Got Back From Ocotillo Wells.......

this afternoon. Went over there in a caravan of 5 rigs, grabbed a spot to park, set up camp and then went geocaching........this was on Thursday. On Friday more Yuma geocachers showed up and altogether we had a group of 10 M/H and fifth wheels. Steak cookout on Friday and Saturday evening, group breakfast this morning and lots of geocaching in between.

Event was great and well organized for a First Event. They placed about 100 caches, which were temporary, for the event. They turned us loose on Saturday morning and we tried to find as many as we could. Depending on how many caches we found we were awarded tickets for the evening raffle. Lottsa great prizes and the grand prize was a set of off-road jeep tires..........a $2,300 value! We went caching with JJ and Char in their RZR and B & I mostly followed in the Rhino. It held up well.......at least it didn't quit running. Think I need new brake pads though.

Didn't win anything in the raffle...........at least some members of our group did.

Sporadic internet so didn't attempt any blog updates. Will post some pictures later this week. Gonna be busy for the next couple of days so stay tuned. W&B

Made It To Lettuce Days.............

on Monday, which was the last day. Another one of those, been there done that. Seems like same old venders selling same old stuff. Walked up and down the steet and then went to Old Folks day at the Paradise Casino. Monday was "free" ten bucks day. The parking lot was packed; but, we went in anyway. In one door and out the other when we saw the line of grey, wrinkled old folks standing in line. I figure if we had stood in line we would have earned about 27 cents an hour.

Yesterday we started getting ready to head for the geocaching event about 110 miles away in sunny california. Loaded up the Rhino and discovered the belt was slipping like crazy. Hippty Hop back to the M/C shop! Picked it up today.......clutch parts were going AWOL. They fixed it and I drove it back home. This time I think it REALLY is fixed. Will give it a good work out at the off-road event and we'll see. M/C Shop owner must have been feeling sorry for me........he only charged me for the parts and nothing for labor. He probably figures "I'll Be Back".

Almost have the M/H ready to go tomorrow; but, still gotta get up kinda early since we're meeting about 4 others rigs and we'll drive over together. Out of propane so gotta get that taken care of, pick up some ice and maybe a breakfast sandwich at Burger King and we be good to go. I'm towing the Rhino and Becky is following me in Suzy. Was going to leave it home; but, figured if Rhino ain't really fixed we'd still have something to do our caching in. I must be getting paranoid about the Rhino!!

Unless we're able to use the air card at Ocotillo Wells, and the coverage map ses we should have service, this will be last until we get back on Sunday. Not going to tear the satellite dish down for just a few days.

If we can get on line will post some photos of new adventure. Later W&B

Doing A Little Caching Today............

and naturally I got the pictures out of order. We started off with "Two Seater" a cache by lcpc28. This guy really puts a lot of effort into his caches. I'd call it a "Two Holer" and reminds me of some cold, winter nights back on the old farm. It didn't contain a Sears Roebuck Catalog though.

Then I made my first mistake of the day.........there was a string of 4 caches out in the desert with the last one being about a mile from the road. Had a good breakfast so figured this was the day to do these 4 caches. Talked to the owner of the last cache earlier and he confirmed that it was fairly level walking. Now I know this guy and he goes hiking waaayyy up there in the mountains so I should have realized that we had different interpretatons of "level walking". Anyway, away we went............here's one picture where it actually was kinda level; but, you're still walking on rocks. Finally make it back to the road and sat down on the tow hitch of the Suzy and almost never got up. Going in to see the Doc tomorrow for some more knee injections so sure hope they help out.

Spent the rest of the afternoon at home watching football play offs...........one of which is still going on. Go Vikings............not that I really care about them..........would just like to see old "Burt Farve" make it to another Superbowl.

Still cussing this satellite system as we keep losing the signal, wait a few seconds and it comes back. Guess we have it until May. All for now. W&B

Yuma Rainfall.............

