Time Is Flying............

don't know where the week has gone.........I guess 'cause we've been doing a lot of geocaching. Check out the pictures.......a new area opened up with geocaches this week so we've made several trips out there. Seems like whenever someone finds one they also place some more. This is a new area for us and now I think there are 14 caches in the area. It requires a bit of ridge running and on Thursday and Friday we were out with La84fishn and after finding new caches we decided to explore.

The little "Suzy" handles the loose rocks and inclines OK but Larry Honda is "all wheel" drive so it doesn't do as well as we do. We found a rather steep hill with lots of loose rocks and dirt and Larry's Honda couldn't make it up to the top of the ridge. While he was down below blocking the road a bunch of ATVs rode up so we all had a nice time watching him trying to get out. He was finally able to back out to an area where he could turn around and all the spectators gave him a big hand when he finally got going again. I drove back down the hill and we left the area on the same route we took in. Grabbed another picture of the kibitzers still on the hill as we drove away.

Wednesday we had lunch with Sue and Frank as they were heading to Casa Grande on Thursday. The slot machine gods must have been looking out for me as I left the new casino with $170.00 more than I arrived with.

Yesterday was also clam chowder day so we tried a different restaurant. We had been there before for fish n chips so wanted to try the chowder. The chowder was so so; but, the fish 'n chips are still the best we've found down here.

Today there were new caches in the same area we had been exploring; but, we decided to pass on them for today. Becky wanted to see "Grand Torino" with Clint Eastwood so we headed that way.............we were only an hour and half early 'cause somone misread the start time. Took the time to find a new cache and we managed a FTF. Still had time so stopped at the old casino and I left $14.00 ahead. That was enough to pay for the movie and popcorn.

Left there and Becky wanted to try the Indian Taco at the new casino snack bar. So we go out there after the movie. Taco wasn't what she expected so guess that's crossed off her list now. I found the same machine I played the other day and it graced me with another $80.00. I should probably stay away from the casinos for awhile.

I think we're home to stay for awhile. Weather staying pretty nice as we had another day in the low 80s. More later. W&B

"HOLY SUN BURN BATMAN"..........

at 1700 today it was 85.8 degrees. Temp inside the coach was 90 and that's when I opted to turn on the A/C............at least until it reachs 80 inside. Becky will probably be putting on a sweat shirt in a few minutes, although she did dig out shorts earlier.

Went out to check on some caches that had coordinate updates so managed a FTF on one of them and found a couple of others before we called it a day. Tried to help out some new cachers with their GPS questions and think they left with a little more knowledge than they arrived with. Sure hope so anyway.

Spent rest of the afternoon trying to figure out a "get away from Yuma" schedule. Our rent is up on March 15 and right now it looks like we'll head to Casa Grade for about 2 weeks before we head back North. Sue and Frank will keep us updated on space availability at their park in Casa Grande so when the time to depart is getting closer we'll be packed up and ready to go.

Made reservations at Sam's Town in Las Vegas for two nights. We were going to stop in Reno but spring break has middle of the week prices about double what we would normally encounter. So we crossed Reno off our list and I made reservations for two nights at the Naval Air Station Fallon, NV. We stayed there on the way down and it's a nice little park on the base. On Friday, April 3 we'll head for Woodland.

Our stay here will be up before we know it. Later. W&B

Sunday.........

so guess I'd better get something posted. Last Friday we were at Sue & Frank's for rib barbque done on the smoker. This is amazing, three sit down meals in less than two months. Frank and Sue pulling up stakes and heading for Casa Grande end of this month. We may have to spend a couple of weeks over there before we head North if I expect to get another "sit down meal". Our rent is up on March 15 so we gotta make up our minds on what to do for the end of March. I didn't have my camera and didn't download Becky's pictures otherwise I'd post pics of our rib feast to make your mouth water.

After rib feast B & I took a trip out to the new casino. Wasn't crowded this time; but, the slot machines were still hungry. At the last machine I played I managed to recover about half the money I had invested so called it a day and cut my losses in half. On the way home we finished up a cache series we had started in the morning and had a mini-event in the desert as new caches were published in the same area. There were about 8 of us looking for a cache and couldn't find it.........we called the cache owner and he came out and even he couldn't find where he had placed it! We kept looking and finally Becky found it for her 98th FTF. Only two more to go before 100 is reached. We might make it to 100 before we leave.

You're probably wondering about the pictures I posted of the lemon grove. I've watched this machine in action and I thought it was interesting. They use it to trim all the tree tops and sides of the lemon trees. Why they do they do this????? Hell, I don't know; but, it's a neat piece of machinery.

