Well I returned from Reno in one piece having contended in the 2007 USBC Open Championships for the first time.  I went with several ppl that I knew and have gone to other tournaments with but i never managed to bite the bullet and head for the open.  The Senior member of our group was returning for the 37th time and I'm glad I went with him.  He took me to the Peterson in Chicago and that was an experience I haven't forgotten even though I've tried without success to do.  My dad also decided to go as well and he and I teamed up together for the doubles event.  Both of us were making our first appearence in the Open.

I flew in on Frontier Airlines late Friday night.  I don't know about many of you but it was the first time I've flown since 9/11 and I must say that security and smoking do not mix in the least.  At Indy, I got there a couple hrs ahead of time like they suggest that you do.  Make it through the line to check in, then head for the security check point.  I was traveling with my mom and dad and both of them got hung up during the process.  My mom accidently packed fluid items that were more than 3 ozs.  My dad had his CPAP breathing machine with him and that needed to be checked out.  So once we all got through the check point and put our shoes back on (Made me glad that I wore good socks that day), we made our way down to the terminal.  The entire process took less than 20 mins, so I've got an hr plus to waste until we board the flight.  So I in my wisdom decide to find a place that I can enjoy a cigarette.  I find a map that shows that there is a smoking room in the airport but its located on the otherside of the airport.  While standing there looking at the map, a foreign traveler asks me to take his picture.  Kinda surprised me to be asked but i obligated and took it.

Anyway, I decide to ask a security guard where the nearest place available to smoke might be, he points me in a direction and says its easiest just to go outside.  I figured no biggie.  As I'm walking I see this sign that says you've gone too far and can no longer return this way.  Few steps farther and it dawns on me that my boarding pass was with my parents sitting back at the terminal.  So I quickly go to the security checkpoint and they assure me that i'm not getting back through there without it, even though they all remember me from just a few minutes ago.  They suggest that i go to the information desk and have my parents paged to bring it up to me.  I think great.  I head to the desk, both ladies seem preoccupied to bother with someone actually standing at the desk.  I could almost swear that the 2 gals were talking to each other on the phones.  Anyway, they suggest that i go back to the Airline and get another boarding pass printed.  I do so, the lady at that desk kinda snaps at me asking why I need a new one and I said hey, I left it with my stuff on the other side of the checkpoint and I cant get back to it without a new one.  Well why are you here if its over there, and I present my pack of smokes and say well I was trying to get a smoke in before the flight.  She rolls her eyes and prints a new one.  Now, finally I can have my smoke.  I made it a quick one, since I still had to make it back through security.

The entire TSA staff laughed at my blunder and told me that I was lucky they weren't busier or it could have been a bigger problem.  As I'm finally making my way toward the gate, my dad greets me and says ya know i thought you might have a problem getting back through without this.  I just said you have no idea and left it at that.

We flew into Denver, no trouble, then we make it to Reno.  On the flight to Reno, there was a young service man that was sitted next to us, he'd be flying around all day he said and was going to see his sister before some operation or something before he shipped out to Iraq in the next few weeks.  He'd been enjoying a lot of cocktails in his flying around.  I really never had head or tails of where he was from, he'd talk about being from San Diego, and then he'd talk about being from Savannah, Georgia and then other places,  Just never got a sense of where he really was from.  When they came around for drinks on the flight, he asks for 2 margaritas and something to eat, because he needs to take some medication.  I'm thinking, alcohol and medication don't seem to mix, but the very femine male flight attendent hooked him up, and whispered to him that he makes his drinks strong, so he gives him an additional glass of water.  When we landed and cell phones were allowed back in use, he starts talking to someone about probably ending up in jail tonight for beating up his sisters bf or something like that.  At this point, I was just happy that I wasn't going to be sitting near him any longer.

We were coming in pretty late, somewhere around 11 PM local time.  The entire airport was damn near vacant except for those of us on that flight.  So we make it down to baggage claim which seemed to be on the opposite side of the airport from our arrival gate.  I've brought 2 bowling bags with me, first one comes out first on the line.  Every pocket and every nook and cranny of this bag was opened and inspected and its looking a little haggered.  I leave and head outside for a smoke, expecting that the rest of the luggage will have been gotten and we'll be set to head to the hotel.

Nope, belt had stopped and only about half the luggage from the plane had actually been sent through.  LOTS of worried bowlers looking around at this point.  The lady with the clipboard for lost luggaged then becomes overwhelmed with the number of passengers that don't have all their stuff.  She's like this ca't be right, but starts taking names, and just then the belt kicks back on and the rest of the luggage arrives.  Needless to say my clothes were the last itemput on the belt.  So I had the first item on, and the last item on, yet I checked them at the same time.

So by the time we get all our bags and start out toward the shuttle bus area, its a lil after 11 o'clock.  We were informed earlier that the last shuttle for the Sands hotel would be running at 11.  No sign of the shuttle.  After about 15 mins, we make a call, and find out that the last shuttle runs at 11:30 so we've got yet more time to wait.  I smoke another cigarette as I try to stay warm.  When I left Indy it was 75 and Sunny.  Now in Reno, it was dark and getting cold with a stiff wind blowing that chilled ya to the bone, and a temp hovering about 40.

Then, the shuttle finally arrives.  An older woman is driving it, and now there were just remnants of the number of ppl that were waiting for rides, so it wasn't crowded at all.  Then, we start the trip to the Sands with a driver having a race car driver mentality behind the wheel.  Accelerate then brake hard, accelerate then brake hard. I was like damn what ever happened to coasting.  Greatfully, we make it to the hotel in one piece. 

We walk in the Sands and immediately I'm struck with the thought that maybe we booked the wrong Hotel.  Just looked like a rough and tumble crowd of degenerate gamblers but its too late now, gonna have go with it.  We check in, the room is fine.  There was only one place open to grab a bite to eat and it was called Mel's Diner.  I had seen it on the website for the Sands, I envisioned the Mel's Diner from the show Alice, with Kiss my grits coming from Flo but when I got to the diner I found those visions were far far far off.  This was a diner based on the movie American Graffiti.  Food there was in large quantities.  I got a classic mel burger i think and this burger was huge.  The movie Super Size me could have been made eating off this menu.  The patrons of the restaurant were more than a lil sorry looking.  I grappled with the burger for awhile before succumbing to defeat of not finishing it.  I went up to the room and laided on the bed watching TV as I feel asleep, bringing a long long day to an end.