Made It Through Christmas Season............

eating and geocaching. Saturday Larry called as he wanted to go down on the Bombing Range and pick up a geocache that had been published for a few days. I figured "why not", called up tbly (Theresa) and we all went wandering around the desert Saturday afternoon. Most of the caches Larry and I had already found; but, Becky and Theresa added some more to their numbers. Saturday evening we all headed for "Taco Time"..........at least that's what I call it. It's a little open air Mexican restaurant located a few miles south of Yuma in the middle of lemon and orange tree groves. It comes complete with dogs, cats, chickens, kids and some pretty good Mexican food. I didn't take any pictures so you'll have to check Becky's Blog for that. Robert & Char, plus family and friends with whom we had Christmas dinner with all showed up also. We ate and ate some more then sat around a big bon fire outside the main building. I downed a great big burrito and then ate half of Robert's. Temperature were dropping and my old bones were getting chilled so Becky and I only spent a couple of hours there and I had to leave.

I paid the price for the afternoon walking in the desert with leg cramps when we got home. Kept me awake most of the night and I had to cancel on more geocaching Sunday morning. Bummer, cause Robert and I coerced tbly into springing for breakfast so I missed a freebie breakfast!

Sunday we never left home...........I just sat around and dozed through football most of the day.

Got a doctor appointment this morning..........just touching base with a general practitioner so I'll have a doctor to see when we're in Yuma.

Then............don't know what's happening the rest of the day. Will probably have to go get our casino fix later today. I should stay away for awhile since I've walked away a winner the last 3 or 4 days we went gambling. Later. W&B

Merry Christmas.............Again.............

........Becky and I hung around the homestead this morning and then we went to Robert and Char's for Christmas Dinner with their family and friends. This could be a habit for me (I had Thanksgiving with them when Becky was in Hawaii) and I again filled up on delicious turkey, smushed taters, dressing and tons of gravy!! Lots of other scrumptous goodies; but, I preferred to "main line" the basics.

After eating too much and then letting dinner settle with good conversation we finally waddled out to the car and "B" decided that she wanted to get her gambling fix............seems like she found some money in her pocket that she didn't know was there. Casino was quite crowded and I couldn't play my favorite machines. I finally find one unoccupied, stuck in a twenty and proceeded to lose until I had 35 cents left...........at that point I hit a bonus and then sat and watched while it chaulked up $66 in the credit column. Figured it was time to leave so cashed in and headed for the barn. Oh yeah, I even had a "free" pepsi that didn't cost me twenty bucks.

Gonna sleep in tomorrow and maybe spend my good fortune on breakfast somewhere.

W&B

Christmas Tomorrow....................

and we cancelled our reservations in Laughlin so will hang around here for the Christmas weekend. Invited out for dinner tomorrow and then nothing else planned.

Ongoing story of Rhino............man said he would have the turn signals and stator installed around noon today. We drove down and they were just cleaning it up. Mechanic drove it around the general area of the shop and then discovered some gas coming out of the carb overflow tube. He pulled it apart, cleaned it out and gas stopped flowing. I paid him and headed down the street with Becky following me. Probably made it about 10 blocks and it fell flat on it's face again and I was on a busy street. Good thing Becky was behind me in the Suzy............if not I'd probably been run over by an 18 wheeler. Sputtered back to the M/C shop. Installed a new in-line fuel filter and then we checked the CDI box...........one set of the wiring harness connectors was black and burned. No wonder it wasn't running right! Well, now gotta replace the CDI box and hopefully can replace just the portion of the harness that was burned. They still have the Rhino and will order parts needed............oh yeah, the person who was giving it the test runs (I think it was the shop owner) wasn't using the seat belts so the driver side seat belt had slipped down behind the seat and it had gotten fried by the hot exhaust. He's going to replace the belt. And so it goes.............may get it running someday.

Nothing left to do so we headed to the casino again............I managed to leave with $46.00 of their money so we stopped for Chinese on the way home.

Still COLD at night and not expected to get much higher than 63 or so for the next week. Don't think we can get much further South to search for warmer temperatures.

That's it for now.............wishing everyone a "Merry Christmas". Wayne & Becky

Nasty Weather In Store For Us Snowbirds..............

as the week progresses.............forecast for Wednesday through Friday calls for a high temperature of 59 degrees with lows dropping to 40 and maybe even less!!!!!

Bummer! Doncha just feel sorry for us? Plus the wind is supposed to pick up tomorrow too.

