Goodbye 2008!!!

We were going to take it "easy" today and I was sitting at the computer when notifications start coming in......some idiots had placed 16 new caches! I started downloading them when the phone rang......JJ on the line wanting to know if we were going to go get them. Larry was on the way over to our place and I called him and he said "why not?". Bad answer as we were both still hurting from our last escapade! Anyway, JJ was ahead of us and we finally caught up with him. Bad start, the "B" Team were in front of us. We changed directions and started at the end.........at least it paid off in the form of three FTFs for us. Another couple got 3 FTFs, a Canuck nailed 1 and the "B" Team, as far as I can tell, got 9 of them. One remains yet to be found.

Larry wasn't quite with it today, as you can see him scratching his head with a glazed look in his eye. He even tried to use two GPSrs at the same time and that still didn't help much. Becky got one of our FTFs and JJ got two. Here's a picture of the mighty Gila River........you seldom see water in it. We got ripped up in thorns and bushes........finally ran into the "B" Team as they were heading East and we were going West. Got home and Larry helped me submit a new cache that I was going to place.......that was the plan when he was driving over to our place. He provided technical advice on how to write some stuff in html and add a picture. Anyway, we got that done and the last picture is me on the Bombing Range placing my cache near a big old Saguaro. This Big Boy is probably about 120 or more years old. I felt about that old by the time the day ended.

A few more hours to midnight; but, don't think we're going to make it. Advice to all.........don't ever get old! Here's wishing everyone all the best for the New Year! Becky and Wayne

Been Taking It Easy Since Saturday.......

when we made our trek into the desert. Sore knees and muscles we haven't been using needed a rest! On Sunday we did venture out for a little while and hunted down a couple of caches. JJ placed one up in the rocks so we had to go get it. Took a little while to find it as he found a rock that was about a perfect fit in a small niche in a rock formation. Glad to get that one out of the way. Had to stop at the park where the February Event will be held. I have some ideas for creating a Flash Mob and wanted to get an idea of how it might look so took some pictures of the area. Picked up some groceries and then headed for the barn for the remainder of the day. Monday was a "do laundry" day and we ended up going to the laundramat about 0630.........the sun ain't even up at that hour! Must not have done anything else the rest of the day 'cause I can't remember anything even if we did. I think we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant and then went home and crashed and burned.

Today some new caches came out and the first one was only 2 1/2 miles away so we had to try and be FTF. The "B" Team arrived at the same time we did so it was a matter of who got "lucky" first. It turned out that Lee, a non-geocacher and friend of the "B" Team picked up the right rock and said, "Is this what we're looking for?" Lee has one find under his belt and it was a First To Find. We may have a new geocacher in our midst. Another couple showed up and while we were standing around shooting the bull BillyBe's phone went off. His wife dug out the laptop and we were able to download the coordinates for the new one, jumped in our vehicles and proceed Northward for about 6 miles to try and find another one. Everyone jumped out of their vehicles to search for the new one and I grabbed the camera...........I was afraid I'd get trampled in the run for the "gold". BillyBe quickly spotted the cache and we all signed the log and then headed in different directions. Always makes it interesting when you run into people you know and engage in a little friendly competition. The "B" Team made a Travel Bug out of their big old diesel truck so I took a picture of their decal so Becky can log a "discovery".

Tomorrow La84fishn is stopped by to give me a hand with a new cache I want to place out on the Bombing Range.........I need some help in posting pictures to the website and I'm not familar with html so he's going to give me some lessons. After that we'll probably drive out on the Range and place it.

I think the temperature finally made it to 70 today.........our cold snap may be over for awhile, although it was still rather breezy.

Nothing planned for New Year's..............sure is pathetic when you get so old that you can't even stay up late enough to ring in the new year!

Best Wishes to all for 2009!

Wayne & Becky

Got A Call From The Other "A" Team...........

members this morning and they asked if we wanted to take a trip to the Bombing Range. There was a FTF available and several other caches we hadn't found yet so we said "OK" and away we went.

Wasn't too bad for the first one, an old crash site that was called "Hard Landing". Some old guy called Coyote Jack spends a lot of time hiking in the desert and when he finds something interesting he places a cache there to share his desert finds. About all that was left of this one was a big crater in the ground, some engine pieces and little else. This was easy because we could almost drive to it.



The next one wasn't too easy........we road only took us within a mile and a quarter and we had to hoof it the rest of the way. Sand is soft! I made it; but, my knee will pay the price tomorrow. Lottsa stuff in the desert on the way to this one. We found one BIG OLD SAGUARO......from what we've learned this one would probably be 140 or so years old. Looks like JJ is hugging it........these old desert rats from Yuma must be getting a little touched from being in the sun too long. We finally made it to the crash site and it was a drone that fell here. It was still in pretty good shape. Coyote Jack then took us to a rare cactus in the desert. He reports that this is only the 7th one he has found in all his desert browsing. The dead looking stick in the last picture is the cactus, it looks like a dead stick poking up from the ground. It's a "Night Blooming Cereus" and only blooms at night during the month of June. Guess not too many people have seen it in blossom.

We finished up the desert caches, headed for Wellton and found three more in the city. Then lunch at Ligurta and we parted company. Becky and I stopped for another cache before heading home and we both crashed after getting back to the MH. A 2 1/2 mile hike in the desert certainly tends to take the piss and vinegar out of you. We'll probably just kick back and take it easy tomorrow.

Later. W&B

Friday............

and we made it back to Yuma this afternoon. Still cool..........just watched weather report.......not going to get back to the 70s until Monday!! Sure hope we survive this cold snap.

Didn't take advantage of the new "Black Friday" shopping; however, I imagine sales will still be going on tomorrow, and the next day and.................(?) Gonna hit the electronics stores tomorrow...........don't need anything; but, who knows what one might find.

That's about it for us..........gonna spend the rest of the evening trying to stay warm. W&B

Christmas Eve And Here We Sit..............

in an Injun Casino in California, near Laughlin, Nevada, the Avi Casino. One might suspect that we have a gambling problem..........far from the truth, we have a "money problem"........not enough money to support our gambling habit!

Check out the pictures above, the first two are kinda interesting. We had a lot of rain around Yuma and apparently less rain about 130 miles away. Becky took the first picture as we were nearing Needles, CA and the second pictures was taken about 20 miles north of Yuma. Boy, our desert around Yuma has really "greened" up and is really beautiful right now. We made a few caching stops in Quartzsite on our way North. I just about tore an old saddle apart looking for one and Becky finds a nice big container stashed in some rocks. May have to go back to caching with paper instead of just coordinates. We stopped at a nice little Garden and found one among the Saguaros. We've been here before but always fun to revist some of the nicer areas. A quick stop in Parker, AZ and then the last two pictures are where we're staying.

Went geocaching this morning and even managed to grab a First To Find on one. It was a really nice hide as you can tell by the first pictures. Another one placed by the same guy was pretty tricky also, it was under the rock in the middle of the picture and Becky made the find on this one. Last January we were poking around the back of some buildings in a shopping center and someone called the cops on us.........told them someone was poking around an electrical box. After we explained what we were doing we left the area. The cache was behind the magnetic numbers on the electrical box. Took almost a year to get this DNF off our list! We found a nice Travel Bug Hotel, an ammo box chained down and padlocked so we placed a JJ coin in this one to continue his travels. Seemed like a safe place to leave it.