......got curious so looked up rainfall for Yuma.........average annual rainfall is 3.01 inches.....to date during the month of January we've had 2.44 inches. Just some miscellaneous info for anyone who might be wondering about it. W

Had A Nice Little Rain Storm..........

and it cleared up a bit today. A little more rain tonight and then, hopefully, everything will dry out. The annual Lettuce Festival held in Old Town has been delayed a day because of the weather; but, should start tomorrow. My satellite dish got blown out of alignment with the heavy winds and finally got it working again this morning. Looks like things should be back to normal in a couple of days. Nice storm..........not sure how much rainfall we had.........probably a year's worth in a few days. My favorite TV station went off line yesterday and still hasn't come back..........probably due to the storm; but, we probably won't know until they get back on the air.

Out and about today and stopped for our Friday clam chowder fix after visiting Sam's Club and then off to the casino. I managed to escape with some of their money.

That's about if for Yuma. Later. W&B

Rock 'n Rolla........Goes The M/H...........

as the rain continues and wind gusts keep increasing. Not a day to be out and about although I'd like to take a peek at Fortuna Wash.........a big wash just a couple of miles away. Flash flood warnings in Yuma until late this afternoon. I've always said that I'd like to see what a flash flood looks like; but, better judgment (that occurs sometimes) tells us to just stay home.

And, it's going to continue until Saturday if you can believe the weather forecast. Rain should start to subside tomorrow..........hopefully. Fortunately the internet signal and TV are still working......Becky just tossed together a big pot of mulligan stew and it's pretty darn good so we'll just hang out until the weather improves while feeding our faces. Life is still good.

Looked at a big old 34 foot Winnebago with 3 slides yesterday, 2008 model and managed to drool all over it; but, price, somewhat reduced, is still too high. Should have gone back in today and tried to bargin.............you know what they say........buy a new car in a snow storm and you get the best deal. The wind and rain is sorta like a snow storm in this area. Oh well, haven't got any leaks (yet) so guess this old rig will hold together for a few more miles.

Big event starting in Ocotillo next Friday and so far a bunch of Yuma cachers are heading over that way...........that is if the rain ever stops. At last count about two dozen of us are going over so should be lots of fun for a long weekend. It's only about 110 miles so maybe some more might come over just on Saturday to join the festivities.

Well, the stew pot is calling my name..........at the rate I'm consuming it Becky may have to start another batch. One good thing about the rain..........it's warm (kinda) and you don't have to shovel it. Later. W&B

Rain, Rain, Rain................

We set out to see a movie this afternoon and when we stepped outside it was pouring down rain. It finally stopped about 2000; but, it was steady for awhile and more is on the way. It outta really make the desert turn green.

After movie we were close to the casino..........made the mistake of stopping by and I managed to give them back the money I won the other day.

Got a new telephone and been struggling to figure out all the stuff on it. It has Google, I've set up Gmail; but, haven't done any web surfing yet. Trying to get one more application figured out each day..........slow going for me as those little bitty numbers on the keypad are still hard to see........not as bad as the Blackberry so gradually figuring it out. By the time I get through the instruction manual I'll probably have forgotten everything I previously learned. So it goes.

Will have to take some desert pictures in a week or so and post them. It's always nice to see the desert come to life. Later. W&B

Wee Woo........A Cold Spell Hit Us..........

plus a tiny bit of moisture last night. It was 49 outside when I got up this morning and maybe we'll make it to about 67 or 68 today. Freezing our buns off!!

Took the Rhino out for a little spin the other day, since I have plates for it we can drive it on the street (at least in Arizona). Drove it to the desert and picked up a cache that eluded us earlier and then had to make a "speed test" on the paved road.

Sunday we started the day with breakfast at Ligurta and then headed for the Eastern part of the Bombing Range to do a little caching. The "A Team" consisting of Larry, Theresa, Robert, Becky and myself hunted down a few new caches. We get them cleaned up and 2 days later someone else places some new ones in the same area! Boy, we staying poor, almost destitute just buying gas, for these little excursions. Sky looked a little angry when we started; but, it turned out to be a pretty nice day. After hunting down a few caches in the East side we drove back to the Western area so we could place some very large caches. JJ had three of them to plant and I had one. Original plan was to "bury" them with only the top showing.........we quickly abandoned that plan and just found some very thorny trees to place them under.

