Pond Life

I caught this little guy sticking his head out of the water at the pond down the road this morning shortly after sunrise. And the bird (not sure what kind), sat on a bush for about 5 minutes preening itself. Both shot with my 500 lens with 1.4 converter from the driver's seat while parked (of course).

I played pickleball for the first time in a month after injuring my wrist. Hardly any pain anymore, just the odd twinge every now and then. I still have the wrist wrapped for extra support. I think things went pretty well. Played well and rested lots too.

A bunch of us went out for brunch at Bob Evans.....kind of our Easter dinner and it was very nice. We have a last supper planned for Homer's on April 16th, a few days before everyone packs up and heads for home. I'm running the rig up to Lazydays in Tampa next Sunday and will pick Chris up at the airport later that same day.

Pickleball Injury

Yes....they do happen!

Playing yesterday morning, I tweaked my right wrist and may have stretched a tendon. Couldn't swing my paddle without some pain on the lateral side of my wrist. Hopefully, nothing serious, but a few days off will do me good.

Update on the sandhill cranes seen in my last post. I haven't seen them around the pond for the last few days. The pond is drying up fast and usually dries out completely every spring. A tractor mower was seen cutting the grass and reeds right down to the water level a few days ago. The chicks weren't capable of flight yet, so it is hard to say where they may have gone.

Heartland Senior Games (Pickleball)

Pickleball ruled at Tanglewood for the last two days. Friday was mens and ladies doubles matches. Saturday was mixed doubles matches. We witnessed some great matches and, as a photographer, referee and player (all at different times of course), I managed to get a ringside seat for most of the games. We met many new friends and got reacquainted with some old ones too. I think this event was a definite homerun for Tanglewood and my thanks to Wayne Roswell and the many, many volunteers for helping to bring it all together.

I only played on Friday as my mixed doubles partner was back in Ottawa bringing in the bacon unfortunately. Travis Weaver, a great player and friend, who we met in Peace River last year, carried me as his mens double partner for much of the day. He even had to come down into my age 50-59 age group. What a guy! Anyway, I think we played 10 games on a very long and hot day. We even managed to take the silver medal. Not too shabby.

As the guy who is normally taking the photographs, I don't usually get to be the subject of many of them. My thanks to Roy Boisvert for sending me the one you see here. Nice job Roy! For those of you looking for my tournament photos, they are now available for viewing on my Smugmug page. Just click the title of this blog entry and you should be sent there.

Lastly, tournament results are now online and can be viewed at:

http://usapa.org/tourney/bracket_list.php?tname=heartland09

Pickleball and Photography

Tanglewood is hosting the Senior Games pickleball tournament this weekend and I have been asked to have my camera with me, so I thought a little practice might be in order. Weather is warming up again nicely so I threw on my 17-40mm wide angle and grabbed these shots this morning. The one of Rich serving was taken with me laying on the court right below where he was striking the ball. Shutter Priority mode at around 1/1000 sec. I could feel the air rush by as he smacked the ball. All comments welcome please.

Pickleball Lessons

Rich and Donna Donald arranged to have Dick "Mo" Movessian from The Villages come to Tanglewood to give some intermedate and advanced pickleball lessons on Friday and Saturday afternoon. Both classes were filled with eager students looking for tips and strategies on how to improve their game. I attended the first session on Friday afternoon just to take some photos and learned a lot just from watching. Saturday's class was a lot of fun and we all have things to practise now before any tournaments. One thing I learned and have been already incorporating into my game, is that there is more to banging away at the ball to make a point. I am trying more of a finesse game now and my game seems to have come up a few notches as a result.

Thanks Mo for a great lesson and thank you Rich and Donna for organizing things. Now if I could only find your website!

Pickleball Crawl

Tanglewood had their first annual Pickleball Crawl this morning. Wayne Roswell came up with different crazy rules for each game. Most people played at least 7 games. Different rules included such things as reverse scoring, lobs only, no backhands, kitchen area only in bounds, paddle in wrong hand, etc. A good time was had by all. Good job everyone!

These players enjoyed the tangerines from trees in Bill's back yard.
Paddles all lined up and ready to go for the morning's activities. We played until 12:30 pm when the pizzas arrived.
The final event was the pickleball crawl line dance on the old courts led by Sherrie. Well done ladies and gents. Thankfully, the photographer didn't have to demonstrate his two left feet. Phew!!!

