Old Year About To Depart......................

and we're all safe and sound and tucked in for the night. No "party hardy" for these old folks. No new caches to look for tomorrow so might just sleep in unless something shows up on the 'puter tonight. Becky was whining a bit this afternoon because she only needs 3 more caches to reach 1100 finds. The only ones she could locate were tucked up in the hills and required a considerable hike to find. Guess we'll take the Rhino out later in the week to the Buttercup Sand Dunes and look for some. There's enough out there to put me over the 1100 mark too. Temperatures should be getting better by Thursday, forecast is to be in the low 70s by then. Sounds like a good time to explore the dunes. Out geocaching buds might be back from The Slabs by then so maybe we could make a day of it.

Damn "check engine" light came on in the Suzuki a week or so ago. Figured I'd better get it checked out this morning..........$150.00 later the light is off and I have a new thermostat. This freakin labor is absolutely ridiculous!!

Tried a new breakfast spot this morning while car being worked on. It was "so-so" and the waitress said that this was the last day they'd be serving breakfast....it was a restaurant/sports bar that we keep driving past but never stopped at. No great loss on the the demise of the breakfast menu.

Posting a couple of pics of our "Road Rally" cache adventure. The official photographer is slipping a bit in her picture taking. Maybe the new year will take us to new places that'll be worthy of more photos.

Wishing everyone has a terrific new year. Wayne & Becky

Made It To Saturday..................

and the last few days have been mostly uneventful. Becky lost a bet to me last Wednesday evening, a new cache came out and it was too far for us to drive since we know some cachers who live in the vicinity. I bet this kid (actually a school teacher who's in his 20s) would be the first to find. Becky bet on another friend and both of them live a little over a mile from the new cache. My man won! La84fishn also picked my man. The bet was for lunch and Becky said to invite Larry and Audrey for lunch too and then we would try to find the cache called "Road Ralley" which we tried on Christmas Day but had to give it up. The cache we had bet on was placed at Burgers 'n Beer, a sports bar that had just been remodeled. We met Mr. & Mrs. La84fishn at B&B, found the cache and had a pretty nice lunch...........actually a VERY GOOD lunch, mainly because Becky was buying! We started off looking for the cache at about 1230.......don't know how far we drove, got sidetracked and off course a couple of times and made a nice tour of Yuma. Eventually we found all the clues and came up with coordinates that were to lead us to a tiny capsule that gave us the final resting place. We had been at this for nearly two hours, traffic sucked so we called the cache owner to see if we intrepreted all clues correctly. We were one number off..........! Fortunately the cache owner, Magimark, took some pity on us and told us where we made the mistake. Becky came up with the correct answer and we were on our way again. Found the cache and we were so glad to get it out of the way that the official photographer forgot to take any pictures of our travels but managed to take a couple at the end of the trip. It was a nice afternoon and took close to three hours to complete.

Friday was our "domestic" day so did laundry and cleaned up the house. End of day!!! Didn't do anything else except Becky fixed up a nice pot roast for dinner. Today was another slow day........mainly because it's been COLD down here, I think the high temp today just barely made it to 61!! Supposed to be mid and upper 60s until Thursday when we expect to break the 70 barrier. Maybe we'll get out and about a little more then.

We did take in a movie this afternoon and after that had lunch at the restaurant about a block from the theater. We keep driving by it, the name is Happy Chef or something like that so "B" thought a nice chinese lunch would be good. Surprise, surprise.......when we pulled into the parking lot we both saw that the name of the joint was "Happy Greek Chef"! Whadda surprise as we both had been under the impression, for the past three winters, that it was a Chinese restaurant. I said I'd check the menu but don't be surprised if I leave. It turned out to be an American style restaurant that served breakfast, lunch and dinner.....breakfast served all day long, my kind of place. I opted for something else and Becky tried the pork tenderloin sandwich. It was a very good lunch so we'll be back.

Grabbed a cache at the new Walmart on the way home and ended day. Got the electric heater running so we're in for the remainder of the evening. B&W

Survived Christmas And...............

managed to find parts for my broken satellite dish. Got it fixed and up and running so am happy with my MTV again. Now have it weighted down with an extra 50 lbs of junk since high winds are expected this coming weekend. Here's a picture of some of the visitors for the cache I planted at the entrance to our lot. Riff Raff2 and Bronco Busters are friends we've made from previous Yuma visits. Here's the cache we found on Christmas day. Mommy+4 and hubby visited "Sweet Spot". She does her caching with her four kids and husband is a traveling nurse. They spend about 3 months at a location and then move on to where ever they're sent. Home school the kids....a real neat family. We looked for a cache about midnight last night, froze our butts off and finally had to give up on it. Some of our friends stopped by this morning and they couldn't find it either. JJ and Third Times the Charm also stopped by Sweet Spot this morning and they went looking for the new cache. We decided to look for it again before shopping for satellite parts. "JJ" accidentaly found it so he left his signature feather on the caches he was FTF. Third times the charm was still hunting when we arrived and it was whipping us again. "JJ" whizzed by, stopped, took pictures and gave us a little hint. We signed the log and slunked off with our tails between our legs. "Waggy" of the Blood Hound Gang whipped a bunch of us with this one before "JJ" found it. About 1600 another cache showed up about 24 miles to the east of us. We shot out the door since it seemed like it would be an easy one to find. We looked, drove down several dead end roads, found a 75 feet embankment and coordinates said it was still 100 yards away. We finally gave up and figured the coordinates were off. Stopped at a little kiosk at the way out that had information on petro glyphs in the area. I reread the print out and told Becky that this is where the cache had to be. We were 3/4 of a mile from the given coordinates. I beat the bushes, found some footprints and found the cache! "JJ" and "Paw Paw" from the Blood Hound Gang came to the conclusion that we did and were on their way out when they spotted us. I told 'em follow the footprints and they made the find too. "JJ" said he even scrambled down the embankment, ran into the Gila river and was still 235 feet short of cache coordinates. That's when he gave it up and met Paw Paw. "JJ" blamed his late arrival on the anchor he was dragging. He was at work when notification came in, took off and drug his trailer with him as he's going camping this weekend.

Interesting find, see this link for our adventure:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f6125515-9cf3-47c9-865d-622b4b9ed525&log=y&decrypt=

You'll have to cut and paste it. This was our 20th FTF and the second for the week. We're ahead of schedule.

Later, W&B

Merry Christmas.........

.....just got back from dinner at our local Chinese Restaurant. We started off for the Golden Corral and arrived there at 1554, yanked on the door, it was locked. Started for the other door and was just about ran over by a little old granny lady heading for our door. She said "the door's locked!" We than stood back and looked at a little 6 x 8 inch sign that said the Golden Corral would close at 1545. That's how we ended up at Chinese. Oh well, it was still pretty good.

Yesterday I decided to place a cache at the entrance to our RV lot, filled up an ammo box with bite sized candy bars and called it the "Sweet Spot". Invited all to drop by for a treat. Couple of people showed up late last night, as it didn't get published until about 2100. Today we kicked back and watched it during morning hours. People would show up and we'd go out and have a chat with them. Saw a lot of friends we've made in Yuma and were able to attach faces to some we only knew by their names. It was fun watching them. Finally left about 1300 to find a cache by Mittry Lake, we had to find and log one on Christmas Day. Found that one and looked for another one that had many clues and was designed to run us around town. We made it about half-way and ran into directions that made no sense at all. Retraced our steps and couldn't figure it out. After dinner I looked up the website again and found that errors had been made and we didn't have correct information to continue. Guess we'll finish it with the new information some time this week.

