Monday, May 09, 2005

Baton Rouge, Part II

Yesterday was a pretty sunny day, temps in the 80s. We did a little sightseeing. We toured the USS Kidd, a WWII battleship that was hit by a Japanese kamikaze pilot, which is a memorial to the 38 men killed in action. We got to see the actual living quarters and everything on the entire ship. If these living quarters are the same for military men now, those guys are really packed in like sardines, and it's a very tight space. We also saw the officer's quarters, which was not quite so bad. Near a radar room, there was even an engineer's bunk that still had the picture of his sweetheart, a few bottles of painkillers (circa 1945), and the books and maps needed for his job. Whoever put this memorial together went to a lot of trouble to recreate the actual wartime scenario. There was also a great museum inside that had a lot of other Navy history, complete with uniforms, ship replicas, and weaponry.

The teams also bowled last night and did good. The highest team score at the moment for the Classified Division is 3972, a very tough score to beat. Our men are trying though and usually do better in the doubles and singles. They bowl again tonight at 11:30.

Today we got up really late and ate brunch at IHOP. Then we went over to the River Center, where the bowling is going on and verified tonight's times. We walked along the riverfront (Mississipppi River) and the downtown area. We stopped at the Old State Capitol and toured it. They have an excellent Huey Long display. There is a statue of him behind a podium, and he delivers six different speeches ranging from LSU, a college he really loved, to the new state capitol. There was a lot of historical information there too, the Lousiana Purchase, all of the different state governors, people in the state who have made a difference, why you should vote, and numerous other topics were displayed in various rooms. There was a very grand staircase that you climbed to go to the second level. On the ceiling of the capitol was elaborate stained glass windows. It was truly awesome to see.

After all that walking, we are back at the hotel now chilling out. We're ordering Domino's pizza, hot wings, Cinnasticks, and cheesy bread and resting before the 11:30 bowling session. We won't get back in until after 2am, so we will be going to bed really "early" tomorrow morning. Maybe the guys will do better today since they had a chance to bowl on the lanes yesterday. Bowling is strange that way. You may throw the same ball and wear the same shoes, but each set of lanes is made of different materials and balls react differently in different places when thrown on them. Sometimes they may go straight and other times they may hook. A good bowler knows how to react in each set of circumstances, while other bowlers try to do the same thing in each place, which will result in disaster.

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