Gold Canyon Turns Green

Happy St Patty’s Day. Another hot one here in Gold Canyon; at least the desert vegetation is ‘playing the game’ and wearing the right color for this holiday. We’ve NEVER seen it so lush and green and blooming and alive.

Sue on her bicycle We got on our bicycles this morning at around 9 o’clock — hoping to get at least 20kms in before it got too hot to ride. All along our ‘loop’, I couldn’t help but notice how green everything is. And I don’t mean only the blooming desert — no, even the walkers and cyclists and golfers were all wearing green today. We almost had to stop at the bridge overlooking holes 3, 4, and 5 on Sidewinder to watch green golfers making putts on green greens.

When we got back to the house Sue headed out to the pool for an hour of reading before lunch. I took a look at a couple of posts I made here exactly 3 years ago. Wow! what a boring life we live! It’s almost creepy how similar things were here in 2012 (and at home — the temperature in Steinbach for March 17, 2012 was 17 degrees!). (Here’s what we did March 14 (Pi Day), 15 (Ides of March), 17 (St. Patrick’s Day) — but NOT 18! in 2012).

Rudy golfingAfter lunch I took the leaf-blower to our putting green. We both showered and got into our finest GREEN clothes. A few clouds rolled across the sky. We decided to high-tail it out to Apache Creek for some cheap golf (and a cart to ride in so we’d be in the shade).

We got there just before 3pm. No, they would not guarantee that we’d get in 18 holes; we’d have to have the cart back by 6:30. No problem. We’ll see how far we get.

We won’t get very far if that first hole is any indication: two shots into the water! I marked down a NINE. But I parred the next hole. And the scattered clouds kept the heat manageable. We watched the pair ahead of us — grandpa and his young grand-daughter, who only hit the ball a few times, despite at least a hundred swings at it.

The back nine was better than the front; the young lady had plum-tuckered herself out swinging that club. A cool Amber Bock helped quench our thirst. And we started to hit the ball better too.

We caught up with an annoying foursome ahead and things slowed down a bit again. But the sun setting and coloring Superstition Mountain as it went down made the waits at each tee box okay. And we actually finished 18 holes, although the last chip shot was onto a green where the flag had already been taken away. I finished with 3 pars and 9 bogeys — not a great score, but a work in progress.

After throwing our clubs back into the van, we zipped over to the In-N-Out Burger on Signal Butte. Is this St Patty’s Day turning into a ‘red-letter’ day, or what? Yum!

Back at the ranch a little after eight. We check our email and then back in front of the TV. We finished watching the last 3 episodes of “The Honorable Woman”. Good show. No problem staying awake today! It’s almost midnight and we’re both still awake. Now if only I had a cold Guinness in the fridge, I’d drink one more toast to St. Patrick. Until next year…