Woke up in the wee hours of the morning and the old M/H was being tossed around by a wind storm. I got up and went outside and found that the TV satellite dish had been blown over and the LNB arm broken. Internet dish was shielded by the M/H so we were lucky that it didn't blow over. That one would have been expensive to replace. I took it down to be safe and set it back up this afternoon.

Gotta get up early and go looking for replacement parts. Sure is a bitch to have only three channels to watch via antenna!!! Guess I'll survive.

More later if anything interesting happens. W&B

End of Day Sunday.............

and we got a late start this morning. Some new caches were published late last night and we just said to heck with them. One was about 19 miles up the road and the other one looked like it would take several hours to complete as it would have us driving all over Yuma. Nothing simple. We took in a movie this afternoon, Charlie Wilson's War" or something like that. At least it kept me awake all the way through it. Started to go to the casino when we realized that tomorrow was Old Folks Day and we would be going down to collect our free $10.00 so drove on by and finally ended up near the Army Proving Grounds. This put us close to a new geocache so we went out there to pick it up. We had found it earlier but it was moved since it was too close to the Border Patrol check point so we could find it again and log another find. It's all about the "numbers", well for some it is. I laughed my butt off when we passed through the check point, the officer asked where we were going and I glanced at my GPSr and said "about 3/4 mile up the road". "Geocachers" he said, "that's my cache you're going after". We shot the breeze for a minute and proceeded on our way. I was almost rolling on the floor laughing because "JJ" had made a complaint about the cache being too close to the Border Check Point and the Geocaching Administrator made him move it. It was owned by a Border Patrol Officer. Later in the evening we saw "JJ" and I told him the cache owner who had to move his cache was a Border Patrolman who worked at that station. "Oh Shit!" was all he could say. I'm still chuckling when I think of it.

We got home and about 30 minutes later another new cache was published. It was downtown about 13 miles away..........we weren't doing anything so we left to hunt it down. Took us about 20 minutes to get there and two cachers were already looking but hadn't found it. We started looking and about 10 minutes later "JJ" shows up. Another few minutes and Becky shouts "I think I found it". Yep, she shore did. Joy reins throughout the Yuma area as we beat "JJ" for a FTF!!

Publishing some pics of our days activity. Moon was coming up as we headed home.
W&B

Today Seems Like It Should Be................

Saturday......Got up late this morning and decided to forego our weekly laundry duty. Some new caches popped up last night and I went after one while Becky snoozed. Got there second so today we had to go back so "B" could officialy make the find. Next stop was near a Border Patrol checkpoint. They didn't come out after us but after reading the logs for the cache it seems like they weren't too happy with a cache being placed there. They came out and searched cars for other cachers. We ended up alongside a canal looking for a "nano" cache. I talked to the owner the previous night and knew what it was; but, still had difficulty in finding it. I finally reefed on a corner post and it gave up its contents. I'm about done with climbing rocks to find a cache but we were able to drive up a canyon and get pretty close to our fourth find of the day. I made the climb and the find while "B" took pictures. The cache was found by Jeep'en Jumpers last night so we had to go find it. The climb wasn't too bad.....knee injections are helping out!! "JJ" leaves a feather when he finds a cache and departs without anyone seeing him. I find the feather and pay special homage to it. Signed the log and we're back home.

Windy, windy today and getting cold..........I don't think it got out of the 60s today. Brrrrrrrrr...........That's all Folks. W&B

Some Pics Of The Last Couple Of Days..................

Frank and Suz at one of our caches the other day. A cache came out late at night about 3 blocks away so off we went. We had a small mini-event going that night with us, Sly B Bro, Rosefaery, Buzzcut, Rainbirds + TBD. TBD is the Rainbirds little blind dog. He goes with them where ever they go. The cache was a itty bitty capsule stuck to the side of a building, you can just barely see it in the picture. We spent about 25 minutes just shooting the breeze after Sly B Bro made the find. Funny how cachers never seem to know the real names of fellow cachers; but, can remember people from their handles!

I had two caches published early this morning and the pictures were taken when we placed them. I found this old hulk in the desert, stuffed a capsule inside the hose and then hooked the hose to another one in the engine compartment. Just gotta make use of whatever you find at the location. My ears were ringing all morning long.....guess it must have been from comments from the ones who found this cache today. They were ready to throw rocks at me. The "Great Guru" made a first to find on both of these; but, he phoned me and said he was about ready to quit on the old car hulk. Two other caches came out during the day, one we had to solve a puzzle.........but we never came up with the right answer. Our caching bud, La84fishn, correctly solved the puzzle so we joined in on the find later in the afternoon. It was under the little rock that was glued to a container. We got our weekly First to Find, number 18, just before we left to meet Frank and Suz for dinner. Becky found it and scoffed up on the $5.00 reward for FTF. Sun was setting as we headed home.

About 2030 another cache came out; however, it's located up in the mountains that might require some ridge driving to get to.........it'll wait until daylight.

Temperature warmed up today, think it made it into the 70s........Brrrr.....that's still kinda chilly!!!!

Only Seven More Shopping...................

days until Christmas!!! Don't forget to send gas money. Things have kinda slowed down the last couple of days. Had to see the arthritis doc yesterday and today to get injections in both knees. Starting a series of 5 injections for each knee and hopefully that'll fix me up for a while. They are helping so that's good news. Monday, after Dr. visit, we went to the casino to collect our Old Folks $10.00 each. Gambled it away and I was about $13.00 ahead but not smart enough to quit so ended up losing a dollar. On the way back over the bridge we saw Frank and Sue's Suzuki in a parking lot where we have two caches planted. Drove in and waited for them to find the caches. After that we went back to the casino so they could collect their $10.00 Old Folks money. Frank ended up winning $51.40 and Suzannah finally quit about $4.00 ahead. Naturally Becky and I played some more and this time I quit $4 ahead and Becky won about $30.00 so we headed for Burgers 'n Beer to have lunch. Frank was the big winner so he sprang for lunch. They just reopened the joint after being closed 3 weeks for remodeling. Food still good; but, the joint lost its atmosphere! Oh well, they can seat more people and that's what it's all about.

Last night about 2245 a new cache popped up on the computer and it was only about 4 blocks away....... we had to get dressed and go looking for it. We got there first, another guy showed up, we couldn't locate it, two more people showed up and one of them spent about 2 minutes there and found the cache! Just then another couple showed up. We shot the breeze for about 25 minutes and then went our separate ways. Fortunately it wasn't very cold last night.

I planted a new cache a couple of days ago and this one made the peoples work for it.........I think they were ready to start throwing rocks at me. Pictures are of me placing the cache. The same guy who found the cache last night also found mine about midnight on Saturday. Don't know if it was dumb luck or what but finding that in the middle of the night is pretty darn good. Last night the cache we were looking for was the same size as mine!

Went out and drove around in the desert today and placed two more caches. Just found out that our reviewer/published was caching on Saturday, had a mishap and he had to be carried down from a mountain side. Don't know exactly what had happened but he was having an operation on his leg this afternoon. Caching isn't for SISSIES..........unless you're like us and stick to the paved roads. Guess my new caches won't be published for awhile.

We're in for the night...........unless something pops up on the computer and that's very unlikely given that the reviewer is in the hospital.

