The DUPR Double Dip
Posted on December 9, 2022 by Ching under Community, Food and Drink, Pickleball, Travel.
My “DUPR Double Dip” weekend over Thanksgiving break is hands down one of the highlights of my entire pickleball year. It’s the best things about going to pickleball tournaments without actually playing in one.
My weekend started in Oklahoma City for my friend Tanner Rice’s Friday night group play at Hidden Trails Country Club. I arrived early enough to get my butt kicked at ping pong, which I am decent at, and, even though Tanner told me “he wasn’t very good” at it, his concept of “not very good” is still better than me. The guy is just good at everything.
I also learned the basics of Euchre, which is a super complex card game. Tanner teamed up with Erica Dennis against Katie Merrill and me. It helped that Katie is a ace card player, who is really great at Euchre, and so I think I understand the game enough now that, whenever she and I have to play our friend Ramon Lozano and Tanner at some point (when our #TeamBonding thing ever happens — more on this later), we are going to smoke ’em.
Anyway, we ended up not reporting the results of the Friday night session because one of the players had an emergency and couldn’t make it. I still had a ton of fun, though. I met and played with new people who I’d never met or played with before and that’s kinda my jam. Oh, and I hit a sweet ATP — even without the potential payout as an incentive.
Katie rode to OKC with Erica and then spent the night with me at Avid so the two of us got to do a little “team bonding” with just the two of us. The more I get to know Katie the more I love her. She is just an all-around great human being.
The next morning, the two of us rode to Tulsa together and bonded some more. She took me to her favorite lunch spot in Brookside called Blue Moon Cafe.
It’s hip little place that serves great sandwiches, salads, and other things. I don’t know much about Tulsa but apparently Brookside is kind of the place to go dining and shopping and such.
Here are some pictures of our food…
After lunch, we went to LaFortune early to help set up for the “Paddle Off the Turkey” DUPR event. Tanner was actually working in the area and decided to swing by to help Ryan and Caroline Luelf with their event by entering scores, taking some pictures and videos, and even helping with tear down. So I didn’t get any pictures from Friday because we were all playing but, since Tanner didn’t play on Saturday, I actually have some pics and clips to share. Thank you, Tanner!
I was super impressed with Ryan and Caroline’s DUPR event. They were highly organized and I love that they took the time to group everyone that that the games would be more competitive. Here’s how my rounds went:
Round #1 —- I played with Genevieve Eskridge and Amanda and Jordan Jones (this amazing mom and daughter duo from Edmond). I only won one game this round but the scores were super close. Genevieve and Iost 12-14 and Amanda and I lost 8-11. When I played with Jordan, we won 12-10. She was super excited bec she prefers left side and I prefer right side and so we stacked on our serves. It was my first time playing with the Joneses and it was a blast!
Round #2 —- I played with Caroline, Colby Fugit, and Kali Wilson. This was my favorite round of all because I won all 3 games. And, Kali and came back from being down 2-9 to win our game against Caroline and Colby, 12-10. It was epic!
Round #3 —- I also loved this round because we got to play mixed doubles and I love mixed! Mike Ward and I were paired against Jesse Mabon and Erica Dennis. It was my first time ever playing with Mike and first time meeting and playing against Jesse. The format was best 2 of 3 games to 11, win by 2, but if one team wins in straight games then you switch partners and still play a 3rd game. We split games so ours was a legit 2 out of 3. It went 11-4, 3-11, 11-6. There was clearly a better side but Mike and I pulled it out in the end.
Round #4 —- This was my 5-player group with Caroline Luelf, Erica Dennis, Jordan Jones, and Ben Meyer. This was my worst round. I think in part because we were in hour 4 of playing and also because there was a long break between the previous round and this one. You will see in my DUPR match history that my scores were not good this round.
Anyway, I loved getting to play with different people and I loved how they set up the groups so that the matches would be more competitive. I’m so glad that I made the trip to check out both Tanner’s Friday night session and Ryan and Caroline’s DUPR event because I learned so much this weekend. I can’t wait to implement some of the things I learned at my own events so that matches will be even more fun and competitive for all the players.
On Saturday night, after playing, a bunch of us decided to check out Roosevelt’s. We wanted to have dinner there but the wait was over an hour so we stayed and took some pics while we waited for everyone to arrive but then ultimately ended up eating a nearby Mexican restaurant called Chimi’s instead.
Here are some pictures of our dinner…
You can never go wrong with Mexican food!
We took some pictures on our way back to the car after dinner.
It was so great that a couple of friends from Wichita (Colby Fugit and Ben Meyer) came to check out the DUPR event and also joined us for dinner.
I am so grateful to Katie for letting me stay with her that weekend. I not only got to bond with her but also met and bonded with her sweet dog Rosie. It was the best weekend ever and one that I won’t soon forget, specially now that I’ve written about it here. Definitely one of the highlights of the year for me. I just love spending time with my Oklahoma friends and can’t wait to visit them again. I’m already counting the days until my next OKC tournament! Until then, GNG.
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Bringing Back Queen of Court on December 10, 2022
[…] 28. I generally don’t like to win my own events but I think I was still so pumped from my #DUPRDoubleDib weekend so I ended up doing really well and winning. So now I’m the reigning queen, at least, until […]