Week 231-232 - Oh no, not more Pickleball! - 01-23-2011

Oh no, not more Pickleball?

We are afraid so. We have heard from more than one viewer, that you are tired of hearing about Pickleball. And you would like to see more of America as we have shown you for the last 4 and 1/2 years. But, it is what it is. It was our plan, as we moved from one Pickleball Tournament to another, to get pictures of the areas outside the courts. But it seems to be impossible to drag ourselves away from the game. But, fear not, by the middle of March we will leave the Southwest tournaments and once again, bring you the fabulous USA in photo. But since we mentioned Pickleball, we did, did we not? Here are our latest experiences.

Leaving our volleyball friends in Hemet, we headed to the 1st Annual Mission Hills Pickleball Classic in Rancho Mirage, California. Rancho Mirage is one the eight major cities in the Coachella Valley, where Palm Springs is located. The Mission Hills Country Club does not have Pickleball courts but Steve, the Tennis Pro, was excited to introduce this club to Pickleball. There were 83 players this first year and Steve hopes to continue to increase the size of the tournament each year. The Gold matches were held in their Tennis stadium that has seating for 500 to 1000 spectators.

1) Pete and his partner Clint, as Clint returns the ball. 2) Pickleball tournaments are double elimination, so your must lose two matches to be defeated. In the winner's bracket, you play 2 out of 3 games to 11 points. If you lose, a consolation match has a single game to 15 points. Pete and Clint lost their second match and were forced into the consolation. But they clawed their way back to the Gold round which was once again, 2 of out 3 to 11 points. They won two games and were then required to play one more game to prove they could beat the team who came through the winners bracket. They played, they won and they got the Gold medals!

Ellen also picked up the Bronze medal with her partner Judy who came from Surprise, Arizona for the games.

1) Jackie, Clint's better half shows her pleasure with his Pickleball acumen. 2) Bill and Phyllis are friends of Clint and Jackie from Anacortes, Washington where both couples spend the summer and play Pickleball.

To put it mildly, we are continually blessed by the people we meet in our travels. Clint and Jackie have a fabulous home in a gated community in Rancho Mirage. They offered us the opportunity to stay at their home and even got us hooked to power. Their hospitality was quite literally beyond belief as they hosted home-cooked meals most every night and snacks and refreshments and their pool and spa and laundry and the list goes on. Nothing says hospitality like being offered breakfast grapefruit only to find that Jackie has already sectioned the grapefruit for you. All we can say is WOW and thank you, Clint and Jackie.

From Rancho Mirage, we headed to Arizona were we visited our friends and neighbors, Ben and Sid. They hosted a great dinner and the next day we got to enjoy some social Pickleball with Ben and Judy, Ellen's Rancho Mirage partner.

Then, off to Tucson for the Senior Olympic Festival Pickleball games at Voyager RV Resort. Below Peggy and Dave play in the mixed doubles. This game was to 15 points and they were lagging behind at 12 to Zero! But, never give up, as they came on strong to win 15-13. Peggy was Ellen's partner in December 2010 at the Catalina Spa PB Tournament where they won the Gold.

Once again Ellen partnered up with Peggy in the 3.5 skill level Women's Doubles. After a rocky start and losing their first match, they won four consolation matches to return to the Gold medal contest. They were slightly out gunned, but ended up winning the Silver medals. Congratulations once again to Peggy and Ellen.

1) Here the long and short of the Silver medalists. 2) And here is the longer and really short of it. Isn't little Ellen cute?

This was the grand prize for the winner of Ellen's Gold medal match. Shoot! She only got Silver.

And here is the award for the Silver medalist, who could no longer walk after a long day of Pickleball.

Really, we will try to bring you more than Pickleball in the coming weeks.

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24"

Love, Pete and Ellen

Heading to Green Valley, Arizona

Photos from Jan 2011