Guess I'll settle in for an evening watching the tube. Temperature, I think, made it to 70 today!! Later W&B

Well We Made It To Saturday..................

and survived our day at Borrego Springs on Friday. We left Yuma at 0700 (the sun isn't even up yet) and headed West to California near the Salton Sea area. Larry (La84fishn), Wayne (beagle39z), Crzoldy and myself found our first cache on the main highway. Gonna be a "piece of cake today" we thought. We then headed into the desert, paved and gravel roads ended and were replaced by sand. We found an old airplane graveyard and guess it's still active and selling parts. Can't figure out who the heck would buy parts that old but guess there's a market somewhere. In the center picture Becky is holding a cache, the map shows it on the corner of two "streets" (??) in a thriving metropolis. We entered Anza Borrego Desert State Park and roads became trails. The map shows us going to Old Kane Road. Larry keeps telling us that we should make pretty good time through this stretch.....of course he hasn't ever been here either. We continued along Kane Road picking up caches here and there. You'd think that there are plenty of rocks out here to hide a cache; but, apparently not enough. Someone made a fake rock and stuffed an ammo can inside of it. Go figure. We spent a lot of time at the San Diego Geocacher sign but never found the cache. We reported a no find and received an email from the owner saying that wind and blowing sand probably covered it up. That was the only one we didn't find today.

Headed to Borrego Springs and we were directed to this two story building that was completely trashed. We poked around a bit and finally came to the conclusion that the cache was located on the second floor. Larry, being the tallest, backed his car up to the building and was finally able to reach the cache. I advised him to just "throw it way back in the corner" for the next guy. He opted to be a nice guy and replaced it where he found it.

Next cache took us up the side of a mountain (hill ??). Here we were supposed to be able to see the rock/mountain formation that ressembled an Old Indian. Everyone else spotted it but for the life of me I couldn't see it. Becky took a bunch of pictures of the mountain and if you can see the Old Indian in the rock formation you're seeing much more that I could.

Left Borrego Springs and headed toward Salton City looking for caches on the way. We had been climbing up and down hills all day long and my old knees where getting petty worn out; but, the end was in sight. Found an old bridge to nowhere and the last caches were located along side some power lines. We initially had a list of 41 caches, we passed on one that required a considerable hike into the desert, didn't find another one and the last one was stashed alongside the highway on the way back to El Centro. Unfortunately we couldn't get it 'cause no one wanted to wiggle through a five strand barb wire fence.

All in all, a pretty good caching day with 38 finds. Our best day ever. I think we put nearly 300 miles on the car so we averaged about 8 miles per cache.

Today, Saturday, we took it easy, found one new cache that had been placed while we were gone, planted a new one that finally got published about 2300 tonight. Just got an email from Larry saying he and 3 others were searching for my new cache for about a hour and it got too cold so he gave it up. Guess he'll try again in the daylight.

Here's a few pictures of our Friday adventure. W&B

Thursday Evening..................

and we're trying to stay warm......don't think the temperature made it above 63 degrees today! Burrrr!! Been slowing down the last couple of days. Tuesday we were still searching for a place to put my final cache in the latest series. Drove out to Ligurta for breakfast, first time we made it there this year. It's been cleaned up a bit (only saw one fly), coffee still 5 cents, with a meal purchase, and gravy about a 7.5......not too shabby actually. We planted the cache about 1/4 miles east of the restaurant so I'll have an excuse to go back and stop at the restaurant when I check on the cache. Tuesday night I was playing on the computer shortly after 2300 when a new cache showed up on the screen. Decisions, decisions....I knew I wouldn't be up early enough for it on Wednesday morning so got dressed and drove east of here about 7 miles. Got the FTF and just as I was starting back to the car some voices and flashlights came over the hill. Surprise, surprise.....The Blood Hound Gang went for the FTF also and I beat them by just a few minutes. Had a nice chat.....you gotta be nuts to be chatting in the desert after midnight....and went home to find "B" still snoozing away. At least I beat JJ to this one and it was worth it.

Wednesday, my cache was published. Received a call from Magimark asking for help. I finally figured out that I had made an error in my coordinates and he was about 1/2 mile from where he should have been. Told him I'd meet him at the restaurant and get him pointed in the right direction. Becky and I drove out and by then "JJ" had arrived on the scene too. Also called La84fishn 'cause I knew he'd be on his way too and gave him some new information. Magimark was supposed to be home "sick", actually he didn't look too spry, but he had figured out the puzzle to my cache and away he went to find it. He and JJ went hunting for the cache.......I tried to make this one as "evil" as I could. They spent about 30 minutes trying to find it and JJ finally did. Becky was taking pictures as they were hunting. Shortly after they found it La84fishn shows up so we all sat and chuckled while he spent about 30 minutes searching. Very entertaining...........you'd have to be addicted to caching and been then to observe the pain we try to inflict on each other. It was good for a lot of chuckles.

This morning we made a speed run to Mexico......I needed some meds that haven't arrived in the mail yet........problem is, this anti-inflamation medicine isn't available in Mexico. Heck, couldn't figure this out, they have about everything else. Stopped at the Commissary on the way home and picked up some goodies. We're driving over to the Salton Sea area tomorrow to go caching with L84fishn and another cacher. We hope to add about 40 new finds to our list.....probably won't but they are all within a reasonable area in the desert. Hopefully, we have some new pictures by day's end tomorrow.

Posting some pictures of the hunt for my new cache, and then Larry and Becky went out to sign in on the cache I had found at midnight. Later, W & B

A Rather Slow Monday..............

today.......sorta played the day "by ear", the only thing we HAD to do was attend Old Folks Day at the casino and collect our "free" ten bucks. We made our way slowly to the casino via the Mall, stopped at Target, Best Buy and Circuit City and spent a couple of bucks. On Mondays the casino adds $10.00 to your club card that you can use to gamble. Becky has been "saving" her's up and anticipated having $30.00 to play with after today. I didn't spend mine last Monday so figured I'd have $20.00 to play with. No so...the casino wipes your slate clean after one week so Becky had $20.00 to play instead of $30.00. I had $20.00 free money so we put it in a machine and had our "free" drinks also. After we played the $40.00 we had $24.00 that we could cash in........and did so! Two of our caches were located nearby so we stopped to check on them and Becky took pictures of one of them. The cache is located inside one of the nuts. It has given some people problems in finding it. The historic "Ocean to Ocean" bridge that crosses the Colorado River at Yuma/California overlooks the park area. We drove up the street where we finished up Christmas Shopping at the local Dollar Store. Great stop.........we managed to finish up shopping for EVERYONE we know and spent less than $20.00 doing so.

Later we stopped by Sue and Frank's since we were kinda close.....we also were looking for a place to put a new cache but still haven't come up with an ideal location yet. Got home about 1530 and I had a messagage from a friend who said his new cache would be published some time that afternoon. At 1553 it showed up on the screen. We knew exactly where it was so off we went trying to be First To Find. We arrived at the cache scene at 1609, took pictures, signed the log, made a trade of some goodies and left before anyone else showed up. We had beaten the Guru!!!

This was a neat cache.........a Santa Claus "Outhouse" with a couple of reindeer on top, you opened the door and there sits Santa making a "deposit". We had seen it in its construction phase but the completed cache was simply outstanding! Sure hope it doesn't get destroyed because a lot of work and thought went into it's construction!

Well, that's about the end of our day. The weather sure has been cold recently, I think it barely made it into the middle, and possibly, or upper 60s. Brrrrrrrrr!