This morning we met the Jeep'en Jumpers and Hogan's Heroes for breakfast and then we went out to do a little caching. I gotta get the Rhino back down here on our next trip. Arizona will let me license it for the street..........street running will be tough on tires; but, we could just drive it down the streets and into the desert. Plus a vehicle has to be licensed before it's allowed on the Bombing Range. Anyway JJ's and HH's were in their Rhinos so we followed them around for some caches they hadn't found and we picked up a couple of new ones for ourselves. Fun morning.........would have been more fun in the Rhino.

That about brings us up to date. Later W&B

Domestics Day Today...........

YUK, oh well gotta get that laundry done sometime. We started the day off by heading to the Golf Course so I could get my biscuits and gravy fix. A couple of new caches were on our list to find so after breakfast we went searching. All we found was Larry walking out of a desert wash and not looking too happy. He'd been looking for the same one and finally gave up on it. When we arrived he walked back with us..........his theory, 6 eyes better than two. Naturally the cache is stashed inside a big, thorny bush. After I impaled myself and lost a pint of blood I managed to find it by almost stepping on it. After that we teamed up and hunted down four more that were on both our lists. Didn't get home until after 1300.

Becky said she'd do the laundry if I cleaned up the M/H. I finally agreed and spent the rest of the afternoon swabbing out the head, scrubbing floors, vacuuming, washing windows, cleaning microwave, recharging water softener, pulling weeds, cleaning grill and a bunch of other stuff that I'd like to forget. All of this and Becky sits at the laundromat reading a book!! I don't think I'll make a deal like that again.

Weather starting to pick up a bit today.........the last 12 days have been in the 60s and today we made it to 72...............I thought I'd have to turn on the air conditioner. Gonna be warm for the next few days, reaching 80-83 over the weekend and then we'll have a bit of a cool down into the mid 70s for another week or so. May have to head back North if this heat spell continues.

All for now. W&B

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

Days seem to be running together.........can't remember what we did today let alone a couple of days ago. Oh, I remember, we've been geocaching the last couple of days. After our geocaching breakfast on Saturday we decided to kinda take Sunday off, stopped by the commissary for some chow and then had to go out to the casino via Frank and Sue. Shot the breeze with them and made a date to go caching on Monday. Won $18.00 and Becky lost $20. Can't get ahead that way.

Monday we headed for Wellton, a little burg East of us. There were about a dozen caches in the area that we hadn't found and a whole bunch that Sue and Frank needed to hunt down. Left about 0930 and didn't drag ourselves home until about 8 hours later. Becky took her usual number of pictures but haven't developed them yet. I think Sue and Frank set a new personal record of number of caches found in one day.

Today our friend, Larry, placed three new caches so we had to hunt them down. We managed 2 FTFs and then came home. I then left to get the oil changed in Suzy and gave it up when I saw that there were 8 cars waiting in line. Larry called and said he was heading back North of Wellton and asked if I wanted to go with him. I said heck yeah and Becky stayed home and was cooking supper when I left. We hadn't planned on being gone very long but things change. Larry and I grabbed two FTFs and decided there was enough time left in the day to head back to the "real desert" toward the Bombing Range. We grabbed 4 more FTFs before it started getting to dark too continue so we headed home.

Got home for a big pot of beans............it's going to be a noisy evening here.

Later. W&B

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

Happy Valentines Day to all. Wednesday afternoon, Ron and Diane drove into Yuma from San Diego to meet Diane's family members who were arriving on Friday. We met up with them on Thursday and showed them a few sights around Yuma.........if you can call lettuce fields, rocks and desert "sights". We started out for the Army Proving Grounds since the Golden Knights were practicing their parachute jumps. Unfortunately the wind gusts had picked up and the jumps were suspended when we got there. To off to the Castle Dome Museum we go after picking up some goodies from the Commissary.

Naturally these pictures are out of order so you'll just have to deal with it. We went back to the Proving Grounds on Friday and the weather was excellent for the parachute team. We watched them for a couple of hours and then headed back to Yuma when lunch time rolled around. The Tandem Jumps were kinda neat and I couldn't figure out how they maintained their distance from each other. The pictures tell the tale.....the top man has his feet in some loops attached to the bottom jumper. Just before they land the bottom guy yells "break" and they break away and land separately. Kinda neat to watch.

OOppps.......kinda repeated myself.

OK, these were taken on Thursday when we headed out to the Museum. Lots of cactus on the way so we stopped and took pictures of the little old granny ladies in from of a big Saguaro. Then to the museum where we toured and took more pictures. I missed the "Wayne" canned goods the last time we were here so had to take a pic this time. Becky and Diane both had a foot fetish again. We drove up closer to Castle Dome (center pic) and tried to find the trails that people take to climb to the top. Roads starting getting rough and we finally turned around before we found the access.

