Fought Head Winds All The Way..........

from Las Vegas to Tonopah today and arrived shortly before noon. Got rigs set up, had lunch with Larry and Audrey and then "B", Larry and I set out to hunt down some of the caches here in Tonopah. We've got around 60 on our list and this afternoon we found 19 before the COLD got to us. Man, we left Yuma too soon............filled up the M/H with gas when we arrived and couldn't wash our windshield 'cause the washers were still frozen over!

Will try it again tomorrow, if the winds die down it won't seem as cold; but, expect it to be around 28 degrees tonight. Got the electric heater going and it's losing ground to the cold. Guess we'll have to fire up the propane heater pretty soon. Lucky we made reservations 'cause a lot of rigs came rolling in and there's only 20 RV spaces with hookups. We got electricity, satellite dish set up, gambling hall about 50 yards away so we're doing OK..............except for the gambling. Made a $20.00 contribution to them and called it a day.

More caching tomorrow. Fortunately we're able to connect with an open wifi signal so making use of it while we can.

They got some pretty good biscuits and gravy at the restaurant.........and they even give "old folks" discounts! Doesn't get any better.............more tomorrow if we don't freeze our tails off tonight. W&B

Sitting in Sam's Town in Las Vegas...........

and we in for the night. Arrived about 1300 with Larry and Audrey (la84fishn). They were in Laughlin too and this morning Larry, Becky and I went to Bull Head City to grab a few caches before we headed to L.V. We both had reservations at Sam's Town and will leave again tomorrow morning for Tonopah. Two days there and we hope to pad our cache finds. Good thing we weren't driving too far today as the head winds were beating up on us..........we'd drive three miles and the wind would blow us back a mile. Took quite a while to get here from Laughlin. Hope the winds subside tonight as we expect to drive a little over 200 miles tomorrow.

Had lunch at Sam's Town and "B" and I debated taking the shuttle downtown. Gave up on that idea because of the walking you have to do once you get there. Instead we just gave our money to "Sam". Had a nice lunch.

We plan on leaving kinda early tomorrow morning.......somewhere around 0700 so should be in Tonopah and set up at the RV park around noon or so. That'll give us some caching time in Tonopah. This little burg has a lot of caches that were placed the Nevada Geocaching Association. Hope they won't require much walking to find.

Will publish this and then let Becky have the computer before she "completely" goes into withdrawals. I was sitting here watching the tube and I thought she was on line..........she was just putting puzzles together so I had to spend my $5.99 for 24 hours of internet. She outwaited me again.

Larry just stopped by and said there were two caches near here...........about a couple of hundred yards away. Socks off so I had to pass on them.

Later. W&B

Dang.......Where's The Time Gone................

????

we've been doing a little caching, planting some caches and made a couple of casino runs. Other than that I don't know where the week has gone. Sue & Frank needed some caches to complete their Alphanumeric Challenge so I put 4 of them out there and now their challenge is complete. I've been trying to reach 2,000 cache finds before we leave Casa Grande and today we finally made it! We went to the casino for Old Folks lunch and then hunted some caches down in Maricopa. There was a new series of 7 caches placed recently and today we found all of them and the last one made my 2,000. Now only a thousand more to go for the next milestone.

Casino got some of it's money back from me today and "B" gave a few bucks back also.........she's still ahead after hitting a nice jackpot a few days ago.

Tomorrow we're pulling outta here for Quartzsite........it's only about 180 miles so we're in no hurry. We'll boondock it tomorrow evening so probably no internet and maybe even no MTV!! Gracious........what will we do...........after I whup Becky at cribbage a few times she quits and sulks with a book. Maybe I can watch some dvds since that's easier to do then set up little generator and Sat. dish. Saturday we head for Laughlin with a brief stop in Lake Havasu City. There's a Rhino Performance Shop there and I'll make a quick stop and pick up a new clutch for my Rhino. If they have any good deals on other stuff I'll have to check them out and see if I can afford anything else. Will probably stay at the Avi Casino in their dry camping lot so probably no internet there either. Becky will be in withdrawals by the time we get to Las Vegas Baby on Sunday evening. Hope they got wifi there in the RV Park.

