I am playing in the Palm Creek Members Pickleball Tournament on February 22 and 23. Paul Hartkopf is my 3.5 Mixed Doubles partner. Susan Gibbs is my 3.5 Womens Doubles partner. Coincidentally, Susan went to Arcadia High School. She is three years my junior. But, Arcadia is just down Huntington Drive from San Marino --- where I grew up.
I played pickleball on Tuesday at 2:00 pm. In four of the six games, there were mentors watching the game and giving feedback as to how we can improve our game. I was caught not having my paddle up. Not a good strategy!
The weather got into the mid 70s several days this week. Nice!
The mall security guard was patrolling the area. He stopped, rolled down his window, and asked if I found the cache. I said no. He said that he doesn't know of anyone who has. But, the cache activity log says that some have found it. Many have not. I was in that group.
On Friday, Tom and I went to Walmart and had lunch at the number 1 rated restaurant in Casa Grande, Creative Cafe. Since Covid-19, it is only open Monday through Friday, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm. I had been told that Friday's soup du jour was New England Clam Chowder. One of my favorites! The food was excellent. Tom had a Reuben sandwich and I had a Patty Melt.
At 4:00 pm, the Palm Creek Pickleball Club had a Coffee Bar Social in the ballroom. Tom and I went for about 45 minutes. We met a nice couple from Wisconsin, Deb and Dan Theine. They have a Vizsla dog and we talked about Dalmatians and Vizslas.
Saturday at noon, I had my second "Foursome + Coach Linda" session. It is only an hour long, but Linda gave the four of us good pointers to work on.
After the session, I rode my bike back to the trailer, took the dogs out for a quick walk, and returned to the Pickleball courts. Tom had a two-hour Advanced Beginner clinic. I wanted to watch the clinic.
When the clinic concluded, Tom and I had a photo op.
Later in the day, our neighbor Earl was pruning some of the citrus trees.
Earl and his wife Lisa are from Pennsylvania. They own a park model adjacent to our lot.
Tom and I continued to look at ads for 5th wheel trailers for sale in Casa Grande. Nothing looked promising for us. Sunday afternoon was Super Bowl LVII in Phoenix. Tom and I got some snacks at Safeway and watched the game. The teams were the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Eagles were favored to win, so I routed for the Chiefs.
It was a great game. The Kansas City Chiefs won the game 38-35.
My girlfriend Honoria Vivell texted me some photos of the OWE (Organization of Women Executives) Spa Weekend in Palm Desert. I was a member of this organization for nineteen years. I finally resigned in 2021.
Tuesday was Valentine's Day. It began with a beautiful sunrise.
Since Tom and I were going to the Pickleball Club Dinner and Dance later in the week, we dined at home with beef fillets, twice baked potatoes, and broccoli. I did present Tom with a Valentine box of milk chocolate and dark chocolate candies.
Wednesday, I played in the 3.5 Women Ladder. Jon played in the 3.5 Men Ladder earlier. Over the past four weeks, he successfully made his way to the top of the ladder. Excellent!
On Thursday, Tom, Jon, and I went to breakfast in downtown Casa Grande at the Cook E Jar Bakery & Cafe. The food was very good. Tom even liked his biscuits and pork gravy breakfast. This was a good sign, as Tom is very picky about biscuits and gravy!
That evening, Tom and I went to the Pickleball Club Dinner & Dance. The meal was a pasta bar. Tom and I were some of the first to serve ourselves. Our friend Roland and his wife Kristine were queued up.
The theme of the evening was the roaring 20's. There were a number of couples dressed for the occasion. Tom and I just came as ourselves.
It was a capacity crowd for the dinner.
The bedroom had a slide with a king bed. I do not need a king bed, but the framework could not be modified. So, I went on Amazon and ordered king sheets and a mattress protector.
Saturday, I awoke to a golden sunrise.
On Thursday, February 16, I submitted a work order to have additional gravel added to our site. An adjacent neighbor had it done recently. Our site had a number of bald spots and the rocks were not very thick. The following Monday, the workers came to scope out the project. Several hours later, one worker came back and ultimately brought five to six loads of gravel rocks.
The next day, with the threat of rain, my Round Robin pickleball was cancelled. I asked Tom to join me for some geocaching. He said "yes." Together, we found another four caches. One was named "Chihuahua-Cashhound's Canine."
Tom found a cache named "Ozark Stool Specimen."
Later in the afternoon, I attended a talk with Ross in the Sonoran South room. Ross is a former Naval intelligence operative and he gives interesting talks during the Palm Creek season.
Freedom RV has scheduled the delivery of our new trailer on Saturday, February 25. I went on the Nextdoor site to see if anyone had free boxes. Fortunately, Toni Carey of nearby Highland Manor had boxes. Tom and I drove over to her house to get the boxes.
This week is a busy one --- the Palm Creek Members Pickleball Tournament and moving from the old trailer to the new one. Rain spoiled the first day of the pickleball tournament. The 3.5 Palm Mixed Doubles play was moved from Wednesday, February 22 to Sunday, February 26.
The 3.5 Palm Womens Doubles play was on Thursday. My partner Susan Gibbs and I only played three games during this tournament day. Susan is a former tennis player and she does a lot of slamming and banging.
We did not play well together. But, we did find a great place for a photo opportunity.
Then, Daniel brought our new trailer to our site.
This trailer is five feet longer than our old trailer. It also has a third slide. Daniel did a magnificent job parking the trailer. We are going to leave the new trailer in our site for the next three years. It is now our winter home 😄😄😄
Sales folks Lexi and Giovanni arrived at our new trailer. It was time for me to sign the final paperwork. I had decided to finance the purchase of the new trailer --- getting a credit for trading in the old trailer.
On Sunday, the tournament play was delayed for four hours. It had rained during the night and early morning. Volunteers worked very hard to dry the courts. Because of the delay, all the games were played to 15. Paul and I lost the first game, but we won the next four games.
Jon and his partner, Jean, were playing in the 30+, 50+ 3.5 Palm Mixed Doubles category.
They won the Gold medal!
Jon and Jean are excellent pickleball players. Before the end of the season, I am sure that they will be upgraded to 4.0 players.
Monday and Tuesday, the rain left the area. The hot air balloons were enjoying the weather break.
Tuesday morning, I drove to Chandler to pick up some new jeans I bought at Chicos. The Chandler Village Mall is gigantic. I found another pair of jeans at White House/Black Market. I also found some earrings at Brighton to replace an earring set I recently lost.