We did go downtown to Laughlin and I managed to donate $20.00 and Becky won enough for our lunch and a few bucks left over. Getting to be about dinner time so we might try the restaurant here tonight as the buffet wasn't very good last night.

More later. Best wishes to all for a Very Merry Christmas! Becky and Wayne

Made It To Laughlin............

this afternoon, checked into the Avi and played on the computer for a couple of hours before we headed for the buffet. Their buffet has gone down hill since the last time we were here. Gambled a little bit, lost $4.00 and called it a day.

We left Yuma about 0900 and stopped in Quartzsite to hunt down some caches. I had picked out some close to the highway so it didn't take too long to find five of them. Made another quickie stop in Parker, found one and up the road again.

We're hoping the weather won't be too bad..........just watched the weather report and it's going to stay cool and we have a chance for rain. I picked out about 11 caches we would like to find tomorrow; but, the weather will determine how many, if any, we find. There's a movie theater here at the casino so we may end up driving about 200 miles to take in the flicks!

High speed wireless in the room so that's pretty nice. Later. W&B

This Old Year Is Rapidly............

coming to its end.......5 more shopping days until Christmas, than you wait two days and find that everything you purchased for Christmas is now about 30-40% cheaper!! I didn't have to remind you did I?

Becky decorated for Christmas...she dug out a bunch of her Christmas themed geocoins and pinned them, and Christmas cards we received, around the M/H.

The wind and rain finally quit; but, we're stuck in the frigid 60s.....none-the-less we started out on Friday to find at least two more geocaches. I needed
two more to reach 1600. We met a couple out in the desert looking for the same one we were searching for.......we were able to drive up to it and they had been hiking up a wash so after the find we gave them a ride back to their car. "Sparky" and "Livewire" were their names. After that we went in search of #1600, which I found in a palm tree. Interesting container. Then a trip to the country near the All American Canal. Another friend had placed this cache before he and his family moved to Sacramento. Maybe we'll run into them again.

After we found a crossing over the canal we went in search of some Bronco Buster caches. They like to stuff them in the hills and out of the way places. Had to drop in 4whl dr numerous times to get to their caches. Soft sand, box canyons, cedar trees and beehives were along the way. After we found the last one we decided to travel West to see if we could find another crossing across the canal. We drove a looong way to find a path under the railroad tracks and a road that finally took us back to the freeway. Didn't think we would ever get out of there! Last find was under a Salt Cedar tree and Becky found it.

This morning we went out for breakfast and on the way home we spotted a cactus that "appeared" to be blooming. That didn't make much sense; but, Becky took a picture of it. Upon close examination it appears that someone had attached poinsetta flowers to it. It sure can fool you though.

Well, gotta get the Suzuki cleaned up for our trip to Laughlin for Christmas. We leave on Tuesday morning for three days and back to Yuma on Friday.

Hope everyone has a terrific holiday season! Wayne & Becky

Holy Crap.....................

............nothing but rain the past three days! We just set a new personal record on Monday and Tuesday, we didn't leave the motor home to venture out either day. "B" made up a big pot of beef barley soup and we've been working on that the last couple of days. Nice weather for hot soup. Guess we can't complain too much as I just received an email from a friend who drove back up to Oregon for the holidays. He's in St. Helens and sent me a picture of his car with about 5 inches of snow on it. Our temperatures aren't doing so good (for here) and maybe we hit 60 today for a high. Lows dropping into the upper 30s and this crummy weather is expected to stay with us through the weekend and into next week.

Today we finally snuck out when the moisture stopped for a few hours. Stopped at Sam's Club, Paradise Casino, Wally World, Cocopah Casino and the base commissary. I managed to leave the casinos with a whooping $24.00 of their money. Becky was pretty quite so I presume she probably dropped about the same amount that I won.

We got home, turned on the heater and have been kicking back ever since.

Later. W&B

Survived the Weekend And So Far Today............

we haven't done anything except straighten up the motorhome. Becky has been cleaning out the fridge and putting things together for quick snacks later. I've been working on my Geocachers Breakfast and sending out pictures and an attendees list to everyone who was there. We went caching after breakfast yesterday and found 5 of 12 new caches that were published when we were having breakfast. It was funny as Black Berrys starting going off at about 0830. I'm surprised some of the more obsessive FTFers didn't get up and leave. We were supposed to meet up with "JJ" at one of the caches; but, Larry had to take Audrey home and we had to come home to load up the new caches. JJ was off and running and by the time we caught up with him he had already found half of them. Larry, Becky and I grabbed a couple of FTFs before we caught up with JJ and then we hunted down 4 or 5 together. The Bronco Busters placed these caches and they got pretty nasty with the placements. They placed one in the group of Salt Cedar and Pala Verde trees and we spent a long, long time looking for it. You had to slide down a steep, slippery bank and then the underbrush was quite thick. We crawled around in the bushes and I finally climbed out and was ready to declare "uncle". JJ refuses to give up on these and expanded his search some more. We even called the owner and he said it was chained to a tree..............lots of help there! JJ finally found it under the tree at the left of the photo............some 65 feet from where it was supposed to be. Sixty-five feet doesn't seem very far; but, when you're crawling around in the underbrush, 65 feet is a long way away. We're going to have to drive by Bronco Busters house and throw a few rocks at him. They put out some nasty caches in this series and most of them required 4whl drive to even get close. Larry was going out this morning to find the rest of them and we were going with him until I looked at the temperature outside. It had dipped into the 40s last night and I said to heck with it. It's about 1500 right now and it's still FREEZING!!!! I just checked the outside temp. guage and it's reporting a frigid 57.7 degrees.

We're probably going to be home for the rest of the day. You Northerners are probably really happy that you're not freezing like we are. :o)!! Hee, hee.

More when the weather gets better and temps are back in the low 70s.........my kind of weather. W&B

Another Day of Caching.............

We got up while it was still dark (that sounds early; but, actually I think it was about 0630. A bunch of new caches had been posted last night so "B" and I hoped to capture a FTF or two. Larry and JJ headed toward the Bombing Range to grab my two new caches and we headed for the canal to try and capture a new cache that Larry had placed. Success on both counts. We later met JJ and Larry and completed the morning geocaching together. Larry's cache, second picture, was Pooh, Becky found him before I got out of the car. We met more cachers, the "B" Team in our travels. We got home and some more caches were published so off we go again. The picture of the benchmark and Becky's GPS was her 1,600th cache. She was taking picture of the area while I was logging our find..........we didn't realize until later that this was number 1,600 for her. We didn't even get a picture. I found a cache in the bird's nest......presume the bird no longer was using the nest. Some guy was placing caches in child proof containers..........we couldn't get them open and Larry finally figured it out and showed me how. Becky's new car. Night picture of Becky is on the bombing range.........this was nearly an expensive trip for me as I laid my GPSr on the hood of the Suzy, forgot about it and drove off. Didn't realize it until we got home. Drove back and found it...........unlike JJ I didn't run over it and it's still working. Again, better to be lucky than good. We finished the day with four FTFs and I think we found 13 or 14 today. Tomorow is Geocachers breakfast and we are expecting a good turn out. Hope nothing new comes out tonight or tomorrow as I would just like to kick back for the day and watch a little football. Four straight days in the desert is a little much for me. More later if we do anything worth reporting. W&B

Spent Wednesday and Thursday In the Desert.......