Heritage Propane Delivers....finally

A quiet, hot day here at Tanglewood today. I think I am still recovering from mild dehydration after yesterday's pickleball matches. I played this morning again but went pretty easy. Another 80F day here today, but thankfully there is a breeze as well. Swimming tomorrow morning instead of pickleball. Nothing wrong with a little variety now and then.

Spent the day cleaning up around the RV today. Have to have everything ship shape for Chris's arrival on Jan 10th. I also worked a bit in Lightroom using a colour desaturation technique I learned on the internet. I dropped all the green in the leaves in the above photo before pumping up the orange just a bit. I thought it came out pretty well. Almost good enough to eat.

The propane delivery truck came by yesterday afternoon ... finally. Apparently, they were just too busy to come by last Friday as scheduled. The delivery truck has a huge propane tank on the back and a high volume hose that filled up our RV propane tank in about 30 seconds. I thought that was pretty impressive, given that past fill ups at campgrounds and service stations usually take 5 minutes or more, and that is after you have waited in line for up to 30 minutes on occasion as well. Total cost was $41, which I thought pretty reasonable given our tank was less than one third full. This was the first time we had used a delivery truck and I would definitely do so again. Sure saves packing up the rig and having to drive to the propane supplier.

Sebring International Raceway

We played some awesome pickleball matches this morning at Tanglewood. A lot of very close games on the challenge side with Rich and I pitted against Al and Jeff. We never seemed to be more than 2 or 3 points apart all morning.

After a quick shower and some lunch, I headed for Sebring International Raceway. Those of you reading this blog regularly may recall that I encountered a lady the other morning, while I was photographing the sunrise at the lake, who said the track would be quite busy this weekend with local cars running all day Saturaday and Sunday. So I headed on out there, only to find that I was the only car out there! The track entrance was open though, so I did manage to get in and take a few photos. What a great place. I may have a chance to go to the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, so was hoping to hone my photography skills a little, but that will have to wait for another day.

I also explored the local airport while out at the raceway and came upon this medevac helicopter parked on the pad while the pilot was in having lunch. No one said not to, so I took a few photos of the chopper as well. Pretty fancy rig for sure.

The Raceway and airport are side by each about 6-7 miles out of Sebring on Kenilworth Road. It is a nice drive out because both sides of the road are lined with orange groves. I've been meaning to get some photos of orange trees for months now and today was an ideal time to do it. It is amazing how the trees do so well given the sandy soil but they certainly thrive in it and with some irrigation thrown into the mix as well.

It has been a busy week. We spent Christmas Day in Wauchula visiting our friends Jim and Jane for Christmas Dinner. They both did a fabulous job with dinner and we had a great afternoon visiting with both old and new friends as well. Nothing like a group of friends getting together to solve the world's problems. Lets see, Jim and Jane, Barb and Bob, Dennis and Barb, Stan and Sally, Ken and Faye, Dick and Dot.......I'm sure I didn't remember everybody either. We didn't head home until after 8 pm.

Chris and I even drove back over to Zolfo Springs last Friday so we could all go to the Pioneer Restaurant for dinner. Their fish and chips, made with sweet potato fries, is very good.

I caught this sunrise out our front door a few days before Christmas. The Outback area where we are is filling up as the late arriving snowbirds finally get here.

I took this picture of Ranger Dick while we were walking off Christmas dinner. Dick was "on patrol" in his golf cart and told me he doesn't like having his picture taken. I think it turned out quite well. Wonder what he is smiling about?

Chris returned to Ottawa on Saturday but will be down again in January. The bus strike is still going in Ottawa and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight either. I'm keeping busy with pickleball in the mornings and even tried water volleyball in the pool on Sunday afternoon. Definitely more of a social event than anything else, but still great fun.

Torrey Oaks RV and Golf Resort

On Saturday afternoon, a bunch of Tanglewood pickleballers headed over to Torrey Oaks in Bowling Green, FL for a pickleball scramble. Jean and the Torrey Oaks crew did an excellent job of organizing and hosting the afternoon. We all played at least 3 games and then had a potluck afterwards on the patio. What a nice park. Ken and I took drive around on a golf cart. Lots are big with many of them lining the golf course. Costs for golf are quie reasonable too. Eighteen holes with a cart for less than $25.00. Still lots of sites available but apparently they are expecting 35 coaches to arrive in the coming days. The park is new and comes with every possible amenity. Please click on the title to link to the resort's website.

