Back in GSO again for the second week in a row

 

Tina Currie

As some of you may know, Shirley and I are trying to cut back, at least a little, on some of the travel we do for petanque. We had told John & Mary Jo, who are doing a great job, along with some help from Frank, of coordinating play efforts at Tanger Garden, that we would probably be making the drive over for Wednesday morning play only once or twice a month.

But Tina sent us a message that she was back in Carolina after a somewhat extended trip to Texas and wanted to know if we'd plan to play in GSO on the 26th. So we did!

Take a look at the last picture above and you'll see the one little corner of shade we had left by the time we finished as contrasted to the first few pictures where shade was abundant.

Maybe we should start a little earlier than 9:30 (hint, hint), John and Mary Jo!

--Gary

Miller Park (6/23/24)

 

Preston & Tess were off to the beach again for a well-deserved break, so Shirley and I were tasked with the setup of the terrains and the retrieval of the rakes, circles. scoring pegs, umbrellas, extra boules, etc. for the first time in a while.

As luck would have it, though we were diligent about arriving at the park well ahead of the scheduled 1:00 PM start time, we found, to our surprise, that Parks & Rec had installed a lock on the electrical panel box in which our realtor's lock box resides. 

Therefore, we had no access to the key to the storage room where all our equipment is kept.

Shirley was able to save the day by calling park Director William Royston

who, even though it was a Sunday morning, dispatched one of his employees to the park to allow us to retrieve our storage room key. Since the petanque group was only given a single key, our system of using the lock box has worked well for the past four or five years.

We moved the lock box to a bathroom door handle which should provide protection from the weather and still allow us to share the key among responsible members of the club.

Wednesday morning at Tanger Gardens (Greensboro)

 

Jody and Nate

Lorie (?) and Barbara

Though many of you may not have yet made the journey over to Greensboro to play on the beautiful terrain at Tanger Gardens (1105 Hobbs Rd), the local support there remains good.

Of course, like all our Carolina Petanque venues, Greensboro is always welcoming and appreciative of any new players that may stumble upon this real gem of a place to play.

Most of the terrain enjoys cool shade for the earliest part of the day--play starts at 

There were a couple of guys who happened upon our group of Wednesday morning players--a father/son duo from Chattanooga, TN. Jody and Nate took a few minutes out of their day to throw a few boules and learn a little about our game of choice.

I failed to get their story of how they came to be in NC, but I hope they're able to return sometime in the future.

Towards the end of Wednesday's session, two ladies came over to watch for a while. Lorie (?) and Barbara expressed some interest, and we hope to see them again soon.

BTW, it was Frank's birthday on Wednesday, so he got to enjoy (maybe?) a rousing (?) rendition of "Happy Birthday" from the group. I know he had fun the first part of his day, and I hope he enjoyed the rest of his special day as well! 

Frank Bocci

 

Father's Day 2024

 

We were back in Winston-Salem on June 16, for the first time in a while. Though Miller Park is the birthplace of Carolina Petanque, and we still consider it to be our "home" venue, we still manage to travel to other places--both for tournament play and social play-- so we have to miss our Sundays at Miller once in a while.

Charlotte petanque

 

Lydie on the left and Denyse on the right

We had ten players on a warm 3rd Saturday of June at Nevin Park in Charlotte. Ed, Anne, Denyse, Eric, Lydie, Stephane, Mica, Guillaume, Shirley, and I had a couple of games before, unlike mad dogs and Englishmen, we decided not to challenge the midday sun any further.

Charlotte play on the 3rd Saturday of each month now starts at 10:00 AM in an attempt to enjoy a couple of games before the hottest part of the day sets in for real.

By the way, Morganton players have recently changed their routine play times to 9:00 AM for the same reason.

Changing the subject away from the coming hot weather for a moment, Lydie and Denyse. members of Alliance Francaise de Charlotte, as well as members of Carolina Petanque, advised us that they've had occasion of late to teach petanque to British International School of Charlotte, North Academy of World Languages, and South Academy of International Languages.

Nice!

 

Mid-America Mixed Doubles By Argentina Lamas

 

Many thanks to Argentina for allowing us to use these pictures of some of our favorite people.

Argentina Lamas