These pictures from Thursday.......there were eleven new caches published Wednesday night and they were all on the Bombing Range. Larry, Becky and I finally got started shortly before 0800. Larry called "JJ" and found that he was already on the range and had already found two of them. We told him we were leaving and would try to catch up with him. We knew we couldn't so looked the map over and found that we could take a different route that led us close to the end of the string of caches. Off we go bouncing over the desert trails as fast as we could go..........which wasn't very fast. We finally reached one of the caches and JJ hadn't arrived yet. We signed for a first to find and then made the mistake or working toward JJ instead of traveling south to grab the last two. He found us and we finished the last two caches together. The middle picture, where JJ is kneeling with the jeep in the background, was a pretty expensive stop for JJ! He laid his near new GPSr on the tire of his jeep. We were standing around shooting the breeze and when we were all go ready to go three of us climbed in the Suzuki and JJ fired up his jeep. He drove about 30 feet, stopped and go out. We couldn't figure out what he was doing; but, he walked over where he had parked and picked up his GPSr. He forgot all about it and ran over it when he drove off. That cache cost him about $309.00! We finished up the remaining caches and JJ headed back to work while we started back up the line to find the remaining caches. We stopped at the old Fortuna Mine, took a few pictures, met a few other cachers who were working down the string while we were going in the opposite direction. We met up with the "B" Team and that cost me $2.00 as I owed BillyBe $2.00 for about a month. Becky finally made one find on the caches..........she was busy taking pictures as usual but made the grab on one of them.

The recent rain really perked up the desert and the Ocotillo were blooming like crazy. They really looked nice in the desert. Actually, this part of the desert is practically untouched by human hands, there's no dumping and everything is quite beautiful. Becky even found a camo rock and took pics of it. Some of these pictures are from Wednesday when we were planting my caches. No, I'm not putting something in the middle of the cactus for someone to find, although it is a good idea. I think I was gently poking some of the cactus blooms. The next to last picture shows where I planted my "Barney Christmas Cache".........enlarge the photo and perhaps you can see me in the middle. To bad I didn't have my caching Bud, Frank, with us. He would have taken the cache all the way to the top of the hill. This area is near the place where he hauled my "110 Degree" cache in March of this year.

It was a nice two days in the desert. My caches got published this evening and Larry and JJ went out into the desert at night and found them. Hell, I'm not that crazy!

We'll see what the weekend brings........our 2nd Geocacher Breakfast is on Sunday and we have about 40 people who said they would attend.

More later. W&B

Out In The Desert.................

today after getting laundry done.............tooling around the desert was more fun.

Larry placed his little T-Rex cache the other day so, not to be outdone, "JJ" published a Godzilla cache. It wasn't much bigger as you can see it in the rocks; however, with a bit of photographer's tricks, Larry came up with the "terrifying" photo that you see. Only problem was the acting done by Becky...........not very convincing.

I decided to continue with the dino theme and placed my own cache today.............a "Barney Christmas Cache". My only problem was finding a Barney..........I never did so just downloaded a Barney picture and used it with the cache. The top photo is my Barney cache before we placed it in the desert this afternoon.

Did a bit of rock climbing and hiking around the desert so guess I'll post this and find something to eat!! Later. W&B

Reached Sunday Evening..............

barely..........A bunch of new caches came last night, a series of eight that required you to find the first one and it in turn led you to the next one, etc. etc. Got together with La84fishn and we started off early in the morning (early for us about 0800). A shaky start as the first cache had a number wrong in the coordinates and after we got it straightened out off we go. After driving over 200 miles, searching through several rock piles, missing lunch, etc. etc. we finally completed the series about 7 1/2 hours after we started. At least we managed 8 FTFs and also picked up another 7 or 8 caches along the way. The caches started near where we live, took us about 35 west to the sand dunes and from there another 53 miles past the Proving Grounds, then back to California and our whole day went like that. Fortunately Larry was driving so we burned up his gas. After the third cache I told "B" and Larry that we should just go over to the cache owner's house and we would find the final cache. Well, the final leg did take us to his house where we enjoyed cookies, conversation and BS'd about our adventure. Fun day, although I've seen enough rock piles for awhile.

Larry put out the little Dino cache and tomorrow we expect to go looking for another dinosaur cache that "JJ" is putting out. Guess they have to outdo each other.......or try to. I'm thinking of looking for a "Barney" and putting out my own dinosaur cache.

We managed a few caches every day since Friday, I saw the VA Clinic and got a prescription refill, we visited both casinos, won at one and donated at the other so guess it all evens out.

Today was a long day, I quit..........gonna watch the tube and hit the hay. W&B

Made It To Mid-Week............

and not much really going on this week. The nutso geocachers have slowed their placements down a bit so yesterday and today "B" and I went out for awhile to try to catch up. I think we managed to find about 15 caches in the last two days. Monday we woke up EARLY, couldn't go back to sleep so we head for breakfast at about 0500 in the morning! It was still early after breakfast so we drove down to the casino.........big mistake as I lost my weekly allowance. Decided that caching might be a cheaper way to spend part of the day.

Caching took us to the levees and the recent downpour really washed out the roads. The canal was being dredged..........Becky thought they were fishing.........I didn't tell her any different.

Today, stopped at Sam's Club and picked up some chow...........don't believe their meat is as good as Costco; but, it's still OK. On the way home we saw the result of an accident. These damn winter visitors are starting to arrive and they're really messing up the traffic! Time to drive to Old Town has just about doubled...........and one of our favorite restaurants is in Old Town.

Damn visitors!!! Later, W&B

Yesterday, Last Day of the Month...........

so we bounded out of bed and headed for Ligurta for breakfast. A few new caches popped up last night; but, we figured they would already have been found by the nutsos. Had breakfast and drove out to one of the caches and surprise, surprise........it hadn't been found yet. Becky got her #45 FTF Fix and then we found a couple more and headed home. Had some major laundry to do after our trip to the sand dunes so we got that done and things put away. I was half-way watching some football and playing on the computer when two more caches were published. They were 8-9 miles East of us so we jumped in the car and went looking. We found we were behind the "B" Team again so made the two finds and came home. I then discovered that 4 caches had been published..........two more in the same area we had just left. We'll just put them on our "to do" list and get them when we can. After it got dark the same guy had 7 more caches published. This makes 50 he's put out in a little over a month and the last one he called "The End". Last night the "B" Team went out with flashlights and found 6 of the 7. No more night hunting for me since our "conversation" with the deputy sheriff.

We've been so busy hunting for other caches that we've only placed four since we got to Yuma. Guess we gotta think about putting some more out. Don't know what's on the menu for today.......just play it by ear I guess. Later. W&B

Saturday After Thanksgiving...........

A couple of pics of the sand dunes on our way back to Yuma. We stopped at Krazy Kevens to see if he had any new sweatshirts; but, didn't buy any this trip. The WA folks getting ready to leave and loading up. We got loaded up a little quicker than they did and we left with about two cups of water left in the water tank. Becky drove the Suzuki back and stopped at the barber shop for another haircut while I came on back and set up the M/H. She's going to keep looking until she finds someone who will cut her hair to her liking................will be a while though 'cause there's not much left. Any shorter and we'll both be able to go to Phoenix and pick up some women.

Around midnight the troops made it to Corning and they stopped at the house for a motel stop and headed on to Portland early this morning. At least they got some rest and will be be able to drive over the Siskyous in the daylight. They should be home this afternoon sometime.

