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