We Survived the Roughneck Rendezvous #2........

at Ocotillo Wells Off Road recreation area.............but just barely. I gotta get some decent suspension for Rhino.........or order a 2011 Polaris RZR. Unfortunately, they're a little pricey, right now the dealer is getting a thousand to fifteen hundered dollars over the suggested retail price. If they can get it they certainly will.

Friday Robert arrived in the morning and after setting up his rig we headed South of Ocotillo Wells to do a little "warm up" caching. Another friend, Frank, went with us as we took the Jeep. We found that it will do pretty well on the off-road trails. We found some areas nearly as rough as the Picacho area we did a week or two ago and the Jeep handled it all without complaint. My only complaint is the lousy gas mileage. When we got home and filled up with gas it turned out to be 16.9 average. And that's with Becky driving behind me at about 58/59 mph. Of course it included some 4x4 running also. Oh well, if you wanna play I guesses you gotta pay.

Char arrived with JJ's RZR about 1830, she made good time from Yuma and we had a great steak dinner. "B" and I stopped at the Costco in El Centro and picked up some ribeyes...........I think their meat is better than Sam's Club. Anyway JJ cooked them up for us...........I don't know what his secret is; but, he can turn a steak out to perfection. I watched him give them a bit of seasoning and then cook them up. Of course he also prepared a mushroom/onion sauce that was outta this world and that really topped off the ribeyes. I gotta pay more attention to his methods; but, that probably won't work as everyone knows you can follow a receipe but it's never the same as the original.

The Event was nice, a little different format than last year.........this year they placed caches in a series and you had to complete the series to receive any raffle tickets for them. Of course there were other ways to pick up some extra tickets here and there. We ended up with 60 raffle tickets and one of the event workers asked me how many "puzzles" we finished. I said "four" and he shook his head and told me we were't supposed to be able to finish that many in the time allowed. Well, we did and my poor old body is battered and bruised, forearms were cramping when we finished the run. Maybe in a few days we'll determine how much "Fun" we had!

Wind really picked up Saturday night and Sunday morning sent most of us scrambling to pack up and get out of there. We hung around for a while and then headed back to Yuma. I think we got home about 1500.

Well, I didn't take a single picture even though I had my camera with me. You'll have to check Becky's Blog for any pictures she might have taken. She'll probably update her blog in a day or so.

That's about it for the weekend...............I'll probably determine that we had "FUN" in a few more days! W&B

Here We Are At Ocotillo Wells..............

pulled in here rather early this morning (we're still on Arizona time and California is an hour behind........or is that ahead........ of us. ?? We were the first ones here so got our pick of parking spots. Right now I think there are about 8 rigs for the Geocaching Event and more are coming in tomorrow. Didn't do too much today except get the rig set up, found one cache, had steak dinner and now I'm trying to stay up for another hour or so and then I can fill the generator with gas and it will run the rest of the night. Last night we stayed in El Centro and I had the propane heater cycling on and off and the coach battery died so I woke up too early because my CPAP stopped. Not going to happen tonight with little generator running.

Great news from Becky's Oncologist, the PET scan results were in and she has no evidence of cancer anywhere! She's still a little anemic so doc told her to eat spinach, raisins and other iron enriched foods and hopefully she won't have to take iron pills as she doesn't like the effect from them. She's to get a blood test in about a month and we'll go from there.

Tomorrow outta be a busy day...........I downloaded "unfound" caches in this area and I came up with 388, so we hope to put a small dent in them tomorrow. Big Event is Saturday so that outta be fun as it was last year.

More later, maybe we can take some pictures of the area. Lottsa interesting geological features around here and maybe we can find some...............this place is BIG and is open to all off roaders. W&B

Slowly Getting Ready To Leave...........

for the Roughneck Rendezvous at Ocotillo Wells Off Road park in California. Damn, been so long since we've moved that I've forgotten what I had to do. Guess a check list would be helpful. Doesn't seem like we have this much crap laying around that has to be picked up and stowed away...........but we getting closer to leaving for a few days.

We're trying to leave tomorrow instead of Thursday and plan to spend the night in El Centro. They have a Costco so we need to pick up some stuff there since it's the closest Costco. Was going to stay overnight at NAF El Centro and called them, they have a couple of spaces available; but, I'd have to unhook the trailer and that's a PIA. Will probably drive over late afternoon, get our shopping done and spend the night in the Wally World parking lot. I called them and they said "no problem, as long as it's overnight".

Becky sees her oncologist tomorrow morning so we'll see what he has to say, finish packing up and then head West.

Going to let Frank use the Suzuki while Suz is gallivanting around the countryside with her sister and the damn thing wouldn't start today! Dead battery.........should have sold it when I had the chance. Oh well, a trip to Wally World for a cheap battery and we're in business again. Sure hope the cheap battery doesn't die on Frank!

