Here We Are On The 29th of February.............

time sure is flying by this year. What are gonna do today.......that problem was solved for us when Coyote Jack placed a new cache called "A4 Down" on the Bombing Range. I got hold of Third Times Charm, he's always ready to go down to the bombing range desert, and he said sure, he'd go down today. Called Fo and he mumbled something about "senioritas, Mexico, dancing, partying etc. etc.) and couldn't drive down with us. We left about 0900 and finally got back home around 1500 this afternoon. (Got back in plenty of time for Frank to make his party; but, guess he needed to rest up a bit after the last one). About 120 plus miles for one cache, and we had lunch at Ligurta Station. After leaving this crash site we decided we'd take another route back to civiliation. Bad move, the "road" started out great as it was a main drag used by the Border Patrol. Once we got off that one I think all the fillings in my teeth came out. Rough, rough, rough road and once we were committed there was no turning back. Oh yeah, we didn't even get the FTF. Four of were looking for well over 35 minutes and Don finally found it after he broke out his mirror and discovered the cache tucked into a gap in the wing. Lottsa places to hide a cache in one of these crash sites. Think we're going to be in the rest of the day. W&B

Been Resting Up Since Last Excursion............

onto the Bombing Range. We went back and picked Frank up........he said no one arrived at the Beacon!! What's with that? Monday Frank and I took a trip to the Imperial Sand Dunes to see if we could snag a FTF on a new cache. Got that one and another one we hadn't found previously. Suz and Becky spent most of the day at the repair shop getting manicure, pedicured and taking whatevery other "cures" were offered. Make it to Old Folks Day at the casino and Becky managed to come away with a few extra bucks so she sprang for lunch. Tuesday was "do nothing" day for us, guess Suzannah got underway on her six month world cruise. Maybe she'll send a postcard.

The other night another cache popped up in the sand dunes so we went after it today. "Buzzcut39", another cacher named Frank, called and invited us out to breakfast so we took him up on it and then he and I ventured into the sand dunes again for another FTF. Our number 34. We also visited a few other caches in the dunes so Frank could get them logged. Becky wouldn't share her camera and Frank forgot his so no pictures of these last two adventures.

Today is Old Folks Day at the other casino and we're kinda debating whether we want to go or not..........casino is air conditioned so we'll probably go. The forecast for today was 81 degrees. IT IS NOW 85 DEGREES WITH NO RELIEF FROM THIS HEAT WAVE IN SIGHT!!! Boy those northern folks sure are lucky not to be swealtering in this HOT, HOT, HOT desert!!!

Gotta go look for someplace to "cool down". W&B

Sunday......Another Day In The Desert..............

Suz and Frank stopped by and away we went to the Barry Goldwater Bombing Range again. We entered from a different direction from yesterday so everything new to us too. Think we drove about 60 miles on the range itself......at about an average speed of 15 miles an hour. Roads were pretty rough and dusty but passable. A Boarderpatrolman checked us out and then continued on toward Mexico in a cloud of dust. Never saw him again. On the way to our first cache we found a bunch of old tanks and bunkers with mock missles and gun emplacements. We kinda figured they were used for practice bombing runs. Frank was the only one agile enough to climb up on the tank. Desert is really green this year and Becky snapped a lot of pictures on our way up a canyon to the first cache. She even found a bear cave.....guess you could spell that "bare cave" 'cause there wasn't nothing in it.



We finally made it to the first cache site, Betty's Lee Mine, or something like that. Actually the cache was located near the entrance to the Betty Lee Mine. To actually reach the mine would have required a pretty good hike up the canyon. We didn't do it. This cache really gave us fits, it was located on a ledge above these old buildings.........the buildings we think were used to house explosives for the mining operations. They were haunted.....see third pic, Becky captured an apparition, took another picture and it was gone! We hunted and hunted for this cache and fortunately I had cell phone reception so I made a "call a friend call" for help. Even with some directions from him we still had a problem finding the cache. I finally sat down to survey the scene and almost sat down on the cache. It was tucked in behind some rocks! Better to be lucky then good. Spent way too much time here so off we went to look for "Black Box" a cache near an F14 plane crash site.



