Another State Senior Bowling Tourney in the books

Anyone who knows me knows that I like to sleep in. I like my eight or nine hours and I don't usually go to bed before 10 or 11 at night.

Well, last Saturday six of us were bowling in the State Senior Woman's Bowling Tournament in Menomonie, on the western side of the state.  I had to get up at 4 a.m. so I could be at Barb Nelson's house by 5.  We then picked up Donna Hella and headed to Green Bay to meet the  bus by 5:45.

The other three from our League, including Ellen Siebold, Sharon Salzsieder and Carol Sinkula, met us in Green Bay, along with organizer Phyllis John and her squad of women from the Green Bay area. There were over 30 of us in all. The Lamers bus headed out of Green Bay at 6 a.m.

We stopped at Wausau for a quick breakfast at McDonald's. We were scheduled to bowl at 11:30. We boarded the bus to leave with plenty of time, but wouldn't you know, the power steering went out on the bus and we were stuck. Luckily, Lamers has a branch in Wausau and the driver was able to arrange for another bus. That delayed our progress for an hour.

Phyllis called the alleys, informed them of our delay and they agreed to wait for us. We got to Menomonie about 11:45, changed our shoes and started bowling. We bowled doubles first. My partner was Carol Sinkula. She bowled good, but all I did was participate. And the singles event was more of the same.

However, a lot of the ladies did bowl good and should be getting some prize money. After bowling we went to a Denny's for lunch, before heading back to Green Bay. The restaurant had a full bar but no bartender. The manager had to mix the drinks, but didn't really know how. Barb Nelson who had won some money bowling, bought our bunch a drink and had to tell the manager how to make an old fashioned. Can you believe that? He's in Wisconsin, where everyone drinks them, and he didn't know how to make one. Unbelievable.

It took quite a while for our bunch to get served. But eventually we boarded the bus again and headed  home. We spent a lot of time talking about previous tournaments and events that we had done and we laughed a lot. I hope we weren't too rowdy for the other ladies on the bus.

All in all, it was a long ride home. We got back to Green Bay just before 10 p.m., and were back in Kewaunee by 10:30, dead tired. I think it took me all day Sunday to recoup.

But a good time was had by all. And the Packers won Sunday night.

Barb Ludlow is a former Kewaunee County reporter. Email her at bludlow1@charter.net.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press Gazette: Another State Senior Bowling Tourney in the books