About it for now...........will update if the air card works at O.W. I think it does; but, can't remember back that far to be certain............after all it was a year ago the last time we were there. W&B

Still Warm.........Almost HOT today..........

but fortunately a gentle breeze kept the brutal temperatures tolerable.

Went out a caching on Sunday after breakfast at the Landing...........Becky opted not to go up into the mountains; but, you couldn't stop her from attending breakfast. If it wasn't enough that I had to spring for breakfast; but, when I got home I found that she and Char had cooked up a plan for JJ and I to take them to the Outback for dinner! Here I am, tired, battered and bruised and I gotta go out for a steak dinner. No rest for the weary.

We went up into the mountains on the California side...........haven't been into this area for a couple of years and some of the places we went I've never been before. Was an interesting and bit rough on some of the trails. Left the Rhino at home and took the Jeep so Frank and Larry rode with me and JJ and tbly hit the trail in JJ's RZR. They took off in a cloud of dust and there was no way we could keep up with them..........by the time we reached most of the caches they already had it in hand when we arrived. So went our day.........if it wasn't for the dust cloud we would have had no idea where they were.

Here's a few pics of the area we were in. This old abandoned motorcycle will probably have its picture taken many, many times by cachers. Who'd ever thunk you'd find a "lake" up here in the hills.........we rounded a corner and there it was! The road in the last picture run up and over the mountain; but, it was too rough and washed out in areas for the Jeep to make it, so, tbly and JJ went up the road and checked on one of JJ's caches. "Great view" tbly ses. Maybe another time with the Rhino.

Becky just reminded me that we haven't found a cache today!! Been busy getting ready to go to Ocotillo Wells so completely forgot about it. Gotta post this and find a cache before the sun goes down. Later. W&B

Still Warm, Still Sunny in Yuma...............

and "B" and I went out onto the Bombing Range this afternoon to keep our "find" streak alive. We picked up 7 caches and probably hiked about a mile in all. Becky said she'd be "READY' come next week. Feeling better each day, so that's good news. She's even cooking..........well, maybe not really cooking, today she "warmed up" some left over pizza for me. But, Hey........that progress.

Had PET scan on Friday and we'll get the results sometime next week and let you all know.

Tomorrow a few of us are going caching in a different area across the border in California. I've been up there once or twice; but, not familar with the area at all. Should be fun. "B" staying home tomorrow so a bunch of will meet for breakfast and then head for the hills.

Later. W&B

Still Warm in Yuma...............

and we managed to go out and find a few caches today with our friend La84fishn. We were at the golf course for breakfast with our neighbors, Nate and Phyl, when Larry called so we got home as soon as we could to make a trip onto the Bombing Range. A Tribute Cache has been placed for one of our local cachers so we set out to find it and sign the log. Also met a few other cachers as we were leaving. The Cache was a Tribute to lcpc28, another Larry, who has placed 400 caches on the Barry Goldwater Bombing Range. He's quite a craftsman and had built and placed some very unique caches for all of us to enjoy. At the present time he is gravely ill so this cache was placed for him.

Picked up a few more new caches with Larry and then called it a day. Warm but slightly breezy day today............still beat strong winds, rain and snow!!

"B" has her PET scan scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.........we stopped to see her "Witch Doctor" and he gave her some advice and super duper cough medicine so her coughing has subsided and you can see that she is feeling well enough to be tromping around in the desert.

I described her doctor as a "Witch Doctor', with all due respect of course, because his advice was to take the prescription cough medicine and then "rub Vicks vapor rub on her chest, back, throat and even on the soles of her feet and put on some socks before she goes to bed". He said it works for his kids, although he hadn't tried the "feet and socks" trick with them yet. That's when I questioned him about taking advice from a "Witch Doctor". He just howled with laughter! We need more doctors with a sense of humor. This was the same guy who told me he was going to "kick my ass" if I didn't watch my diet to control blood sugar.

That's about it for today. W&B

HOT, HOT AND HOT..............

today..........it got up to 86 and right now at 1900 it's still 74! That's kinda warm..........dang, where is the rain, snow and cold when you really need it??

We made a run to Sam's Club today to pick up a few goodies, stopped for "free" money at the casino (the stop cost me $20.00), kept our cache find streak alive and when we got home had to turn on the A/C as it was 92 deg. in the M/H. No relief in sight........the hot spell may be around for a few more days.

Gonna see my "nose" doc on Wednesday.......still have swelling so can't use the CPAP yet; but, at least I'm sleeping a little better. I bought some of those "Breathe Rite" strips and they helped me quite a bit............even slept for 3 hours straight last night at one point. Things getting better.

