Bowling anyone?
What to do during an extremely hot weekend in
Louisville when the Street Rod Nationals are in town? Why you go
cruising around looking for the street rods, oogling them when you find them.
Then you go bowling.
We had a new bowling alley open near us back in the spring called Kingpin Lanes and we decided to check them out. Found their prices way too high, lanes way too slick and the constant light show on the lanes to be headache-inducing. The place is more of a family fun center that is more like what you'd get by mating a bowling alley with Chuck E. Cheese and the results just didn't work for me. But It did get us thinking about taking up bowling. Lynda used to bowl in leagues out West and I did my share of rolling gutter balls back in college. In fact, if you look at the widescreen version of the movie Breaking Away, in the bowling alley scene you can see my back on the edge of the frame for about half a second.
Lynda had her own ball, bag and shoes, so we thought about hooking me up with equipment so I wouldn't have to rent shoes and try to find a house ball that didn't tear my injured wrist up any more than it already was. Unfortunately, Kingpin didn't have a pro shop, and the only places in Louisville to buy bowling equipment is a bowling alley pro shop, so we'd have to look elsewhere later. Lynda also discovered problems with her bowling, think it was the plugs in the finger holes were cracked/pulling out, so it would need to be plugged and re-drilled, or the ball just be replaced.
Fast-forward three months to this past Saturday and we decided to go check out Ten Pin Lanes across Shelbyville Road from the Mall of St. Matthews. It is a more traditional alley, so more our speed and it had a pro shop. Of course the guy who would have to drill the ball was gone for the day, but we found a helpful young guy behind the counter who really knew his stuff to help pick out new balls, he just couldn't fit us and do the drilling. Lynda decided it would be cheaper in the long run to just replace her ball so we both wound up with $63 Ebonite balls. Mine is black and blue according to the box and Lynda's is black, blue, turquoise and all sparkly — definitely a girl's ball. Needed bags for them, so we got a couple of cheap ones and I picked up a pair of with bowling shoes, that look more like sneakers than bowling shoes, thankfully. I also had to get a wrist brace to hold my wrist together where I ripped that tendon loose from the bone a couple of years ago. Two hundred and twelve dollars later and we were equipped, but not quite ready to bowl; still had to bring our balls back on Sunday to get them drilled, so we gathered up our booty and headed home.
I had neglected to mention that we had been to eat earlier at Genny's Diner. Place is bit of a dive and nothing special — they have a commercial on local TV and radio pushing their Sweet Daddy Burger (huge, messy burger in the pound and a half range) and their Frickled Pickles (battered, deep-fried pickle chips), but we passed on these with Lynda odering a cheeseburger and myself partaking of the meatloaf sandwich from the specials board. Like I said, nothing special in the food department and they could improve the mood of the place by taking out the three huge aquariums full of ugly fish. For dessert, we chose much more wisely by moving back out on Frankfort Avenue to Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen down by where Frankfort Avenue meets Lexington Road and becomes Shelbyville Road and next door to the old Vogue Theatre. This is a VERY DANGEROUS establishment, the contents are quite addictive and even looking at the pictures on their website can cause weight gain and uncontrollable drooling. I had the Key Lime Pie and Lynda tried the Georgia Cake and both were delightful. We also, got cookies to go. A word of warning about the snickerdoodle; it's the size of a dinner plate.
While on the way home from Ten Pin we were checking out the street rods on Shelbyville Road, when the Ultimate Rod pulled up beside us.
Yes, that is a REAL Shelby Cobra, in concours condition and every bit as drool-worthy as the desserts at the Pie Kitchen. It had a Kentucky Antique Tag, so it is a local car. I had not seen one on the road in maybe 30 years; think last one I saw may have been in the Automotive Museum in San Diego's Balboa Park or the ACD Museum in Auburn, Indiana. It was really nice to see one of these tiny little 550 hp beauties on the street again.
Anyway, we went back to Ten Pin on Sunday to be sized and have the balls drilled. Guy working the pro shop was very nice and extremely thorough. Told us he'd have the balls finished in 50 minute to an hour, so we stepped over to the lane's restaurant where Lynda got a BLT and I got a patty melt with fries. Good, solid bowling alley fare, while not exactly haute cuisine, is filling and cheap, with two sandwiches, fries and two soft drinks coming in under $10. Regretted not splurging the extra forty cents and getting onion rings though.
We had a nice time sitting there eating and watching the other bowlers. Chuckled over a couple of families with young kids who were bowling with the bumpers up and the parents needing those bumpers as much if not more than their kids. Sproing, sproing, sproing, crash.
Fifty minutes on the nose he had the balls back on their stand rings on the counter. He spent a lot of time making sure things were correct and offered a lot of pointers, like for me to watch the speed since it was only a 12-pound ball — he had come out before he drilled it to make sure I REALLY wanted a 12-pounder — but I once again assured him that because of my wrist injury, I would be hard press to hit the 20 mph limit on the lanes. (eighteen was about the upper limit of my throw and that hurt)
We got 2 free games apiece to try out the balls, so we bowled three. Lynda did really well I thought, bowling over 100 all three games with a new ball and her last game was 147, which she said was only a couple pins below her average. My first game was a 98 and we won't talk about the scores after that. The guy in the pro shop was apparently watching and suggested I pull the palm-side steel shank out of the wrist brace to help my control. Said I only needed support on the back side of the brace for my injury and the support was keeping me from holding the ball flush on my palm, so I wasn't letting go of it right, which I could tell as I was dragging my little finger and making it sore. He also offered to come down and give some pointers the next time I come in to make sure I break any bad habits. These seem to be very nice and helpful people behind the counter, who know bowling and want their customers to have a good time.
We are already thinking about joining a league after a bit of practice, or in my case, a lot of practice.