I don't think they'll do the "tent scene" again if they come back to Glamis. The Glamis Store, the one who was selling Spam for $6.00, was charging $10.00 for a shower!! I imagine the sand dunes start to get pretty ripe by the end of the long weekend.

Becky is out streetwalking the neighborhood again so I'll drag out some more stuff from the M/H cubby holes and get set up for the rest of the winter. Kinda of a pain in the neck to haul stuff in and out. Believe we might go down to the Mall later to see if there are any bargins left over from Black Friday.

Later, W&B

Cassidy......In Prison..

at Yuma. Still raining when we arrived and we had to dodge puddles; but, think she enjoyed her "stay". The Ocean To Ocean Bridge (behind railroad bridge) is kinda of a historical bridge, when it was built it provided a means of driving from one coast to the other without having to take a ferry for the crossing............some historical signifiance there I guess. The bridge is still in use and is still a one-lane bridge.

Turkey Day........!!

but, no turkey for us today. We brought steaks to the dunes; however, we ate them on Monday. PB&J sounds pretty good for today!

Weather turned crummy yesterday, rain and wind, and we had occasional showers during the day so we piled into John's truck and headed for Yuma. Cassidy had to add another state to her travels and John needed a new air mattress. His started leaking so he was basically sleeping on the lumpy ground. We ended up visiting the Yuma Territorial Prison and I think they all enjoyed that. Becky bought us lunch at Lutes (Where the Elite Meet), did our required shopping and headed back to the sand. Weather had cleared up so Becky stayed at the camp and Doug, Cass, John and I went out into the dunes. We watched the races up Olds Hill for awhile, starting to get dark so John and I made a couple of side trips to pick up two more caches on the way home. Got pictures of Doug and Cass going up Olds Hill, picture of John and I coming back down and a couple of pics of the caches we found. It looks like someone got a truck buried out in the dunes years ago and just left it to the elements. You gotta be careful out there, we even ran into areas that had us wondering if we could get back out. Being a passenger is sure a lot different than driving in the dunes!! Almost had to go back and change my skivvvies after enduring John's driving.

Got COLD last night.......we're still on Arizona time so we got up at 0730, which is 0630 for the other guys. John was up sitting at his little table eating cereal, Doug and Cass still in their tent and we're all nice & warm with the generator and heater going. Surprised the John hasn't come in yet! Sun is out so maybe the rain in gone. Don't know what we'll be doing today.

Will look for some pics of the prison run when we get them developed. Later. W&B

Another Day At Glamis......

Pictures kinda outta order but guess it doesn't make any difference. We all went out to the Boardmanville Trading Post.........everyone (just about, except John) staples a dollar someplace on the premises whenever they visit. Cassiday was ready, she had her dollar all laminated and after searching for awhile she finally decided on a place to put it. Becky put her dollar under the no trespassing sign. The Budweiser truck was there all the time we were..... unloading beer.......the trading post is essentially a water hole in the desert. Wouldn't want to be around there late at night when the crazies hop back into their sand rigs to go home. John found a new friend who left when Johnny wouldn't share his sandwich.



Top pictures of us kicking back yesterday and this morning before we ventured out. The troops went to the sand dunes and Becky and I went caching. We managed to find 4 today that didn't require us to travel too far into the sand. This is the Trading Post earlier in the morning before anyone arrived. Becky and I got there to find the three employees sitting at the bar. The barkeeper is also keep of the cache which we signed and then went on our way. We met the troops back there at lunch time (above pictures).


Becky had to take pictures of the Glamis Duners Country Club..........not much action there. We then drove over to the Gecko Campground, bought a couple of shirts are Krazy Kevens and then found a cache at the Gecko Campground sign. Duners were parked right next to it and we were greeted by some BIG pooches, fortunately they were friendly. Drove on down the road and found indications that Turkey Day was approaching.


At the Trading Post Becky had to have a sweatshirt.......posting some more pics of the dollars stapled here and there. Went back to the Glamis store and looked around...........I say looked, we were not customers. A six pack of soda was $8.35, a can of spam was $6.00 and I think a can of chile was about $3.60 or so. Becky thought I might be able to get a part time job as the wooden indian painted on the wall...........she said that would be better than a wall painting. If we need any spam or chili I may have to ask for a job!

Doug, Becky, Cass and John drove back to the Gecko area later to watch the sand drag races. No room in Rhinos for all of us so I kicked back at the motor home.

Don't know what tomorrow might bring. Wayne

Going Out Into the Dunes ....................

and looking for some caches. Believe I can drive the Suzuki pretty close to some of them so will go for them first and then bum a ride with John for others.

Had someone whining for equal time on photos...............here they are........one year old of course.

W

Monday And We Got To Glamis.............

California........home of the world famous Imperial Sand Dunes..........where off-road crazies migrate to during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Sand dunes are nice, wish I would have brought my Rhino......of course I knew that when I left it in Washington. Doug, Cassidy and John arrived here this morning. They must have driven all night from Portland to get here that early. They are tenting it so Becky and I told them we'd drive up for a few days to join them. They brought two Rhinos with them and have already been out in the dunes. I may drive the Suzuki out there tomorrow and look for some geocaches that aren't planted waaayyyy back in the sand dunes or else ride with John. Cassidy is all wild eyed, the first time she's ever seen this type of desert country.

We got here about 1300 and set up my MTV and Becky's internet so we're pretty much set for the next 4 days. Think we head back to Yuma on Friday; or, about when our water runs out. Tonight we fed the troops some rib eye steaks & baked potatoes. That was their Thanksgiving Day dinner; but, they don't know it yet.

Here's a couple of pictures I took from the door of the M/H. The Thanksgiving crowds haven't arrived yet but imagine they will in the next day or so. There are a bunch of vender tents with people selling the usual junk at outrageous prices. I imagine we'll have to get some sweatshirts with the 2008 logo.

Probably more pictures tomorrow if it doesn't start raining. Hasn't rained here for months and now we have a forecast of 20 - 30% chance of rain. Maybe it'll be enough to settle the dust.

More later. B & W

Friday Was Kind Of.................

Mexico is just a stone's throw across the river.







a slow day. A new cache was placed down by the Colorado River in an area where a lot of illegal activity goes on.......smuggling, illegals crossing the border, etc. Recommended for daytime visits only. Becky had no desire to enter that area so I grabbed La84fishn and we went a hunting. The wide open space is next to a canal and the Border Patrol trucks are constantly dragging the area to cover old footprints. They can then watch the open area to see if any activity has been occuring. Next to the cache site is a historical marker paying tribute to the Morman Battalion that passed through Arizona many years ago. We've found similar markers some 180 or so miles to the east of Yuma. Guess the markers have been placed at various spots along the trail.





This "tunnel" referred to as the "Condo" is only a few feet from the river and apparently is used as a place to hole up after crossing the river.





We didn't spend much time here, the BP truck observed us, waved at us and then they left the area when we did. Nice to know that, in addition to checking for illegal activities, they are also watching over "dummies" like us who venture into area where we probably shouldn't.





Becky and I grabbed one more cache in the afternoon and then took in the latest James Bond movie. Made our weekly stop for a big bowl of clam chowder and then came home.





Doug, Cassidy and John are coming down to the Glamis sand dunes for the Thanksgiving week so we're kinda storing away our stuff and we'll be making the 80 mile or so drive up to the dunes on Monday. We should get there about the same time they do and will hang aroud in the dunes until we run out of water. Bummers.........been checking weather reports and starting on Tuesday there's a 20 per cent chance of rain.........going to 30 per cent on Wed/Thur. It hasn't rained here since we've arrived. Oh well, we should have fun regardless. Shouldn't brought my Rhino down!!!

