Week 530-531 - St. George Pickleball - 10-16-2016

30th Annual Huntsman World Senior Games

It is hard to see this week's travels. It is the single white dot sitting at the Elks Lodge in St. George, Utah. Returning from the Horn Family Reunion we stayed two weeks.

1) The lodge RV sites were filled during our absence by the Bullhead City, Arizona Elks RV club. When we came back we snagged Gordon and Karen's #1 spot. 2) While Mandy probably did not care, the adjacent pet area is the most beautiful we have seen.

Our pickleball partners Cheryl and Butch came from Delaware to play in two tournaments: The St. George City Fall Brawl and the Huntsman World Senior Games.

Tournament days start early with players arriving at sun up. Ken kicks off the day singing the National Anthem. Every man removed his hat and no one took a knee.

Each match begins with the referee introducing the players, deciding first service and court position. Without the hundreds of referees and other volunteers these tournaments could not happen. Thank you to all volunteers.

Ellen starts off with the first service. Cheryl returns a deep shot.

Ellen casually places the ball into the opponent's court. Cheryl drops the ball just over the net.

Ellen uses her long reach to scoop up a "dink". Cheryl lifts high to smash back the ball with an overhead stroke.

There is plenty of time after pickleball for other activities such as eating daily at SmashBurger. And we arrived home to this gathering of bikers on "our" patio.

Players come to the Huntsman games from around the world. 1) Our good friend Brad from Atascadero, whom we saw just last week at the Horn Family Reunion. 2) Then there is Bill and Wally whom we first met in San Luis Obispo, California in 1974. We just visited Wally and Colly in Chelan, Washington in August this year. All of these gentleman are among the over 3,000 softball players at the games.

Letting people know our location let us meet up with Bob and Sally (at SmashBurger!). Ellen met Sally before she knew Pete, whoa, a long time ago. We can't remember when we last saw them, but it was decades. Our paths crossed in St. George as Bob and Sally head for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

1) Back on the courts, Butch stands ready as Pete serves. 2) After making a point and shifting positions, Butch launches his serve.

The "kitchen" line is the white stripe just in front of Pete. This is where "you win the game from". Pete shows that having a long reach is not a bad thing.

St. George city's Little Valley has 24 pickleball courts. The Fall Brawl and half of the Huntsman games were played here.

These are the 14 pickleball courts at Sun River, an adult housing community at the south end of St. George. Yes, this photo looks like one taken at night from the space station. The area on the left was just recently graded in anticipation of building new homes. And this photo was taken off of a video projection in the darkened room of the pickleball banquet.

1) Since our first visit to St. George we have spent time with Bobbie (in red). Bobbie and Ellen have been tournament partners. 2) Things are looking bad as Bobbie took a tumble and hit her shoulder and head on the concrete. While she had to drop out of this event, she won Gold in two other events: Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Way to go Bobbie, we're proud of you.

Pickleball at Huntsman costs $90 per player, where most tournaments are $25 to $50. That's because of all they offer: A beginning of the week Meet and Greet; a grand opening ceremony and entertainment; a free Neil Diamond tribute band concert, a dozen free medical tests (Pete' annual physical); your sport's tournaments and a banquet.

1) David, the tournament director leads with opening remarks. The Huntsman organization had many goals based on this being the 30th year. a) They increased the number of different sports to 30. b) They wanted 30 countries to be represented; there were 34. c) They wanted 30 x 365 (10,950) players to attend; they had over 11,000. Pickleball had its largest gathering of over 600 players.

2) Sun River graciously offers their gorgeous facility, at no charge, for the dinner.

This year's entertainment was singer, dancer and ventriloquist, Rachel Kroog. We have known Rachel for years as a 5.0 (highest) level pickleball player. We did not know she was so talented "off court". This show was tailor made for PB enthusiasts with many songs and skits involving pickleball.

1) Rachel even had a "PickleLele" instrument created and played it to perfection. 2) The Pickleball Choral dancers followed Rachel's every move. Rachel performs hundreds of times throughout the year and likes to focus on kid's programs. After a heart-felt introduction, she sang the song "Don't Laugh at Me". Starting with lyrics "Don't laugh at me / Don't call me names / Don't get your pleasure from my pain / In God's eyes we're all the same", Rachel showed her tender heart and brought many in the audience to tears.

What a wonderful two weeks. Pickleball brought us together, but we parted as friends.

With love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Photos from Oct 2016