Week 236-237 - Del Webb's Sun City Arizona - 02-27-2011

Sun City Arizona,

Sun City sounds nice doesn't it? That's what Del Webb (1899-1974) thought back in 1960. Del was a high school drop out, who at age 28 suffered from typhoid fever and moved from Fresno, California to Phoenix, Arizona in 1927. He soon started his company, Del Webb Construction. After numerous military, commercial and housing contracts, he built Sun City, northwest of Phoenix. The original Sun City and all his community developments are not just housing tracts, they are planned communities. They have the homes, grocery markets, banks, retail stores and recreation centers. Which brings us to pickleball. The Grand Canyon State Games hosted 35 different sports. The pickleball doubles games were played in four different locations: Sun City Festival, Sun City West, Sun City Grand and Sun City. All of these are "Del Webb" developments. PulteGroup, Inc. is now the owner of Del Webb, as well as Pulte Homes and Centrex Homes.

This is Sun City Festival, the newest Del Webb community in the Phoenix area. There is no sun here and Pete is not happy. Why do we think it is fun to get up before sunrise to play a game with a silly name?

Ellen and her partner Bobbie practice. And the practice paid off with a Bronze Medal. Bobbie is from St. George, Utah. This medal was won in the 55-59 age group. Age group medals are difficult to obtain as there always seems to be a few 5.0 (best skill level) players that are your age.

The Festival community is fabulous with golf, tennis, pickleball, swimming, fitness center, recreation centers with classes in pottery, sewing, quilting, scrap booking and more. These retirement communities bring the mature generation together where you can be as busy or as alone as you wish. There are activities all day long and you make friends that you can spend your time with for years.

1) The putting practice area and 2) a sample of the homes. Today (02-2011) the home prices range from $143,990 to $315,990. There is a small HOA fee for all the amenities that you can enjoy. Golf and some other activities have separate fees. But, overall, you get amazing resources for what you pay.

Sun City West has 12 brand new pickleball courts and was a great venue for Pete and his partner Steve to play the in the 60-64 age group. Like most age group events, they went "bang, bang, out", meaning they lost their first two matches. Then they we relegated to watching and eating Cajun sausage sandwiches. Hey, that's not too bad! The first team that beat Pete and Steve went on to win the Gold Medal.

1) Our friends Sheri and Bob are from St. George. Bob was the director of our first tournament at the Huntsman World Senior Games. He adopted us there and has been a good friend since. At Huntsman we arrived knowing no one. Now we can't go to a tournament without meeting at least a dozen folks that we have spent time with. 2) A typical street of homes in Sun City West, which is where Ellen's Aunt Betty Lynn lives.

1) This is Sun City West's main recreation center. 2) A sample of the businesses within the development.

Sun City Grand is along Bell Avenue, in Surprise, as are all of the other Sun Cities mentioned here.

Like all the other developments there is golfing with homes along the courses. Our friend Judy's house is on this street. We were able to park next to her house one night. Judy met Ellen online using the "partner search" for pickleball. They played together in Rancho Mirage, California and received a Bronze medal for their efforts.

1) Sun City Grand has twelve nice courts. 2) The putting area is right next to the PB courts.

The covered area next to the courts is where Ellen and Pete posed for a picture of the Silver medals they received in the 55-59 age group mixed doubles!

Our last location was the original Sun City. Although the pickleball is played on converted tennis courts, the setting was very nice for viewing the games. As you can see below, the 5.0 mens players get quite a few in the audience. Pete and Steve's crowd was a little smaller as they went "bang, bang, out". Ellen and Bobbie did better playing four matches.

The courts here are at one of several recreation centers at Sun City.

If we didn't play pickleball, we never would have visited any of the Sun City developments as they are house only, no RV's. This was a great time see what is available for the seniors. In this area you can get a house at a much more reasonable price than in our home area and you get all the friends and facilities that you could want.

Special thanks to all the PB tournament directors who helped us to find tournament and overnight parking as we dry camped for 13 days.

Love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Feb 2011