Pickleball Parties

Our pickleball group has grown to about 70 members in Ruidoso and Alto has about 30 members.  This has happened in about 3 years and is still growing.  Our head pickle is Gary Beatty & his wife Gay.  They are from Green Valley, AZ and with Ora Marie Templeton's help secured a private tennis court for us to play on in Ruidoso.  Gary was able to put 4 pickleball courts on this tennis court.

This court is the property of Margaret Dupont that played profession tennis. She is now 93 years old and is in a nursing home in El Paso. 

This is Gary Beatty

Gay is to the left of Gary and I'm not sure of the ladies name on the far left

Besides being a great game to play it also is a very social gathering.  We talk and enjoy ourselves everyday.  Plus we like to have parties.

Our first party of the year was two weeks ago at my friends Sharon & Dan Allen's house.  We had a good group of about 30 that showed up for a pot luck dinner, drinks & dessert.

Carolyn & Sharon

Our second party was tonight at Michael & Peggy Dudman's.  He held it at his housing addition's clubhouse that had a huge fishing pond.  It rained in the afternoon so it cooled off into the upper 60's.  Great evening for a gathering of about forty pickleball friends.

During the evening Gary presented and honored Ora Marie (age 84) with an appreciation card and a beautiful pickleball paddle pendant like mine.

Sharon & Ora Marie

Then we played a little ladder golf. This was a lot of fun and I had never seen it played before.

This is Nancy Knox that I am talking to and she is 87 yrs young and is playing pickleball

We have a great group of people that we have gotten to know through this fun game of pickleball.

They really make fun of me saying fix'n so Gay and Gary got me this T-shirt

                        These are some more random shots on the courts with players and friends.

I love this game but it is taking a toll on my shoulder.  I may have to cut it back to 3 or 4 days a week instead of 6.  Maybe I'll just go to more garage sales!!!!

Ruidoso on Dwellable

Forest Reopens Today

I didn't fall off of the earth.  Just haven't taken the time to work on the blog.

I have been in Ruidoso for over a month now and have been busy everyday.  I will catch you up but will start with today and go backwards hopefully.

Today the forest reopened after 70 days of being closed because of dryness and fires.  I don't think they should have opened yet because we have had less than a 1/2 inch in a month.  Maybe they had more on the mountain.
Anyway we had a good time today and it did rain on us as we headed back to the car.

It was a nice cool day for a hike along the Crest Trail starting at Monjeau Lookout.  Dan and Sharon Allen went with us.

We met Sharon last year playing pickleball.  She was a teacher and basketball coach.  She is nearly 6' tall and played basketball at Baylor.  She retired last year.  They live in Frisco, TX.  Dan sales insurance and is still working, when he wants to and needs to.  We play Rummikub with them too.

 As we got out of Dan's car we spotted a herd of about twenty elk on the mountain side.

We walked nearly 2 miles along the trail that was along the rim of the mountain. Great views!  A good starter trail with a little up and down.  Took lots of pictures along the way.

 We thought we would see lots of wildlife because it had been so long with no one on the trails.  But we didn't, just a few horny toads & the elk.

Hiked up to about 9300 ft. elevation and had lunch.

 

Sharon was posing for a facebook picture

As we ate lunch we could see the clouds were building and thought we could make it back to the car before the downpour.  We were hoping anyway. Dan assured us it wouldn't rain until the afternoon.

 

Dan was in the lead and Don brought up the rear.

 

We didn't quite make it. It started a nice slow rain.  Needless to say we made it back to the car faster than going out. 

Great day hiking, did some grocery shopping for a party tomorrow night, nice long nap, & a weigh in at Weight Watchers (gained .6 lbs).  Getting ready for garage sales in the morning.

Ruidoso on Dwellable