Yesterday "B" and I hung around home until later in the afternoon because of a very brisk South wind and then we went downtown and eventually to the Paradise casino. It was Old Folks day so we stood in line for about 20 minutes waiting to get $10.00 placed on our playing cards. Boy, it was crowded..........we had to use the $10.00 yesterday so I found a machine and played my free money. I left $17.00 ahead! Maybe my luck is changing so we headed to the Q Casino over in Californey.........it was old folks Two for One buffet day so it too was fairly crowded. The buffet line was looonnng; but, we had grabbed a soup and sandwich earlier so weren't hungry. The slot machines were though..........I was down to my last couple of bucks and hit a Bonus on the machine. I finally left and was $50.00 ahead for the day. Becky ended up losing $2.00 so we had a pretty good day.

Nothing planned for today........just playing it by ear. My damn Hughes Satellite has been giving me fits ever since we got here.............it works fine when we get up and then about 1100 or so it slows to a crawl and speed doesn't come back until about 2100. Still got a contract until May and then it's bye bye. Sprint is installing new equipment so we should have some 3G coverage.........supposedly in March according to the kid at the Sprint store so the air card should start really working well by then. Right now it's working but it too isn't very fast. Got a new phone last weekend..........a Blackberry Curve..........big mistake, hell I couldn't see the characters on the little bitty keyboard unless I was in bright sunlight! Took it back and now I have a Samsung Moment.........the keyboard is bigger, and readable for me, so have been playing with it and trying to figure out everything it does. A little bit at a time and maybe I'll get the hang of it. Should have gotten one of those Jitterbugs advertising on TV...........great big keyboard and all it does is make phone calls! Oh well, I'll get the hang of it eventually.........if I survive that long.

Guess I'd better try to publish this before the internet slows to a crawl again. W&B

Well Friday Got Here.............

and we haven't done much of anything the last couple of days. Yesterday we went down to JJ's Office to check out the surplus items he bid on and was the highest bidder. He ended up with about 400 of these containers..........fortunately someone else is taking half of them. They looked like they would make some very unique geocache containers; however, they turned out to be a bit larger then expected. Nice though as they're made of metal and have a lid that seals everything in or out as the case may be. We're going down on the Bombing Range on Sunday and will probably place several of them as new caches. It takes 3 men and a small boy to carry them.........they weigh 21 pounds. Should be easy to find.

Well our gambling luck has changed............a couple of weeks ago I was winning everytime we visited a casino and Becky was losing her allowance. The last 2 or 3 trips we made the situation has reversed and I've been losing my shirt and "B" has been fattening up her gambling wallet. She's quite happy and spent about 30 minutes today counting and recounting her gambling winnings.........Bah, Humbug!

Went down to Lute's Casino today for lunch since it was Friday and clam chowder day. I had a double cheeseburger and "B" had a bowl of clam chowder............we decided that we liked the chowder better at the Mad Greek Restaurant so will stick with them for our Friday chowder fix.

Also went shopping at Wally World for a few items............among them was a new wall clock, our old one goes through a battery in about a week and starts losing time. Found one for under ten bucks, hung it on the wall and it fell down when the M/H wiggled a bit in the wind..........broke the plastic housing; but, it's still keeping good time. Maybe a little super glue will fix it.

Don't know what's in store for tomorrow.........only thing on my list is "get up and eat breakfast". Will probably get this container ready to place as a geocache on Sunday........will take a lot of SWAG to put into it for trade items........maybe we can just stuff in a bunch of junk we've been collecting over time. If the wind has calmed down a bit I might take the Rhino out for a little work out. Well, all for now. W&B

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

Whoopeee..........finally picked up the Rhino yesterday afternoon..........and guess what, it made it home this time. Guess 3rd x charm worked, or so it seems. Ran it home at about 50 mph and made it. Carb seems to need a little fine tuning; but, it ran pretty good. Will probably give it a work out this weekend. At the end of the month we're going to Octotillo Wells for a geocaching event at a California off-road park. We'll be going over on a Thursday and then back to Yuma sometime on Sunday. I know it'll get a good work out there............that is if it's still running.

