While we are here at Donner Lake on vacation, we read about The National Bowling Stadium in Reno. It is a massive bowling alley that has been dubbed the "Taj Mahal of Tenpins," by The Los Angeles Times and "Pin Palace" by USA Today. There are 78 lanes in a space larger than a football field, it has the world's longest video screen displaying scores and graphic presentations, and the high tech ball-return sends the ball back at speeds in excess of 30 miles an hour. The big ending scene in the movie KingPin where Bill Murray bowls against Woody Harrelson was filmed here.
We wanted to go to Reno since it is pretty close, and I was excited to bowl a game in this amazing-sounding place. So we drove there and found the Bowling Stadium. However, as we entered it, it was eerily empty. We found the lanes and there was no one there and everything was turned off. It turns out that the lanes are not open to the general public. They only open for professional tournaments. So, I was rather saddened and dismayed that I wouldn't be able to bowl.
Perhaps it was my disappointed mood which caused this perspective, but we walked by this really huge statue they have in the main lobby and it was quite frightening. It is a statue with a title something like "Family Goes Bowling" and it is a group of 7 foot high family members running at full speed getting ready to bowl. However, in their mad dash to go bowling, the young boy is being left in the dust. The aging dad is being pushed back and looks like he is falling, while his bowling shoes are flying. The mom looks like she partially insane the way she is smiling, running fast and staring into space. And the freakiest one is the little girl who is running ahead of the rest. 
She has the horrific look of gleeful uncontrolled frenzy on her face as she runs with her cheek romantically pressed against the bowling ball. Her eyes are fixed straight ahead, I assume at the bowling lane she is running towards, but in her eyes there was a sense of almost possessed evil. It was as if nothing could get in her way of going bowling. She pushes her own dad down out of the way, she leaves her little brother behind, nothing matters to her. All that mattered was that she would bowl and she would use violence if anyone tried to get in her way.
I stood there looking at her and found that I couldn't stop staring at her. It felt as any moment she was going to come alive and run right towards me like a large football player carrying a ball ready to plow me over. I began getting nervous looking at her evil glance, and I eventually had to break free of the somewhat hypnotic grip this statue had on me and leave the Bowling Stadium. I am still thinking about her now, hours later while we are home and it is late evening.
I will probably have a scary nightmare about this bowling girl chasing me tonight.