Friday we made it back to Lute's (Where the Elite Meet) in time for lunch and clam chowder. A Farmer's Market was going on in Old Town so browsed that before lunch. Showed Ron and Diane where we called "home" in the Foothills and just got them back to their hotel when Diane's family were arriving. They were headed out to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner but Becky and I passed on that one.............at least I passed since Mexican food is kinda low on my list. The brand new casino opened on Friday so we drove out there; but, the joint was so crowded that we couldn't even find a slot machine to lose our money. Becky did find an open slot and pushed a little old granny lady out of the way to play it. I think it took about 2 minutes to lose her $20.00 so we left.

Today, Saturday, we had our S.W.A.G. breakfast and about 60+ geocachers showed up for the event. Came home after breakfast and stayed put for the rest of the day.

Later. W&B

I Think It's Thursday..............

Ron and Diane arrived in Yuma yesterday afternoon so today we got together to try and show them around the area. We headed for the Proving Grounds to watch the Golden Knights parachute team practice. The wind picked up and they suspended jumping at the same time we arrived. Bummer. We then headed up to the Castle Dome Ghost Town and Museum and took a trip through the desert. Stopped and took pictures here and there and B and I saw things we missed on our first trip to the Museum. Check out the Wayne carrots. Spent a bit of time there and then stopped at a little picnic table to wolf down some goodies we had picked up at the Proving Grounds Commissary. Took a "short cut" back to town on some levee roads and farm country. Believe they enjoyed the trip. Dropped them off and tomorrow we're going to try to get back to the Proving Grounds earlier in the morning. Winds seem to pick up around noon so one of the Golden Knights said she was sure they'll be jumping earlier in the day.

Wednesday we were back to Suz and Frank's for another meal prepared on the their smoker. This is great, I get the meat, sit back and feed my face while Frank does on the cooking and Sue makes all the fixins. Wow, two sit down meals in two months. I'm really living high on the hog! I'll be searching for some prime baby back ribs for the next venture. Check out the pics........kinda make you hungry doesn't it. After early dinner Frank busied himself with woman's work (cleaning up the bar b que) and then we sat around and let a great meal settle. We were joined by the local Roadrunner. He skipped up and down the fence and finally shuffled off when he didn't get any food. Check his head feathers out in the last two pics........appears that his head feathers stand up when he's suspicious or about ready to fly away. He was kinda fun to watch.

More later. W&B

More Pictures From Last Week..........

This was yesterday, Monday, Larry called and asked we wanted to go to the Bombing Range as there were 9 new caches that no one had found yet. They were in an area we hadn't been to so we said heck yeah. I think we left here about 0900, made a couple of stops to check on new caches that had been published. On one of them we had a FTF. That might have been good luck for us as we ended up having 10 FTFs before the day was over. It was a long, tough trip into the desert, scraped bottom numerous times, made our own road in places because the Friday rain had erased all signs of a road. Fun day though but Larry and I both paid the price today. He's got a bad back and tweaked it on the second cache when he picked a big rock off the ammo box. I climbed up too many hills and my old knee has been talking to me constantly. We Old Guys outta know better than to do to our aching bodies.

On Friday 20 new caches had been placed for the event. They were published on Thursday night and Becky and I went out with flashlights and hunted down seven of them. We managed two FTFs; but, what we were really after were tickets that had been placed in each cache. All the tickets we could collect would be placed in a drawing for some sort of prize. We managed to collect 15 tickets each when we finished up the caches on Friday. Most of them were pretty easy to find; but, the one the rocks really had us searching. We were joined by the Rainbirds from Seattle and Norm even hauled out his metal detector to search for the steel ammo can. That didn't help at all and I finally spotted the corner of the car buried in the rocks. We probably spent 30 minutes looking for this one. We met fellow cachers all day long scrambling for those tickets. At the drawing on Sunday......guess who's ticket was pulled out of the hat? YUP, mine. The prize was a camel bak pack that held 50 ounces of liquid for a hiker. I had donated the prize and since I don't intend to do any hiking I let them draw another ticket for it.

Event finally got started on Sunday and the sun was out nice and bright........quite a constrast to the rain we had on Saturday. I was stuck trying to sell geocoins that we had made up for the event so I didn't do much mingling. Becky was all over the place with her walking stick and taking pictures. She, Frank and Suz participated in the poker run and they picked up a hand for me. None of us had any luck there. I was one of the first to get into the chow line; but, I couldn't eat until Becky took pictures of my food plate. We had cole claw, baked beans and a humongous helping of tri tip. JJ is the local Bobby Flay and he enjoys putting on the Bar B Que. At least this time a lot of the locals volunteered to help. All in all it was a great success with about 320 people attending, some from San Diego, Tucson, Las Vegas and one couple even flew in from Michigan just to attend the event.