Last couple of days have been "do nothing days"..........well almost as we did the domestic stuff yesterday. Today we made a run to the Q Casino as it was "old folks" day and we get credited with $10.00 on our club cards. I swiped my card at a little kiosk and had another $10.00 worth of credit. I played the "free" money and only made $3.50 on twenty bucks worth of play so figured it really wasn't my day. Left $3.50 ahead.

Should have stayed that way; but, we stopped at the Paradise to grab a late lunch. Managed to give them the $3.50 plus $20.00 of my own money. Gonna have to stay away from these places for awhile.............while maybe not as the Cocopah has its old folks day tomorrow; however, these cheapos only give you $5.00 to play.

Nothing else happening...........weather still pretty good; but, today the wind was blowing pretty good and stirring up the dust/dirt/sand. Later. W&B

Geocaching With Friends Yesterday...........

after a very good breakfast.........you know, the kind of breakfast that includes biscuits and gravy. JJ and Char, Larry, "B" and I then headed for the Bombing Range. People down here have been placing geocaches faster then we can keep up and since JJ has to "W.O.R.K" Sunday is about the only day he has to play catchup. We visited this cache that we had previously found just to watch JJ and Char hunt for a devious hide. The cache owner, lcpc28, is an excellent wood worker and really puts a lot of time and effort into the caches he places. This was titled "Mr. Peanuts Water Well" and he placed the names of a lot of local cachers on the well. We found our names and stood back while JJ and Char hunted for this one. Time was passing rapidly so we finally started to play the old "Hot and Cold Game" and JJ finally climbed up the tree and spotted the cache. Not an easy task as there isn't a tree down here that isn't covered with sharp thorns.

We then headed for another lcpc28 cache called SWAG (SouthWest Arizona Geocachers).......again we watched while JJ hunted for the cache. Success finally and then we headed for another one that none of us had prevously found. It was called "Phew" and the name made sense when we arrived. Lcpc28 had made of bunch of little skunks..........three decoys and the smallest one contained the cache log. They blended into the surroundings very nicely and we found 3 decoys.....finally, after some time Becky spotted the 4th Skunk so we could sign the log and move on. As we neared our vehicles we met up with more geocaching friends, Red Buggy Man (Don and Sally) and Five Bales (Bob and Judy). They were on the hunt for the new ones also. Then we set out to hunt down some RBM caches, last picture is us on a ridge getting some of the RBM caches.........the rest were down in the valley, from up here it looked pretty flat and appeared to be easy walking............NOT.

First pic is looking back toward the Yuma Foothills where we spend the winter and part of the area where the RBM caches are located. When we started on the rest of the series we found the "flat looking" area was actually pretty level and flat............the only problem was picking your way through the good sized rocks. It was like walking on bowling balls..........not exactly the place where someone with bum knees should be. One of these caches turned out to be Becky's Number 2,500.

It turned out to be a long day and today we haven't even ventured outside except to check the mail. We'll be heading downtown after awhile. Weather still terrific............shorts and T-shirts........still in the 70s.

That's it for now. W&B

Farmville.........Farmtown............

WOW.........this "farming" could be addictive when you need two computers to keep up!

This is real "multi-tasking"..........eating breakfast and using TWO computers to keep the farms going..........and listening to the TV so she can tell me that I've already seen that program.

Farmville.(?)........Farmtown...(?)........you ask. Just check out Facebook.......but beware!

Still HOT In Yuma..................

so we headed for the Range to find a couple of new caches and to look for the one we couldn't find a couple of days ago.

The first one took us a short hike into the desert and the cache was a little box within the cache. It was a little box that you had to push and pull on until it opened. Becky surprised me and had it open in a flash. Found the second cache after a bit of a search and then headed for our DNF. Met 4 other cachers there and we had a nice visit........then the Border Patrol dude showed up to check us out. Guess there's getting to be more and more Senior Smugglers nowadays so he checked us out under the pretense of checking to see if we needed any help. He drove off and then Becky and I hunted the cache down while the Old Folks went their separate ways.

Got the Suzy washed today.........this time it was "free" as I had filled up my wash card..........pay for 10 and get the next one free. It only took me two years to fill up the card. We came home and I fumed and cussed the Hughes Internet system as it kept kicking us off line. Still gotta wait until about May and then I can tell them to kiss off unless the system improves........I have no doubt that it won't.

