
DATE: Sunday, June 15, 1997                 TAG: 9706130275

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 10   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: INDOOR EXCURSIONS 

SOURCE: BY MILES DANIELS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NAGS HEAD                         LENGTH:   90 lines

BAD WEATHER BLUES? STRIKE OUT! GO BOWLING BOWLING ALLEY HAS LANES, GAMES AND FOOD FOR ADULTS AND KIDS OF ALL AGES.

Bowling is not something most people plan as part of their dream vacation.

Most tourists come to the Outer Banks to score a tan - not a strike.

But when the rain is pouring and the wind is blowing and you're sick of sitting around the beach cottage staring at your family's glum faces, jump into the car and cruise over to Beach Bowling.

Donna Leedy of Mansfield, Ohio and her family of four were one of the many groups forced off the beach and into the alley last week.

At $2.85 per person per game and $2 for shoe rentals, the Leedy family found bowling was a fairly inexpensive way to spend a fun day indoors.

``We chose to vacation during record-breaking cold in North Carolina,'' says Leedy, who's staying at Surfside Motel in Nags Head. ``It's not warm enough to do anything else right now.''

Three of the Leedy kids: D.J., Josh, and Danielle, were getting ready to bumper bowl in Lane 22. Metal rails prevent balls from curving into the gutters - so almost every roll's a knock down. This variation on the adult sport makes bowling even more fun for kids.

Seven-year-old D.J. Leedy took five steps and tossed her six-pound ball. The ball curved to the left and would have been a gutter - but the rail knocked it back into the alley. Three pins went down - and D.J. was ready for her second roll.

Walking gracefully up to the foul line, D.J. stopped, grasped her ball with both hands and lightly tossed it again. Four pins toppled like a row of dominoes. And, with the excitement of someone who just won a million dollars, D.J. jumped up and down and clapped her tiny hands.

Up next was D.J.'s brother, 13-year-old Josh. He loves to bowl but would rather be in the ocean. With the smoothness of a master, Josh took four steps to the foul line, bent slightly over and rolled his first ball straight down the middle. Strike. Like an old pro, the big brother quietly took his seat.

Danielle, 12, was the last Leedy kid on the score screen. She was quick to express her disgust with the sport - it wasn't exactly what she had in mind for a beach vacation.

``I was bored,'' Danielle said. ``That's the only reason I'm here.''

Like the Leedy family, almost everyone on the 24 lanes at Beach Bowling Center in Nags Head was playing only because the weather prevented them from being on the beach. Besides the bowling lanes with automatic scoring, this family center has a video arcade, pool tables and a small food stand that serves hot dogs, blooming onions, chicken fingers, soda and beer.

A family of four can roll away an afternoon for about $30 - including snacks.

``We were getting sand blasted at the beach,'' said Annette Finley of Medina, Ohio. ``The last time I bowled was in the '80s.''

Sophia Rice, 28, of Fredericksburg, Va., also would rather have been outside. But the weather was too nasty.

``I'd be at the beach if it wasn't so bad,'' she said.

A few bowlers, however, said they would have sought out the lanes even if the sun had been shining.

Sitting alone on Lane 24, Jack Henry s wasn't at the alley because the weather was lousy. Instead, the 63-year-old Kill Devil Hills resident is an avid bowler who hangs out on the Nags Head lanes at least twice a week - and loves the game. Henry was working on his approach: when a bowler takes the first of four steps toward the foul line and tosses the ball.

``I'd be here every day if I could,'' Henry said, tightening his wrist guard. ``I'm not here because the weather's bad.

``I'm here because my bowling's bad.''

Norman Peterson of Newport News, Va. came to escape his family - not the weather. ``We came to get away from the women and children,'' said Peterson, who was bowling with three buddies. ``We've been shopping a lot,'' he said.

``We've had enough shopping.''

Alan Stulick, 21, was in a back room waxing bowling balls while all the lanes were busy last week. He acknowledged that business was booming only because the Outer Banks sun was trapped behind gloomy gray clouds.

``When it rains, we're busy,'' Stulick said. ``If it's sunny, we're dead.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by WILLIAM P. CANNON

Mike Ulica and his sons Leigh, 3, and Joe, 4, of Alexandria, Va.,

spend an early afternoon inside the Beach Bowling Center in Nags

Head. Many vacationers recently were forced to look for indoor

alternative entertainment during a cold-weather snap in the Outer

Banks.

Graphic

BEACH BOWLING

What: 24 lanes of bowling, video arcade, pool tables

Where: Milepost 10, off the bypass, in Nags Head

When: Noon to midnight daily

Cost: $2.85 per game, $2 shoe rentals