Pickleball The States

 January 11, 2022 The St. George Pickleball Facebook Group is by far the most welcoming and informative group we have come in contact with during this part of our journey. Often our window of play is limited, so it is necessary to confirm the days and time for open play. To do this, a number of methods are used to locate and contact individuals in the community where we wish to play. Among the tools we use are Places 2 Play , USA Pickleball ambassadors , Play Time Scheduler for Pickleball and Facebook groups. When we posted on the St. George Pickleball Facebook group, we received numerous helpful responses as to where to play. I wish we had time to play at all the court suggestions we were given. Maybe another trip. So many times a specific location may only play a couple days a week and either in a morning or an afternoon. St. George had daily play at many different locations. It was helpful to have multiple choices. Ultimately, we chose Worthen Park knowing that we had a number of

  January 8, 2022 The weather was optimal for pickleball in Las Vegas.  Staying with friends Bruce and Amy in NV put us in a great location for also traveling to CA and UT. One of our self imposed rules for fulfilling our Pickleball The States adventure is to play with people we have never played with before, so Bruce and Amy arranged some play for us with others in their pickleball club. We played at the Sun City Summerlin Pickleball Courts which are private courts for this community.  There was also play at nearby Durango courts where open play is available to the public and we understand they have great pickleball players there as well. The courts at Sun City were almost always in use and the players are very skilled. What do you expect when they play every day? Our friend Bruce said that there are 314 days of sunshine in Vegas. Bruce matched us up with Russ and Keri who proved to be great opponents who also enjoy pickleball.  During our time in Las Vegas, we played several games wi

  January 7, 2022 We flew into Las Vegas NV the night before and drove three hours across the desert to play pickleball at In-Shape in Victorville, CA at 7:00 a.m. Friday morning. Fortunately, the time difference from back home was working in our favor. In preparation for the trip, I had been communicating with Romy, the pickleball ambassador in Victorville. He was extremely helpful and instrumental in making us feel welcomed, but unfortunately he was unable to be there on Friday morning.  The pickleball court was at one time a basketball court until someone decided to bring a firearm one day to the courts. Because of that situation, the basketball court was shut down and replaced with a pickleball court. Due to the narrow court design, only a single pickleball court could be placed on it with a dinking court at one end. The players in Victorville were very welcoming and we had a great time playing with them. Roger had an interesting serve, a carryover from his table tennis days. Roger