All for now. W&B

All The Way To Thursday..............

I guess we've been busy, too busy to update blog...........well, that could be a big lie too. Or else we've been just too lazy to do anything this week. I did get the oil changed on the Suzuki, we got laundry done and ????

Oh yeah, we were sitting home on Monday night and a new geocache pops up. It was placed by Moose Mob, who is also the Geocaching Reviewer for Arizona. He was in town for a few days working. Monday night he places a cache at his hotel and he and JJ wait to see who shows up. About 10 of us did. Had a nice visit and we called it a day. "B" and I have met Moose Mob on two other occasions, in Bull Head City last year and at the Geo Woodstock Event this year; but, other Yuma people hadn't met him. It's kinda nice to be able to place a face with a name you know over the internet so he was well received by the locals.

Tuesday night JJ put out the word that he would be taking Moose Mob to Lutes Casino, the Place Where The Elite Meet. That happens to be their trademark saying. Again about 10 of us showed up. "B" and I left early Tuesday evening as three of us were going with JJ to Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base north of San Diego to pick up about 300 ammo cans. Ammo cans make great containers for hiding geocaches, they're waterproof, animal proof and almost indestructable..........not to mention of a size that's easy to locate.

JJ, Ed, Larry and myself planned on leaving Yuma at 0700 to make the trip. Good Old Moose Mob went back to his hotel room after caching with JJ and published nine new caches sometime after 2200. I know he was kicked back in his room enjoying himself as he knew that some of the Yuma crazies would be heading out to find the caches in the middle of the night. JJ swears he'll "never" go after another one after 2000. Ha, he went out and found three of them. Someone else found three so Wednesday morning the four of us piled into JJ's truck, pulling a 17 foot trailer and had to stop to try and find the 3 unfound caches. We found two of them and Buzzcut made the other FTF. He headed toward San Diego about 0830 instead of 0700.

We cached along the way, arrived in Pendleton after the warehouse man had left for lunch so there we sat until he returned. Got a pallet and a half loaded up and headed back to Yuma, still caching along the way. Found a few and couldn't find others. Stopped at the Golden Acorn Casino for a lobster and steak dinner. Getting late so I dropped a twenty into the slot machine and 5 minutes later cashed in $68.00. That was a good stop as my dinner only cost $20.

Got to Yuma late...........Moose Mob stopped by so JJ gave him a bunch of ammo cans. We left and shortly after we got home Moose Mob published another cache that he had placed about 4 miles from JJ house. The message he left for Yuma was "Bwah hah hah hah hah!" This one JJ passed on, as did we. 0530 to 2230 was long enough a day for me.

Today was a kick back day, went downtown briefly, picked up some goodies at the Commissary and came home. Sitting outside chewing on a burger and a big motor home rolls up and pulls onto the lot. We figured we'd have company. No such luck, they were just staying overnight and then moving to the landlord's other lot tomorrow.

I'm setting up a breakfast for geocachers on Sunday morning so "B" and I will be going back to the restaurant tomorrow morning and giving them expected numbers for breakfast. I think we'll have about 20 people showing up. Could be a monthly event if enough interest is shown. No problem with the women showing up for breakfast.............I don't think any of them cook anymore! The men gotta take them out just so we can survive.

Later. W&B

Woke Up This Morning To...............

find that 14 new caches had been published last night. We were running really late so figured that there were crazies already out after them. Twelve were stashed 16-18 miles away so we decided to get them at a later date. Another one was down by the river where illegals and drugs cross the river so we crossed that one off our list too. Well we had one on our list that was only 3 miles away that we wanted to find so went after that one. Unfortunately, it entailed a climb up the hillside on slippery rocks. I crept up there, found the cache and slid back down the hill while "B" occupied herself by taking pictures.

The next one was a new one and it had been published more than 12 hours ago so we figured the FTF would be long gone by the time we got there. We found ourselves looking for a "micro" capsule stashed in a bunch of salt cedar trees. Needles are laying all over the ground about 2 feet deep and we're supposed to find this sucker? We looked, and looked some more. I tried to call the owner of the cache and he wasn't answering his phone. We were getting ready to quit when another friend drives up and joins in the hunt. He sets his GPSr in the bough of some branches so it would settle down............I had placed mine in the same place earlier and then moved it. All of our equipment ses the cache is within 2 feet of where we were looking. Yeah, right.........under a bunch of cedar needles!

Another friend shows up and joins in the hunt. We are all about ready to give it up when Becky yells, I got it. Sure enough she had found it. The cache owners had drilled about a 1/2 inch hole in the bough of the branches where we had both laid our GPSrs down and covered it with cedar needles. Apparently we had brushed enough needles away that a piece of the green capsule was exposed and old Eagle Eye spotted it. Becky and La84fishn fought over the log but Becky won and signed the log for our 43rd FTF. We had spent well over an hour there and all of us were glad to get this one off our list. We drove back down the road where Third Times Charm had failed to find one and this time he walked right to it. Unfortunately "JJ" had found it while we were all searching in the cedar needles.

That was enough for us...........we had spent nearly 3 hours capturing three caches so we headed home for the rest of the afternoon. Becky took another hike while I watched the Seahawks get smushed by the Cardinals.

End of day. More later if anything happens. W&B

Saturday And Passed Another Milestone.............

(We ran red lights trying to get to the cache but discovered a
group already there. The little kid got the five bucks. I got
lighter in the wallet as I owed two of the cachers $2.00 each,
I offer a two dollar bill for the FTF on my caches and two were
there who haven't collected yet)



today. Slept in to around 0800 and we were trying to figure out if we wanted to try a new place for breakfast. Phone rings and La84fishn is down the road a couple of miles and needs some help in locating one of my caches. We finally got him straightened out and a little later he stops by. Ms. Bigmouth informs him that today is my birthday............that's like telling the ladies at Bingo to keep a secret!





We head for breakfast to give it a try. The gravy was so-so, not bad but not worth turning cartwheels over either. We'll probably give them another try at some later date and try something else on the menu. After that we headed to the wetlands park to capture a cache that came out the other day. Found it and since we were so close to the casino we drove over there to try our luck. Becky won, I lost and combined we were $4.00 ahead. Started up the street to go to the "other" swap meet and got sidetracked by a craft show at the library. We stopped and Becky found some goodies for Xmas presents and away we go again. The swap meet has been cleaned up since last year..........still some junk but not as much. I bought another fake cactus for Judy since her's is well battered and needs replacement. Headed for home after that.





I was flipping channels for football and Becky decided to take a hike around the block(s). After she left a new cache popped up on the computer. Larry apparently had been spreading the word about my birthday and "JJ" quickly stashed a cache and had it published. He named it Happy Birthday Wayne43. He offered to buy me dinner at the restaurant of my choice if I was the First To Find. Of course it was placed over 12 miles away and quite a few cachers live much closer than we do. I also think he was busy making phone calls to cachers. To help ensure I wouldn't get there first he also offered $5.00 for anyone else being the FTF.





Well, by the time I got ready to go looking, Becky still not back from her hike so I drove around the neighborhood and finally found her. By the time we got to the cache there must have been about a dozen people waiting for us to arrive. Needless to say, we were far from being "first". You can check out the geocache at this link:





http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=65a40189-50c7-477d-ad04-45cea0b8532b





It was a lot of fun and a little six year old kid got the FTF and along with that a $5.00 bill.