We'll spend two nights in Tonopah, Monday and Tuesday, to do some geocaching with our Yuma Friend, la84fishn. I'll probably have to set up the internet dish there.

Going to the Naval Air Station at Fallon, NV for Wednesday and Thursday.

Arrive in Woodland late Friday night..............about 2300.........for most of the weekend.

That's our schedule and we're sticking to it! B&W

More Tombstone...........

Caching takes us to some interesting places. Old Ed Schieffelin kicked around for over 20 years prospecting and finally his travels brought him here. People told him all he would find would be his tombstone. Instead he found silver which lead to the founding of the city of Tombstone. Outside of Tombstone this 25 foot tall monument was erected in his honor. Driving by the Tombstone Graveyard and found this interesting "headstone" so had to stop and take a picture. The story goes that a bad guy wasn't hung with his buddies and the local citizens thought that he should have been. They broke him out of jail and hung him from a post. The plaque marks the spot of the hanging and the stump of the post still remain. The coroner reported the cause of his death to be "lack of oxygen". The story goes that it took 25 minutes of "hanging" before he finally expired. Guess the citizens were plenty pissed off.

No visit to Tombstone is complete without a visit to "Boot Hill". Some interesting markers............the one on George Johnson's grave is partially cut off in this photo.........it ended with: "But We Strung Him Up and Now He's Gone". The Clantons and McLaurys are buried here with a marker proclaiming that they were "murdered"..........by Holiday and the Earps. Some interesting history here; but, actually I feel that it's hard to separate myth and legends from the actual truth. Anyway, it's good fodder for the movie makers.

That's it. W&B

Back From Tombstone...........

on Thursday afternoon. Arrived there on Tuesday morning and checked in with the visitor's center. Becky was soooo happppy 'cause she met a "real" cowboy who was manning the counter. After that we headed toward the OK Corral, paid our $9.00 that got us into the various areas of the corral. We had tickets for the 1400 Gun Fight so just browsed around and took some pictures before the big gunfight. The Corral was made up of various replicas of Tombstone back in the 1880s. If you double click the images they might show up large enough for you to read the signs. Bottom three pictures represent the "cribs" where the old time hookers conducted their "business"......they even had to purchase a business license.......cost $5.00 for one month.

Picture in upper left supposedly was the gal that Wyatt Earp married, next picture is "Big Nose Kate", Doc Holiday's girlfriend. Some of the local pinups back in those days. Inside they have an area were the members of the gunfight stand. You can press a button and hear a description of the gunfight and the figures move their arms and appear to shoot their opponents. Big Nose Kate was said to have observed the gunfight from her room which was overlooking the gunfight area. Outside her room is a picture of Big Nose Kate. See any resemblance between "B" and Kate?

There are various gunfights going on in town............and you have to pay to see every one of them. We were killing some time so bought tickets ($4.00 with Old Folks Discount) to see a "Comedy Shootout". It killed some time......if it wasn't for the Gal it wouldn't have been very funny. She kept things moving with her high pitched voice and incessant drivel. I grew weary of her constant chatter and asked the bad guy to just "shoot her". He didn't at the time; but, he did shoot her later. The Good Guy Sheriff, with the White Hat, supposedly appeared in a number of old western films. Can't remember his name; but, he did kinda look familar. Here's a couple of signs posted on the buildings...........should have the politician sign posted everywhere in the free world. Before the gunfight began we met Wyatt and Virgil sitting on main street so Becky had her picture taken with them. Wyatt was on her left and Virgil on her right. The guy who plays Virgil writes computer software as his real job.

These are pictures taken during the 28 second shootout between Earps, Doc Holiday and the Clanton's and Mclaurys. Three bad guys were mortally wounded, three good guys were wounded, one bad guy ran away and Wyatt Earp escaped without a scratch. It was kinda interesting.

