The bowling is done

Well, the bowling is over. No more medals for Gar, but he finished 4th overall in the B1's. He had great days on Thursday and Friday, but Saturday wasn't so hot. I'm very proud of his tournament though. The experience has been incredible. We have made so many new friends, the Aussies, both the volunteers and the bowlers are wonderful. I have many e-mail addresses, even more pictures, and the memoriess........I can't even start. I'm sure that you will all get sick of hearing about Australia, but it has been incredible. One of my favorite memories is of Chinese Tai-Pai on the medal stand. There was one man who kept winning golds, and everytime he was on the medal stand, he would sing his national anthem so loudly and so proudly, it would bring tears to my eyes. You should see some the Aussie blind women do pole dances with their canes. As we've said many times, this week, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy, Aussie, Oy. So many wonderful memories, so many new friends.

Today, Team USA went sight seeing. We took a tour coach and went to Olympic Stadium. The Aussies are quite proud of their efforts there, as they had a wonderful time, did not go into debt and have structures that they still use. From there we went to Featherdale Animal Park. We spent two hours walking through the grounds, petting kangaroos, wallabies and koalas. We saw other animals native to Australia such as crocodiles, wombats, dingos and many, many native birds. It was incredible and I got some awesome pictures. One of my favorites was an albino peacock with it's tail feathers spread. Then it was off to the Blue Mountains and Three Sisters, a national park area. Where we were kind of looked like the Grand Canyon, only with vegetation. It was beautiful, and again I got great pictures. More tomorrow night, after we spend the day touring Sydney.

thanks again for all of your prayers and support.
Nanc & Gar

Cruising the Harbor

Just time for a very quick post before it's off for another day of bowling. Just wanted to tell you about our dinner cruise around the Sydney Harbor. One of the highlights of the trip. All of the bowlers, other team members and volunteers were taken by coach (a fancy term for bus, but our driver doesn't like it if we call her coach a bus) to Sydney. From there we boarded a cruiser and did our dinner cruise. It was a lovely night. It rained on the way into Sydney and all of the way home, but not a drop while we were on the cruise. The harbor was filled with many other cruisers, water taxis, sail boats, etc. We saw the Opera House by sunset and lit up. Another bonus was the fireworks in the harbor. There was a new luxury liner that had been delivered from England, so they had fire works to celebrate that, though some of the Aussies tried to tell us it was all for us. On the way home, our coach driver had a fun CD in by a singer named Slim Dusty, so we all sang Waltzing Mathilda along with Slim. I need to look for that CD. All in all a wonderful evening.

Now it's off for more bowling. There probably won't be any more posts before the tournament is over. Thanks for all of your prayers and support.

Love,
Nanc and Gar

Medal report

He did it. Gar won a bronze medal in the B1 mens scratch singles event, bowling a 665 six game series. Today he stood on an Olympic medal stand from the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Standing with him on the silver medal platform was Jack Lenk from St Louis Missouri. The other USA medal winners were as follows: Melody Heath from Durham, NC - bronze medal in the B1 handicap womens singles and Marie Van Liere from Newport News, VA - silver medal in the B2 scratch event and gold medal in the B2 handicap womens events, so we got to listen to national anthem once. I am so proud of all of the bowlers, but proudest of my husband, but I'm very prejudiced. It was so incredible to see him standing there so proud. I took lots of pictues, I'll get them out later on Snapfish. Let me know if you are interested in a link for that.

Today was the three person event. Gar bowled well, a 500 four games series, but his team mates were not quite as strong. A couple of USA teams did well, so there are medal possibilities there.

Well, I'd better go and iron our clothes for our cruise on the Sydney Harbor tonight. More later. Thanks for your support, prayers and e-mails.