Came home and called it a day. Geocaching has certainly helped us meet a lot of new people in our travels.............people who are a little nutso like us! Life is good.





Here's some pics taken at the BD cache. Later W&B

Thursday..........

Wednesday we went to Old Folks Day (kinda in a rut, huh) and I gave them back my "free" 5 dollars and added ten of my own. Fortunately, Becky won more than my losses so we left there in a hurry and spent our monies on groceries. Scouted around for some places to plant a geocache and we placed two of them. They didn't get published until today and there was a mad dash for the FTF. The Good Guys beat JJ to both of them so happiness fills the desert.........at least for tonight. Another cache was placed about a mile from JJ's work and he grabbed that one so he's happy also. Looking for some more to be published tomorrow and the race will be on again. The "Foothills Gang" stands a good chance on finding them first if they are placed on this end of town. There are about 8 of us out here who will go looking as soon as they are published in an effort to beat JJ.

Tommorow is "clam chowder day" at the Greek Restaurant (I told you we were in a rut). We had a late lunch today at a restaurant that's only been open for three weeks. Some pretty good home cooking..........I had a pulled pork sandwich and Becky had a pulled pork salad. We'll have to go back and try their breakfast..........complete with "sawmill" gravy. I asked the waiter what the hell sawmill gravy was and he said "country sausage gravy". At least I got another place to try.

It's about 2320 right now and people are still out finding and logging my caches. This seems to happen when poor souls like us have no job, no life and nothing to do!

More later if anything ever happens down here. W&B

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

and time to get caught up on our domestic chores. Got the laundry done and then spent the rest of the afternoon just kicking back and feeding our faces. Becky put on her hiking shoes and wandered around the neighborhood for nearly two miles today. Temperature about 73 today so I snoozed outside while she hiked. Think Applebees was offering a "free lunch" to veterans; but, didn't even go down for that (mainly because I forgot about it).

Went to Old Folks Day yesterday and found out that they aren't catering to us old folks because of some food/fund drive. Won't start giving us our $10.00 until December 22. Real Bummer! Hope their Monday's go down the tube!

Gotta start placing some geocaches out there this week.........been too busy hunting other ones down to place any. Need to get to the bank and pick up a handful of $2.00 bills........I always leave a $2.00 bill for the FTF. Got the idea from the Retired Professor in California...........he has now placed about 740 caches and always leave a deuce for the FTF. Guy must be really nutso.

Our "cool" spell is going to be over with starting tomorrow, temperature expected to be in the high 70s and then it'll creep back up to the mid 80s for the rest of the week. Gotta admit, the 80s sounds pretty good to me............guess we've gotten acclimated.

Gas prices getting a little lower every other day or so; but, we're still above the national average. Think the lowest price around here is something like $2.43.

That's about it for now. W&B

Oh yeah.......a post script. Reported earlier about trying to get some mapping software to work with my new GPS receiver. Played around with a program for two days and finally got it to work........a minor victory for the "little guy".

Crummy Day Today..............

with wind blowing everything away. Morning started off and we could see the mountain range to the East of us. By the time mid-afternoon rolled around mountains no longer visible and I'm not even sure that visibility was more than a few blocks. We didn't even venture out to see. Too much sandy grit blowing around. At least I had the time to get some geocaches ready to be placed this coming week. Had to stuff them with logs and information sheets but at least they are ready to be placed.

Wind calmed down this evening and forecast for the next few days looking up. Got an email from a friend who went to Flagstaff this weekend...........it was snowing there this afternoon and the forecast called for about 27 degrees tonight. Guess we have quite a change in elevation from Yuma.

Tomorrow Old Folks day again so maybe I'll be able to get my $15.00 back. At least at this casino they give you $10.00 worth of free play..........just enough to sucker you in.

That was our day today. Later. W&B

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

we started out with breakfast at a joint not too far away..........still looking for good country gravy. It wasn't too bad..........won't cross the restaurant off my list just yet. We then headed out for some geocaches as Becky is nearing the 1,500 mark, I think she needed 14 more. Well we didn't find 14........only got 5 so she's still short by 9. The only ones left in the area are either on a mountain top or out in the Buttercup sand dunes. Well, there are some downtown that this old guy puts out..........he makes math puzzles out of them or else you have to search the internet for information to complete them. Not my cup of tea so I just pass on them. He placed one a few days ago that wasn't a puzzle; however, when we went looking for it we find it's going to be in the middle of a thorny tree. I'm not playing that game either so we left.

Went to the Swamp Meet and picked up a few cheap goodies. Most of the booths are starting to open and they're supposed to have a season opener in a week or so. There might be some good deals then............or more of the same junk.

Our geocaching travels took us right by the Casino...........so we stopped. I was about $15.00 ahead but too dumb to quit. End result.....I left $15 with them. I guess they need it. I read in the paper that they need $25 million to complete their new casino. It's supposed to open about March of next year but things aren't looking too good for that now.

Think we'll sleep in tomorrow unless some more geocaching are published. Later. W&B

Went Geocaching Most Of The Day...............

with Larry (La84fishn) and Wayne (Beagle39z). They showed up at 0800, found the cache located at the end of the RV lot and then we headed for the desert. We had already found some of these caches and needed some more to complete the series so we took two cars and made a day of it. There's a cache by the light pole, Wayne has his hand on it but couldn't see it. Larry touched it a few times too and they expanded their search around the pole. When we finally couldn't stand it any longer we gave them hints and they found the cache behind the little metal strip on the pole. Signed log and we were on our way. Larry passed a milestone today as he went past the 2,000 mark on his finds. Wayne reached that mark before his return to Yuma. Had a hamburger at Ligurta and it was pretty good although the cook would only serve it well done. Health laws I guess; but, we do find some places that will cook them the way you like 'em.

Four new caches came out yesterday while we were gambling at the casino so after we split up Becky and I when off to find them. She found a little green bottle attached to the fence among all the bushes, it was called "GW". I must be going blind or color blind 'cause I couldn't even see it after Becky pointed it out to me. We finally found the 4 new ones and came home.

About 2 hours ago another one was published that is only about 2 1/2 miles from JJ's house.......I've been waiting for him to log it as found; but, he hasn't yet. I'm thinking about looking for it if he, or someone else, doesn't log it. It would be nice if someone grabbed a FTF in his "back yard".

CSI just came on............gonna post this and watch the tube. W&B

Kinda Slow This Week................

although we managed to make it to Old Folks Day on Monday and then took in a movie Monday afternoon. I lost my entire allowance on Monday ($11.00) and Becky managed to win some; but, never told me how much. Tuesday was domestic day so we cleaned up the M/H and washed clothes..........plus I washed the Suzuki and vacuumed it out. Spent two days trying to circumvent the Garmin system to place maps in my GPS receiver. Larry downloaded a bunch of mapping for me and we still couldn't get it to work. I found an online utility to "cheat" the system..............nothing worked. Tonight I ordered another set of mapping software.

Last night we went to the Brown Bagger or is that Brown Burger..........whatever, we were told they had great hamburgers so we stopped to give them a try. Not bad but we'll keep looking. Went to the other casino today for Old Folks day and I managed to walk away with $9.40 of their money. Whooppee! Guess that makes me the loser for this week.

