Week 339-340 - Pickleball Mania - 02-17-2013

Hello from the Pickleball Capital of the World!

What can we say? We have PBAS, PickleBall Addition Syndrome! And what better place to have it than Palm Creek ~~Golf and RV~~ Pickleball Resort. This photo below is a composite panoramic photo showing the new 24-court Pickleball complex at Palm Creek. While The Villages in Florida boasts over 100 PB courts, their courts are scattered about the community. The Palm Creek courts are the most that we know of in a single arena. Wanna play Pickleball? You can do it here seven days a week from 7:30am to 9:00pm and many times you have to wait to get on a court!

So why leave Palm Court to play elsewhere? Tournaments, of course! So, after a week of practice at Palm Creek, we headed to Mesa, Arizona for the Venture Out All City PB Tournament.

As Venture Out had no place for PB's biggest fan, Mandy, we settled in at Sunlife Vacation Resort just one mile away. This resort has four new PB courts of their own, but apparently for the folks living here, live music and happy hours get their attention.

Pete has a men's season partner Don. This was their fourth tournament. They went from 7th place, to 4th place, to 3rd (Bronze) and at Venture Out 2nd (Silver). The Gold match was close but went to Mike and Darryl pictured below in the orange shirts.

After four days in Mesa and one day off, we were back at Palm Creek for the "In House" tournament. For this event you must be a resident of the park. We got there on January 26th, which qualified us as "residents".

Of the 24 courts, four are in the Medal Match Pit. These four sunken courts provide excellent viewing. You can watch all four matches at once.

Pete and Mandy watched Ellen and Joyce win the Silver Medal in the Women's 60-64 age group. Ellen's partner Joyce had to come down 10 years to play with the 60 year-old girls. While height is an advantage in PB, the ladies in the white shirts out-played Ellen and Joyce to win the Gold.

Ellen poses with her biggest fan!

Click to get a better view of the PB complex. It looks a bit like the deck of a large cruise ship.

That's our week, except to mention that Ellen has flown home to take care of sick family members. Please be in pray for her sister Janice and Aunt Glo. While I will survive, I am looking forward to Ellen's return.

Love, Pete, Ellen and the Missing-Mom-The-Most Mandy

Photos from Feb 2013