Later, W&B

Friday Night and Saturday Events..............

or whatever you may choose to call them. Friday evening we took in the local Rotary Sausage Fest, our geocaching friend, Jeep'en Jumpers, was helping out in the cooking department so thought we'd give it a try. Bought some raffle tickets but don't know if we won anything or not........if we did they will call us. The sausage had a decent taste but was overdone by the time it got to our plate.....probably continued to cook in heating trays. After the sausage feed we headed downtown to take in the parade that preceding some lighting ceremony. Didn't stay for the entire parade, not very well organized with 2 - 3 hundred yard gaps in between the participants. And it was quite cool so we called it a night and headed for the barn. The next days was the CITO Event, the local geocachers joined in with Bureau of Reclamation and other county personnel and volunteers to help clean up a section of public land. A lot of trash, tires, car parts, etc. were removed. Got to meet other cachers and associate names with faces...........this always happens at events and even with "WORK" involved it still was a pleasant morning. Just before we were ready to leave we were informed that Pizza was being brought in.......so naturally we hung around for our fair share.

After clean up, we went home and cleaned up ourselves and then Frank and Suzannah dropped by. We then went out and did a little searching for geo caches. It gets dark pretty quickly so after finding our last cache we headed for Lutes Casino and dined on burgers and fries.

Am posting some pics of parade, clean-up event and our little stint of caching. Long day......... later, W & B

Wow, Been Slipping On My Posts..................

so better get something out there least I lose a few million readers. Monday morning we scurried around and looked for a FTF. Naturally we don't have instant notification so were behind the Guru. Arriving on the scene all we found were footprints and a tail feather attached to a bush. Another caching friend, La8fishn, has also nicknamed "JJ" "The Hawk" and refers to the fact all he finds is tail feathers when he arrives at the scene after "JJ" has been there. "JJ"s daughter presented him with a bunch of feathers so he kinda adds insult to injury when he arrives first, finds cache and departs without anyone seeing him. Well, the first thing we saw was the feather, footprints and no sign of "JJ". Eventually we found the cache hidden in this stake! Went to the casino to collect our "free old folk" money and then found this nice little park that is under construction. Has some good hiding areas so we placed two caches in it. Had them published by nightfall and sure enough people go looking for them at night. "JJ" found one first; but, he left in such a hurry that he didn't check the computer to see that I had placed another one about .2 of a mile away. Another friend we went to Glamis with was just getting off work, still in work clothes, receives call from her hubbie and off she goes since her work is in the general area. She's in high heels.......the four pic collage is a picture taken of her footprints the next morning and of the cache. Sprinkler system had been running off and on so the ground was soaked. They all found this cache and then realized that there was another one nearby. No one had the coordinates. It was a race to find and Cindy snapped up the cache while all were looking for it. It was her very first FTF. Made her day, and mine, since we snookered "JJ" on one of them. She may have ruined some shoes but it was surely worth it and she reported the ground and water were COLD as she finished the hunt barefoot.

On Wednesday we stopped by briefly to check on Suz and Frank as they finally arrived in Yuma and were getting settled in the park. While there I received a phone call from La84fishn that he had posted a new cache to be published. We went home and hung around the remainder of the day, me with my eye glued to the computer. Cache was never published and about 2300 it finally was published. The reviewer is a bit of a sadist too. We knew "JJ" would be sawing logs as he gets up early, early and since it was only 5 miles away off we go about 2310. Short drive and we looked, looked and looked some more. About ready to give up when Becky spots it. At night you had to have the flashlight aimed just right and then be blessed with some luck.
We signed the log and I left a print out of a yellow feather that I burnt two holes in. Left it attached to the bush. "JJ" found it this morning. We had snookered him on 2 of 3 of the last caches. Happiness reigns in the Yuma caching world......at least temporarily. Becky took some pics of the sky tonight, we're expected another 2-3 days of rain starting tomorrow. Got some injections in knee and shoulder today so with knee feeling pretty good I might just go outside and engage in a few "rain dances".........we're supposed to be picking up trash again for the one cancelled but won't have to if it's raining again. Say a little prayer for rain in Yuma this weekend. Later. W&B

Riding and Geocaching At Glamis Today............

Six of us started with breakfast at Arnies..........gravy about a 2.5....I think maybe the waitress brought me country gravy instead of sausage gravy!! She forgot to bring it, I reminded her and advised her that her gratuity would be reduced as a result. Do you think she brought me the crummy gravy on purpose?? Maybe there are some occasions that I should keep my big mouth shut.

We headed for Glamis, "JJ" and La84fishn in the lead, Magimark and Ibeme66 in their jeep and "B" and I bringing up the rear. We hit the dunes, grabbed a couple of easy caches and then ran into trouble at another one. We tore up the tree, raked all of the sand, goosed the moose, howled at the moon and failed to find the cache. It was a micro cache and with the recent wind and rain it could very easily have been lost forever. We finally gave up.........it's really difficult for JJ to walk away without finding it. I logged a "no find" and JJ wouldn't until the cache owner checks on it to see if it is or isn't there. The guy just refuses to give up!

I had the paddles on the Rhino and was able to get around pretty well and JJ just had some mudders on his. The jeep was having some problems getting around. After our "no find" we continued on and drove right past Oldsmobile Hill, the local competition hill. I looked it over, it was all rutted out at the bottom so couldn't get a very good run at it; but, decided to try and climb it anyway. The first two pics are Oldsmobile Hill looking down from the top. I made it! Probably wouldn't have made it up but Friday rains changed the sand enough for me to make it. We got separated from the rest of the group when we went after some caches that were way to hell and gone and up and over the steepest dunes. We found a couple and then got skunked on a First To Find. We poked and prodded this clump of sand and bushes but couldn't find it. Wind and rain probably covered it up. Someone else had searched for it before we did and they couldn't find it either.

We continued on after getting separated and started finding caches after JJ and Larry had already found them. It got to be easier, we just followed their Rhino tracks when we found them and they led us to the caches. The rest were pretty easy, most were ammo cans to survive the desert, some were in trees and we found another one in a wash. Water was still standing in parts of the wash and the mud was slicker then snot.........I nearly fell into the mucky stuff and Becky did. She was quite a sight after taking a head plant in the mud! We pulled up next to an old tree, I said it's gotta be in the tree, a small one. Turned out it was a cleverly disguised container that looked like a rock. Kinda neat.

Since we hadn't seen anyone for some time I called JJ on the cell phone, we couldn't get reception on the other side of the big dunes, and told them we were heading for the car. They were working their way back also. It was then that we both realized that we had not marked the coordinates of the car! So we just headed East until we found the railway tracks and followed them back to the parking lot. At that time we were about 7 miles from the car. We got there before they did, broke out the sandwich fixens and had some lunch. When they returned we decided it was time to call it a day. We found 15 caches in the dunes and then grabbed three more on the way back to Yuma. Not a bad day for our first dune ride at Glamis!

We'll be back.

Saturday......................

Saturday evening to be more precise and nothing going on....no new caches, no races to be FTF.......rather "oh hum" last couple of days. Today was the big CITO (Cache In Trash Out) event. An area south west of Yuma is in dire need of clean-up.....it's become a dump area and a bunch of organizations were going to get together and try to remove a lot of the eye sore on public land. However, the rains came last night, the winds came last night, the whole area was under flash flood watch. Wind and rain knocked my MTV off line as well as the internet dish. Old M/H was rocking and rolling (from the wind of course) and it continued until wee hours of the morning. The CITO was cancelled yesterday afternoon.......which didn't make me unhappy. So today we moved from one RV lot to another. Finally got most everything set up about 1400, went to the Commissary and then I tried to get the Rhino ready to go to Glamis tomorrow morning. "JJ" and another guy are taking his Rhino, we're taking ours and another couple are going to join us in their Jeep. There's about 30 caches in the Glamis dunes and "JJ" said there's at least 19 that he hasn't looked for so that's our plans for tomorrow. Meet for breakfast about 0830 and then make the 70 or so miles to Glamis. "JJ" was going to haul our Rhino, thought it would fit on his 16 feet flatbed.......two Rhino won't fit. Bummer. Changed the tires to the paddles so believe we're about ready to go.