Sort of a nothing day today except a trip to Fry's for some grub and also stopped at Jim and Linda's since the Old Guy just had a BD. Nuvi dinged as we passed one cache that Jim had placed so we grabbed that one for the day. Out to the Texas Roadhouse for BD dinner for Jim and then "B" and I headed for the casino since it was only a couple of miles away and "B" was having withdrawals. She contributed $10.00 and I was about broke when the machine I was playing spit out a "mystery pay out"..........I'm not sure what happened but I suddenly had $86.00 in the credit department. I promptly cashed it in and we left.

On the way home we ran into a bunch of Sheriff cars blocking the main road.........didn't know what was going on until we saw a parade of vehicles coming up the road. They were all lighted up and decorated............we had seen a schedule in the newspaper where the Parade of Lights was being held but didn't pay much attention to it. Now I know what it's all about..........only small vehicles are allowed in the parade such as dune buggies, Rhinos, Polaris Razors, sand rails and a few vintage "hot rods" and some jeeps. Mostly off-road vehicles. There was probably 25 or 30 in the parade and they didn't delay us too long. Reminded me of the annual Christmas Boats that tour the Columbia River near Portland every Christmas.

That was the end of our day and we came on home. Will probably be busy all day tomorrow getting ready for the cold spell and nearly hurricane force winds that are forecast.

Later. W&B

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

with temperatures expected to be in the low 70s today............not too bad considering the rest of the country.

Didn't do much yesterday except find a couple of caches and filled our faces with food. Talked to my M/C shop again............I tried to point him toward checking out the charging system and he finally did. The stator has gone belly up and that might be causing my poor running problems. At least I hope so, new stator will be in on Tuesday and he expects to have it ready by then...........I won't hold my breath though.

Looks like today is going to be "do the laundry day" as "B" is getting stuff ready to haul to the car. Guess I really should help; but, I've done the laundry the last few times!! Should be her turn.

Well...........I've decided to help as she also has the vacuum cleaner out too so it looks like domestic day. W

Another Doctor Appointment Today...........

and got a cortisone injection in left knee........so far knee feels pretty good as the Doc also removed a considerable amount of fluid from it. Sure hope it lasts longer than injections in the past.

Drove down to the Mall and kicked a few tires at La Mesa RV show. The guy finally figured out I was just "kicking tires" and not really interested in another M/H. I was just killing time; but, they have some nice used units and later I checked out the prices on NADA guide and they were close to the guide. Believe old Sunova will last a while longer though.

Went to the casino to try and win enough to go back to the RV show..........no such luck although I did hit a penny slot machine for $75.00. That was short lived at Becky hauled me to Sam's Club and I left there nearly broke again. Easy come, easy go as they say.

Stopped by M/C shop AGAIN..............still no turn signals installed and the guy said he ran the Rhino up and down the street, up hills down hills and it never missed a beat. I asked him if he checked out the charging system and he did and found that it wasn't charging the way it should. He was going to work on that problem and test it again. He never called this afternoon so don't know what the status is right now. Guess I'll check on it again tomorrow. He also said he's found Rhinos with a lot of crud in the gas tank...........seems they use silicone and press the upper and lower half together and silicone makes its way to the bottom of the tank and plugs up the pick up tube............let off the gas, crud falls to bottom of the tank and it starts running again until it sucks up more. May have to pull the tank and check that out if fixing charging problems doesn't help. Getting to be a real PIA.

Came home............stayed home, barbqued rib eye that we got from Sam's..........pretty good hunk of meat.

Made reservations at AVI casino in Laughlin for Dec 23 through Dec 26 so will spend Xmas there again this year. I checked to see if they would comp anything............the guy said I didn't have very many points on my player's card; but, he comped me with the first night's stay..........only $22.00 for the first night; but, what the heck.........I'll take it.

That's about it for today. W&B

Thursday And Spent Most Of The Day..............

at Rheumatologist office. First appointment with him since I got down here, renewed one prescription, got right knee injected (feels real good tonight) and will get the left knee injected tomorrow. Had two MRIs on hands/wrists..........do you suppose he can take the rest of the week off after the bill I chaulked up today? Who knows...........might even be ready to trapse through the desert by the time the weekend rolls around. Lottsa new caches placed today on the bombing range. A friend, Yumanbean, took off into the desert without hubby and scored a whole bunch of First To Finds. Way to go Judy............are you going to share them with Bob??