Here are a few photos of the many faces at the scramble. Congratulations to the mens and ladies winners pictured above.

Supper Time

Another day with a couple of hours of pickleball this morning. Beautiful day today. Sunny and hot. Certainly much better here than the white mess being experienced in southern Ontario at the moment. I watched the Ottawa news tonight though and long range forecast for next Monday and Tuesday is clear and sunny but cold. Should be great flying weather for Chris.

Managed to get out for a little Christmas shopping today, so that is all done now. Gassed up for less than $20 today at RaceTrac. Regular was selling for $1.52/gallon. Amazing how much fuel has come down in price since last summer.

That's my supper above, cooking on the stove top. Available light photograph at ISO 1600. A little soft focus but the colours turned of pretty well. You can even see the steam rising from the pan.

A bunch of us are heading to Torrey Oaks RV Resort in Bowling Green to play pickleball tomorrow afternoon. That's just north of Wauchula on Hwy 17. One of our pickleball friends from Peace River last year is working at Torrey Oaks and has invited a bunch of us over to try out their new courts. Should be fun.

Pickleball Tournament

We had a great tournament at Tanglewood today. The weather was a little cool to start with this morning but it warmed up into the high 60sF by the afternoon. All four courts were busy with the men's matches conducted on two courts and the ladies matches on the other two courts.
Competition was good on both sides with many hard fought matches. All entrants received a goodie bag containing a free ticket for lunch, a raffle ticket and other nice things from the tournament sponsors.
Travis and I played reasonably well but lost our first draw on the "A" side of the tournament to Marcel and Al unfortunately. That put us on the "B" side against Bob Hughes and his partner Pat. We were fortunate to beat them after losing the first game. Our next oponents were Bill and Marvin. We won that match in two straight games which then pitted us against Jimmy and Jim in the gold medal match on the "B" side. They are both great Tanglewood players and outplayed Travis and I in the "B" final. It was a long day and neither of us had much left for that last match. Travis and I both walked away with the silver medal which we thought was pretty good for not having played too much together yet this year.

Rich Donald (pictured above) and Al Goldberg won the mens "A" event in a hard fought final match. Congratulations to them. Sorry, but I don't have all the results. I was too busy playing, taking photos and having a good time. We even had our own clowns who managed to keep everyone in stitches with their antics. Good job girls!

Boating at Tanglewood

I stopped by the lake in Tanglewood after pickleball the other day and saw about a dozen people on shore prepping their one metre long radio controlled boats for the morning races. I watched for about 15 minutes and was amazed at how responsive and fast these boats really are. Beginning sailors were given a head start in the race with the more experienced sailors bringing up the rear. Boy, these boats are fast too! Everyone was very friendly and had no objections to me taking a few photographs.

I managed to get in a great swim yesterday morning and then played a little pickleball with the "big dogs". We even won a few games against some of the best players in the park. I was pooped after a very active morning. Buddy and I enjoyed a nice afternoon snooze before joining friends at a local Mexican restaurant for supper.

Thankfully, temperatures and humidity have dipped overnight in this part of Florida at least. Forecast is for cooler temps for the next week or so. Still very pleasant though.

Settling In

We've been busy learning our way around this huge complex. We played pickleball yesterday morning and had a great time. People seem really friendly. We also took a drive around Sebring yesterday afternoon. Managed to get the Vue washed and vacuumed at a custom car wash. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes. Chris says the Walmart is great too.

Our water heater has been acting up since we left Canada. Propane works fine to heat the water but the electric option is not working. I called a local RV repair place and they came over around noon today to have a look at it. The tech found a burnt wire on the element at the rear of the tank which is very odd. The 15 amp circuit breaker protecting the heater has not tripped so something is definitely not right. The tech repaired the wiring but now we can't figure why there is no power past the breaker. He called Fleetwood and obtained a bunch of information from them. The tech will come back on Monday to sort the problem for good hopefully.

We'll be up for more pickleball tomorrow morning. Bob and Cathy Hughes took Rich, Donna and both of us over to the tennis courts last night and gave us some lessons. It was a lot of fun but will definitely take some time to get the hang of it. Hoping to try out the pool tomorrow as well.

Weather has improved over the last two days. Temps have been in the high 80s under clear blue skies.