Found one new cache near the "Peanut Patch" on Friday. I planted a new cache about 1,000 feet away from La84fishn's RV Park, had it published at rush hour on Thursday and "JJ" still beat La84fishn to it! I even tried to call La84fishn to let him know that it was published.......no answer. Larry was shooting pool in his RV rec room......probably the only time he left home without his phone. "JJ" had to detour via back roads to get there because of the traffic situation and still beat him! Took a few pictures the last couple of days so will post them. This is the tree at the Peanut Patch where the cache was hidden, we went in for ice cream and fudge and took a pic of the manager and cashier. The manager of the PP gave permission to place the cache on the property.....then he failed to tell the store owner. Kinda embarassing for a couple of the guys who went looking in the wee hours of the morning. "B" took the guy's pictures after he admitted to his failure to inform the "Boss". Placed our cache on a busy intersection near Larry's RV Park. If the weather is good tomorrow we should have some good pics from the Glamis Sand Dunes. Later. W&B

My Caches Got Published..............

last night, as well as another one by Buzzcut39, a cacher we recently met. He told me that he placed one but wasn't sure when it was going to be published. Fortunately, they came out at the same time so that gave us the opportunity to beat The Guru to Buzzcut's cache. "JJ" started for that one first, received notification that mine had come out so he set course for it as it's a part of my challenges for "JJ". We got FTF on the Buzzcut cache and then drove out to ours. Didn't see any lights so started back and here comes a truck roaring down the road. It was Jeep'en Jumpers, he found our cache and then left his GPSr laying on the ground next to it. We exchanged quick comments and I asked him if he received notification of my other cache yet........he just looked at me, shook his head and figured it was too late for that one since I told him it was 23 miles away. Off we go into the night. Read the logs this morning and discovered that "JJ" had been beaten to my other cache by 4 others. "JJ" has always been a "marked man" because he will drop everything to become the first to find a new cache. Now, there's a lot of other folks giving him a race to be the "first"; but, darn he's still winning. I've placed 14 caches in about 5 days and he's found 9 of them first. We've got a friendly contest going......sorta like a couple of kids trying to see who can pee the highest up the side of a wall! We both enjoy the gamesmanship.

Today we just went out and tried to find a few caches......believe we found six. Pics show the night cache we found last night and today we met some newbies looking for one of ours so gave them a hint and we went on our way, found one down by a canal and another in a rock/cactus garden. Came back to Yuma and spent a lot of time looking around a tree in a parking lot....finally figured out that I had parked over the cache. This turkey attached a small capsule to a rod that holds the parking barrier in place. Actually, a very nice hide. We then found an old fashioned playground, no trees, no grass, no nothing which was kinda neat. Visitors are invited to bring a rock from their home state and place it in the park. Lastly, we visited a monument west of Yuma in California. It marked the site of a training area for Gen. Patton. We finally found the cache, which had been placed by another friend, sandwiched in the wall. I don't know how this guy finds these places but around here he's known as the Master of Camouflage. Also, he usually takes you to places where there's a view or a bit of history.

Got home and had some emails from Jeep'en Jumpers. He has his own personal geocaching coins and asked us if we would like to have one. Dumb question, we broke our necks telling him "YES". He transferred the coin to us and we'll pick it up on Saturday if we don't cross paths before then. I considered it quite an honor, he said we will be only the 7th ones that he has ever transferred complete control of his coins to. Since Becky is into the coin collecting she is very happy with this one.

We're having fun now! Later. Wayne & Becky

Tuesday.................

and we started the day by taking Rhino down to the local Yamaha shop to have the new doors and grab bar installed. Going to use it on Saturday and Sunday we might take it up to Glamis to go hunting for Geocaches. Jeep'en Jumpers also has a Rhino and we're trying to make some plans to up there on Sunday. There are a ton of caches planted in the sand dunes so outta be fun if we can make it. Yesterday I went down to check on a cache that I placed to stump "JJ" since another guy went down there in the night and couldn't find anything. However, three others did find it before "JJ" did so that made the work worthwhile. A few posts ago I think there's a picture of me with my hand in a wall.........eventually placed the cache on top of the little structure inside a metal pipe. Used a magnet to hold it in place. A young school teacher climbed up there the night before and found it. Old farts like me don't stand a chance with this one........I used a ladder to place it but "JJ" scrambled up the side of the wall after I gave them some hints. Yesterday we went out and placed a micro capsule in a tree. It should give people problems, mainly cause I had to stand in the back of the Suzuki to place it. The area was a memorial of sorts to some dude named Ciro Cabrera.....will have to see if I can find some info on him. We found an Arizona style snow man on the way to the cache. Today we went into the desert east of casa to place another challenge cache. The two caches are located about 23 miles apart so when they are published it should cause the Guru some problems in deciding which direction to go. I placed a little capsule inside an old kitchen faucet that I found at the site.......it's under the brush and you can't see it in the picture. This particular bush has long, sharp thorns so I used my walking stick and placed a decoy in the middle of the bush. No way to get to it without impaling oneself. It's in plain sight.......just out of reach. I'll probably get keelhauled for that one when other cachers catch up to me! To use up the last photo I've included a picture of a benchmark that Becky found.

Well, it's now dark, very dark and I'm waiting to see if my caches get published tonight........if so, there'll be nuts going out to hunt them down. Opps..just got an email that informed me the caches are in the system, not published yet, but the reviewer is a bit of a sadist too as he likes to publish them late at night. They still might make it before the evening is over.

That's about it for AZ...........later. W&B

Geocaching Today.....What Else?...........

we had a couple of milestones to reach so went out today to get 'em done. Becky was at 999 finds and we drove out to a new one to make it her 1,000. I finished the day at 999. We get home and another new cache pops up just a little over 2 miles away. We were late spotting it on the computer so got a late start but out the door we flew. Arriving at ground zero we saw this big old white truck sitting there.........the Local Caching Guru, "JJ" and Mrs. "JJ" were there first. He had about 8 miles to drive but he gets instant notification on his Blackberry. It's hard to beat him to any local cache. Another friend, La84fishn, showed up while Becky and "JJ" were digging through all the cache goodies. We had a nice visit and then drifted away into the night. This was my #1000 find and we received a nice Geo Coin for being second.

Saw some new countryside today, we had been in the area before but were just passing through so today we took a little time to explore and tried to grab some easier caches that didn't require a hike up a mountainside. I also bought a six foot ladder just so I could place a cache to try and stump the Guru.....well, I NEEDED the ladder anyway. Cache is in place and waiting to be published. When it comes out I might drive down and hope to catch the Guru hunting for it. Would make my day if he can up with a "no find".