Yesterday we made a run to San Luis and picked up some caches along the way, made a circle and contributed to the Cocopah casino..........well "B" did, I left $10.00 ahead, stopped at the Marine Base and tried out their new Snack Bar...........cost me more than I won! Got a haircut.......probably the best flat top I've gotten down here after trying 3 different chairs.......the haircut I got in Hawaii wasn't great either. This lady needs a little more training in the way I'd like my haircut; but, she has great potential................and I'm not THAT particular. Overtipped her so she'll remember me.

Nothing going on tomorrow............see Doc at 0930 and then maybe we will stop at the Swap Meet and browse. Drove by the M/C shop today and found out that they haven't done a thing with the Rhino...........the guy said he needed to take it out and run it. I asked if he had installed the turn signals yet...........he stammered and stuttered a bit and had to admit that he hadn't even looked at it yet. I chose this shop because all the reviews on the web gave them 5 *****s for excellence. I asked if I would have it for the weekend (not that I need it) and he assured me that they would work on it this afternoon. Yeah right.............I'll stop again tomorrow if I don't get a phone call by mid afternoon.

That's about it for now...........we're still suffering through a "heat wave"...........shorts and short sleeve weather again................hope it lasts through weekend. Kinda feel sorry for you poor folks in the North Country.............................. W&B

Did A Little Caching Today with Suz and Marion.........

both of whom never realized that I had been told to "shave" until I called that to their attention. Suz, trying to make points, said it makes you look "younger". Yeah, right. Thanks anyway.

We headed for the bombing range to pick up some caches that they and Becky had not found. Some I previously found; but, still managed to find 10 or 11 new ones that were on my to do list. Did a lot more walking than I had anticipated and was glad to just sit in the car and let them find ones I had already found.

We finally finished up when the sun was starting to set so back to our M/H and then to the Texas Roadhouse for a nice dinner. I think Frank and Sue will be heading out in a day or so for parts unknown..........sounds like fun; but, I've got a Dr. appointment on Thursday so hopefully I can get my knees injected and maybe I'll be able to do more walking when they get back to the city.

Nothing "planned" for tomorrow...........maybe they'll have the Rhino's turn signals installed and get the damn thing running right so I can pick it up. Otherwise, I guess we'll just kick back and enjoy the predicted 72 degree weather. We've got a "heat spell" coming up with temps above normal for the next 4 or 5 days.................supposed to be in the low to mid 70s the rest of the week and into the weekend. I hope we'll be able to survive this heat wave. Later. W&B

More Pics Telegraph Hill ...........

These are pictures Larry took during out Telegraph Hill excursion. Quite a windy road up to the top! It even has some "pucker power".

Today I had appointment with VA doc to renew prescriptions, took Rhino to M/C shop to have turn signals installed and it began running rough again on the way to the shop. I told them to "fix it". They still have it..........hope that isn't a bad sign.

Went to a movie this afternoon with Suz and Frank and B and I stopped at Lutes for our first trip of the season. Big old double cheeseburger for $4.99..............not to bad! Tomorrow we're heading down to the Bombing Range for some caching with Sue and Frank. (Stand by for some pictures kids.........Becky will have her camera operating I'm sure.) All for now. W&b

Friday through Sunday............

......we went a cachin, late BD lunch for me at the "Q" casino, more cachin, found Santa, toured Christmas Displays, more cachin.

Friday we made a speed run to the bombing range to look for some new caches, Larry stopped by and away we went. A local cacher has a series of Mr. Peanuts caches and he put one out called Mr. Peanut's Log Cabin. He puts a lot of work into his caches and they are always a pleasure to find. Here Becky and Larry find the Cabin and another cache was titled "Tiger's Hubcap". The cache was attached to a Cadillac hubcap. Poor Tiger, no rest for the weary! We toured a street a couple of blocks away and they have well decorated houses on both sides of the street that tell the Night Before Christmas story. Very well done. Saturday Suzannah and Frank stopped by and took me to a belated birthday lunch at the Q Casino. It was a pretty good trip for me...........besides a free lunch I only lost $2.75 on the slot machines! We stopped and picked up a few caches around Old Town and here we found a cache with a toy snake under a rock...........kinda startling. At the same cache we found Santa so give him our wish list for Christmas...........sure hope he doesn't misplace it.