Nanc and Gar

Let the games begin

Well, here I sit, listening to WCCO radio, wanted to catch election results, updating all of our friends on our trip in Australia. Technology is a wonderful thing. After days of eye tests, ball checks and practice, the tournament finally started. The morning started with the opening ceremonies. It started with Australian students dancing, speeches from local officials and the IBSA (International Blind Sports Association) president, then the teams marching in. It was very similar to the Olympics, very moving. Gar and I were both very moved by the opening ceremonies, and very proud to be wearing the red, white and blue and marching behind our country's flag. Then the bowling started, six games of singles today. Overall, I'm not sure how Team USA did, but it's very possible that Gar and one other B1, blindest of blind, bowler will medal. Jack had a 701 scratch for six games, and Gar had a 665. Tomorrow morning we will find out if Gar medaled. The medals are similar to Olympic medals, gold, silver and bronze. So, we're very hopeful that Gar will get a medal in scratch. The six games got to some bowlers. Gar had a weak start, but kept getting better in the last five games. Tomorrow it's three person team events. They will bowl four games tomorrow. Then, it's over to Sydney for a cruise in the Sydney Harbor. We haven't left Campbelltown since we arrived here last Friday. I'm actually kind of glad. Campbelltown is a smaller, slower moving town, kind of nice to be in when you are in a foreign country.

Now for a bit more non bowling news. Sunday morning, Nancy went to church with two other members from Team USA. We had met a woman at the parade from the local Anglican church. She went to church the next morning and found someone to pick us up at the hotel. It was fun to worship with them, they were all very friendly and welcoming. We got there when the first service, a more formal service, was ending, and we heard them singing "For All the Saints". The service we attended was more contemporary, but we did know a couple of songs. I did enjoy the more traditional Aussie tunes also. We explored Campbelltown by foot on Sunday afternoon after the eye exams. Monday was hurry up and wait day. We spent most of Monday afternoon hanging around the bowling alley, getting balls checked and more pictures taken. It sounds like we will be getting a DVD of most things right before we leave. All of the countries are making new friends. I love the Aussies, they are so friendly. The host committee is doing a wonderful job in meeting our needs and making us feel welcome. Thanks to having Japanese exchange students, I do know how to say hello in Japanese "Konichiwa" One night, team Japan walked past us on they way to dinner. I said Konichiwa, and the whole team said Konichiwa to me, it wasso much fun. Team USA and Team Australia have the largest team.

On a different note, yesterday was the day that Australia stopped. It was the running of the Melbourne Cup. We were at the bowling alley, and everyone stopped to watch the race. Another team mate was at the laundromat, and when she arrived, there was a note on the door that said "Closed 1-4 for the race". I also think that most of Australia had money on the race. All of our Aussie friends were checking their tickets. For days on the news, we saw all of the latest fashions being worn at the race. The hats were incredible. I even saw ladies in Campbelltown walking down the street in their hats.

I'm enjoying the lollies. I'll try and bring some home. Yesterday Gar and I tried Vegemite at breakfast. An interesting experiensce. It's a spread that Aussies love on their toast. I think it's kind of like lutefisk, an acquired taste. We don't ride a bus, we ride a coach.

Thanks for your prayers and support. If we have any medal news to report tomorrow, I'll probably go on line the next morning and let you all know.

Nanc and Gar

More from day one

Hi all.
Never did either of us think, in the course of our basically uneventful lives, that we would put on our country's colors and represent our country in a parade in a foreign country, but, that's what we did today. We are staying in Campbelltown in New South Wales, and this week is their local "Festival of Fisher's Ghost." All of the blind bowlers from around the world wore their uniforms and we marched in the Fisher's Ghost parade as a group. Team USA had a delightful young man from Campbelltown named Colin carrying our flag. As we marched along, people waved, smiled and cheered for us. It was an incredible feeling, and we both felt proud to be representing the USA. I really don't know how to put it in words. Tonight it was over to the Campbelltown Arts Center for a reception help by the mayor of Campbelltown and the City Council. So we hobnobbed with the local bigwigs and bowlers from all over the world. Again, a great feeling when I was talking to the mayor of Campbelltown. He told me he loved seeing his team members in the green and gold of Australia, but it was fun to see the red, white and blue of Team USA marching down the streets. The people of Campbelltown are great hosts. Team Australia and Team USA have been hitting it off quite well. Another bonus for us is making new friend from the USA team whom we have seen at tournaments for many years, and now we're getting better acquainted with. After the reception tonight, a few of us walked down the street for dinner at but hey, McDonalds is the same everywhere. Tomorrow morning, a few of us are going to an Anglican Church. That will be a fun experience I'm sure. Probably won't post anymore until after the first day of bowling. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.

