Boundless Options - 21 Courts in 40 Days!

Imagine it is 1970 and you are one of the first privileged few who knew about this cool new sport called Pickleball that was invented in 1965. Where would you play? With whom would you play? It must have been a bit frustrating because when you told people about it, they would say, "What is pickleball, and why does it have such a weird name?" Oh, wait, people still do that last thing.

The difference between 1970 and (almost) 2020 is that finding a place to play is easy. You can play, all over the U.S., and now even in many other countries. Using the Places2Play app or Facebook there are abundant options. If you have your own paddle, a couple of balls and a portable net, and one to three friends, your options become almost limitless. Heck, they don't even have to be friends beforehand, but they will be after you've played pickleball with them! We are now able to play in more places than you can shake a stick at! That might be one of my Texas expression, and I'm not really sure what it means, but it seems to fit here ;-)

I started blogging on May 21st about our northward pickleball journey from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico to Vancouver, B.C., then across the Atlantic to England, Portugal and Spain. After Europe, we returned to Vancouver, B.C. to retrieve our vehicle, and currently we are on our southward bound adventure to arrive "home" in Phoenix. We found pickleball in every location, with the exception of Portugal!

Did you see the Lion King? Remember the song "The Circle of Life"? The lyrics say, "There is more to see that can ever be seen, More to do than can ever be done. There is far too much to take in here, More to find than can ever be found." Well... there are now more places to play than we will ever be able to play, which kind of makes me sad, but it makes me really happy too.

In college at Texas A&M I loved working at the campus library. I used to think about how cool it would be to read every book there. Now I feel that way about pickleball. Yes, a bit warped I know, but there are so many cool people out there in this great big world who play this sport we love. I just want to tap paddle butts with all of you! I hope to see many friends we've made along the way at Margaritaville at the Nationals in Indian Wells.

The rest of this post is to say thank you to all of those folks at places along the our trip from Vancouver B.C. to Las Vegas. We've been too busy playing and traveling back towards Phoenix for me to keep up with individual blogs. We played at twenty-one different courts in 40 days! That's not counting the abandoned one. That might be a standing record for us for awhile!

New Hyde Park, NY(Long Island) - Clinton G Martin Park

Friendly New Yorkers! Thanks to Rose for the ride - you need a car on Long Island!

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Hoboken, NJ - Northwest Pop Up Park, Under Renovation

HoverHigher.com Coffeys2Go Bonnie Ky Coffey Pet sitting sitters Drone photo photography Nomads Pickleball Courts New Jersey under construction

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Vancouver, B.C. - Queen Elizabeth Park

Alan, Mona and Rick are great players and they bring cookies to the courts! Thanks again!

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Vancouver, B.C.Sunset Community Center

They know how to build beautiful community centers in Canada.

As beautiful indoors as out! Thank you Alan for bringing us here.

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Vancouver, B.C. - Coal Harbor Community Center

Another beautiful facility set right on the spectacular downtown waterfront.

Thanks for the fun post pickleball lunch and cards! These are some truly fun folks!

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North Vancouver, B.C. - Hollyburn Country Club

Nice to have friends in skookum places like the Hollyburn Country Club - thanks Steve!

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North Vancouver, B.C. - Murdo Frazer Park

A few of the many fun players at Northshore Pickleball.

The things we do for love! Canadian fall requires clean up before play.

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Bellingham, WA - Cornwall Park

Nice set of courts, lots of friendly folks, and the best system for player rotation that we've seen (more in another blog post about that)

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Edmonds, WA - Frances Anderson Center

We played here previously and didn't take any new photos :-(

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Edmonds, WA - Yost Park

We played here previously and didn't take any new photos :-(

I'm such a slacker!

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Corvallis, OR - Timberhill Athletic Club

Our sweet friend Lou, from SLAP in the UK, pre-introduced us to some great people in Oregon. Only sorry we didn't have more time there. Thanks Shelley!

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Corvalis, OR - G3 Sports and Fitness

Another introduction from Lou led us to G3 Sports and Fitness and Catherine, where once again, we wished we had more time! Fall in Oregon means moving indoors, and there are great facilities to do that!

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Springfield, OR - Meadow Park

These courts were full before I got around to pulling out the drone. Our friends Tannis and Laurence normally play here, but they were in Australia. We'll have to happily go back!

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Ashland, OR - Lithia Park

When driving long distances, we frequently pull up Places2Play to find a "rest area". This one was nestled in to a gorgeous park. A few folks there were so friendly to work us in to a few of their games before we had to get back on the road!!

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Redding, CA - Enterprise Park

Back spasms caused me to sit this one out, but people were so friendly and helpful! Ky's back was fine, so he got in lots of games! We had the chance to meet many of the players at a fundraiser dinner later that night. We were happy to support building more courts!

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Shasta Lake, CA - City Park

Lighted courts and my back feeling better, made for some fun (but cautious) play. Just can't stay away from this game!

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Foster City, CA - Leo J Ryan Park

Reconnecting with a friend, Stephanie, that we met at Tres Palapas in Mexico and meeting James who plays a bunch at our Prescott, AZ stomping grounds. Thanks to Armondo for such a warm welcome to a well run group.

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Reno, NV - Evelyn Mount

Forgot to get photos of people. This was a great place to practice returning continuous drilling drives from strong former tennis players.

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Reno, NV - Hidden Valley

A perfect day for drills and skills exercises. This normally busy set of courts were ours for the morning. It was just a little chilly so everyone else must have been indoors. We so enjoyed playing with Kim and Austin!

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Reno, NV - Neil Road Recreation Center

We found some excellent fun competition in Reno. Thanks to Kim for introducing us to Sam and Kathy who in turn introduced us to their friends. That's the way it is in the world of pickleball!

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Reno, NV - Plumas

Lots of advanced play here and very welcoming people. Good times!

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Las Vegas, NV Durango Hills Park

We've already played here twice and we're looking forward to more! Full courts of all levels of players who couldn't be nicer! Great weather too!

We cannot say thank you enough to all the people mentioned here and to all the people we played with, but didn't get your names. Pickleball People are AWESOME!

I hope that this blog post inspires someone to step away from their home courts to find the joy of meeting and making new friends.

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For commercial use of any of my drone photography, or to arrange for me to fly for your club, please contact me at info@hoverhigher.com . I have more photos and videos of each site.

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#Pickleball #NewYork #NewJersey #Vancouver #NorthVancouver #Washington #Oregon #California #Nevada #HoverHigher #DronePhotography #Coffeys2Go