We took a trolley ride (another $4.00) and the guide pointed out various places of interest. The old courthouse was built at a cost of $50,000.00 and is now an Arizona State Park.........yup you guess it, $4.00 to get in. They had a gallows built out in the courtyard......I guess I didn't take any pictures of it???? Becky got a picture of me and my Uncle Geronimo and they had various displays in front of some of the tourist traps. We did find time to do some geocaching...........I think we found a total of 15. One cache was rather unique...........the area had four posts with skulls attached to them. In the center of the display was a coffin containing the ammo can cache and a decomposed skeleton. And it didn't even cost $4.00 to find it............although I managed to pinstripe the Suzuki driving to it.

It was a fun three days and we did manage to get over to Bisbee also on Thursday morning. We arrived too late to tour the Queen Ann Silver Mine............I didn't believe it when I read the brochure that reservations were recommended. Anyway we got back to Tombstone and Becky still toured a silver mine they had there. I didn't go because of the number of steps needed to get in and out of the mine so went over to their bar. No one was there and the owner of the mine came by and gave me a coke..............."GAVE" me a coke. The only freebie I found during the our stay.

Motel didn't have internet service........we stopped by the library..........no wifi but they would let you use one of their computers. We passed so this is my first post since getting back yesterday.

About another week here and we'll be heading back.............it's starting to get warm ..... 90s!!

Later.......W&B

A Caching We Did Go............

again today before the HOT weather gets here later in the week........like in the 90s!!

We headed for Maricopa and picked up some caches on the way. The first picture was taken a few miles away where we found a VOR........don't remember what that stands for; but, this "beacon" serves as a navigational aide for aircraft. Guess it sends out a signal on an FM frequency.

Made it to Maricopa and found a bit of history. This old Zephyr, vista dome car is believed to be one of the last ones in existance. It was part of the Chicago Burlington and Quincy's Fleet and originally built about 1947. Kinda nice to find some history in our travels. We visited numerous housing areas and it was kinda nice to find a lot of man made lakes and streams. We kinda wondered where all the water was coming from.

I still need 21 more caches for 2K and I think Becky needs seven more. If we find a few tomorrow than maybe the famous OK Corral can be her #2,000.

All for now. B&W

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

woke up early, early for me, and didn't go back to sleep. So figured I'd post a quick update. The last couple of days we've been doing a little geocaching and ran across one that has us all stumped. We've made two trips to a corner downtown and can't come up with the cache. "B" and I checked it out on Thursday, Sue & Frank looked for it yesterday and then we all hunted for it yesterday afternoon. No findee! We finally got some more information from the cache owner, it requires solving a puzzle and we've "solved" it incorrectly. We'll probably have another go at it if we get back that way today.

Starting to get a little warm..........low 80s and next week is forecast to reach about 90. We'll be in Tombstone on Tuesday and Wednesday and get back just in time for the 90 degree warmup. Since it's warming up guess we gotta watch out when we venture into the desert. News has reported numerous snake bites and scorpion stings recently. You just gotta go slow and carry a big stick..........would like to add some rattles to my rattler collection; but, not going out of the way to find 'em.

Later. W&B

Went Caching Today.............

after I mentioned to Sue and Frank that I'd like to go out and get the Arizona Alpha-Numeric challenge cache. To complete the series we had to find a cache with a name that started with each letter of the alphabet and the number 0-9. Sue thought she needed one more to complete the series so we went after that and then hunted down the final cache. It was in a little park out in the sticks. Nice and warm and rocky but no snakes. First set of pictures is on the way to the final cache and pictures when we found it. Naturally it was stuck in the middle of a thorny Ocotillo. Took two pictures of the "finders", first one you can't see faces because of the caps...........second one you probably still can't see anyone from the "glare" off FOs forehead. After that we continued hunting some more down in the park..........I'll bet Sue's kids aren't aware of the places that "Mom" will climb to in order to put her name on a little piece of paper!! Frank found one up in the rocks.........it was hidden under a "fake" rock. Pretty neat hide.

