Pickleball Magazine 1-5 | Page 36

RV PICKLERS Two golfers turned to RV pickleballing BY NANCY WHITEMAN I n 2007, Denise and I moved to The Villages in Florida to play golf. Denise was a retired nurse in United States Navy and a member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association. I was a single-digit salesperson. It was going to be a great place for us to enjoy the warm weather and, if we wanted, play golf every day of the week. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the golf course…we found pickleball. As we all know when you’re hit with the pickleball bug, it’s hard to stay away. Our 4 or 5 rounds of golf per week quickly dwindled to 1 or 2. At the same time, our love for pickleball grew. When Denise fully retired in 2010, we both got more serious about pickleball. We are fortunate to live in The Villages, a wonderful place that now has over 180 dedicated pickleball courts, a myriad of clinics, leagues, pickleball teams and a large number of nationally ranked senior players. Denise quickly rose to the 5.0 level and I was a competitive 4.0. We combined our love of travel and pickleball. What could be better? We learned it could get even better when we met OLGA; I should be clear, OLGA is a 2015 Renegade Villagio, a B+ motorhome. We named her OLGA because...“Old Ladies Get Around.” Frankly Denise had wanted a motorhome for years. I equated camping with not being on the concierge floor of the Hilton, and was not so inclined. But when we qualified for the 2015 National Senior Games, I figured if we hated it we could probably just turn around and sell it. Turns out, after five weeks on the road, we didn’t hate it; and after spending a wonderful week with other RV picklers in Minneapolis, we traveled through South Dakota and Wyoming. We saw buffalo in Custer State Park, we were left speechless by the engineering 34 marvel known as Mt. Rushmore, we made stops in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, and ended our journey competing in the National State Games of America in Omaha before heading home. Of course, along the way we played pickleball as often as possible. With the USAPA Places to Play as our guide, we met wonderful, welcoming people. We happened upon an indoor facility the day Wyoming was having its Senior Game Qualifier. As we watched the locals play, a couple from Ft. Myers, Florida, walked in. Suddenly, four Floridians were playing a pick-up pickleball game in Wyoming. We created a makeshift court between our campsite and the next in Yellowstone and taught two young boys how to play the game. It was really a fun experience. We played in Jackson Hole on courts surrounded by the County Fair, complete with the smell of livestock and kettle corn. Despite what our Villages neighbors say, we are not full-time RVers. We know many pickleball fanatics who spend all their time traveling from one tournament or pickleball destination to the next. I recall friends telling us they would be spending six months on the road before returning to Tampa…I believe that was three years ago. We are fortunate to call many of them our friends and always look forward to our mini-pickleball rallies. If this sounds like a lot of fun, we document our travels, including places to play, places to stay and all things pickleball, on our website RVPicklers.com and on Facebook. You should check us out. It has been a blast! • TO SUBSCRIBE CALL 724.942.0940 OR GO TO THEPICKLEBALLMAG.COM