Pickleball in Punta Gorda and Dinner in Venice

On Friday morning we were up at 5:00 am. It had started raining about 2:00 in the morning and it was still raining when we packed the car and headed for Punta Gorda. Today we were going to the Charlotte County Fit For Life Senior Games. It rained hard most for most of the trip and was still raining when we arrived just before 8:00 am.

Click on picture to enlarge - use back arrow to return to this page: The tournament was held at the South County Community Park. This was the first time they were having pickleball in the Senior Games here - so the number of participants was much smaller than usual. A lot of our friends were competing though. Above Rich, Bruce, Buddy, Ron, Louann, Nadine and Nancy enjoy the competition. During the competition - the storm continued outside. At one point the thunder actually sounded like a train on the roof of the building.

And some of our friends from Peace River WISHED they were playing. Here is Margie, Dean, Rene and Mia. Dean and Rene I'm sure wished that someone was looking for a partner - but that had to settle for siting and watching. We're going to see if we can get the two of them registered for the Good Life Games in Seminole. Registration is closed - but we'll give it a try!!! They stayed until everyone was finished playing before heading back. I think they may have joined Bruce and Gena for lunch somewhere close by.

Speaking of Gena - Here she is with Mary Beth Cuccia.

Can't believe I got in the picture!!! Thanks Buddy for taking this!! That's me with Gary Ball, Louann and Nadine - friends from Kings Point in Sun City Center. All of them went home with medals - Gary in the Singles and Louann and Nadine with the Gold.

Buddy and his partner Ron Monson from Sun City. Looks like they might be planning their strategy. So proud of Buddy!!! They played great. Played three matches and won all six games. Took the Gold. Great job guys.

And here are your Gold and Silver medal winners in the men's doubles. That's Russ Cuccia ( Mary Beth's husband) in the blue shirt with his partner. ( Don't know his name - shame on me!) joining Rich and Bruce as they smile for the camera.

After the games - we headed north to Venice. We stopped at Subway to pick up a quick sandwitch and drink for lunch. Nothing too big - we were having dinner later today with friends.

Here we are at dinner with Dieter and Helen at the Marco Polo Buffet in Venice. We parked our RV in their yard and spent better than a week with them at their home in Columbia Crossroads, PA on our last trip up north. Today we arrived at their home in Venice early afternoon, enjoyed a drink( Only Helen will understand when I say I enjoyed the SneakerScotch!) and caught up on what's been going on.

We stayed the night with them, returning after dinner at Marco Polo. We all went for a walk together around the community to walk off some of the meal. We probably all ate too much! But isn't that what you do at a buffet? Helen had previously bought Dieter a DVD of Terry Fator. You remembe the ventriloquist who won on the last America's Got Talent? What a talented guy. So we all brought our drinks to the TV and enjoyed the video of his Las Vegas performance.

It was a beautiful morning on Saturday. The sun was actually shining and it was warming up fast. Helen fixed us all bacon and eggs, bagels, rainson bread toast and fruit for breakfast. That was followed by another walk for Rich and I. After lunch we headed for a walk through the Dome FleaMarket before we headed back to Wauchula. It was so nice seeing Dieter and Helen. They'll be heading back to PA the first of April -so we probably won't catch up with them again until the Fall.

Rich played a little pickleball on Sunday. Me - I had a lot of work to catch up on - so it was work, work, work for me today. Tomorrow we both plan on getting on the courts to play ( supposed to be back down in the 40's agin tonight). We'll meet Stan and Sally and the crew at the bowling alleys at 1:00 and then fix my meatballs for the Happy Hour at Dean and Marge's at 4:00.