Getting up kinda early tomorrow to go Geocaching with some friends. That'll probably take up most of the day. Nights getting cooler and days in the 70s........not too bad.

Later. W&B

Weekend............

Here's some pics of my Flash Mob Event. The event was scheduled to last 15 minutes. This is a group photo of attendees and another picture of the area 10 minutes later.


More Flash Mob pictures........we used the time to meet fellow cachers, sign the log book, have dinner (left over Halloween candy), take a group photo, hold a drawing for a five coin give away and disperse. Event started at 1600 and was over and people gone by 1615. Most had never attended a Flash Mob Event and I got some more ideas for another one from this learning experience. I think the attendees enjoyed something different. We then proceed down the street to JJ's Welcome Back Event to kick off the Yuma Geocaching winter.




Sunday morning we did some geocaching. We met JJ and Char for breakfast at the little hole in the wall place and I got my biscuit and gravy fix again. I'll include it on my list of places for breakfast. The first cache was stuck into a little bitty hole and we had a problem removing it......my handy dandy Leatherman took care of the problem and then we were off to the same area that scared the little Suzuki the other day. JJ looked at the first hill, steep with loose gravel and wasn't sure he could make it. He did so we followed and I scraped the bottom of the Suzuki numerous times getting back to the caches. JJ had to make the same climb I did the other day and we all stood at the bottom to pick him up if necessary. On down the road, some more rocks and some easy caches mixed in with some nasty ones. The old tractor was interesting, you had to spin the wheels to expose the cache. The last one was found by Becky, it was attached to a broken piece of tile and nearly buried under all the debris.

So ends the day.........gotta go apply some ice to my poor knee. W&B

Here We Sit On Halloween................

day about ten in the morning with no plans. A geocache popped up a few miles north of us rated at a three for terrain. Normally, I would say to heck with it as it usually entails a climb out in the mountains or desert. Thought again and figured we should go and try to beat "JJ" to it. First we ran into a humongous train with about 376 cars in it...........JJ would take the route on the other side of the tracks and wouldn't have a delay. We finally find a rough road leading toward the cache but could only drive to within .32 miles. We can across a large ditch that the little Suzuki was scared to jump.........so we walked, up a hill, down a hill, up another hill and down the other side. The .32 miles turned into a lot more distance than I wanted to walk (GSPr measures in a straight line and doesn't account for the terrain). We beat the bushes and I got bloodied up in the process..........eventually we found the cache located about 18 feet up the side of of a rock. I managed to climb up there and back down but at least we were rewarded with another FTF.

We were hot, dusty and sweaty so headed home for a shower and later drove down to the swap meet..........it hasn't really started yet and many of the booths were still closed. Then we headed to the Greek Restaurant for Friday's clam chowder. It wasn't too bad.

Back home for the night. I couldn't believe it...........this is an area with just old folks; but, we actually had one Trick or Treater. We scrambled around and dug up a handful of candy for the kid. End of day...........neither witches or goblins got us. Big events tomorrow. W&B

Been Taking It Easy............

the couple of days. Here's a few pictures of our activities. At our favorite breakfast hole we found this neat old car..........never figured out just exactly what it was although it had a Pontiac hood ornament (??) The local cacher, "JJ", placed a big electrical box on a fence so we had to visit. I made up a Travel Bug with one of the USS COLUMBIA (SSN-771) coins we received when we visited the submarine in Hawaii. Seemed like a good place to start his travels. Cache owner ses leave travel bugs or "anything" here. I posted a photograph of myself with instructions to leave a pre-addressed, stamped envelope with $2.00 in it and I would send a glossy autographed photo. "JJ" accused me of starting a business in his cache and wanted rent money. We spent one evening emailing back and forth arguing about a rental fee.

Yesterday we drove around to check on the Event caches that we helped place last February. Of the 16 placed I had to archive 7 of them. Roads had been built where they once were placed, put some of them in the desert in old car bodies and found the car bodies gone, etc. etc. Got an email from "JJ" and he said the car bodies were most likely hauled off to Mexico as they could get about $160.00 for the scrap metal. Things were getting really bad in a little town of Sommerton next to the border.........it turns out they were stealing manhole covers for sale in Mexico. Scrap iron business in Mexico must be good. You find strange things in the desert (besides Becky).......here's a basketball goal we found out in the desert. Becky actually made a basket with her rock.

Some more friends made it in the last two days and we stopped at their RV park to say "hello" to them. They are caching nuts also so looks like things will pick up considerably in the near future. Gotta get ready for my Flash Mob Cache to be held on Saturday. More people are signing up so it should be interesting.

Still warm but not as HOT as it was. Things looking good for the winter. W&B

Wednesday....................

and we're waiting for Dish Network installer. Changed account so we can get the local channels down here, get new equipment and installation for "free"..........at least it's supposed to be free.

We finally broke the cherry last night as six new geocaches were published about 1800. They were in our area so pulled on our shoes and socks and out the door we went. Got to the first one and it was still "fresh" and unfound. It was still before the "witching hour", 2000 is when the local Guru's truck turns into a pumpkin and heads for home, so thought we might have a chance for some more FTFs. Got lucky as we managed to grab them all "first". I think the Guru found three of them before heading for the barn. Things are going to be a little tougher in the future as more cachers are arriving almost daily.

Monday we went to the casino for our Old Folks Fix and managed to reclaim a few of our dollars. Yesterday was domestic chores day and after laundry was done we drove downtown and took in a movie, Appaloosa. It wasn't too bad...............much better than Becky's last selection. Today is Old Folks day at the other casino so we'll probably head that way after the dish is installed.

Weather is staying in the low 90s so it isn't too bad with cooling in the evening.

All for now. W&B

Put In Some Geocaching Time These...........

last two days. Four new caches came out last night and Becky and I decided to try and find them. It was too late to even think about getting that elusive First To Find; but, we managed to get them all. After we got home we found out that another cache had been published that we drove right by without knowing it was published. The local Caching Guru only works a few miles from the new caches so he was the first to find on all of them. This guy has been going nutso the last two days. The geocaching almost comes to a halt during the summer so guess you gotta make hay when the sun shines.



Yesterday we started out with an easy find in town and after that things got a little more difficult. See the second picture, there's a cache in there someplace, another friend Third Times the Charm came back to look for it again and with five of us looking he finally found it. This was just a preview of things to come. I had to make a lifeline call to the cache owner for the next find.........it was just a little bitty bush and after assurance that it was there, Becky poked it with her walking stick. We had to stop and photograph some wild burros.......they blend in too and if 3rdxC hadn't stopped we would have zoomed right on by them. Don's had a friend visiting from Finland and he was getting hooked on caching. He found several of the caches today. This the "JJ" the local cacher picking a huge piece of concrete off a cache. The devious cache owner said it "was not under a rock". The next one almost stopped us and required another life line call, someone disturbed a bunch of bees so we were glad to get out of there. Another rock pile..........this hide absolutely stumped us. This was JJ's first second trip out there and he said he stopped again today and the cache still remains unfound.

Hope no caches are published tonight........going out for breakfast at Ligurta and then maybe take it easy the rest of the day.

Later, W&B

Slow Day Today..............

now that I think back about it...........I can't remember doing anything today!! Maybe I should write more things down during the day......maybe someone will send me a PDA so I won't have to write things down........maybe someone will send me a small recorder..........with flash drives you can put tons of info on one of them.