Sunday we met Larry, JJ and Char for breakfast and a little caching. Looked like a good time to get the Rhino out and JJ brought his new Razor. Damn Rhino was sputtering and popping again when we started out and it finally smoothed out and ran better as the day progressed.

There's an area a few miles North of us called Telegraph Hill.........they have a bunch of radio transmitting gear on top of the hill.........as well as a couple of caches. I think the climb up there is about a 1500 feet rise in elevation...........no way I would even attempt to climb up there........even when the old knees were better. There is a "road" (?) snaking up the side of the mountain with a series of caches on the way. Well, we started finding the caches and made the last find at a large, locked gate in the middle of the road. The gate also had a camera observing the gate..........now I don't know if it was activated or not; but, it looked impressive. Wanted to get to the top; but, no key for the gate. JJ looked the terrain over and announced that he thought we could go up the wash and then back to the road. All I can say is that Polaris is better than a mountain goat in this terrain! Here's a few pics of the Razor in the wash and then climbing back to the road. Becky and I were following JJ and Larry all day long and couldn't keep up with them. I was running 45 mph over "roads" that were probably best suited for about 15 mph and all I could see was the Razor getting smaller and smaller in the distance! The suspension on that sucker is incredible. I think we added another 25 or 26 caches to our list and that finished our Sunday.

Came home, washed the crud off the Rhino and myself and collapsed.

End of day. W&B

I Think It's Friday................

.......we flew into Pheonix shortly before midnight on Wednesday. By the time we found our luggage, waited for a shuttle bus and found the car it was about 0100, Thursday. Thought about finding a motel; but, just said the heck with it and I'd start driving back to Yuma. I dozed on the plane and haven't been going to bed before 0100 (Yuma time) anyway so we made it back to Yuma about 0400. Went to a 24 hour restaurant nearby, had breakfast and headed home.

I thought I had left the propane furnace on when I left and thoughts were confirmed when we opened the motor home..............it was COLD in there. When I left I had forgotten to turn off the propane furnace so had the temp control set to 68 or so. Heater was cycling on and off all the time I was gone..............that is it cycled until the propane ran out. Good thing we got a little electric heater. Turned it on and let it run. Couldn't sleep very well.........time still messed up.

Hooked up my "extend a stay" so looks like we'll be running off that until we move the M/H again. Thursday we hunted down some lunch, made grocery run, stopped at casino so Becky could get her fix (I think she donated) and I won enough to pay for lunch and had a couple of dollars left over. Then we tried to stay awake until about 2200 last night.

Becky got up about 0800 this morning and I slept until almost 0900............guess we're kinda getting our time straightened out.

Had big wind and rain about 5 days ago. Good thing our neighbors pulled in while we were gone as the cover blew off the Rhino and table and chairs outside were blowing away. He ran down the Rhino cover and put it back on and stowed away our table and chairs. Nice to have good neighbors!! Looks like wind and rain over for a while now and it's supposed to start warming up again in a couple of days. Getting cold at night but the days are great..........at least for me. Becky whines every time the temp dips into the 60s...............she spent too much time in shorts and sandals the last month so she's just gotta "man up" and go with the flow.

All for now, a geocaching buddy is stopping by and we're going onto the bombing range.

w&b

Some Christmas Decorations....Downtown Honolulu

Starting to think about getting ready to leave tomorrow........flight leaves about 1500. Was browsing through Becky's pictures so made this collage of Christmas decorations on display downtown. My picture taking was very sparse this trip.

We had dinner with friends at the Outback last night and then back to Tag and Louise's to continue with good conversation.

Never did get out to see the "giant" surf.........mainly because it never appeared. Had some good surf but nothing monsterous. Rain has gone away and the weather turned out to be great for our visit...........although the "locals" seem to think the evenings had gotten chilly I thought it was just right.

Well, think I'll continue to "think" about packing things up. Later.......probably from Yuma. W

December 7................

The troops headed for the Naval Base, Pearl Harbor to take in a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Ceremony this morning. A lot of ceremonies being conducted at various areas............I opted to stay home this morning. Becky will probably return with a zillion pictures so you'll probably have to check her blog to see them.

Supposed to be "Giant" surf on the North Shore today and maybe tomorrow. Been watching them on a web cam; but, doubt if we'll drive out that way. Traffic will be a problem and if the waves get as big as predicted this won't be the area to be in just "hanging out". A surf classic honoring Eddie, someone or other, was supposed to be held this week; however, the surf still isn't high enough. They need a minimum of 40 foot, sustained waves to start the classic. It hasn't reached that point yet. Still have high surf warnings in effect through Wednesday.

