Walking with Steve and Nina

Nina had contacted me Thursday night asking me if I had time today to meet with her for lunch after her 10:30am doctor's appointment.  I immediately said yes, thankful that my hike with Ellen is for Saturday.  I quickly contacted SteveT to see if he could join us as well, and we agreed to meet at Culver's when Nina was done with her annual check-up.  It has been a while since she was in town. Steve brought his dog Trace and I had Zeke.

Steve was in the parking lot when I drove up at 11:10am, already eating a Culver's famed "Concrete mixer," which is akin to a Dairy Queen blizzard: a thick shake that requires a spoon to enjoy.  I was hungry and was tempted to get ice cream, too, but didn't want to spoil my appetite.  We stood in the parking lot chatting while the drive-through lane reached to the highway.  Culver's is very popular here, but I'm not going to stand in such a long line with the engine running!

I then opted to call in my order for curb-side pick-up.  Why hadn't I thought of that earlier?  The phone number is on the store's marquee.  My order came out within ten minutes, faster than it would have taken had I joined the cars in line.  Shortly after placing my order, Nina drove up and I advised her to call in her order as well, which she did.

I didn't know until we had placed our orders that the outdoor patio is now open again for customers.  Arizona's lockdown is slowly lifting this weekend and restaurants can now have dine-in at 25% capacity.  This is some relief for me, as that means I can take Zeke out of the car while eating.

We then drove down to the Brown canyon ranch house, parking off the road's main parking lot and walking the mile-long, wide road to the house.   This was our little social walk, chatting while walking and updating each other to whatever personal news we had. I was mostly up front taking pictures as usual, giving Steve and Nina some private time.  We stopped briefly at the pond by the house, then walked another quarter-mile to the duck pond where we sat on a bench and let the dogs romp in the water.  Trace took advantage of his freedom and darted into some reeds while Zeke stayed by my side.

The water in the duck pond is also drying up and leaving behind that green surface algae.  The sky was a dark overcast and a 20% chance of precipitation was in the forecast, but it never rained.  What the sky did do was lower the temperature from a low 90F to a comfortable 70F, making this walk a very pleasant walk of 2.4 miles. but doing nothing to my now blooming "pandemic hair."  (Yes, I desperately need a haircut; my bangs haven't been trimmed since my road trip to Wichita Falls last Thanksgiving!)  We got back to our cars just before 2pm, giving Nina plenty of time to get back to Sahuarita where she had a 4pm Zoom appointment with family back in Texas.