Nanc & Gar

p.s. Thank Kari for your help in getting me going on this.

We're in Australia

Well , we're here in Australia. Safely arrived after an uneventful flight yesterday morning (11/2) at 6:35 a.m. Spent most of the day taking it easy after a tiring flight. We did go to the mall yesterday, shopped at a Target. Probably go to K-Mart today. The store may be the same, but some of the contents are different. There is some good Australian candy. Today we march in a parade for the Festival of Fisher's Ghost. Hope the rain quits. We've met people from all over the world. We've seen teams from Australia, Japan, China, Malaysia, Finland, Czech Republic, Great Britan and Mongolia. The people in Australia are very friendly. Tonight we go to a reception and dinner at an art museum. Tomorrow it's eye tests. The main event starts on Wednesday. The team does get a day of practice on Tuesday.



The weather has been warm and rainy, which is good, since they've had a drought here also. Today we're checking out the grocery store. The mall is interesting. The grocery store is in the mall, and right smack in the middle of the mall is a meat market. Gar's been drinking Australian beer, all I've found for pop is Coca-cola products. We did watch the Wild play St Louis for a while on TV yesterday. Monday morning we can watch NFL footballl. TV and the internet have really made the world smaller.



Well, the internet access here is not free, so in this case, time is money. So, I'll post more when I have more to share.



Thanks for your love and support!

Nancy and Gar

News from Nanc and Gar

Hi all!!
Here we are in San Francisco. Just waiting for the shuttle to bring us to the airport. Tonight it's off to Australia. San Francisco has been fun, and eventful. Monday we went to lunch with Gar's former team members from Wells Fargo, San Francisco office. It was a good time. We ate at a Chinese restaurant, and we got to try many new foods. Gar liked it all, Nanc liked the ones that never swam or lived in an ocean. She did like the Peking Duck though. Our h otel was in Emeryville, so we learned how to navigate the Bart. Monday night was pretty quiet, as we were both tired from Sunday's travels and we had big plans for Tuesday.

We got up early Tuesday morning and headed in to San Francisco to hook up with a charter company. We went to Muir Woods in the morning and Sonoma in the afternoon. Spent the afternoon visiting wineries. As usual it was a perfect division of labor, Nancy sniffed the wines and Gar sampled them. The town of Sonoma was fun, we had lunch in a genuine Irish Pub. Met some people from Ireland. They were real smart asses. I asked where they were from, and they told me they were from Russia, but they learned their english from an Irishman. Going back to the hotel was quite an experience. They had a medical emergency (rumors of a body on the tracks) at the station we were going to catch the Bart from. It was closed, so we had to go, along with many, many other people to a different Bart station. It was a crowded, confusing ride back. Shortly after we got back to the hotel, we experienced the 5.6 earthquake that hit San Jose. No serious damage, no one hurt, so it was an interesting experience, one I've always wanted to be part of, as long as no one was hurt and no buildings were damaged.

So, here we are, sitting in the hotel lobby/bar waiting for our shuttle. Then it's off to the airport, and off to Australia. When we get to Australia, we will have a day to rest, so I will let you know how we survive the flights.

Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts that have gotten us this far. We will be keeping you all in our thoughts and prayers too.