The road started off as a trail and then merged into a freeway, see pic 1. We passed some old expended ordnance pieces and finally arrived at the site of the plane crash. Both pilot and navigator ejected from the plane and were not killed in the crash. The aircraft was reported to have been on fire for some 15 hours after the crash; but, it was in remarkable shape. We were so busy browsing around the airplane that we almost forgot about the cache. We were supposed to locate the Black Box and from there we would have information to find the pilot and cache. Frank located the Black Box and it led us to the pilot hanging from a tree. Here's Frank with the cache in one hand and Black Box in the other. Becky took a picture looking up one of the engines.......in remarkably good shape! On to the next one another cowpath road.





On the next cache and we found more old tanks that probably served as targets for bombing runs. Going up the wash and Becky started screaming to STOP. She had spotted a "monster" guarding an old cactus (I'd type Saguaro...but I can't spell it). We found more greenry and an old Halloween Tree. Here's Suz passing a big rock while treking up the wash to the cache. It was supposed to have been a "moderate" hike. Ha! Frank made it all the way to the cache, I got about 2/3 the way there and Becky and Suz stopped short and took pictures of this rock formation. They told me what it looked like to them; but, all I could see were rocks. Found another emergency beacon on the way out. Frank was worn out from all his rock climbing and wasn't able to reach the panic button. We left him there.

End of day.

Made It Through Saturday................

Not much going on Thursday except domestics, laundry, rig clean up and even washed the Suzuki. Friday we went to early dinner with Sue and Frank and then hibernated. All four of us were going out to the bombing range today but Suz and Fo had company so we postponed until tomorrow. Another guy I know called up and said he was going out to look for "Oops" a cache about 20 miles in the bombing range desert. We hadn't been in that area so I told him we'd tag along. He showed us the roads to take to get into the area so we'll be better prepared for tomorrow. The Oops cache was about 1/2 mile off the road and after walking in we spent close to an hour digging around the wreckage of a drone aircraft. Never found the cache. Don drove on back to Wellton and Becky and I continued to explore the desert. Got within .4 of a mile from another cache but it involved some climbing into the mountains so we might try that tomorrow. Better to have more people with you when you venture into some of those areas. We even found a "beacon" in the desert where you can push a red button and the Border Patrol will come looking for you if you're lost or in trouble. There are numerous such beacons scattered throughout the area. Kinda nice to know there's help available if needed. Founds numerous 50 cal. shell casings and remains of ordnance. Nope, that's not the remains of a SAM, think it was a smoke bomb of sorts. The drone wreckage was quite interesting and mostly intact. At least all the pieces seemed to be a small area. Must not have crashed too hard as it didn't disintegrate. The cache we're trying to find tomorrow is at the crash site of an F-14 and I'm told the plane burned but a lot of the wreckage is still there. Should be interesting if we can get to it.

Posting a few pics of today's adventure. W&B

Finally Made It To Wednesday..............

and last night a new cache was published. A couple of guys were unable to find it in the dark so we thought we'd go look for it this morning. Just before we left three new caches popped up in our "back yard", so to speak, they were all within 3 miles of our abode. We altered course and headed for the closest one. Spent a loooong time looking for the first one and two other cachers showed up and joined in the hunt. I finally found it and then 4 of us ganged up on the other two and found them pretty quickly. We met a little old granny lady, josie b, who does her caching all by her lonesome..........seems her old man would prefer to sit home and bitch about the places she drives their car rather then join her. Guess she tries to make it go where a 4 x 4 is required. She was a kick in the pants to talk to and hope we meet up with her again. We then headed downtown for a cache called Garden Party. This was located in an old John Deere tractor in the middle of a nice little park. We never knew it existed. The park was really neat with a lot of plants, flowers, picnic areas and tons of stuff for kids. We spent a long time looking for the cache and Becky finally came up with it stuffed under the cowling of the old tractor. Results of today efforts, two FTF and four new caches for the day. Ended up the day by taking in Old Folks day at one casino for our "free money" and then going to the other casino to spend our Monday "free money". I ended up $21.00 ahead and that probably paid for the gas we used.

