Day 52: Santa Fe, NM

The pool hall opens at 4 in the afternoon,
an indication that the game is not a priority here.
With nothing better to do, I toured the city on foot.
There is only so much native art, jewelry, pottery, and junk
that I can take, so after thoroughly covering the
historic center with all the tourist traps,
I became totally bored and went back to the room for a nap
until the pool hall opened.

The place is called The Catamount, upstairs over
a restaurant and bar.
About six tables, all set low enough for midgets.
The cloth is very slow, probably the IPT stuff,
and was a real challenge to get used to.
Really have to let my stroke out and even then
it was difficult to get around the table using 3-4 rails.
This was the first time I had the opportunity to
spend some quality practice time on the slow cloth,
so it was a real education.

The place was filled with tourists,
daters, mom/dad/kids,
and none of them seemed to be serious shooters
except for one guy dressed in hideous pastels
getting his brains beat in by a guy who looked
like he had just escaped from prison.
There was no way I wanted to get in the middle of that!

So I practiced a good bit,
studying the nuances of slow cloth,
and left early (before closing time)
so I can get up early,
and get outta this burg and back on the road.

I'm getting antsy for home.
It's almost like I can smell the ocean...