We started the day off with a cache about 2 or 3 miles from the park. This used to be the spring training camp for the Dodgers and Giants. You can't tell it now but this area where we started out was part of the baseball diamond. Becky made the find as S&F watched since they previously found this one. We found several after that, one that FO had to climb up a little hill to get. We followed him but he had the cache before we reached ground zero..........of course the rest of us are in no hurry when climbing is involved. Found a few more here and there and I think Becky and I found about 18. It was nice to get the Alpha-Numeric off our list of things to do. I think Sue is double checking the caches they have found before logging a find on it.

Don't know what we'll be doing tomorrow..........maybe looking for some of the easier ones in town if it isn't too HOT. I think it reached low 80s today. Have reservations at a motel in Tombstone for next Tuesday and Wednesday. Lots of touristy stuff to do down there so B and I figured we may as well spend 2 or 3 days and get everything done. We'll be back to Casa Grande on Thursday.

Kids, give Mom heck for climbing around like a mountain goat..........probably won't do any good though. Later W&B

Here's Where We Be................

for the next three weeks; or until it gets too HOT. This is the backview looking over the fence. Guess we have a fence to keep the rattle snakes out. We're parked next to Sue and Frank.

Becky is doing laundry........since there isn't much room in the laundry I left and came back home. Finished up my many chores, vacuuming, washing windows, etc. etc. and strolled over to find Sue make Frank "purty".

It was interesting watching.........she would trim some from the sides and then transplant it to the top.

A few more sessions like this one and he'll have a full head of hair.

Made It To Casa Grande Yesterday..........

around noon. We were caching on the way and managed to grab three caches that were close to the highway. Another one took us too far off the highway and I wasn't sure we could find a turn around so passed on it. Shortly thereafter Sue called and said there was only one opening in the RV Park so we gave up on the caching and hurried on in. We got here in time to grab the last vacancy.

Suzannah had a post roast going so we had a nice "sit down" dinner...........wow, I'm getting spoiled! Got my MTV going and the park has wifi so we're all set for the next 3 weeks or so. Temperatures forecast to be in mid 70s so we have a great start for our stay here. We're even pointed in the right direction and get to people watch.

Gotta get the Suzy unloaded, some laundry done and then we'll began to hunt down some of the Casa Grande caches. Going to make a run to Tombstone also; but, haven't decided when we'll drive down there. It's only about 135 miles and I think we'll spend an overnight so we can take in all the touristy stuff. Taking the M/H or shacking up in a motel is about a "wash" $$$ wise so not sure what we'll do.

All for now...............gotta go check what Sue has on the menu for today's dinner..........we're parked right next to them. W&B

Up Bright And Early Today.............

(3rd Times Charm, Billybe, Roberta and BuddyV at the cache site. We had found it and were waiting for other cachers to show up..........which they did. When a cache is published in the daytime it doesn't take long for a small group to converge on it trying to get that FTF.)

(Breakfast.)

to attend the "Goodbye to Wayne43, Crzoldy & Others" Event at the Golf course. Not sure of the attendance but we seem to have run out of room again and the place holds about 60. Posting a few pics of attendees before it really got busy...........anyway my biscuits and gravy were delivered so I had no more time for pictures. Our friend "Jeep'en Jumpers" was putting on the event to say goodbye to Winter Visitors and more specifically to "roast" me. Unfortunately, when you're the last of the "good guys" it's hard to come up with any derogatory tales..........although some had success. Nice breakfast, nice company and a good get together by people who enjoy Geocaching.

I think our geocaching time is about over for Yuma this year. We went out a couple of times last week and scored 3 or 4 FTFs so Becky can add to her list.