Getting close to return to Yuma..........leaving around 1500 on Wednesday and should arrive Phoenix sometime after midnight.

All for now. W&B

Friday And Don't Know What's In Store For Today............

Maybe I'll just sit and watch bananas grow.

Visited the "Babes" of Waikiki Today....................

Louise and Becky thought I should go check out the Babes On The Beach so they drug me down to Waikiki and I was fighting all the way..............oh well, you seen one bikini clad cutie and you've seen them all.

We pulled into the Outrigger valet parking, cut through the hotel and ran into the Barefoot Bar. My eyes were popping out from the babes on the beach and I almost forgot to take any pictures. Fortunately they reminded me why I was here so I snapped a few shots of the beach scenery. Headed across the street to the Market Place, hasseled some little gal who was hustling pearls. You picked out your oyster of choice, she popped it open and you could buy the pearl inside for $14.95! Such a deal. Becky picked out an oyster and it had TWO perfect pearls inside it. I asked for a senior discount and the little old gal hustled us back to another booth to show us what settings we could have our pearls set in. I think one of her offers was to "give" us the pearls if we paid for the $249.00 setting. In the end she ended up offering the pearls to us for $7.95. I pitched her so much crap that I finally gave her $10.00 for the pearls.

Then back to the Barefoot Bar for lunch. I remember the Barefoot Bar from about 1958................it surely has changed since then! Had a decent lunch and then we headed back to Pearl City before the afternoon traffic set in. That was the day's events. Scroll down for the Babes of Waikiki................

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

Didn't do anything today!

First Full Day in Paradise.................

and we set out to grab a few caches at Ewa Beach which is located on what used to be the old Naval Air Station, Barbers Point. I used to play golf there.........now nothing is familar as the station has closed although the Coast Guard still has facilities there.

Here's a little collage of our day at the beach..........no photos of the beach is complete unless you just happen to take pictures of the local populace. Found about 4 caches, a Monk Seal and Becky and Louise found this cement something or other on the beach. Becky is holding Tristan's World, a travel bug I brought from Yuma. Didn't leave it...........so will take it back to Yuma so it can resume its travels. We found 4 caches; but, can only log three of them. I just downloaded coordinates and didn't bother to read the descriptions so the first cache we found was a "big un"; but, couldn't open it because we didn't have the combination to the padlock.

We ended up somewhere in a shopping center and had lunch at Blazing Steaks............you could get a basic steak lunch for $6.00. Not bad and for the price I guess it was pretty good.

No rain today, nice and sunny. We got home about mid afternoon and just stayed here. Don't know what tomorrow will bring. Stay tuned. W&B

Wow A New Month Already.................

been too busy (?) to post on Blog.................you can believe that if you want. Actually been doing a little geocaching with Yuma friends, eating out and trying to get ready to fly to Hawaii. Finally made it to Honolulu yesterday and enjoying the rain in Paradise. Louise and Becky took me down to Zippys so I could get my chili fix so I'm good to just kick back for awhile until my next chili run.

It's been raining off and on for a few days I guess and it's even kinda chilly........that's cold, not the kind of chili where I get my fix........ Looks like it's going to be rain on and off today too; but, what the heck, when you're in Paradise the sun comes popping out whenever you need it.

Need to go out and find at least one geocache to drop off a travel bug. Found one big un that will hold a large travel bug that I brought from Yuma and we might drive over to Barber's Point today to get that taken care of. I got surprised yesterday when I turned GPSr on............no detailed map of Oahu..........my old GPSr had CONUS as well as Hawaii. Guess Garmin is just looking to extract more money from us hapless gps users.

Flight from Phoenix uneventful..............got seated next to a scruffy looking older gal who looked like she could have been a Portland Reed College student in her earlier days (she was wearing blue jeans with her knees showing through, long stringy hair and was wearing granny glasses)............well I guess she wasn't that old. Nice though, she offered me her brunch after she took a look at it.........since I was seated way back in the plane the better brunch choices were taken by the time they arrived where we were seated. They served breakfast burritos which were pretty grim looking and she took a look at her's and offered it to me. I declined.............one gourmet burrito per day was enough for me.

Well, that's about it for the past few days. Sun is popping out from behind the clouds so maybe we'll just dash out between rain storms today. W