I think I went to the post office and then came home. I do remember putting a geocache together and placing it at the end of our lot. I think I submitted it for review. Long after the sun went down three more geocaches came out about 18 miles away. Not gonna look for them in the dark no more. Talked to the guy who put them out yesterday and he said he had about 25 to get published so maybe the others will be closer.

Gotta get a fresh and early start tomorrow.............maybe something interesting will happen. The swap meet will be open........maybe they got new stuff this year!

Wayne

Wednesday And Old Folks Day..............

so we headed to the casino. I lost and "B" won..........how much I don't know 'cause she ain't telling. We stopped at Wally World and finally got home about 1430, turned on the 'puter and found that 10 new caches had been placed. Well, we haven't searched for any yet, we had daylight, it wasn't too hot and there was a nice breeze blowing so we decided to go look for them.

At the first cache we met the cache owner and he said that "JJ" had already found that one and he already left for the desert. Well, there goes our chance for a FTF. I need a new GPSr for Christmas as mine seemed to be really "off" today. I'm trying to scramble up a gully and I hear Becky yelling "I got it!". She found it at the bottom of the gully. Away we went and found a few more until we got to a big rock pile. You know it's not going to be under the rock pile; however, you have no choice except to move every rock and then put them back. After moving a few hundred more rocks I finally made a Life-Line call and Becky found it soon after we had a sense of where it was. I hate rocks!

I think we found 8 or 9 today, at least there were enough to push me past the 1400 mark as I now have 1402 finds.

We talked to the two guys who placed these caches today and they said they have another 25 coming out in the next day or so. Good start for this year's Caching Season.

All for now.................I gotta go ice down my poor knee. W&B

Monday Evening.............

at least it was cooler today and it looks like it'll drop a few degrees each day for the next several days. We made a Mexico run today............or should I say a "drug run".......anyway picked up a few goodies and then stopped at the Cocopah for a little while. We were sharing a 2 cent slot machine and I accidently hit a wrong button (increased our bet)......turned out to be a good move as the machine spit out $96.00. We left after that. Picked up our range passes so we can legally drive on the Bombing Range and since it was Monday we had to visit the Paradise casino and collect our "free" $10.00 each for old folks day. We ended up winning there also so stopped for a late lunch and still had a few bucks left over.

A new geocache came out about 2000 tonight and is only about 2 miles away.........so far no one has gone after it; but, this year I'm not going to go charging into the desert with a flashlight so it can wait until morning before we look for it. If we get there first that would be OK but this year I can't get enthused about trying to be FTF. Must be getting OLDER.

That's about it for today. Later. W&B

Sunday Evening And It's Still HOT....................

in old Yuma town. We made our casino run to the Paradise casino yesterday and managed to leave with some of their money..................not much; but, some. Today we decided to drive around and find out what new roads have been built since our last visit. We're always looking for shortcuts to take when those damn winter visitors arrive in droves. We had hoped that one street had been extended a few more miles to the west of the Foothills so we explored it today. Road turned out to be a drive in the desert and I thought we were going to get lucky when I could see cars zipping past on a paved road...........no such luck, we reached the end of the road about 50 feet from the pavement and a big long fence stretched along side the paved road as far as we could see in both directions. Retraced our route a ways and found that we could still avoid a lot of the winter traffic when we need to.

Naturally, our travels took us to the other casino, Cocopah, so we gambled for a little while and we managed to leave there with some of their money too. It'll probably be the last time we win anything at either casino.

When the sun goes down it cools off nicely so things are going to get better. Broke out the old BarBQue tonight and burned some pork chops and stuff. We should be settled in after a few more days. Gotta get out and do some of the easier geocaches this coming week.

More later. W&B

Got The A/C Running This....................

afternoon and while trying to escape the heat thought I'd post some pictures I took on the way to Yuma. This collage shows where we parked at Mesquite Spring campground which is only about 5 miles from Scotty's Castle. These are pictures I took while waiting for our tour guide to show up for our tour. We talked to the guide the previous day and she said to sign of for the 10 o'clock tour and she would be the guide. (Maybe she gets paid by the head..........whatever, we arrived early and waited for the 10 o'clock tour). As we approached the castle I asked Becky if the castle was surrounded by a moat...........dumb question as she has never been here either. As we browsed around we figured it must be one hellava large swimming pool. It turns out that we were correct.........the swimming pool was started but never finished.



Our tour guide was dressed in very unusual garb and as we got started she asked if anyone knew why the guides were dressed as they were. I quiped "Halloween coming!"; but, she never missed a beat as she explained that the workers were dressed in the fashion that the residents wore when the castle was in its heyday back in the 30's. The 1933 Packard belonged to the castle owners, Albert and Bessie Johnson. It seems the Johnson's were very private individuals, millionaires and shunned all publicity. Most people would have named the ranch "Johnson Ranch"; but, they chose to name it Death Valley Ranch. Scotty's Castle was the name that it finally came to be known as..........it was named after Walter Scott, a scoundral, con-man and huckster extraordinaire. He conned many individuals into investing in his "gold mine" and one of the investers turned out to be the millionaire Albert Johnson. As the story goes, Albert decided to visit the gold mine and Old Scotty was caught up in one of his many lies and tall tales. That probably would have been the end for Scotty; but, Albert and Bessie fell in love with Death Valley and opted to build their ranch here. Scotty and Albert developed a friendship instead and Scotty stayed on to become the unofficial Host for "Scotty's Castle".

Take a peek at picture #6, and you'll see a piece of steel firmly attached to the wall. This device was located outside Scotty's bedroom and from the inside you can see a hole approximately an inch or so in diameter with the steel plate visible from the inside. It seems that the Johnson's provided a bedroom for Scotty; but, he actually lived a considerable distance from the ranch house where he tended to the horses and livestock. Anyway, getting back to the device, our guide said it was placed there because Scotty would spin tall tales about keeping gold hidden under his bed. It was theorized that thieves would come in pairs to try and rob Scotty, one would stand near the window (where I was standing when I took the picture) and his cohort would try to gain entrance at the door, where the guide is standing. Well Old Scotty figured that he would get a TwoFer by shooting a shotgun from inside the room into the steel device. The shot would be spread toward the door and the window and Scotty's would be thieves would meet their maker. Our guide said that this was a story that you could believe or not believe. It certainly looked like a device that would work! (???)

Everything in the castle is original..........the actual furniture used by the Johnsons, their clothing still hanging in the closets..........everything was left just as the Johnsons left it. Estimates to build the castle were in the 1.5 to 2 million dollar range....................wonder what it would cost today?



After our tour we drove to Ubehebe Crater which turned out to be a big hole in the ground about 500 feet deep. All that remains of an eruption many years ago.



A few miles outside of Beatty, NV we took a turn off to Rhyolite Ghost Town. A now defunct mining town. The first thing I saw were a group of ghosts and when we got closer we found that it to be the artists conception of the Last Supper.............ghost style. A car drove up and two really old folks set up their camera and were taking pictures of themselves seated on a couch. I walked over and chatted with them, they had a picture they took of themselves seated on the couch about two years ago. They used the picture to announce their wedding plans. Now two years later, they were recreating the scene.

There used to be a Rhyolite Casino and the remains of an old caboose. I guess this is truly a ghost town as I don't know what what happened to the last two pictures I took...........they turned out black and white! Becky took a few pictures at Scotty's Castle that displayed "strange" lights that showed up in her photos.............none of the ones I took at the castle had any such lights.

Go figure.

W&B