Posting some pics, one of Larry and josie b and me and some of the "Garden Party" area. Good day, temps in the 70s but the wind is starting to pick up a bit..........oh well can't have everything!

Tuesday.........I Think...........

tend to lose track of the days, especially when one doesn't have any particular reason to rise and shine (like W.O.R.K.) Only get up to check the mirror and see if I'm still able to fog it up when I breathe on it. Once that's done it's time to check my list "of things to do". Right now I'm working on the 2010 list.

Well, not quite. Spent a good part of the day on the telephone and computer making reservations, checking to see what's available and when so I can map out the summer. Have to start working on reservations earlier as I found I was too late to make reservations when & where I wanted. You gotta get an early start making campground reservations at all the good spots, like the Oregon and Washington coast....especially when they are "freebies". Being an ancient disabled Vet sure opens some doors in Oregon and Washington State Parks 'cause I can camp in them for "free"!! Sure offsets the gas prices for traveling.

Think I have June, July and August all taken care of. Now all I gotta do is make sure I can "fog" up the mirror in the mornings.

Damn weather is killing me.........all the time nice and sunny and temperatures are starting to approach 80!! Can you imagine that??

Well, have done enough complaining about the weather so will post this and go back to my list.

Made A Costco Run..............

to El Centro today and did a little caching along the way. Asked Suz and Frank if they wanted to go and away we went. First two pics in collage were yesterday.....it sure didn't look like a cache was hidden where I was standing.....but there was. Saturday the new cache that came out stumped a bunch of us. Becky and I finally fished it out of a metal pipe with a walking stick and duct tape after everyone had left. Today we made a few stops here and there and picked up six caches near El Centro. The old tree in the middle was guarding a very old, unkept cemetary that had some interesting grave markers. People are cautioned not to visit the cemetary after dark.........strange sights have been observed in the tree and equally strange sounds have been heard coming from the graveyard!! All the more reason to visit during the day. North of El Centro is a sugar refinery and Becky and Frank pointed out the sea level sign painted high on the towers. Took some pictures as we passed through the Buttercup Sand Dunes. Very busy this weekend, probably due to President's Day and an extra weekend day for some.

Becky and I got home and discovered that 4 new caches had been published. Two hadn't been logged as found yet so we jumped back in the car and drove the 18 or so miles east of us to find them. Located them with flashlights but found that two others had already been there. Bummer. End of about a 300 mile day and I ended up at 1,199 finds. Need one tomorrow for a small milestone. W&B

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

and we've spent the last two days just being lazy. Friday was a windy and cooler day so did our domestic chores..........laundry and cleaning up the rig. Frank and Sue were cleaning up some caches in the area but we opted to stay home mainly because of the wind. Today was a super day weatherwise, just a slight breeze and I think the temperature settled in about 74 or so, not too warm and not too cool. A new cache popped up on the computer this morning and since Becky already had her FTF Fix for the week we were in no hurry to go after it. When we finally did leave to go find it we found 4 other cachers milling around a piece of concrete in the desert with a pipe and PCV pipes sticking out of it. The name was "Mole in the Hole". We could look into the smaller pipe and with a flashlight we spotted "something" in the hole. We tried magnets, that didn't work since it wasn't metal. Nothing anyone had with them would let us retrieve the object in the pipe so we all finally left the area. Becky and I went back later with some duct tape and managed to fish out a plastic pill bottle from the pipe. It turned out to be the cache so "B" got another FTF, her/our #30. I think the other cachers were a little miffed that we got credit for it since we arrived after they did; however, we were the ones to finally retrieve it and first to sign the log so guess the FTF belonged to us. Didn't do anything else the rest of the day. Our neighbor came over and asked if we wanted to go with them in the washes east of us in the Rhino. He has the Artic Cat and his cousin pulled in with his side by side and they were going out. I still had the paddle tires on the Rhino and was too lazy to change them since we'd be driving on rocks and rough terrain. I passed. We might try it next week if I get the tires changed. Running out of some grocery goodies we normally buy at Costco so might make the drive to El Centro tomorrow since that's the closest Costco.