Our friend, Larry, places some well thought out caches and we had a mini-event at one of them. He titled it "Out of the Rabbit Hole" and it was a doozy. As soon as it was published Becky and I took off and were the second ones to arrive at the scene. There were 5 of us looking and just as another friend showed up I managed to locate this elusive little cache. Well, the name ses it all as I found the cache with a little rubber ball glued to the top of it. It was stuck in the sand with 5 or 6 more balls laying around it and they certainly resembled rabbit turds! It was placed out in plain sight; but, it certainly has proven to be difficult to locate.

Got most of the stuff outside stowed away so as soon as we get word that an RV space is open in Rover's Roost at Casa Grande we'll be outta here. Shouldn't take much more than an hour to finish packing so we leave in a hurry.

Got the M/H all washed & waxed yesterday and even washed the Suzy. A couple stopped by yesterday to say good bye and the first words out of Ron's mouth were........."Wow, you must be getting ready 'cause I've never see the Suzuki cleaned up". That's about right as we spend more time traveling the dusty, sandy roads in the desert than we do on the paved roads...........as least it seems like it. Gotta get it waxed next due to the "Arizona Pinstripes" we pick up every time we go into the desert.

Later, probably from Casa Grande. W&B

Tuesday..........Domestic Day...........

we had a stack of laundry that wouldn't quit so couldn't put it off any longer. We did make a speed run about 3 miles into the desert to find a new cache and that was it for today. Got some groceries, did laundry and had dinner at the Chinese joint. All you can eat buffet so naturally we tried to eat all we could. Just now starting to feel unmiserable and it's 2200.

Yesterday we ventured out to Wally World, found one cache and went out to the new casino. I stopped by my most favorite slot machine and managed to quit $35.00 ahead. This machine has really been nice to me.............probably just waiting to lay the hammer on me on my next visit.

Also, yesterday we missed a record high temperature; but, still made it to 90. Going to cool back down into the 70s by the time the weekend rolls around. If it doesn't cool down these winter visitors will start leaving in droves............which is kinda nice as the traffic will get back to normal and you won't have to stand in lines at the grocery store.

That it for now. Later. W&B

Finally Made It Through Sunday..........

after another 5 or 6 hours in the hills, rocks and desert about 19 miles East of us. A bunch of new caches were published so we called Larry and off we go to find them. Again, we were a couple of hours behind another friend who likes to get up at the crack of dawn. Back to the hills we go and stop at the top of one of the ridges. Becky finds a cache down in the wash and on top Larry takes pictures laying down. I guess he was holding his camera on a rock. The Beavertail Cactus are blooming all over the place and believe Becky shot up a roll of film on them.

Here's almost a 360 degree view of the area from the top of the ridge. I even took a few pictures........really a neat area and you'd be surprised from the stillness............not much of a breeze was blowing and it was extremely quiet. You'd have to be there to believe the silence.

Yesterday Becky found her #1,900th cache and this was it in someone's front yard.

Other pictures are from our little excursion today. After we found nine caches we had to explore another ridge and plant some of our own. Drove out to the end of another ridge, scraping bottom of Suzy on rocks; but, guess we didn't punch any holes in the oil pan 'cause we made it back. We ended up placing 4 more caches until we reached the end of this little ridge and couldn't go any further. Turned around and back outta there we go.

Hope this is the last time we see this area for some time. Seems like everyone who visits up there has a to plant a cache or two and right now there are 23 of them that can be found with a 14 mile drive. Checked the tracking on my GPSr when we got home and found that we had averaged 3 mph for this 14 mile drive. Of we stopped quite often to find caches and take pictures.

Got home about 1430 and here we stayed for the rest of the day. Gotta get started storing things away and get ready to head toward Casa Grande. Get a little bit done every day so all we'll have to do is pack up the satellitte dish and leave on the 14th or 15th.

That was our day for today...........temperature in low 80s, sunny, slight breeze..........not too bad a day and just think...........spring will be here in a few weeks!

Later. B&W