Where are all of our Pickleball Friends?

This winter when Rich and I went to Peace River and learned that many of our friends that we had met there in previous years were not going to be there, we were a little dissapointed. We really missed Dennis and Barb, Bob and Kathy, Stan and Sally, Mark and Chris to name a few, but within just a few weeks we were introduced to so many new people. We should have known that you always meet great people and make great friends on the pickleball courts. And so many of these people continue to keep in touch with us as they leave the humidity and tropical weather of Florida and head north for the winter.

Today we received an e-mail and some pictures from Tom and Karen Wolf. (That's Tom and Karen above with their absolutely beautiful Dalmation!) They spent most of the winter here in Florida back and forth betweeen Orlando and Wauchula, and if you remember, Karen and I partnered up for the Heartland Senior Games.

Over the Memorial Day weekend they were in Chesapeake Bay, VA along witha lot of other players from Peace River - Nate and his family, Tracy and Jim, Jack and Diane, Diane's brother and his wife and Ken and Faye. She said "The preserve held a pickleball tournament. Austin and I were partners, played 4 games and won 1st place!! The semi-final game was against Diane & Jack, a real close game but we prevailed. "

Here are some more pictures she sent! You pickleball players are sure to see some familiar faces.

A Group Picture of the all the Tournament Players, above.

One of the nicest families we met were the Showalters. Here is Crystal and her partner, Diana, Austin, Daryl (Nate's Partner) and Nate.

The Championship match was between Bracket winners Jack and Diane (The Happy Hour Queen!)..........who took second place AND

Karen and Austin who won the overall tournament. Here they are holding their trophy that Karen says they have "joint custody of for six months each". She also told us that with the exception of of ONE category the Florida Picklers ( as they are known by the locals) swept the tournament with the most wins. I say - It's because they all attended Rich's Clinics in Peace River!!!!!

And where is everyone else? Tom and Karen said they found Carla and John, Marie and Keith, Dean and Margie and Barry and Donna on their next stop at TT Hershey. Karen says it best "we have had some "wild and crazy" matches with Dean on the courts!!!

Rich and I will definately enjoy our time here at The Villages - but our RV Picklers are some pretty special folk!!!

THANK YOU KAREN!