The title about says it all. Kay played pickleball on Thursday morning.

Happy hour was at the Seitz’s and because of the wind we gathered inside their spacious motor coach. Steve and Mary served pulled pork with slaw and there were assundry food and snacks from which to choose.

Too windy for pickleball, Friday was a “wash” as far as outside activities were concerned. We did enjoy dinner with the HSV group at Airport Inn.

A break in the weather allowed for pickleball to be played on Saturday and golf on Sunday. My pickleball game is picking up a bit, but I still need to work on dinking and returning more to the center, and to being more deliberate in play. As a former pro and current 5.0 player said a couple weeks ago, you “have more time that you think.” Kay is playing really well and fits in with her 3.0 group just fine, holding her own in most games. And, golf is getting more comfortable, though there are a lot of mental and physical mistakes in both our respective games.

Monday was a fully scheduled and busy day: photography at Gilbert, cycling parts of the Indian Wash Bend Path, and shopping at COSTCO. We drove north fairly early Monday, arriving at the Gilbert Water Ranch (aka Riparian Preserve at Gilbert) south and east of Phoenix about 9:00 am. No woodpeckers were hanging out on the large Saguaro Cacti as we entered, but European Starlings, Anna’s Hummingbirds, and Curved-bill Thrashers were numerous.

The “ponds” have been low this winter, so water birds were limited. A few Neotropic Cormorants were sunbathing, and a Green Heron was lounging on the pond bank. A Snowy Egret was wading nearby, but the Black-necked Stilt stayed far away. .

Flitting about among the small limbs of several trees, a Yellow-rumped Warbler (aka Butter Butt) paused for only a couple of seconds, but long enough to snap a photo.

As we neared the bathroom facility situated near the center of the pond array, a brightly-colored bird appeared in the low branches of a nearby tree. Hoping it was a Streaked-back Oriole, I was happily surprised to learn that it was an immature male Vermillion Flycatcher. This is only the second one I’ve observed, having seen the first at Falcon Lake, Texas, in late January 2018.

On a tight timeline, we departed just before 11 am, driving to meet up with other HSV folks for lunch before cycling in Scottsdale. Lunch was at Clancy’s and it was really good, and they had Guinness draught beer on tap, a rarity (at least for us) in the US. After lunch it was short walk to PedalJetz E-bikes. Steve, Mary, and Kay rented e-bikes and Norm and I used our own.

The ride took us to the Indian Wash Bend Path northward to the “horse heads.” These sculptures deserve a bit more explanation. Situated at its dramatic narrowing point, the horse heads sculpture titled Water Mark crowns the Indian Bend Wash and Scottsdale’s innovative flood control greenbelt. A series of five 14-foot high aluminum equine gargoyle sculptures spaced 125 feet apart graces the drop structure in the north basin atop stepped charcoal gray concrete plinths. Directed towards the passing traffic, each gargoyle strikes a different pose and stands sentinel, some with ears pricked back to hear impending flows, which can envelope but never overtake them. During dramatic flash flooding, water pours from the gargoyles’ mouths. Can you imagine something like this being recommended by the US Army Corps of Engineers?

Turning around, we rode south along the edge of the Chaparral and Camelback Parks and a couple of golf courses. Just a couple miles south of PedalJetz, we stopped for an afternoon “suds” before pedaling north and returning the rented cycles.

Kay and I left the group at this point and shopped briefly at Costco before driving to the resort in Casa Grande, ending a full and tiring day.