The collage shows part of our day, we saw this little wild burro staring at us from a hillside so had to take a picture of him. More later..........weather very cold here, don't think it made it much past 70 today!! W&B

Saturday................

got a late start for today since we had nothing in mind to accomplish. Finally found a new home for the remainder of our stay in Yuma, first picture in collage be it. We had to find another lot since most of the RV parks didn't have anyplace where we could park the Rhino and trailer. Went looking for a place to put a cache, this one has a big hole in the wall and I'm reaching around inside to find a ledge or someplace to put a decoy.....really like this spot since it's about .17 miles from the office of the local Caching Guru. I tried to get to him today, we went out and placed two caches, they were published after dark about 45 minutes after I posted them (the reviewer is certainly cooperating in my attempts to harass "JJ", the local Guru). Made no difference..........this Turkey went out and found them with a flashlight. The sixth picture shows the area where I placed the cache......it was litterly a "dump" with all kinds of places to stash something. Can't imagine what it looked like in the dark. "JJ" said he had a few choice words for me while looking for that one; but, he wasn't going to leave until he found it. We met a couple of more "crazies" on Turkey Day, Phyllis and Wayne. Becky started a coin on its travels....we found the unactivated coin in one of our FTF caches and she was undecided whether to add it to her collection or turn it loose.......finally opted for the latter. Found a few other caches today and right now I'm at 996 finds. Becky logged my caches, which I can't do, and she is at 999. Maybe we'll go out tomorrow and see if both of us can get over the "hump".

That be it for us...........man it's really getting COLD down here.........temperature in the high 60s and I don't think it made it to 70. Even worse for tomorrow. Send sympathy when you send gas money. Later... W&B

Turkey Day.......................

and we're just kicking back doing absolutely nothing. Weather is cooperating, sunny but cool, my kind of weather. Becky receiving phone calls from old buds with Thanksgiving wishes. Football is on the tube, will head out for dinner about mid-afternoon.

Went caching again last night, I was waiting for something to come on the tube, Becky playing on computer and she yells "a new cache is out!". We mulled over that for about 30 seconds, grabbed our shoes and out the door we go. It was located downtown so didn't figure we'd have much of a chance at getting there first. Surprise, surprise......not a soul was in the area. We scrambled around for about 15minutes and I finally got my handy dandy little mirror out and located the cache. It was a magnetic container, a little larger than a good sized pea and was stuck inside the tubing of a fence gate. We felt lucky to find this one, especially at night. We got home and finally figured out why no one else was there........another cache had been published about the same time a few miles away and the crazies headed for that one first. Apparently about 8 people converged on that one, someone finally found it and then they headed toward the one we had found. At least we got another FTF and, naturally, "JJ" was the one in the other group who made the actual find. That guy is uncanny. I'm still working on one to place near his office but beginning to doubt that I can be devious enough to even slow him down.

Best wishes to all for a Great Thanksgiving. W&B

Monday........Turkey Time Fast Approaching............

and we have no plans for "T Day". Will probably head for our favorite Chinese Restaurant for dinner.........we had Christmas Dinner there a couple of years ago and Becky has never stopped raving about the "dressing".....all in all it was a pretty darn good dinner.

We were just sitting here this morning trying to get the day started and a new geocache popped up on the computer. It was about 25 miles North of us past the Army Proving Grounds. Knew the local caching guru was probably working so out the door we went. We beat him for the First To Find as he drove out during his lunch hour today. We had bagged it several hours earlier. Made our day!!

Almost got stuck in the sand looking for another cache in the area.......didn't have air compressor with us so didn't want to air down the tires to continue looking. May have to go back to the area another day. On the way back to town we stopped to check out the cache we found in the middle of the night, look for some petroglyphs, took a few pictures and we found a "new" one........you'll be the first to see the new one published. Feel fortunate.

Also included some of our late night caching activities on Saturday night. We met these cachers looking near the entrance to the Army Proving Grounds and one of them finally spotted the cache so they claimed FTF. Included are some pics of our day's activities.

Another WARM day today.......probably in the upper 80s.....I don't know 'cause I didn't want to look. It would have made things hotter. We drove into town since it was "Old Folks Day" at the Paradise, collected our $20.00 worth of free play, had lunch and finally left with our lunch paid for and tons of money spilling out of our pockets.

Just got a phone call from another cacher who also likes to harass the local guru......I'm going to place a cache near the guru's office and place a "la84fishn" sticker on it for the FTF when I hide it. Just too bad we can't be around to observe. It ought to be good for some giggles! Later. W&B

Well....We Decided To Go...............

look for the cache. It was about 17 miles up the road and when we arrived I saw a car already parked there..........these people are absolutely CRAZY. We hadn't been there very long, introduced ourselves, and started looking. A few minutes later one of the other cachers said "I got it!" I was rather glad he found it 'cause we coulda been there a looonnng time looking for it. The cache was published at 2241 and he signed the log at 2330 and we signed it a minute later. I mentioned that I wasn't going to log it until tomorrow morning. He thought that was a good idea so there'll probably be a string of crazies racing to be "first" in the morning. We'll probably be called some bad names. Love it! At least another FTF was stolen from the local guru. Got home at midnight. Time for night night.

Saturday Rolled Around.....................

so thought we'd go out and find breakfast. Started for the Cracker Barrel, mid morning and there must have been 25 people waiting around outside waiting for their names to be called. Cracker Barrel has pretty good chow..........but not that good. Guess I'll have to take "B" back during a week day. Just down the road was Penny's Diner, a real greasy spoon that has "OK" gravy so we ambled a little further down the road and ended up at the Golden Correl. Buffet on Saturday so I managed to eat "all I could eat". Wasn't too bad and the price is right. Got ready to leave and checked the GPSr and Palm and off we went to hunt down some geocaches. Checked again for one we couldn't find last year after we talked to the owners and he said he went back and couldn't find it himself so replaced it was a film cannister. He did everything but draw a map so we went back.........I crawled around in the bushes, got impaled by sharp branches (again) and still couldn't find it. Back on my "to hell with it list". Found some more caches that were easy to locate and then we went after an "unknown" cache. Found some little markers that were supposed to lead us to the next point and did alright until we looked for the final location. Made a "call a friend help line call" and we finally determined that the cache had been muggled. Reported it as a no find and submitted a log entry that said the "cache sucked". I think I kinda pissed off the owner; but, he said any one line entries would be deleted so I made some succinct comments! Oh well, you sometimes gotta have a sense of humor.

A new cache just popped up on the computer near the Proving Grounds. About 15 miles away.........we're deciding if we want to look for it or not........it's 2255! ???
Might have a chance to beat the local caching guru since he's going out early in the morning. Decisions, decisions. Here's a collage of our day's adventures.

Later, W&B

Thursday.......Slow Day.............

in Yuma. Ran Rhino into the desert, still sputtering a bit so made a couple of full throttle runs along side the road and it seems to have cleaned out. Absorbed about 12 pounds of dust.......gotta get it out to the sand dunes. Made a commissary run this afternoon and that took care of the day.

My FTF Challenge for the local cacher fell flat on it's face yesterday. I placed 9 caches, they were published about 1500 and the race was on to locate them. "La84fishn" found two and "Jeep'en Jumpers" got the remaining 7 FTFs! This old desert rat found them all in 3 hours and 25 minutes. Heck, it would have taken me longer just to drive to all the locations where I placed them! Some people were beating him to the cache location but were unable to find the cache.........and I thought I had made some pretty obvious placements. I guess they felt that they had to hurry on to the next location.......obviously a bunch of amateurs!!! May have to try it again when some "hard core" cachers arrive for the winter. Many of them don't start arriving until after Thanksgiving.

Later, guess I'll kick back and outline my TV viewing schedule for tonight.

