Marisa Farnsworth and Alex Weiner are driving the PB5star van across the U.S. for a pickleball road trip of a lifetime.

Trekking from Florida to California, they’re stopping at some of the biggest hotspots and sites in the sport while promoting their court shoes with a grassroutes marketing approach. 

Farnsworth, the senior director of marketing and e-commerce, and Weiner, the events and account manager, hit the road Wednesday.

“We have a van that Alex drives to events and some of the bigger tournaments in Florida. We wanted to take the van over to the West Coast for a season, and I thought why don’t we drive the van across the country and find pickleball spots along the way?” explained Farnsworth. “We started in Palm Beach. That’s where the van is kept. And we went straight to Fort Lauderdale, then we went to Naples, then St. Pete, and we got to The Villages late last night.”

And that was only Day 1. 

So far, Farnsworth and Weiner were incredibly impressed by St. Pete Athletic Club. 

“That’s the nicest, bougiest athletic club. I love that it’s so focused on pickleball and every detail was so beautiful there,” praised Farnsworth. “We saw some pros training there, and that was so cool to see.”

Over the next few weeks, Farnsworth and Weiner will travel to Pensacola, New Orleans, Houston, Austin, and Dallas, before heading to New Mexico, Arizona, before finishing their route in Santa Monica, California.  

Even in the early stages of the trip, they’re already realizing their timeline may be more flexible than expected.

“We’re covering 20 cities in 16 days, but we’ve already learned that the timeline we’ve made for ourselves might not be perfectly followed. For example, last night we were supposed to get in at 6pm and we didn’t get in until 10pm,” mentioned Farnsworth. “I love the quote ‘Learn by doing.’ We took five weeks to plan this, and we’re excited to get closer with our customers and have those face-to-face interactions and connect with people on the court. We’ve already learned that our stops take twice as long as we thought they would and we’ve already had to stop at Best Buy to buy some tech we needed. Each day is a new experience and something different.”

Despite the scale of the journey, Farnsworth and Weiner have only spent about 48 hours together in person. With Farnsworth based in California and Weiner in Florida, they’re now diving headfirst into life on the road together for the next few weeks.

“It’s only Day 2, but we’re doing all right,” said Weiner. “We’re both pretty easygoing. We have some rules like whoever is driving gets to pick whatever music or podcast we’re listening to.” 

This is no small undertaking. With families and loved ones back home, the timing aligned well for both of them.

“We’re both at the right stage in our life. Alex isn’t married and doesn’t have kids yet, so she’s got a little bit of freedom,” noted Farnsworth. “Both my kids are in college and my husband and I work from home, so it was an easy time for me to get away.”

Looking ahead, both are especially excited about their upcoming stops in Texas.

“I’ve never been to Austin,” said Weiner. “I know the food scene is really good, and the workout and fitness scene is amazing, so I’m looking forward to checking it all out.”

The PB5star team is already thinking beyond this trip, too, with hopes that their sprinter van won’t be parked for long once this journey wraps.

“We’re calling it “The Pickleball Route” and we’re hoping that people will follow along,” concluded Farnsworth. “If it all works out, we’d love to do different legs or take different routes, maybe from the southwest to the Pacific Northwest.”

As the PB5star van makes its way through some of the sport’s biggest hotspots, this feels like just the beginning. And it’s a journey worth following every mile of the way.

Follow their trip on Instagram. And to keep up to date on all things pickleball, follow Pickleball.com on Instagram.