. Shortly after I got there Schlem, Pete and Tracy Weber showed up and we had a nice, relaxing dinner and a few drinks.

Thursday April 13th
I headed up to North Richland Hills to visit Del and Carolyn for a while at their pro shop. I hung out with them for several hours just chatting and catching up on some stuff. Their pro shop is in a pretty nice Brunswick Zone Center and their shop is very nice. They are in the midst of a few remodeling projects, but since summer is a little slower it’s the perfect time for that. After I left the Ballards I headed down to Main Event for the festivities. I sat with Tracy on the show to watch Pete go for $100,000.00 in the Motel 6 event. They were bowling on the Cheetah pattern on an older wood surface. During practice it looked like Chris Barnes had by far the best look and was going to be tough to beat. Pete was eliminated first--as it turned out he had to bowl Water Ray Williams Jr. in the opening match. Pete had a hard time getting it off his hand (possibly due to the rather high temps in the building).  Pete got eliminated in the first match so we headed back to the bar to hang out for a while.

Friday April 14th
Back on the road again !!! I drove down to Corpus Christi today and headed straight for the beach. After a few cervasas on the beach and a pretty spirited game of beach volleyball, our entire group headed out to the Waterfront Seafood Co for dinner (I would highly recommend this place). After dinner I walked down to the arena to watch Robert Lawrence, Nick Hoagland and a few other friends bowl their team event. I sat around and watched for a while, then headed back to the hotel for the night.

Saturday April 15th
Today I just layed around chilling out. After 3 solid days of partying I needed time to unwind. Finally around noon we headed to Hooters for lunch (you will see a pattern with me and Hooters in upcoming reports, after all I’ve been to more than 130 different ones).
After lunch we headed to the arena to drop off our equipment and I had a chance to catch up with Bill and Jackie in the Ebonite booth. They helped me quite a bit when I was on staff with Ebonite and I’ve always considered them good friends. Finally around 7:30 it was time to bowl. I used the info that I had gathered from several people and decided my game plan was to play out in Team. During practice I had a great look. I was going up 4-5 with a Screaming Banshee and didn’t miss. But when the lights came on I noticed the mid-lane was already starting to hook quite a bit. I only had one other teammate playing out with me so I knew that it wouldn’t develop the right way so I just tried to bowl my way through it. I only missed the pocked 4 times in my 3 games, but my entry angles were all wrong. I had 208-144-172 for 524. That included 2 4-9’s, 2 4-10’s and 2 7-10’s. The set definitely could have been better, but I think I made some bad decisions. I loaded in brackets and totally took a bath. $1400 down the drain !!! The only good thing is tomorrow is a new day.

Sunday April 16th
Again I just chilled out at the hotel for the morning, then headed to Hooters for lunch again. We didn’t bowl until the 11:30 pm squad so I decided to sleep for a while, just I case I wanted to start driving home after we got done. We headed to Joes Crab Shack for Dinner round 6:00 the headed to the bowl around 10:00 to get ready for doubles and singles. We had 19-20 for doubles and the pair was pretty nice. I started with a Pyro in around 25 and was hitting the pocket but ring 10’s kept me from scoring very well, again a case of bad entry angles. I went to a Fired-up and had more of the same. Finally I switched to my favorite X-Factor for the last game and had a very solid 236 game. I finished with a 642 I think (I lost my notes from the weekend so I’m going off of memory), and my doubles partner Dave had 575 I think. We moved to 17-18 for singles and this is where it gets interesting. I moved farther left with my X-Factor and got into a pretty comfortable zone. I shot 268 the first game with two solid 9s, then I had 242 in Game 2, missing the pocked once. Finally the last game I had 278 with a 4-7 in the 5th frame to finish with 788 in singles, which is currently 4th place. Meanwhile my partner was shooting 247-300-246 to take the lead. It was a pretty cool night, especially for Dave. He had struggled the previous two sets and then put it all together. We both with that could have been in doubles, which would have been a new tournament record. Hopefully his score holds up and he gets his Eagle!

All in all it was a pretty good weekend. I made up my money lost in singles so I’m not going home with empty pockets. The only bad part is the 17 hour drive home. Oh well, that’s the life we live on tour. Time to head home I guess. My next report will be coming from Laurel Lanes in Raytown, Mo.