FROM THE USAPA
in the track competition…there is
still gold to be had in Alaska! We got
off the ferry in Bellingham, WA, took
a taxi to a local court at 6:30AM(!)
(beautiful setting among the biggest
trees we’d seen in a long time) and
played rec ball for a couple of hours.
The taxi driver thought we were nuts
when he returned us to the airport for
the flight home. We had hit 39 states!
A parent living in Florida and family in New England
gave us good excuses to take some great road trips.
Traveling via Fargo, ND, wasn’t that big of a stretch for
us and we got to visit Minnesota, Wisconsin, and South
Dakota along the way. Another trip gave us the chance
to play in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee and Georgia. Up to 44 states.
We chose to head almost due east on our next trip and
bagged five more states as we headed down the southern
part of the East Coast on the Blue Ridge Trail through the
Smoky Mountains. On the return, we had the final six
states in view, so we routed ourselves through Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and finally on
to Oklahoma where we played in
state #50. It had been raining for a
few days and our plans to play with a
local ambassador fell through. So we
stopped at a truck stop and used the
truck scale as a playing surface as the
wind blew and the rain came down.
The game was skinny singles to 7.
What a hoot to end the journey!
What did we learn? Pickleball
people are a great group of individuals who welcome
visitors and are usually honored that we’ve chosen to visit
their venue and play with them. USAPA Ambassadors
are equally wonderful, welcoming, accommodating,
gracious and passionate about their sport. The local jargon
that develops around our sport adds some spice to the
game: being asked if I’d like to “pickle” with a nice lady in
Kansas took me (blushing appropriately) a few seconds to
comprehend. Being corrected on calling the score at the
beginning of a game from 0-0-2 to 0-0-start or 0-0-only
took only a game to decipher the local custom. But most of
all we learned that we live in a beautiful country and that
people are mostly good and kind. •
When the game
gets hot,
keep a cool head.
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years, is excited to introduce our new collection of Pickleball hats.
Check us out at www.headsweats.com and save 30% off your
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Official Headwear
of the U.S. Open
MARCH/APRIL 2017 |
MAGAZINE
17