I Am Playing in The Philly Home + Garden Pickleball Tournament

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year and a half or so, you have to have heard about the latest sporting activity that has taken over the world. Well, not really taken over the world, but it seems as if everyone is playing it these days. If you don’t know by now, I am talking about pickleball!

Although it is the hottest trend in the sports hobby world right now, and there are even professional leagues on TV, I have yet to play pickleball in my life!

I am someone who usually likes to be active quite a bit, but most of the time that comes in the form of riding my bike!

But that is all going to change this weekend when I play competitive pickleball for the first time!

This Saturday, I am participating in a pickleball tournament at the Philly Home + Garden Show at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA.

This tournament consists of teams of two playing against each other, so you know I had to find the best pickleball partner in the world to be my teammate, and the search was pretty easy if I am being honest.

The first person I thought of to be my teammate was my niece, Lily! After all, she is The GOAT!

If you don’t know, Lily is a Pennsylvania Special Olympics gold medalist, and even swished her free throw opportunity after a Philadelphia 76ers game!

Funnily enough, Lily and I will be taking on Casey Boy from WMMR and his partner in the first round!

Game on, Casey Boy!

For those of you unfamiliar with pickleball, it was originally invented as a children’s backyard game in Bainbridge Island, in Washington state.

Oddly enough, Bainbridge Island is where my good friend and former Sixer, Todd MacCulloch, lives, and Todd is actually an avid pickleball player himself!

Something must be in the water in Bainbridge Island when it comes to pickleball!

Anyway, I’ll be sure to report back how Lily and I do in the tournament, and I am excited to try out pickleball for the first time!

As many of you know after reading my post about the Stanley Cup from yesterday, I spent the last week on vacation down the Jersey shore.

And from many of my other posts before that, you know I enjoy going for some long bike rides — especially down the shore!

So what could be better than squeezing in a nice bike ride on a week's long vacation? Squeezing in a nice bike ride on a week’s long vacation with a great friend of mine, of course!

I got to go on a great ride with my buddy Casey Boy from The Preston and Steve Show on our sister station, WMMR.

We rode through multiple shore towns as we got in a practice ride in preparation for this Sunday’s Ben To The Shore ride! For those that don’t know, the Ben To The Shore Bike Tour is a charity event that raises funds for Families Behind the Badge Children’s Foundation, which is for the families of fallen first responders and police officers.

It is always a lot of fun and something I look forward to each year!

During our practice route, Casey Boy and I rode about 25.81 miles from Wildwood to Town Bank to Cape May Point to Cape May then all the way back to Wildwood where we started.

It was a great time and has me ready to conquer the 65-mile Ben To The Shore ride! This will actually be my tenth year riding in the event and each year it gets better and better.

If you are interested in donating, visit fbbcf.org or visit the Team WMMR Rock and Rollers page.

I can’t wait for Sunday and hopefully, the weather holds up for the ride! I’m sure there will be a lot of people on the ride for this great cause!

Who do you think will cross the finish line first, me or Casey Boy?

Here's a selfie Casey Boy took on our ride. It is of Casey, Pattyann, and myself. What a great crew.

I took this during our ride. I'm not sure how I kept my balance! Just ahead of my leading the way are Casey and Pattyann.

Like I mentioned in the photo above, there they are leading the way. It's a tight bridge like many down the shore. Luckily, we all managed to make it across.

The first sign you see in Town Bank. Apparently, it is the birthplace of the South Jersey. I wonder what it was like in 1635?

Outside the beautiful Willow Creek Winery. What a cool sign. We definitely needed to check this place out on the ride.

The land the winery was on was beautiful. Look at those flowers! The property was huge.

You know we had to make our way into the winery! Riding on the bricks was not as hard as you would think. It was even cooler on the inside.

You know I had to grab a group picture inside the winery! I am actually wearing a jersey from a previous Ben To The Shore ride! I wonder what this year's will look like?

Just a group of people that love a good bike ride. I know we all can't wait for Sunday's ride. Hopefully, the weather is as nice as it was on this day!

The map of our 25-mile ride. We covered so much ground. It is nuts looking at it in map form!