That's it for now. B&W

BUMMER ! ........................

What do you do when you get up about 0200, make a mad dash to the Yuma Proving Grounds to watch the Golden Knights do their "night jumping" thingy, something they do only once while here doing their winter training, and then arrive at 0330 to find the landing field completely dark. The poog at the gate didn't know a thing about the night jumping. We drove up to the area to find two other crazies waiting beside the landing field. We were just hanging around shooting the breeze when a member of the Golden Knights ambled by and told us that the wind gusts were too high and the night jumping exercise had been cancelled. He didn't know if they would be rescheduled or not. Well my normal beddy bye time is around 2300, or later, so even though I went to bed earlier I still didn't get much sleep.

Problem at 0330..........what the heck do you do now? Well we finally decided to return home, pick up Sue and Frank's car and then go to the casino. Another bad move for me. Early bird breakfast is served at 0530 for 99 cents!!! Whoopeeeee! My 99 cent breakfast cost me $35.00 and 99 cents. Would have been worse but I recovered $20.00 as Becky and were leaving.

Got home about 0730, hit the sack and got up again about 0930. Been staggering around in the fog the rest of this day.

Damn computer went "ding" about 1110 and a new geocache had been published. I didn't check the computer until 1125.......damn, 15 minutes wasted. It was about 4 miles north of us in the desert so away we go, bouncing over rocks and sand roads we got there about 1140. Looked around and saw no place to hide a cache??? I finally found it at 1150 and got the log signed. Becky has her FTF fix for this week...... #29. Got a phone call from a friend and he was wondering why we didn't wait as he and another vehicle arrived at 1205.

Hope nothing else comes out today.........if so it can just stay there until we get read to go looking. B&W

Wednesday And Time To Visit The Golden Knights......

Called up Sue and Frank and we drove up together. Got there about 1130 in time to see a few parachuters and then they took a lunch break. Not for long and they were back in the air again. We pretty much saw the same type of show; but, it's always interesting. Weather was super, wind almost nil and there were a bunch of old farts like us taking in the show. First collage shows a Golden Knight doing spirals....from the ground it looks like he's standing on his head at times and doing loops. They have a big "X" in the center of the landing area and most of the GKs manage to hit it almost dead center. Sue and Fo were laying on the ground and apparently this gives a pretty good view. Personally, I didn't try it; however, I think that Sue was napping most of the time we were there! Mabe too much sand and fresh air at the dunes yesterday. Always like to watch the tandems land. I figure that this is the best opportunity to see the the chuters do cartwheels if the hitchhiker drops his legs too soon and digs into the ground. No such luck today. Guess you have to be a VIP to bum a ride with the GKs.........not that I would want to give it a try.

Shouldn't have gone out there today as we found out that the jumps will start at 0300 in the morning. They have some night jumps scheduled and we were talking to some old guy who highly recommended we watch if possible. Guess where we'll be heading about 0300 tomorrow. Suz and Frank will stop by and they we'll drive the 25 or so miles up there to see if we can "see" anything. Winds are supposed to kick up tomorrow but it still should be rather calm that early in the morning. Probably won't be able to take any pics but the old guy said it was like a Fourth of July show with flares and other pyrotechnics they use. Guess we'll know by this time tomorrow. Off to bed.......just hope I can drift off to sleep since it's hours before my normal bedtime. Later. B&W

