Knocking down all the pins is great for bowlers. Knocking out all the power, however, doesn't make for quite as great a game. That's what happened just after midnight Tuesday at Center Bowl on Minnesota Drive.
Last week's storm hit Center Bowl especially hard, causing a three-day power outage during their busiest week days. Now that it's back on, players are making the best of it.
"I was hoping the power would be on anywhere from 6 to 8 in the morning so we could get everything up and running for the next day," said Center Bowl General Manager Kharan Sylva.
But electricity was not restored the next day nor the following day. It wasn't until Friday that the lights came back on. All the while, the restaurant attached to the bowling alley stayed with power.
"I saw that happen and the first thing I thought of was extension cords," Sylva said. "Piggy back off the restaurant, not too much, just so we could watch the news and see what was going on."
Even when the power finally came back on in the bowling alley Friday afternoon, it still took staffers about 4 hours to get all the lanes checked and computer systems back in order. So despite having power, there was no playing and league was canceled for 3 nights.
"We missed out on a whole league of bowling," said bowler Ken Dietz.
Sunday, bowlers were back in the lanes, making up for missed games this week. The fall league just kicked off last week, on the day of the storm. Dietz, a league player, says the blackout means the 34-week season will now go a week longer.
"A lot of people don't like to bowl that late into the season because of summer and fishing and stuff," he explained.
For others, the hiccup in the season gives them just one extra week to try to get that perfect score.
For more information about bowling or events at Center Bowl visit their website.
