Friday, March 1st

Wow, March already.  The day started out nice and progressed to very nice.  Short pants and shirt sleeves were order of the day.  The sun was out and temperatures were in the 70's.
  I went for a bike ride this morning with 3 other people from the park.  There were 3 Canadians, trying to stay active.  We made about 8 miles today and I was getting close to as much exercise as I needed today.

  When I got back we went down to the front entrance to the park to replace the Canadian flag.  I get them from our local MP, so have taken responsibility for it.  The old one was up there for a couple years and was becoming tattered on the edge where the seam had ripped loose as a result of the strong winds here.  I ran it up the pole, but not all the way as the protocol is no other flag should fly above that of the home country, so this will be slightly lower than the American flag at the other side of the entrance.
   Marg & I went to a couple of yard sales in our area.  I never found anything, however she got a really cool, very old metal sign promoting Jaegermeister, some cutlery, a sugar pincers and a meat tenderizer.  She saw a few other things, but could not make a deal.
  Back home we had some lunch and while still eating Kenny and Doris stopped by to ask if we wanted to go out in the country. 

He has a new .22 pistol [9 shot cylinder] that he wanted to try out as well as he wanted to fire his Kimber .380 automatic [6 shot clip].  He had along a second .22 revolver that has a 6 shot cylinder, so a real six shooter.  We went for a drive through the Bush highway stopping at a few key spots, including Saguaro lake.  After we made our way into a part of the desert where we fired at some boxes set up.  I have to say pistol shooting is new to me, so my skill with one leaves a bit to be desired.

I did manage to put in a reasonable showing, especially with the 6 shooter. The biggest challenge was holding it steady, but figuring out the sights and aiming point was difficult for me.  We did manage to fill the boxes with holes, in any event. 

It was a very scenic trip, with the desert so green from the recent rains and snows.  In fact many of the higher peaks [like Four Peaks shown here] still have snow on them.  One of the surprises was the back side of Superstition is very snowy, while our side is pretty much snow free today.  Saguaro lake was beautiful today, with a very impressive cigarette boat [long fast boat powered by 2 hopped up v-8's] in the marina area.
  When we returned to the park it was almost too late for happy, but as we drove past them on the way in, we went down to catch the last half hour.  It was a bit larger group and of course everyone wanting to know where we had been.  A couple of the guys there are the ones who go into the shooting ranges to collect brass and sell it for scrap.  So we told them we went to look for brass for them, but finding none had to make some.  While at happy, Kenny got together a small group to go out for supper tonight.  We went to Dirtwater cafe so we could sit in the bar out back where they have entertainment.  There were 9 of us, so it took a bit of time to get a table.  Several people came by to chat us up, including the owner, the singer and a guy who worked on transmission towers around GP.  It is Friday, so they have a cod fish special.  Seven had fish, while two of us had something else.  The singer even performed Four Strong Winds, written and originally done by one of my favourites, Ian Tyson when he was still with Sylvia.  We should sleep well tonight.