Reasonably Good Day Today..................

so we went out to finish planting our final cache. Now have 9 of them ready to be published, just heard from the reviewer and he said "no problems" so they'll be published Friday afternoon. I've been sending out emails inviting people to join in the hunt to beat "JJ". Would be nice if he didn't get a FTF on any of them; but, that's highly unlikely.

Been itching like crazy today from bee stings with a bunch of welts on my hands, arms, neck, face. They are aggravating but not much more. Should clear up in a few days.

We were sitting here and I was watching the Seahawks/49ers game. A new cache popped up on the computer that was only .88 miles away. It had been out for about 45 minutes so didn't figure we'd have a change for First To Find. We didn't make it, we were second behind Jeep'en Jumpers. While we were there Bronco Busters showed up, they live in California, and another cacher made an appearance who lived closer then we did. Had a nice visit with them and then went our separate ways. Hadn't been home very long and another cache pops up that was about 13 miles north of Yuma. We said the heck with it, got our stuff together and went looking for it. Becky finally found, the hint was "look for a patch of green". That's easy to say but hard to do in the middle of the night with only the glow from a Indiglo Timex for illumination! Becky found it and back home we go again. About 10 minutes after we left another cache showed up that was only 4 blocks East of us. That one waited until this morning. Cachers were busy last night and we did get one FTF.

Posted of few pictures of our latest adventures. This damn rock climbing sucks!

Later, W&B

Veteran's Day And We Still Had......................

had some more caches to place. Drove East from where we are and planted one near an old museum, stuffed it inside an old glove I found. We continued on into the hills, drove the ridges and we found another spot near an old cactus with a view of the lettuce fields. Then we started looking for some caches as we were looking for placement sites. Our search led us to the North side of one of the canals and we drove for miles (I mean miles!) and couldn't find a way to cross back to the civilization side of the canal. We did find a couple of caches, one belongs to a friend, La84fishn,........he's noted for stashing itty bitty micros and camouflaging them to blend in...this one was a rolled up log, with a micro pencil, stuffed inside one of those in-line automotive fues holders. Actually didn't take long to find cause I have a pretty good idea of what to look for on his. I'm going to offer him a big ammo box to hide........he'll have no idea how to disguise it! We kept following the canal and had many views of this peak, so "B" had to take pictures of it even though we never got too close to it. We did manage to place a couple of our caches out there in the hills, I'm not even sure we'll be able to find them again but these old, local, Yuma Desert Vermin will probably have no problems with them since they know the countryside. Back to town, found a cache in the bed of an old wagon, had a late lunch at the casino, which ended up costing us about triple for the lunch.......oh well, easy come easy go, expect it doesn' arrive quite that easy.

It was getting late and we drove into the desert again bout 4 miles north of our abode and that's where our evening adventure started. The last picture shows me picking up a log in the bough of a nearly dead tree. That's when the fun started.....I had disturbed a bee hive and boy were those bees pissed. I yelled for Becky to get out of there, dropped my cache and started to battle the bees, Becky was a little ways away and was OK until one bee found her....and that brought a little squadron of the bees after her. I made it to the car, found some anti-mosquito spray, sprayed that all over my head, arms and shirt, sprayed Becky down and the attack subsided a bit, at least enough for us to get into the car, killed a few more in the car and then headed for the urgency clinc about 5 miles away. The last time I got stung, it was a yellow jacket and my arm swelled up from my shoulder to my wrist so I was a little concerned. Becky said she never had a reaction to bee stings. Got to the clinc, they ran us right in, zapped me and "B" both with benedryl injections and then they gave me an epi injection. They pulled over 100 stingers off my face, neck, arms and hands and maybe 15-20 off Becky. Score, about 120 to 0! They were concerned about me and highly recommended that I go to the hospital. I finally said OK and since we both had injections they wouldn't allow Becky to follow in the car and called an ambulance for me so we both rode the ambulance. The clinc said the hospital would give us a voucher to take a taxi back to pick up our car. (We found out NOT!! and it cost $24.00 for the taxi after we left the hospital) Spent several hours in the hospital while they monitored me, during which time I barffed, developed almost instant diahrrea, finally saw the doctor who ordered another injection and said normally she would keep me longer but since everything had pretty much calmed down she let me go.

Don't feel bad at all today, they gave me a prescription for a bee sting kit, so guess I should fill that. I never developed any breathing problems so guess I don't have the violent bee sting reaction........at least not yet.

Now, gotta go back to the scene of the action, I dropped my cache container and still need to place it, somewhere else, plus I lost my little cheater glasses and my prescription sun glasses. Maybe I'll take a can of gasoline for a little revenge!!!

Well breakfast time and then back to the desert. Later, W&B

Must Be Saturday...................

but who's keeping track of the time?? Hung around the house this morning waiting for an RV repair guy to show up and fix the kitchen faucet. I ripped it apart before we left home, put a new cartridge in it on Wednesday and the damn thing still would not flow properly. Told the guy to bring a new faucet in case we needed it. He spent over an hour on it, took it out, put it back and was scratching his head too. Finally he tore it apart again and hooked up his air compresser and blew it out. Must have finally cleared the blockage because it started flowing again when he got it back together. RV repair guys are kinda spendy, especially when they make house calls........but it was cheaper then installing a new faucet. (Where the hell are you Frank when I need your expertize?) We finally left after noon, mailed a package to Doug/John, went searching for a RV rental lot for January that the repair guy told us about. Nobody home there so we'll have to check later. Went out and found a cache and then started looking for places to hide 9 caches. Drove into the desert, should have taken the Rhino in some of these places, and messed around until it got dark. Did manage to place 3 caches....only 6 more to go. I sent an email to the Cache Reviewer and had an answer when we got home. He said he'd be "very happy" to help me with a little friendly harassment of Jeep'en Jumpers. Sounds good to me!

Here's a collage of part of our day........official photographer absent from photos....guess I'll have to get my camera repaired so her family will know that she's still alive. I placed a cache inside the shotgun shell box in the old car hoping to drive some cachers a little nutso.........the first thing I think of is a "magnetic" cache when I see an old hulk like that so maybe this will fool some of them.

Wound up the day at the Casino since our travels took us that way. It cost us $10.00 for three "free" cokes.

Nice day today.......low 80s!!!! Yipee. W&B

Went Geocaching After Dark..............

last night. Checked the 'puter and discovered a new cache had been published about 20 minutes before I checked. It was 1.28 miles away, out in the desert. I told "B" that we should go get it, maybe get a FTF (First To Find) and beat out the local cacher, Jeep'n Jumpers, who has well over 200 FTFs. We thought it would be great if we could beat him. We did! We saw lights coming into the desert as we were departing and that must have been "JJ" as he said he must have arrived shortly after we did. We went back in the daylight to leave some items in the cache this morning. By then 5 other cachers had made the find. In the daylight the bushes beat the heck out of me and drew blood. Had better luck at night.

Got table, chairs, BBQ set up this afternoon. While I was working on them a truck stopped and some slick talking Chinaman walked up and tried to sell me some BEEF. He was from a wholesale food outlet in San Diego and said they had been making deliveries to local restaurants and had some steaks left over. Would I be interested in purchasing some at an amazing discount? They were Flash Frozen from an outfit in Illinois, Quantum Foods, Inc. I listened to him, tried to get a Senior Discount but he wouldn't budge. Finally I asked "B" if we had room in the freezer for the box of goodies. She said yes so I finally told him "OK". I paid $125.00 for Delmonico Ribeye, Kansas City, Center Cut Ribeye, sirloin strips, tenderloin wrapped in bacon, chopped beef steaks (these were 24 hamburgers). It figured out to be a little over $6.00 a pound. Since I had just set up the grill we tried two of them tonight. If the rest are as good as the first two then I think we escaped with a pretty good deal. At least they didn't start a fire when he set the box on the table!

