Today is the second weekend of the Women's City Bowling Tournament hosted by Warren Lanes on Warren AFB.
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| Exterior on a cloudy Saturday at Warren Lanes on Warren AFB |
Warren Lanes is a rather nondescript building. You wouldn't know it's a bowling center unless you saw the exterior signs - there's no large sign on the building itself.
To get to the bowling center you simply enter the base after showing your ID (and you need to be military or retired military or with a friend who is - or signed up to participate in a bowling tournament) and continue down Randall Avenue to the second set of lights, where you turn left. A sign on your right will point you to the bowling center.
Sadly, if I remember correctly, there used to be a library near the bowling center - and it has actually closed, according to my sister (retired Air Force whose husband, also retired, works as an independent contractor at his old job there in PMEL.)
That's really sad, that a library would close...
Anyway, back to Warren Lanes.
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| Another exterior shot of Warren Lanes |
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| Fall/winter hours at Warren Lanes |
Note that the bowling center closes at 6 pm on Sunday. 6 pm! You think it would stay open to 11 pm on that day also! I suppose they must have kept track of the number of visitors they got each day and found that few people came on a Sunday after 6 - but I find it strange that that would be the case. On the other hand I find it strange that the on-base library should close because of lack of use - that's pretty sad, too!
Enter the bowling center and the first thing you see on your left is a kind of alcove where people can sit if they are drinkers. There's a small bar there (which I didn't get a photo of.)
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| "Lounge" adjacent to tiny bar at Warren Lanes |
To the right are the 12 bowling lanes. Notice how the Qubica pads are oval, and there's no shelf underneath them (as there is at 2 Bar Bowl) to put one's bowling towel, rosin, and so on.
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| Photo showing all twelve lanes from left to right |
Note that the ramps for kids are placed between lanes 6 and 7. The red thing is the oil machine.
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| Qubica Machine |
The Qubica machine allows people to input the names of bowlers, correct scores, and so on.
The two balls on the ball return above are mine - the orange/blue one is my Brunswick Mastermind, the brown/goldish one is my Viziball Pirate ball - which i like very much but which is plastic. I can't get it redrilled for fingertip because after finger holes are plugged the ball needs to be sanded and the picture of the pirate on one side and a treasure map on the other would come right off!
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| The chairs are perpendicular to the ball return |
As you can see from the photo above, there's a bowler waiting to step on the approach. Adjacent to her are the rows of seats - each lane has a row of seats. Makes it kind of claustrophobic, in my opinion. There is additional seating up above the "settee" area.
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| Warren Lanes "command center" |
Above photo shows the counter, from the rear, facing the lanes, where people come to rent lanes, get their bowling shoes, etc. Presumably the bowling shoes are in little boxes running the length of the counter - I actually forgot to look when I was there! But there's no place else they can be.
There are no lane phones for people to call back for "ball return" or "deadwood" on the lanes. They must have to run up to the counter (or shout loudly) to get something like that fixed.
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| Game Time Snack bar |
In the far right corner of the center is the Game Time snack bar. They had cans of Pepsi as well as coca cola products in fountain drinks, hamburgers, etc.)
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| Ice cream bar - with a variety of toppings |
The Warren Lanes dining area is narrow, but long. It's to the right of the bowlers, and walled off for the most part so it's relatively quiet.
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| Warren Lanes dining area |
And finally, a shot of the lanes with women bowlers participating in the City Tournament:
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