Have bowling ball, will travel

The Japanese Beetles are back....but, it's way too early in the game to start whining about them.  Stay tuned. My sister is a great, witty writer.  A lot of people don't know that but long time blog readers in the Addiverse might recall this fact.  A few years ago, I posted some of her emails from their family vacation; I thought I'd do the same thing this year.  She and her family are on a bowlcation...in Vegas, of all places.  You've heard of vacations and staycations.  You are about to hear about bowl-cations.  

Before I get to the bowlcation, I do want to say a little something about dog poop.  If you don't like dog poop, you might want to skip down a paragraph.  I want to write a few words about this because I have become a connoisseur of dog poop.  (Canine feces tremble in my presence.) Both dogs had diarrhea this week.  I'd describe what Freckles poop looks like but you'd all stop reading (if you haven't already) as it would be gross beyond compare.  I've been staring at every fresh pile of doo doo to clues for what might be wrong. I bring that stuff right up to my face to the point my trifocals steam.  Foreign objects, wiggly critters, leftover tapeworm segments....I seek anything and everything.  I consider texture, consistency, volume, frequency, composition.  I ponder food intake as related to output.  I search the Internet, read books, asked questions.  The vet decided it was time to go "old school" and prescribed "a medication that goes back to my days on the farm."  I am pleased to report that the medication has addressed Freckles pooping problem (at least for the minute).  Now, if we could only get rid of the never ending fleas.

Back to bowlcationing.   A refresher on Addiverse family history: My family consists of very serious bowlers. My mother, father, entire sister's family, extended family: bowlers.  My goal when bowling: not get injured.  So, knowing that my sister is on a bowlcation is not surprising to me or anyone that knows our family.  She might be starting a whole new fad.

Because they had to take so many bowling balls with them for their tournaments in Vegas, they had to drive.  Each bowler in the family has at LEAST two bowling balls with them; one or two of them might have three or four bowling balls along for the ride.  Plus, they brought an additional person (a friend) along for the trip--which means more bowling balls. Do you know how much it would cost to fly all those bowling balls on a plane? And, heaven forbid your bowling balls went to Tallahassee while your tournament is in Las Vegas.  So, the family and all their bowling balls took a three day drive to the land of Elvis and bowling.  Here's what my sister had to say about the ordeal:

"Hello to all from our bowlcation!

We took three days to get out here and I am happy to say everyone did make the journey.  A few instances arose where it was debatable if we would arrive with everyone we left with.

Day One was 15 hours on the road. Only 14 hours too long for my liking. Eldest Daughter has decided she needs to yell "cow" every time she sees a cow.  Do you know how many cows are between Chicago and Amarillo, Texas? I can't say we drove tank to tank like Fire dad said we must, be we always put several hundred miles between stops.

Day two took us to Flagstaff, Arizona.  Now that may not sound like very far, but we detoured to Four Corners.  A small monument in the middle of nowhere on Indian land.  I guess it was cool melting in four states at once.  I do believe it was only a 100 degree or so. We stopped at the big Texan Steak Ranch where if you each a 72 ounce steak dinner in under an hour it is free.  Well none of use tried it, but we saw three people fail while we enjoyed some very good steak. (Eldest niece is still yelling COW!) Actually, Eldest  niece did the bulk of the driving today, not because we made her but because she is trying to catch of with Fire dad's mileage.

Day three brought us to Henderson, Las Vegas - home away from home.  On the way we stopped at Hoover Dam.  It has been quite commercialized in the last 19 years. It also down poured on us.  Beautiful, sunny Vegas - soggy and wet.  It was not a dry heat but a hot humid mess.  By the time we arrived at the hotel, the rain ended and we jumped into the pool.  Three children who didn't want to bring suits and didn't want to swim were more that ready to cool off with a dip.

Today the bowling started.  All the girls bowled today.  Low of a 125 and a high of 238. Youngest niece was the only one over average for the whole day.  After bowling we sent Eldest Niece off for some away time with her friend while the rest of us braved the rain again and went swimming.  When Eldest Niece gets back, it is off to the store and to bed.  Wake up time is 6:00am tomorrow as bowling starts at 8:00am.

I am not looking for the dry heat that I always hear about, humid heat is bad enough."

That's the word on bowlcationing as of today. I'm sure there will be plenty more where that came from--at least I hope there will be.  Until then, I'm going to keep on looking at poop, growling about Japanese beetles and staying out of bowling alleys.

Do you think Elvis bowls?

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P.S. Happy Civil Union Picnic, Three Hawk and Argo Warrior Princess!

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