Got the Rhino unloaded today, started up and then it died on me. Started again and it died again. Great! My WA and OR mechanics think it's the fuel filters. John has gone through several filters with his so looks like I'll be heading for the auto parts store tomorrow. Would like to have it running before the weekend. It's supposed to cool down Sat and Sun so that would be a good time to go exploring in the desert.

That's all folks. Collage is our geocaching in the desert last night and return today. W&B

Yeah, But It's A Dry Heat....................

........someone is trying to tell me. 91.6 is still 91.6 to me! Weather forecast for the weekend looks good though, 80 on Saturday and maybe even 79 on Sunday. I can handle that kind of weather. Sort of a non-productive day today, did a few domestic chores and then I spent most of the day getting nine geocaches ready to place. Got the easy part done....now I have go out into the desert/town/or where ever to place them. One of the local cachers in Yuma is sitting in his office with a Blackberry so he gets instant notification when a new cache is placed and then he's off to be the First To Find. I intend to place the caches in all directions, have them published at the same time and then see how many he can get to first. Should be interesting as the competition to be "First" is heating up with the arrival of more visitors. Haven't taken the Rhino out yet, as a matter of fact, it's still sitting on the trailer; but, we're only a few blocks from the desert so I gotta get it running and start exploring. We're about 1/2 mile from the entrance to the Barry Goldwater Bombing Range and we got our range permits so are ready to go.

Will post this and then got some stuff to do outside........on the shady side of the M/H! Later. W&B

Tuesday........................

We got up early today (early for us) and took a quick trip to Mexico. "B" got her teeth cleaned, some warranty work on a tooth filling, picked up some meds and back across the border. Didn't even stop for a fish taco.......will wonders ever cease. The old injuns enlarged their parking area, about double, and it's nicely paved. They also raised their parking prices from $3.00 to $5.00!! The attendant was very defensive when I mentioned the rate increase. Next time I'll tell her she should demand a wage increase. We might have to go to Mexico one more time before the hordes of "winter visitors" arrive. Right now no lines to cross the border and no crowds...........no crowds in Yuma either for that matter. Wish those damn late visitors would stay home!

After returning from Mexico we stopped at a Yuma Clinic, I'm still trying to see a doctor who might be able to help with my knee problem, gave them all insurance information and they said they would call me; however, they will be closed for the rest of the week. Business must be good for the rehumatologist.

After that we turned on the old GPSr and began hunting for a few caches. Think we found six of them today. Had lunch at the casino, lost $7.00 and Becky won $5.00 and one lunch was "free" so we didn't do to bad there. Sure does get dark quickly. So far we are the only rigs in the lot. We'll probably have company after Thanksgiving.

Here's a couple of pictures of our day's adventure. We had to hunt for information in the Yuma Prison Graveyard to get information to find a cache. The cache had a decoy, a rubber snake attached to a lid.......I should have let Becky find this one. Later. W&B

Made It To Yuma......................

this morning about 1100 and both of us have been scurrying about trying to get things organized and set up. Got my MTV going without any problems but swore at the internet dish for a loooonnng time before I realized that I had interchanged two cable hookups! Up and running shortly after that. Gotta work on the Rhino tomorrow, I bit the bullet in El Centro and purchased another new battery and this time I also bought a trickle charger so that should take care of my battery problems. The sand dunes looked very inviting at Buttercup as we passed through but that'll have to wait until later........after all, we do have 5 months to play in the sand. We're only about 4 blocks from the desert so figure we can sneak over there without putting the Rhino on the trailer..........at least that's what I thought. We are staying near where we were last year but now the main road is lined with straw bales and signs saying "Keep Out". Apparently someone has plans for building in the desert. Every year Yuma gets bigger from housing developments. Can't figure out who the heck is buying; but, apparently things are still selling down here.

Neither of us feel much like cooking so guess we take a little drive over to our Chinese joint for supper. For some reason their buffet is always about $2.00 cheaper on Sundays ??? I don't know why but will take advantage of it and the food is not too shabby.

Guess I'll post this and then get ready for dinner. Later. W&B

In El Centro At The..............

NAF, El Centro, CA. Arrived here yesterday afternoon and thought we’d spend a couple of days here before moving on to Yuma on Sunday. COSTCO here and we’ll check out the Exchange and Commissary while we have the opportunity.

When we left Bakersfield we ran into a lot of hazy smoke that was still lingering here and there, but no evidence of CA fires. Guess we were too far East. We decided to drop down to the Salton Sea area since we haven’t been there before. Found a casino near Salton City and managed to escape there without losing our shirts. Since we were “new suckers” they gave us $10.00 each to gamble with. Gave that back to them and then we left to tour Salton City. Way back when, early 90s I think, Sonny Bono was elected to Congress and revitalization of the Salton Sea area became his pet project. I guess they envisioned a high class resort area being built there. Well, Old Sonny did a head plant with a tree while skiing and with his death the Salton Sea project also died. Lottsa for sale signs scattered about and they have some real nice street signs erected; but, little else. We just drove through and didn’t even take any pictures. The Official Photographer learned that it’s a little difficult to drive the Suzuki and take pictures at the same time.

We’re headed into El Centro to do a little shopping so will update when we arrive and get settled in Yuma. W&B

Pics From Halloween..........

It's Halloween.........B O O............

Well we finally got underway today; but, we only made it 96 miles. Stopped in Woodland to visit Steve, Rhonda and the Twerps and to do some trick or treatin. Becky managed to scare a few little kids.........and she wasn't even in costume.....but we didn't get very much candy, maybe enough to last until we get to Yuma. Gonna take our time on the road and figure we should arrive about Sunday.......that is, if we don't find any casinos on the way. We're going to steer clear of Las Vegas. Found a place to stay in the Foothills but we're only good for November and December and then we'll be homeless. Maybe it's time to see how long we can last in the desert. (??) Taking the Rhino and trailer so we kinda have a problem with staying in RV parks......no place to store the extra goodies in a lot of them. No biggie as something will turn up. Will keep you updated on our journey if we can find some wifi hot spots. Later. W&B

Saturday Afternoon And..............

we're still hanging around Corning. Hopefully computer will arrive early next week and we can be on our way south. Had another sick kid in Woodland, Jace this time, so we loaded up the MH and drove down late Thursday evening. Since he had strep-throat we figured he'd be down and out for another day or so. We were prepared to sit on the baby and give Ma a break.........if going to work is a break. Anyway, we pulled in Thursday evening and the twerp was all set to go to school on Friday! Wished I could recover that quickly with a little shot of anti-biotics. Today was "go to the pumpkin patch" day........since we've been there and done that we passed on this trip and headed for Corning when everyone else went searching for the next great pumpkin. Going into withdrawals since we haven't see the inside of the casino for two whole days. Becky made grocery run while I watched football so guess we'll go out and see if my red brothers are feeling generous today. We've decided that we'll both start eating "right" on Monday so we might stop for some Mexican chow on the way home. A new restaurant opened in town and we tried it a week ago. Not too shabby.............that's saying a lot from me.......so I'm willing to give it another go. Besides, it was relatively inexpensive and we can pig out two more times before Monday. Later...........we're both more than ready to hit the road! B&W