We had a new bowling alley open near us back in the spring called Kingpin Lanes and we decided to check them out. Found their prices way too high, lanes way too slick and the constant light show on the lanes to be headache-inducing. The place is more of a family fun center that is more like what you'd get by mating a bowling alley with Chuck E. Cheese and the results just didn't work for me. But It did get us thinking about taking up bowling. Lynda used to bowl in leagues out West and I did my share of rolling gutter balls back in college. In fact, if you look at the widescreen version of the movie Breaking Away, in the bowling alley scene you can see my back on the edge of the frame for about half a second.
Lynda had her own ball, bag and shoes, so we thought about hooking me up with equipment so I wouldn't have to rent shoes and try to find a house ball that didn't tear my injured wrist up any more than it already was. Unfortunately, Kingpin didn't have a pro shop, and the only places in Louisville to buy bowling equipment is a bowling alley pro shop, so we'd have to look elsewhere later. Lynda also discovered problems with her bowling, think it was the plugs in the finger holes were cracked/pulling out, so it would need to be plugged and re-drilled, or the ball just be replaced.
Fast-forward three months to this past Saturday and we decided to go check out Ten Pin Lanes across Shelbyville Road from the Mall of St. Matthews. It is a more traditional alley, so more our speed and it had a pro shop. Of course the guy who would have to drill the ball was gone for the day, but we found a helpful young guy behind the counter who really knew his stuff to help pick out new balls, he just couldn't fit us and do the drilling. Lynda decided it would be cheaper in the long run to just replace her ball so we both wound up with $63 Ebonite balls. Mine is black and blue according to the box and Lynda's is black, blue, turquoise and all sparkly — definitely a girl's ball. Needed bags for them, so we got a couple of cheap ones and I picked up a pair of with bowling shoes, that look more like sneakers than bowling shoes, thankfully. I also had to get a wrist brace to hold my wrist together where I ripped that tendon loose from the bone a couple of years ago. Two hundred and twelve dollars later and we were equipped, but not quite ready to bowl; still had to bring our balls back on Sunday to get them drilled, so we gathered up our booty and headed home.
I had neglected to mention that we had been to eat earlier at Genny's Diner. Place is bit of a dive and nothing special — they have a commercial on local TV and radio pushing their Sweet Daddy Burger (huge, messy burger in the pound and a half range) and their Frickled Pickles (battered, deep-fried pickle chips), but we passed on these with Lynda odering a cheeseburger and myself partaking of the meatloaf sandwich from the specials board. Like I said, nothing special in the food department and they could improve the mood of the place by taking out the three huge aquariums full of ugly fish. For dessert, we chose much more wisely by moving back out on Frankfort Avenue to Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen down by where Frankfort Avenue meets Lexington Road and becomes Shelbyville Road and next door to the old Vogue Theatre. This is a VERY DANGEROUS establishment, the contents are quite addictive and even looking at the pictures on their website can cause weight gain and uncontrollable drooling. I had the Key Lime Pie and Lynda tried the Georgia Cake and both were delightful. We also, got cookies to go. A word of warning about the snickerdoodle; it's the size of a dinner plate.
While on the way home from Ten Pin we were checking out the street rods on Shelbyville Road, when the Ultimate Rod pulled up beside us.
Yes, that is a REAL Shelby Cobra, in concours condition and every bit as drool-worthy as the desserts at the Pie Kitchen. It had a Kentucky Antique Tag, so it is a local car. I had not seen one on the road in maybe 30 years; think last one I saw may have been in the Automotive Museum in San Diego's Balboa Park or the ACD Museum in Auburn, Indiana. It was really nice to see one of these tiny little 550 hp beauties on the street again.
Anyway, we went back to Ten Pin on Sunday to be sized and have the balls drilled. Guy working the pro shop was very nice and extremely thorough. Told us he'd have the balls finished in 50 minute to an hour, so we stepped over to the lane's restaurant where Lynda got a BLT and I got a patty melt with fries. Good, solid bowling alley fare, while not exactly haute cuisine, is filling and cheap, with two sandwiches, fries and two soft drinks coming in under $10. Regretted not splurging the extra forty cents and getting onion rings though.
We had a nice time sitting there eating and watching the other bowlers. Chuckled over a couple of families with young kids who were bowling with the bumpers up and the parents needing those bumpers as much if not more than their kids. Sproing, sproing, sproing, crash.
Fifty minutes on the nose he had the balls back on their stand rings on the counter. He spent a lot of time making sure things were correct and offered a lot of pointers, like for me to watch the speed since it was only a 12-pound ball — he had come out before he drilled it to make sure I REALLY wanted a 12-pounder — but I once again assured him that because of my wrist injury, I would be hard press to hit the 20 mph limit on the lanes. (eighteen was about the upper limit of my throw and that hurt)
We got 2 free games apiece to try out the balls, so we bowled three. Lynda did really well I thought, bowling over 100 all three games with a new ball and her last game was 147, which she said was only a couple pins below her average. My first game was a 98 and we won't talk about the scores after that. The guy in the pro shop was apparently watching and suggested I pull the palm-side steel shank out of the wrist brace to help my control. Said I only needed support on the back side of the brace for my injury and the support was keeping me from holding the ball flush on my palm, so I wasn't letting go of it right, which I could tell as I was dragging my little finger and making it sore. He also offered to come down and give some pointers the next time I come in to make sure I break any bad habits. These seem to be very nice and helpful people behind the counter, who know bowling and want their customers to have a good time.
We are already thinking about joining a league after a bit of practice, or in my case, a lot of practice.
Posted: Mon - August 7, 2006 at 03:04 PM
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Published On: Aug 08, 2006 01:01 AM
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Published On: Aug 08, 2006 01:01 AM