Pickleball The States

 September 30, 2021 Greece NY was the first stop on our New England four state tour. Yes, we know that NY is not in New England, but it's close. Greece is on the outskirts of Rochester NY. We arrived in the area early afternoon. The original plan was to play the next morning, but we heard that there might also be play around 5:00 that evening.  We chose to fill the afternoon with a bike ride on a portion of the Genesee Riverway Trail that runs from Lake Ontario through Rochester NY. We started our ride on the pier and rode to the lower falls. The trail took us along the harbor, past a light house, onto a lengthy scenic boardwalk, transitioning to an asphalt trail (some of which had a bad case of root varicose veins), past the Kodak plant and finally arriving at the lower falls of the Genesee River. It was a cool and overcast day, but despite that we thoroughly enjoyed the ride.  After checking into our hotel, we donned our pickleball outfits and headed to the courts hopi...

September 9-14 2021 Pickleball was the driving factor for our trip to Alaska with other activities being secondary. We had identified the courts at Ben Boeke as our target for playing. Players were scheduled to be there Friday, Saturday and Monday. Car rental was outrageous, so I figured we could simply plan on doing activities in Anchorage and we would get around using public transportation. That proved to be a mistake. I found lodging within a 10 minute walk from the courts and it was significantly less than other hotels. When our taxi driver was informed of our destination, he asked “Why would you stay there?” My response was close proximity to our courts and Chester Creek Trail where we could hike. He warned us that the homeless would be camping along the trail. The dark clouds began to roll in on my plans and literally in the skies. We ventured out on Chester Creek Trail heading away from downtown to hopefully avoid the homeless encampments. We walked two miles before heading back...

 May 3-8 2021 This was our fourth multi state pickleball tour. It's essential to plan ahead, make local contacts and then be flexible. I am extremely thankful for those individuals who are local contacts, many of which are pickleball ambassadors. They are the reason these trips are successful. Originally, this was going to be an eleven state tour, but the time it would take did not mesh well with other already planned events we had in May. So, we chose to do NY, VT, NH and ME at another time. Perhaps in the fall. While we did take time for other activities which included visits with family and friends, we regret that we didn't take more time for local sightseeing.  Monday May 3rd Unless absolutely necessary, I like to limit our driving to 4-5 hours at a time, no more than 6 hours a day, and no night driving. This made a stop at Cuyahoga Valley National Park a great option. We brought our bikes with us, but the morning rain put a damper on any riding. We settled for a little w...

Saturday May 8 2021 11:00am Early in the morning we played at Edgewater Pool & Tennis in Raynham MA then drove about 45 minutes to play late morning in Bristol RI. Our original plans had us playing in Narragansett RI on Sunday morning at Clarke St Pickleball Courts, but we decided to travel home earlier than planned. I was able to connect with Cliff Tiexeira and he welcomed us to play at the Bristol Town Square. They had six courts originally built for tennis. There were enough players that the courts were filled and rotation was tracked on a whiteboard. Cliff was extremely welcoming and within minutes we were on the court playing with him and Bernard, pictured above (Bernard center and Cliff right).  Our second game was with Jon and Ellen. We had the advantage since Barb and I play as a couple all the time and this may have been the first time Jon and Ellen were partners. We had a good time playing with them. Hopefully they enjoyed playing with us. Our last game was with Tom a...

Saturday May 8 2021 9:00am Our Saturday morning play was originally scheduled at Lakeville Athletic Club in Lakeville MA. When I checked with Kim the day before, she let me know that the play had been moved to Edgewood Pool and Tennis Club due to a tennis program at Lakeville Athletic Club. It is situations like this that make us appreciate contacts who keep us informed of changes that we might not be aware of.  The courts at Edgewood are nestled back in the woods which provided a nice setting. When we arrived, there were already a couple of games going and we could tell from the play that these would be formidable opponents. We were able to work into a game with Mike and Karen and quickly went down 3-11. It was a warm up game, right? So we switched sides and did it again. We did better scoring 7 before taking the loss.  Even though we suffered two losses, we thoroughly enjoyed playing with Mike and Karen. Great players. Great attitude. Fun to play with. We had time for anot...

Friday May 7 2021 10:00am When we arrived at Tunix Hill Park in Fairfield CT a little before 9:00am, we saw a ball field, but couldn't see any pickleball courts. We did see a hill beyond the ball field and a few cars parked there, so we went around the wooded corner and up the hill and voila! There were the pickleball courts down the hill just out of sight from from where we first encountered the park, and players were on the court which is a good sign. We saw 4 dedicated courts with permanent nets, another good sign. As we approached the courts, we could see some beginners on one end, some intermediate players in the middle and three players on the opposite end chatting. It was obvious that they had been playing and were possibly finished. Barb and I walked over and gave a brief explanation of our endeavor to play pickleball in all 50 states. Two of the individuals were Mark and Barb and they had just finished playing having started at 7:00am, yet, they were willing to play a few ...

  Thursday May 6 2021 3:30 After playing in the morning in Newark, we headed to Cherry Hill NJ. We were scheduled to play in the evening at 5:00 on the DeCou Fields courts, but hoped to play earlier so that we could make the drive to Fairfield CT before sunset. We arrived at about 1:00 and found some advanced players on the courts. They indicated that at 3:00 there were likely to be other players there and we should be able to get in some open play. So, we headed off to Verdant Cafe for some lunch. Returning at 3:00 did provide us with a substantial group of players to work into some open play. Eric was very welcoming and we joined with him and Walt for our first game. We played well despite having played earlier that day in Newark DE and Barb's hamstring complaining  about how much stress and pressure she was giving it to score some points. Barb and I then split up for a game. Barb and Noah were partners and Lou and I took them on. The older guys were not able to match the s...