Week 584 - Huntsman Games 2017 - 10-22-2017

Huntsman Games 2017

We play pickleball. At the Huntsman Games this year, we did not lose a game!

This week we spent the week in St. George and ended up in Death Valley.

In the past years we have stayed at the St. George Elks Lodge. It is a beautiful setting for only $15 a night. If you ever travel full time or travel alot in an RV, join the Elks. We are here with our friend Don as we enjoy Gordon and Karen's #1 site at the Elks.

We played our first ever pickleball tournament at the 2010 Huntsman Games with 400 players from around the World. We like to call this tournament Bang Bang Out. Meaning that we lose our first two matches and we are done. Over the years the tournament has grown to 800 players and is difficult to get registered. Registration opens at Midnight on March 1st each year. Two years ago 600 signed up in just two days. Last year with two venues 800 players signed up in just two hours. This year 2,700 players tried to get in and 800 made it in 2 minutes! Pete got in this year and then tried to get Ellen in. Too late, it was closed. As Ellen was Pete's partner in mixed doubles, Ellen got registered by May.

Ellen's knee is still painful. In fact it is more painful now after a full knee replacement two years ago and a knee revision one year ago. It was less painful before the original surgery. As such Ellen thought we should not go to St. George. Pete countered with "when you make the two minute cutoff, you go!". We did go and had a great time. We visited long time pickleball friends, ate Smash Burger every other day and Pete refereed. Ellen did not referee as we did not know if she could stand for the 3 hour time slot.

Because of Ellen's knee, we canceled our event and thus "we did not lose a game!".

The Friday night pickleball dinner is always fun and a good meal. And before the meal the pickleball director Dave led us in a Christian prayer, nice!

Leaving the dinner, Old Glory was flying high above the courts and during the games everyone stood for the National Anthem.

Leaving St. George we found a 40 mile Paiute Reservation side road that kept us off the I15 freeway.

We spent the night in Las Vegas at Arizona Charlies Casino and RV park. A decent park but our 50 foot pull through site was narrow and perpendicular to the road. Very tough to get in.

From Vegas we are headed to Napa, California to meet our daughter Emily. Our best path was through Death Valley.

This is our second visit to the valley and its beauty did not disappoint. Check out our first visit at Death Valley Photo Collection

You could spend the night at Oasis at Death Valley for $159 per night.

Or continue on with more colorful mountains and ...

... end up at Stovepipe Wells. We paid just $7 to dry camp and enjoy God's beauty viewing the moon and about 7 million stars.

Next week we'll get to Napa and most likely will sadly see the devastation of the enormous fires.

Good news for Huntsman pickleball sign-ups. Next year the registration will be a lottery. So you don't have to get up at Midnight, but then again you may not be picked. Oh well, there is always a few hundred tournaments at other locations.

With love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Photos from Oct 2017