My husband and I started a new tradition when I turned 60 two years ago. Let’s go somewhere fun and play pickleball for my birthday. When I hit the big 60, we traveled to Las Vegas to play at the Plaza. For those of you that don’t know, the pickleball courts are on the pool deck on about the 5th floor. Shockingly, it was pretty chilly in Vegas on December 30. But we did find one other couple who was visiting from Canada, and we had a few good matches, weather allowing.

Then Covid hit and we did not travel anywhere for my birthday the following year. So, we still have Covid, but things seem a bit more flexible. In September we started planning for my 62nd birthday pickleball adventure. We have both been vaccinated and boosted and were ready to go. But this time, let’s go somewhere we are pretty sure will be warm and beautiful. Let’s try Punta Gorda, Florida!

Getting there however, proved to be a bit of a challenge. As I said earlier, we made these plans in September, hotel reservations and flights. We got our bags packed on Sunday for our Monday morning flight. Got up at 6 a.m. Monday morning to learn that our flight had been canceled. Remember seeing all those flight cancellations after Christmas on the news? Yup, ours was one of those. At least we hadn’t gotten to the airport, which is two hours away.

My husband couldn’t book a flight that day, so he found us a flight for Tuesday. The non-stop flights were all gone, so we would have to fly from Dallas to Charlotte, North Carolina and change planes to get to Ft Myers. DFW Airport is a very large place and we have always parked at the Remote North parking lot. It’s just easier than parking at one of the terminals. We arrived at the North Remote Parking to see that it was closed. We have never seen that. Should have known that was a bad sign. We drove into the airport and parked at the terminal our plane was assigned to at 8:15 a.m., checked in and boarded our plane right on time. Exciting. After sitting on that plane for about 45 minutes it was announced that we had a bad tire and that it would take at least an hour to replace it. That means, we will miss our connecting flight. Then they made us all get off the plane.

Lots of people on the plane had connecting flights and now had to find other flights, including us. We found a nonstop from Dallas to Ft Myers, but it didn’t leave until 3:55 p.m. We spent a lot of time Monday wandering the airport all masked up. We boarded the plane on time, and we sit, and we sit, and we sit. About an hour later, we were told that the plane had a mechanical problem, and we all had to get off. Really? Again? This time they are going to find us another plane.

All 173 of us had to go from Terminal A to Terminal D via Skylink. We boarded our new plane, and we were finally on our way. It just took one car, two trains and three planes. The sun was setting, and the day was pretty much done in Dallas. Next up, Punta Gorda.

By the time we landed in Ft Myers, got our rental car and drove up to Punta Gorda, it was 10:30 p.m., and we were exhausted. Tomorrow would be a new day.

We got up, ate a little breakfast and headed out to find the Pickleplex in Punta Gorda. This is a fantastic pickleball venue with 16 beautiful courts. All the courts were full when we arrived, and they were already “stacking paddles.” We signed up, paid our $5 guest fee, stacked our paddles and waited our turn. We played each of the three mornings we were there and met some really nice people. They were very welcoming, and everyone was around our age and skill level. Mostly retired peeps who were wintering in Florida or who had moved to Florida. And why not? The weather was fantastic. I think it was 82 each day we were there, no wind and no rain. It was perfect.

We have never been to that part of Florida, and we know that we want to go back. Lots to see and do besides pickleball. We ate at two very yummy restaurants; Hemingway’s and Carmello’s Italian for my birthday. Carmello’s may be our new favorite restaurant. We had lunch at the Village Fish Market overlooking the bay and took walks along the water. The margarita I had from the bar at the top of the Wyvern Hotel packed quite a punch, but I am a bit of a lightweight. Thank you, Punta Gorda, for your hospitality. Maybe next time we bring the RV and stay for an entire month.

The retirement countdown continues, less than five months to go.