Reno invitational

For the last 33 weeks, I’ve been in a winter season bowling league, The Reno Invitational. One could certainly make a strong case that my bowling skills (94 average) aren’t quite worthy of an invitation anywhere, much less the home of the National Bowling Stadium, but thankfully that didn’t stop them from letting me and my teammates come along.

We started the trip late Friday night, drinking piña coladas and taking in some of the funky jams of the Circus Circus lounge band.

Saturday morning started with a comically enormous breakfast.

Which we then had to walk off on a long trek to some local thrift stores. It was hot and I was unprepared for a long walk, but there was no shortage of beautiful old neon signs along the way. Sadly, most of these are either closed or in such a sketchy state that they probably should be closed, but none of that can detract from their stately beauty.

Not even their self-esteem issues.

At the thrift stores I went kind of bangle crazy. They were all about $6 bucks each; they were practically giving the away! But I did learn how many bangles is too many bangles: when you can’t open your hand all the way anymore.

Karen found this lovely dress by Alice, which she promptly changed into to play some nickel slots.

Later that night we went over to The Nugget in Sparks to go to their tiki bar, Trader Dick’s. The bar was kind of a disappointment, but the souvenir glasses were top notch.

On Sunday, we went to The National Bowling Stadium. While it’s giant and contemporary, it was still pretty neat. The Pro Shop was ENOURMOUS and some of us got new shoes or a ball. But my favorite part was the bowling museum and their Womens Bowling Wall of Fame, featuring beautiful paintings of all the greats.

And great they were.

Made me proud to be bowling my humble average in our little league. Tomorrow we start summer league. There isn’t a trip to Reno at the end of this one, but I feel like we’ll be back soon anyway.