Opps.......I published this picture twice.........you can look at again if I can't figure out how to delete it.

These pictures were taken at the Flash Mob where we went fishing in the fountain. Most everyone fished; but, some of the less hearty souls stood under cover and watched from a distance.

Been Busy...........

the last few days so will try to catch up. Frank has been working on a walking stick for me and he got her done and delivered it to me the other day. Check it out. Carved from Colorado Aspen just like the one he made for Becky last year. Mine doesn't have as many bears as Becky's; but, my bears are cuter. The Old Guy has talent and he even carved up his fingers too. He showed up the other day with bandages on his finger and thumb. Guess he wasn't being too careful. Beautiful hiking stick; but, I'll just keep it for show. Wouldn't want to nick it up.

We went geocaching briefly with Sue and Frank as they have about 300 caches to find in the area. Lots of them have been planted this year and they'll take some time to catch up. The cache by the barrels was named "Barrels".........which had nothing to do with the cache since Suz found it in an empty shotgun shell.

Our weekend event begin on Saturday with a warm-up being held at Lutes Casino........the place "Where the Elite Meet".......according to their advertising. We had over a hundred people show up for this one and it was pretty crowded. As usual, Becky was snapping pictures all over the place. She captured The Fossil Lady and "Flat Black", their geocaching names. Flat Black is also a wood carver and he was very impressed with Becky's hiking stick. JJ and Char's grand daughter was in attendance. We went early and had something to eat before warm up started.

Here we sit feeding our faces before any activity started on Saturday. Frank and Sue, Mel, myself, Larry and JJ. Glad to have eaten early. At 1500 I had a Flash Mob Event at the fountain across the street from Lutes. It was raining but that didn't seem to deter people from attending. The Flash Mob lasted less then 15 minutes and passer bys couldn't figure out what the heck we were doing. I had made up 25 fishing poles and attached cut outs to each line, we had gold fish, tuna, an old boot, whales, catfish and I can't remember what all. At a given signal everyone grabbed a pole and rushed to the fountain to "fish". Our local "Okie" was supposed to give a demonstration on Oklahoma nude noodeling; but, he chickened out and brought a stick of dynamite to demonstrate how they fished back home. Despite the rain I think everyone had a good time.

Oops.........had another collage posted and just lost it somehow. Oh well, I add some more pictures with a new post after publishing this as Blogger will only let me post 5 pictures at a time.

Been A Few Days.............

so had better get something posted. Been kind of a busy week so far.........although I can't remember anything we've done! Sunday we just stayed home, had a few visitors picking up geocoins, Frank and Sue stopped by before they headed home for Super Bowl. Watched poor old Cardinals get their butts handed to them.

I'm in charge of selling Geocoins for the Yuma Event on Sunday so have been having one hellava time trying to keep track of everything..........hope money and coins come out almost even by the time event is over!

We've managed to pick up a cache or two here and there the last few days

when the opportunity presented itself. Tuesday we drove downtown to help with a BD celebration for JJ. The "B" Team made up a special cache for him so we all waited for JJ to arrive so he could get a First To Find Fix for the week. He's been busy as a one-armed paper hanger trying to get things ready for the event so this was a welcome break for him.

We watched JJ hunt for his cache and cheered him on. Looks like we coulda had a little CITO here..........CITO is Cache In Trash Out.........a gathering to help clean up public areas. The area under this ramp sure coulda used it. I'm surprised we didn't find a homeless guy sleeping here.

We did got out the Army Proving Grounds..........not intentionally as I got on a levy road and couldn't get off it until we had nearly reached the PG. The Golden Knights were practicing so we watched them for a little while and then back to the levy roads to hunt down about six caches.

Today was Old Folks Day at the Cocopah so we stopped by Sue and Franks and they weren't home so found a cache near their RV Park. I saw it when it was published and immediately called Sue as it was only about a couple of miles from them. They made a dash and managed a FTF on it. We hunted the cache down later in the afternoon and then went to the casino for gambling and lunch. I did OK as two lunches only cost me $4.00.

Stopped by to see S&F on the way home and boy did I get a surprise. We drove up and Frank came out from his work area carrying a new walking stick. He had been working on another Aspen and fashioned a walking stick for me! Mine doesn't have as many bears as Becky's; but, my bears are cuter! Thank you Frank!! I'll post some pictures of my hand carved walking stick when I get them developed.

That about brings you up to date on this week. Still got things to do for big event this weekend..........looks like it will be the biggest and best yet! Later. W&B