I guess there ARE some benefits to living in "God's Waiting Room"...

Chad has been wanting to check out the St. Pete Shuffleboard Club for some time now, and I finally relented tonight. It was actually really, really fun.

We pulled up to this place in downtown St. Pete that is straight out of the 1920's and headed over to the shuffleboard court area. Quite an eclectic group of folks were already assembled, including everyone from teens to the elderly. They also were piping in some pretty hip tunes for a Friday night at the shuffleboard courts. (The Flaming Lips?? The White Stripes? Has Grandpa been hanging out with the hipsters again??) We were greeted by a friendly fellow with a beard named Peter, who took us into the lunchroom and got us hooked up with some cues-- he highly recommended the fiberglass ones, but Chad had to be old school and pick out a wooden one. We were directed over to a court next to Ronny, Livi, and Apu, the mostly non-english-speaking Hungarians. Having never played real shuffleboard before, Peter explained the rules to us and let us have at it. And so we did.

Chad, after starting out in the first game with negative 10 points, rallied to a strong finish to beat yours truly. We were neck and neck in the second game, and when I thought Chad had won again, we went over to examine his final disk but it was actually touching the line. (You touch the line, you don't get any points). This riveting match went into "overtime" and I was able to pull out the victory with a score of 78 to 77. You're fascinated-- I can tell.


Anyway, after all the excitement, we packed up and left for dinner, but we couldn't get over the fact that we had had fun participating in an activity that was totally free. We laughed about the fact that in Miami, we first would have had to pay to park, and then pay to get in, and then pay to rent the equipment, and then pay for drinks, etc, etc, etc. All of the shuffleboard veterans were incredibly friendly and helpful, offering pointers and clarifications on the rules. And no charge for anything! Had I not been so hungry, I'm sure we would have stuck around for a tie breaker match. I guess it will just have to wait until next Friday's Social Shuffle!