Saturday, March 5th

Happy birthday Brennan, wow 21, how the years have slipped away.
  We were up and about at a decent hour.  Marg to get ready, me to have breakfast at the hall .  Breakfast was good this AM and they had a good response from the residents.  Actually there were a noticeably larger number of diners who are new to the park.  It seems the park has more vacancies and folks are coming in on a short stay basis now.  Some of this always happens in March, it just seems early for it.
  When I got back, it was time to round up the ladies going to Talking Stick casino. 

There were 5 ladies going with us, fortunately we have the flip-up option on the console that makes the front seat into a bench seat, so not a problem.  They were keen, pumped you might say as this has been a topic with them for a bit now and they had their excitement level worked right up for the event.  They had a pre-arranged 10:30 departure time and believe me no one was late, in fact a couple were early.
  While they were playing, I went up to the Costco around Cave Creek as we need some croissants for the morning.  They always have large packages of them, so I had success.  I also found a 1.75 litre bottle of 12 yr old blended scotch that I bought after reading the characteristics on the label.  I picked up a litre bottle of Bushmill and a 1.75 litre bottle of Irish Cream, all at very good prices.   Then I went on to the PGA golf store in Scottsdale where I handled lots of clubs, shirts and tried out several putters, but alas left without making a purchase.  Then it was back to the casino to await the call.

  From conversation in the truck, it turned out that several of the ladies had not been to Scottsdale and we were right there, so we drove down to Scottsdale road and into the Old Town centre. Patti mentioned the ice cream at the Sugar Bowl and there was a chorus of we want ice cream, so that was our destination.  We really lucked out on finding a good parking stall only about a block from there.  It turned out that Linda was the only big winner today and she insisted on treating the rest to a cone.  Along the way the gals did some window shopping with Linda buying a road runner.

  Then we found a stuffed coyote dressed as a cowboy with 6 shooter and all that they insisted we needed a picture of.  When we got in the truck Patti again was telling about a cowboy type who is famous for singing from the back of his horse and wouldn't you know it we turned the corner and there he was belting out some old cowboy song while sitting in the saddle.
  Then it was back to the park, where we were late for happy hour.  Marg made up for it by whipping up a batch of mango margaritas that went over real well.  While on the road a couple had called their spouses, so 2 Gary's showed up for a couple of brews.  One of them had a taste of the scotch with me & we both agreed that it was quite nice and warranted a 2nd, then a 3rd trial.  A bit of finger food and lots of laughs with this group.
  A busy day, but lots of fun.