After today, there's only eight days of competition left at the 2008 USBC Open Championships. From this moment, there are 15 team squads still scheduled to hit the lanes. That's nearly 3,600 bowlers and includes the defending Regular Doubles champions and the Backwards Bowlers. Still a lot of excitement ahead.
In a few days, I'll begin working on the final press releases of the year. To this date, I have sent out 91 press releases and posted 154 stories on USBCopen.com. Not bad for half a year's work.
After my work is done in Albuquerque, I will be headed to my new house in Keller, Texas, where I will have approximately two weeks to get settled before driving to Milwaukee/Chicago for the U.S. Women's Open. Following that event, I'll head back to Milwaukee to pack up my desk to prepare for USBC's move to Arlington, Texas, and then I'll be on my way.
At that point, I'll have to say good-bye to a few good friends in Wisconsin, and minus the winter temperatures and occasional blizzard, I did have some good times in the Midwest. For now, though, things are full speed ahead.
We're already working on the venue layout and scoreboard graphics for Vegas, making contact with the local bowling association and visitor's bureau and looking for places to live. It really is amazing how quickly time flies, and how soon you have to say good-bye to a place you just moved to.
Albuquerque has been a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun. I had the opportunity to meet many great people, spend time with my brother, go on my first hot air ballon ride, try some Southwest sushi, visit Isleta and Santa Ana Casinos, experience red or green chili more times than I can count and walk a 5K along the Rio Grande River. Hopefully the folks here will have some good memories of us,too. And who knows, perhaps we'll be back someday.