Just as the sun was setting a couple of new caches came out.........one about 2 1/2 miles away so we jumped in the car to join the FTF Whores. Billybe was looking when we arrived, we joined in the search and Skibum shows up next. We must have spent the better part of the hour there and I finally gave it up so we left. Was looking at the log and see that Billybe and Skibum returned later to make the FTF. I'm not much into that searching with a flashlight stuff so we didn't go back. Will get it in the daylight.

Didn't get a call about the Rhino today so guess the shop still hasn't received needed parts...........or else they did and found something else wrong. Will check on it tomorrow.

All for now. Later. W&B

Damn.........Nearly Had To Turn On The A/C Today........

as temperature in Yuma soared to about 74 degrees!! And it's going to continue for the rest of the week.........if it lasts much longer than a week we might have to head back North to escape the heat.

Been taking it easy the last couple of days........found one cache and got skunked on another. Out to the Q casino yesterday before we went out to dinner and I thought my luck was returning as I left the Q with some of their money. Even Becky stopped a few bucks ahead!

Down to Logan's Roadhouse for dinner with a group from an RV Park...........someone was celebrating a birthday and we got an invite from our friends who live in the same park. I think over 20 people showed up. A bunch of our geocaching buds were there so it was a nice get together.

Since "B" and I both had a streak of luck at the Q we headed to the Paradise after dinner. Bad move as I give Paradise the money I won at the Q..........plus $20.00 of my hard earned cash.

Our friend Larry placed a couple of new caches on the range today; but, we ended up staying at the homestead all day long. I think that's about a record for us.........especially when the weather is as nice as it was today.

How about those Boise State Broncos????

Orange Bowl is starting so guess I'll post this and see how the game goes. Later. W&B

WOW.......Here It Is Well Into The New Year.............

and I haven't posted any updates! SBT. Actually we haven't been doing anything lately except eating, sleeping, gambling and geocaching.

Here's some pictures of our little excursion to the ridges and rocks North of Wellton, a little town 20 or so miles East of Yuma. Larry, Theresa, Becky and I went out to hunt down some caches near some scenic mountains. Theresa likes to hike and do some climbing; but, she chickened out when I challenged to try and climb to the top of some of these little "hills". Hell, it wore me out just looking at their tops. We were out there on the 31st.

On New Years we drove out NW of Yuma where JJ and friends were camping. Theresa had captured 12 FTFs early that morning and this gave her an opportunity for another one or two. We found the one JJ had placed at his campsite, BSd for a while and started to leave to try and find one more. I backed the Suzy up..........something was wrong, stopped and found the right front tire was practically in shreds............several holes punched in the sidewall. We started to change the tire and JJ ended up doing that for us. The next cache was several miles further into the desert so we passed on looking for it and headed home. Theresa ended with 13 FTFs on New Years..........a personal record.

Got up kinda early this morning and hippitey hopped to the tire shop. PEP Boys had their sale.............buy three and get the 4th free. The tires weren't really that bad, on the highway they would have lasted for a few more thousand miles; but, driving in the desert and rocks like we do, I figured it best to replace all four.

Stopped by the M/C shop on the way home and still looking for carb parts for the Rhino. Looks like it might be Wednesday before I can pick it up. Bummer............could really have used it this weekend.

Today, Larry, Becky and I went out to make a dent in all the New Year's Day caches that had been placed. Think there were 29 new ones and we found 20+ of them today. Great day for browsing around the desert..............nice and sunny, may have gotten into the 70s and had a little bit of a breeze for most of the day. Northern Folks...........eat your hearts out.

Our lot is now full, 4 rigs, with the arrival of the last snowbird on Thursday.

That's about it sports fans...........speaking of sports fans.........those damn Ducks cost me a lunch for two!! First time I ever bet on them.........and probably the last time too.

Had a great run of luck at the casinos; but, on Friday they got to my goody locker..........today Becky and I went out to dinner and we stopped by the Paradise again...........I was ahead, too dumb to quit; but, I finally did quit with $11.00 of their money. Guess that's better then contributing. More later if anything happens down here. W&B