Iowa City IA #19 - The long road home

 

June 29 2020

It was the morning we played in Rexburg ID, our furthest point west, that we received a disturbing call from Barb's mom. She had fallen the previous night and was feeling like she was near the end and was making her end of life phone calls. This was going to drastically change our plans for the remainder of the trip. We decided that we were going to head home but still attempt to play our remaining two states Nebraska and Iowa. Our schedule is dependent upon us being in a specific location on a specific day since pickleball in many places is not an every day occurrence. It also meant that we would be driving through the Grand Teton National Park rather than spending time there. I recall the night before our drive through NE attempting to locate a place to play close to our route and at a time we would be there. Unfortunately, the weather was abnormally hot and when we arrived at the outdoor courts, they were devoid of any players. Nebraska would need to wait for another time. Fortunately play at Mercer Park in Iowa City IA would still be possible. We would have spent 20 hours in the car on that long road home before we arrived at Mercer Park. The sun shone on us and we were able to play a few games there. The outdoor dedicated courts were individually fenced in and were occupying what was previously tennis courts. They were in good condition and we had no problem working into a few games. The players we played with were very friendly and at a skill level comparable to ours.


Barb and I enjoy playing together. We love playing mixed doubles, but are not adverse to taking on a couple men. We don't feel too badly when we beat them either. It's not about winning and losing. Often we don't even remember if we won or lost. We do know if we had fun and had some good competition. We did here at Mercer Park where they had 8 courts and players to fill them. We would definitely enjoy playing here again



In addition to returning to Nebraska to dink and lob, we will need to return to the Grand Teton National Park with our bikes and a few days to marinate in the beauty and peacefulness of God's creation.

Location: Mercer Park, 2701 Bradford Dr, Iowa City, IA 52240, USA

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