Buttercup Area Imperial Sand Dunes

Finally made it out to the sand dunes today with Fo, Suz and Guy and Susann, a couple who live a door down and own an Artic Cat. Got outta here about 0930 and made the quick trip to Buttercup. Unloaded and away we went. There were about 12 or 14 caches that we wanted to find so combined dune riding and cache hunting. Guy and Susann had never been geocaching so we gave them an introduction and believe they enjoyed the hunt. Suz started out driving, see first pic, in no time at all it was "Look, no hands"! Things degraded after that but we found a few caches and rumbled over some dunes. I drove the Suzuki and managed to get around quite well. When Suzannah finally turned the Rhino wheel over to Frank he and Becky headed for a new cache site. About every 50 yards there are signs that mark a "closed area". LARGE SIGNS!! We told them, LOOK that is a CLOSED AREA!! Frank drove down the line about a hundred yards and then made a 90 degree left turn right into the closed area. We shouted, honked the horn but didn't follow them...........after all we could read; but, more importantly I didn't want to get a $500.00 ticket for violating the closed area signs. The cache was about 2 1/2 miles away, in a straight line, so we took the legal route. Last we saw of the rookies was when they disappeared over the edge of a large dune. We found the cache, waited for a loooong time for Fo and Beck and they never showed. We finally decided to head back to where we left the trailer. Upon arrival...........no Frank or Becky. I drove over to the fee collection site in the event it was still open.............it's manned by the local sheriff and we figured we have to call out the guard to go out and find the "rookies". No sheriff but we found Becky and Frank seeking out the restroom. That about ended our day in the dunes. Guy and Susann headed for El Centro and we loaded up and drove back to Yuma. Sat and relaxed for a bit and found that a new cache had been published and was about 2 miles away. Frank and Suz were headed home so we all took a trip into the desert to look for the cache. Finally Frank found it............it was placed near a pile of concrete debris and after Suz turned over every piece of concrete we were about to call it quits. Frank kept picking up a piece of concrete and said it "bugged him". I told him to throw it away then. He did, the concrete landed in the sand, hit a buried rock and exposed the cache glued to the underside of the rock! I suppose you could call that a "lucky find". We signed and log and went our separate ways. This was Becky's 1,200 find.

Posting Some More Pics.............

to go along with following posts. Apparently I can only post 5 pictures at a time with each post????

Here comes some more pictures from today. You may be wondering about the collage in following post.........one of the local cachers, Bronco Busters, had a travel but tatooed on his arm and they've also made a travel bug of their dog. The arm tat seemed to be a "chick magnet"..........I'll have to think of getting one for myself, still undetermined on exactly where I'd like to have it placed. Stay tuned.

Here's some more pictures of today, Signal the Frog was there and Becky can log him again as discovered. I was handing out some event prizes and received ample reward from several "winners" for my efforts. The Blond was part of the caching team named "Blond Run Amuck", a couple of gals from California. Becky's walking stick continued to received rave reviews today. I now have taken 119 orders for personalized walking sticks. Fo had better get busy as I required 50% down before I would accept the orders. Wayne

Finally Made It To Sunday....................

as this was the weekend for the Yuma Geocaching Event #5 put on by Jeep'en Jumpers and crew. We were invited to help out with this year's event and have been busier then a one-armed paper hanger the last couple of days. Great fun and it was all well worth it. Becky and I and L84fishn placed 16 new caches in the area just for the event. Friday morning the reviewer started publishing them and the fun began. I spent all day Friday just watching the computer as caches were published and people were racing to be the First To Find. Frank and Suz were among the "searchers". The reviewer has a sadistic streak in him and he published caches that were far, far apart and would only publish 2 or 3 at a time. Those people with instant notification, i.e. Blackberries, probably drove a whole bunch of miles, as did Fo and Suz. Sue would give us a call for updates, we'd feed them coordinates and they managed to find all 16 before day's end. I even think that had 5 FTFs!

Saturday morning Becky and I made the tour to replenish caches, check to see if they were still OK and log them for ourselves. We knew where the caches were, knew the most direct routes and it still took us several hours to complete them. Of course, we met cachers in our travels, had to stop and shoot the breeze, etc. etc. but finally finished them up. From our abode to all the caches and return we drove 87 miles. This was the third time we made the rounds. Spent my whole social security check on gas!

Saturday evening we showed up at Lute's Casino for a Warm Up Event. Probably close to a 140 people showed up for that one. We finally received our Travel Bug Tags in the mail so stopped at S&F's and Fo attached the tag to Becky's Walking Stick that Frank had carved. Received many Ohs and Ahs and there were several wood carvers at the Event who proclaimed Frank's work as really something special. All that and he just started carving last summer in Colorado! Oh, by the way, Frank bought dinner for all of us..........Becky wanted to buy but Fo would have nothing of that!