TTN Orlando

It rained quite heavily in South Carolina last night. We were up early and hit the road at 7 am after a bit of breakfast. Skies soon cleared and the roads dried off nicely. Traffic on I-95 was moderate until we hit Orlando. We cruised at 60-65 mph the whole way and only had to slow down for a little bit of road construction north of Brunswick, Georgia. Diesel was a little more expensive at the Flying J there at $3.139/gallon cash sale. Still a far cry from what we say last winter. I figure this will be my last fill up until we head back to Ontario in the spring. All together we spent less than $1000 on fuel to get south and that included filling with propane before we left Ottawa as well.

Chris used the slow cooker and had a roast with potatoes and veggies on slow cook all the way into Orlando. It smelled heavenly. We ate lunch on the road while driving to save us a little time.

We pulled into Thousand Trails just after 1:30 pm. Check in was at the ranger station instead of with guest services. I guess that will change next week. The ranger told us to go find a site and then come back and tell him where we set up. G loop was pretty well full, so not too many 50 amp sites available there. We did find a nice level 50 amp site at E59. We set up quickly and were happy to see that everything is working properly. I wasn't sure if the water heater worked on electric or not as we had used mainly propane on the way down. But it is working just fine.

We walked over to play a little pickleball around 3:30 pm or so. There weren't too many players, but enough for a few doubles matches. Neither of us had played since last spring and were both a little rusty. We were both pleased with how well we played considering the extended layoff. We didn't play too long, opting to get back into it slowly.

We'll be here until Wednesday around noon when we'll pack up and hit the road for Sebring. Temp here in Orlando today was 27C or 80F.

Colonial Williamsburg

We went for a power walk around the park this morning and who do we run in to? Ty Fallone, who we had met at Orlando playing pickleball this past winter. He and his wife are on their way back to Connecticut. Ty joined Chris and I on the pickleball court at 9 am where we played round robin for a couple of hours. Basically 2 on 1, where the single player serves against the other 2. Only the single player can score. Each player keeps track of their score and when you lose your serve you rotate to the side with two players. Pretty neat way to play if you are a player short. No other pickleball players at the park unfortunately.

This afternoon we headed over to Colonial Williamsburg to do a little sightseeing. The old town is laid out very well and it was great to walk around seeing the actors dressed in period costumes while getting a very good idea of how things looked back in 1700. We only had a few hours to look around so we opted to do a tour without actually buying a ticket. Colonial Williamsburg is open to the public without admission except for buildings coded in red which require a ticket to get in.

The sheep shearing was interesting to see. The guy was using manual shears, nothing electric about them. The sheep just laid there, sitting on its haunches enjoying the haircut. It was 85F this afternoon, so I am sure the sheep must have been cooler without all that wool. Other pictures are of buildings we saw, including the Governor's Mansion. You can also see one of Chris in the post office buying stamps so she can mail her Mother's Day card. Unfortunately, we had left the card in the car. The post office apparently gets lots of requests from collectors to stamp envelopes with the Colonial Williamsburg post mark.

Forest Lake Is Great

We took Buddy for a walk around the park last night after supper. I snapped a few pictures of this really nice little lake. Not sure what type of fish are in it but they are big suckers! We saw a few at the surface while gazing out from our vantage point on the bridge. Easily 3-4 pounds.

It was very peaceful here last night until about 5 am this morning when every bird in North Carolina decided to gather outside our bedroom window to see who could chirp the loudest. They even woke up Buddy, which is very difficult to do, unless of course you bear gifts....of the food variety.

After breakfast, we donned our runners and went for a great power walk around the park. We were in among the trees for most of it, following the myriad of trails they have here. Chris's shin is still a little too tender for any running, especially on gravel roads and dirt paths. The walk was fabulous! Excellent place for trail running.

We also played a little one-on-one pickleball when we got back. Guess who won? Heh Heh Heh! You can see from the picture that the courts are in great shape. Great place for a future tournament perhaps? Any takers?

As mentioned yesterday, the park is only about half full and some amenities are not up and running yet because it is too early in the season. Presently, the country store is only open on weekends so we won't be able to check it out at all, given that we leave for Chesapeake Bay tomorrow morning. Grounds and maintenance crews are busy getting ready for another busy summer.

Should be on the road early tomorrow. GPS says driving time will be about 6 hours.