We made the big move (30 miles) to the northwest side of Grand Rapids to stay at Conestoga Grand River Campground.
Sounds impressive, but….not too bad. A lot of permanent renters and it’s on top of the bluff overlooking the Grand River, but it’s dated. Could be a great place with some tlc:
After getting set up we headed over to Belknap Park where Katrina was able to get some pickleball practice in before the weekend tournament. Afterwards we stopped at the City Built Brewing Company for some appetizers and brews.
Nice place with some excellent food! Cheers to my birthday! Or in the words of my German friend, Sonja: Zicke Zacke heu heu heu!
The next day we met up with an old Sweat X workmate of Katrina’s, Patrick Dermyer for lunch at Turk’s Tavern located in Nunica.
Nice lunch and conversation catching up with him and his life after leaving the company.
Friends told us to check out the sand dunes along Lake Michigan so we obtained a side-by-side the next day from Silverback Offroad Rental in Silver Lake. What a hoot going up and over the dunes:
This guy didn’t do so well:
We had a ball! We both got a chance to drive – Katrina drove the biggest dunes right away!
Katrina and Amy were able to get out and do a little shopping.
So glad that I didn’t have to go….
Katrina found a women’s double partner, Norma, via a gal she had met playing pickleball at the last srop and went to play some games with her the day before the tournament. They were able to get a few games in for practice. She also got a mixed doubles partner for the next day but didn’t get a chance to play with him.
Tournament day. The Pickleball Exchange hosted the event at the Grand Valley State University tennis courts. Not the most professionally run tournament that Katrina has been in, but still enjoyable. The women’s doubles started at 10:20am and after round robin play brackets were created. Norma and Katrina only lost one match during round robin and both of the teams ended up smashing and dinking for the gold.
The good guys prevailed!
GOLD!
That contest ended about 3:30 and Katrina immediately turned around to start playing mixed doubles with Scott Cooper who she met about an hour before. Talk about tiring – I was exhausted watching! During the round robin matches Katrina and Scott were undefeated which led to giving them a bye for bracket play. They were able to work their way up to the final game when, as luck would have it, they lost. That meant that they got the silver medal!
All in all, Katrina did great by winning gold snd silver with partners that she had never played with before! Congratulations babe! For those pickleball players out there: during play Katrina got an a ATP – her first ever! So proud!
To celebrate her wins (and my patience) we stopped by 5 de Mayo for some Mexican food and a Michelada and a margarita.
We sat at the bar as the place was packed! The food was really good!
Since it rained the following day we decided to hang by the coach and get caught up with laundry and other items as our next stop was ”mooch-docking”.
2 Comments
Margie Moore · June 8, 2022 at 3:08 pm
Congratulations Katrina! Woohoo! 👏 I do not play pickle ball but have friends that do. So tell us non-players what an ATP is! 👍
admin · June 15, 2022 at 12:11 pm
ATP stands for around the post. I hit the pickleball from the far right very low outside the court area onto the other side and into play. Won the point!