Today we showed up about 0830 at the Gateway Park for today's Event that was supposed to start about 1000. Busy, busy and finally lunch was served about noon. As always, the tri-tip and fixens were outstanding. Prizes were awarded for cache finds, drawings were held, some very nice prizes were given away at the Poker Run and it seems that everyone had a super day under 78-80 degree weather with a slight breeze. Perfect day. Posting some pictures of Saturday night and today.

I'm beat, gonna hit the shower and then the hay. Big day tomorrow, free money for old folks at the casino day!

W&B

Where Does The Time Go.....................

here it is into February and it seems all we've been doing lately is gambling and eating our way through Winter. Fo, Suz, "B" and myself have been kicking tin cans around town, placing some caches for the Yuma Event on Sunday and eating our way through buffets and restaurants. Great thing is, Fo has been springing for all the breakfasts, lunches and dinners. What a generous guy!!

Weather has warmed up and I'd say Spring has arrived.....except that isn't official for another six weeks or so. Temperatures have been climbing up the old therometer a few degrees each day and we're expecting 80 on Sunday with all next week in the 70s. Hope to get the Rhino out into the Sand Dunes at Buttercup some day next week. We'll just turn Suz and Becky loose in the Rhino and Frank and I can try to keep up with them in the little Suzuki. There's probably about 20 or so caches that we can add to our find list out in the dunes so hopefully nothing comes up to change our plans.

No pictures to post the last few days but Sue and the "official photographer" will probably be busy Saturday and Sunday taking pics at the Event and Pre-warm up Event.

More later, Frank just called to entice us to the buffet at the Golden Corral. Can't pass that up. B&W

Posting A Few Pics.....................

of recent adventures..........call that Geocaching I guess. We finally got rid of our colds, sniffles, sneezes, grey hair, aches and pains and set out to check on my local caches before the Event on Feb 10. On the way we upped Fo and Suz's "numbers". They made it past the 600 find mark at some point but I don't remember which one it was. Fo was window peeping and then found a cache encased in a light bulb. Then they did a little gardening on someone's yard and came up with the find in a spray nozzle. Found one in an old junk car in the desert and then they spent a good amount of time finding a cache around this power pole. The guy hid six decoys there and it took a little while but Sue came up with the cache. It was velcroed inside the fake electrical outlet.

We moved on to the Barry Goldwater Bombing range where they found a new cache and then discovered mine in a pile of rocks and another hanging in a tree. We muddled around in more rocks, found one in a clump of trees and then went on to the Yuma Territorial Prison where one was stashed behind the prison. It was located next to the rear of the infamous "Dark Cell" where inmates were chained to the floor in a dark cave for screwing up while in prison. Some old fart has made up a bunch of "puzzle" caches which are driving us nuts. I thought I had the combination to the padlock at the "mailbox cache". It didn't work so back to the drawing board and we'll try it another time. More rocks and we finally found some water at "Dee's Fishing Hole" was was located on the canal. Quite a bit of wildlife here and apparently lottsa fish to be caught.

Back to the mountains and rocks!! Found a spot waaayyyy up on this hill and Fo made like a mountain goat to get to the top. Sue's knee apparently doing OK as she made it nearly to the top. I did well to get the car turned around in a wide spot. No way I could have made it to the top and Becky's excuse is "I'm the photographer". I couldn't watch Suz climb back down as it was pretty steep here.

That was the last of the rocks for awhile and we wound up the day on level ground and searching for drive-by caches. Our trek took us to the Army Proving Grounds and after finding a magnetic in the fence post we made our last stop at one of the big guns guarding the entrance to the Proving Grounds. Sue finally spotted the cache and Frank had to crawl under the gun to retrieve it.

End of a couple of days of "Fun In The Sun". Oh yeah, Frank O purchased lunch both days!!!

Today the wind was really blowing and stirring up the sand. Becky and I went out and finished placing some more caches for the upcoming event. Stopped by the Kofa KOOP and while "B" and Sue visited Frank and I went out and planted the last two caches. Glad that little task is over with.

More later if weather improves.

How about them Giants!!!! WooHoo!!! W&B