Chris Paul’s Winston-Salem Weekend

I learned a lot this weekend.  Perhaps the most important nugget of information was that I should never wait until the last minute to start looking to book a flight.  And even when waiting until the last minute, there is no reason to be stubborn and say, “Screw it, I’m driving.”  Although I was able to take care of plenty of phone calls on the road, driving sixteen hours in three days is not something that is fun or necessary.  Anyway, I am back from Winston-Salem and Chris Paul’s charity bowling tournament, and back to the daily grind.

The weekend was a major success.  I left Friday morning, slightly hungover from the previous night’s festivities.  I made it through all of the Florida speed traps, through Georgia, South Carolina, and eventually into North Carolina.  By the way, the lakes in Davidson (just outside of Charlotte) are beautiful.  I arrived in Winston-Salem at around 7 p.m. and got lost a few times before finding my final destination.  I took a former intern and current Wake Forest student, Justin Herzig, and Dynasty‘s Bowling Division Director, Bruce Falcon, out for some authentic barbecue and before we left the establishment, we all felt that we had been severely hit on by the waitresses, which was not all that gratifying.

The next day, I snuck into a gym to get my daily workout in, caught up on some law school reading, and watched the first half of the Florida vs. Tennessee game before I headed to the Winston-Salem AMF Lanes. At the bowling alley, I met up with Bruce and a couple of gentlemen from Chaney Sports Marketing Group. Besides seeing one of our clients bowl and network with others in the industry, Bruce and I had traveled to North Carolina to witness what goes into creating such an event. Between myself, Bruce, and Chaney Sports, we hope to create a similar bowling event during All-Star weekend. Much more on that to come in the future.

The Dynasty client that participated in CP3 weekend is Tommy Jones. He was partnered up with Dwyane Wade, who I love as a basketball player, but leaves quite a bit to be desired on the lanes. I am not going to give away who won the event, but let’s just say that D-Wade did not stick around for long. Throughout the event, LeBron James was cracking jokes on everyone, and the crowd was eating it up. I hope that ESPN captured some of LeBron’s antics for when the show goes on air in a few weeks. By the way, look out for a spiked hair guy wearing a blue button-down shirt. I am told that I can be seen in the background of many shots.

The event was catered by Texas Roadhouse, and when there is food, I am a happy camper. Five chicken breasts did the job and I was set for the evening. After the bowling tournament, we headed to a club downtown called 411, which was rented out by Chris Paul and contained more free food, an open bar, and some giveaways.

Overall, it was a great event. The drive home on Sunday was less than pleasurable; however, nothing beat hearing that the Dolphins took it to the Patriots in Foxborough. And it seems like Dynasty may be signing some new clients in the near future based on some of my phone conversations in the car. So I guess driving was not so bad after all…

To see some pictures that I took during the event, click here.