Now Becky is coming down with a cold or some other form of Yuma crud and has been coughing her head off. She was originally scheduled for a PET scan on Wednesday; but, due to the coughing they rescheduled for Friday. We'll see her doctor tomorrow and maybe he can prescribe some super duper meds for her cough. She wants to get the PET scan out of the way as soon as possible.

We've been getting out and about at least for a little while every day; but, overall been sticking close to home. We both had better be fit for travel as we're still are going to Ocotillo Wells on the 27th. We should be OK by then.

So far success on the brakes on the Suzuki. Not a squeak out of them since Big O worked on them again! No word on Rhino yet..........hopefully the mechanic didn't party too hearty on his Phoenix trip for Super Cross and will get it back before this weekend.

That's about it for us...........rest of your people up North stay warm and we'll attempt to stay "cool" for the next few days. W&B

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

Weather nice, maybe will reach mid 70s today and here I am stuck close to home. Doctor ses don't do anything that might cause your nose to start bleeding so we haven't been doing much since Thursday. We'll been able to grab at least one cache a day to keep our find streak alive and, made run to commissary and I took the Suzuki back to the Tire Shop to see if they could fix my "brake squeek". Got a call yesterday and they said they would warranty the front pads they put on to see if that stops the squeek. They'll probably call sometime today after installation of new pads and then we'll see if that solves the problem. Frank and Sue have a Suzuki also and they had new pads installed. Frank said he had the same squeeking problem after pads were replaced. Maybe there's something about Suzuki that presents a problem with brake replacement. Wonder if I'll have to go back to "original equipment" pads???

Rhino still in the shop........kinda the same problem as Suzuki as I could hear a metallic scraping sound the last time we were in the mountains. Probably brakes. Won't be using it until we go to Ocotillo Wells so no hurry in getting that running. Doc ses at least two weeks before I can resume normal activities so that takes me right up to our Ocotillo trip on the 27th.

Still having problems getting sleep as I can't use CPAP..........can lay down and sleep for an hour or so and then my nose plugs up and I have to get up and try to snooze in an upright position. I keep telling myself that it will all be worth it...........sometimes I don't think so.

Becky moving slow this morning.........I kinda thought we might go to the golf course for scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, sausage and gravy; but, getting hungry since I've been up since about 0620. Guess I'll have to rustle up my own grub this morning.

Nothing else going on...........later. W&B

Got Home This Afternoon............

after getting my nose "roto rooted" yesterday. They kept me overnight and the doc was in early this morning and kicked me out of the hospital. Then I had to hang around at the doctor's office to get my nose "unpacked". Still can't figure out why in the hell he didn't take care of it while I was in the hospital.........mystery solved when I got to his office, he was at the hospital for more surgery today so guess he was heading that way when he stopped in to spring me from the hospital.

All I can say is.........."that was the most miserable night I've ever spent".........couldn't use my CPAP and everytime I started to fall asleep I'd wake myself up with a snort. It's really a bitch when you can't breathe through your nose and then your throat collapses because you can't use your CPAP.........so for about 22 hours it was doze, snort, wake up and try to go to sleep again. I ended up watching a whole lot of TV. I don't recommend septoplasty for anyone using a CPAP. I still won't be able to use the CPAP for another week so am trying to figure out how to sleep in the Captain's Chair and avoid some of the hassle I went through yesterday and last night. Not looking forward to it and right now I've still got a bit of bleeding in one nostril, not much; but, enough so that I need to pack it. They told me if it starts to bleed "profusely" get my butt back into hospital emergency. Don't think it will as it's just enough to be annoying. So it goes.

Becky off for a doctor appointment this afternoon so maybe I'll try to snooze in the capt's chair to see how it'll work. Later. W&B

Kept Our "Find" Streak Going...........

today by picking up a couple of caches on Hi-Way 95. Finally got the license plates for the Jeep so we drove up to the Proving Grounds to get a new base sticker. Damn Marines won't issue any to the snow birds; but, PG will. On the way back we left the highway and cut across country to hunt for a couple of caches.........got close and could see that they would require a "hike" up the hills further then I wanted to go. Finally found two a little further down the road on the flat lands so they kept our streak alive.

Tomorrow we have to be at the hospital at 0900 as I'm getting a "roto rooter" job on my nose. Originally scheduled for today but since I have sleep apnea and use a CPAP they changed me from the outpatient clinic to have the surgery done at the hospital. They told me to bring my CPAP with me and I'm wondering if they might want to keep me overnight. Hope not, the food ain't that great; or, at least it didn't look too good during Becky's stay. Of course she was on a soft food diet so maybe the regular menu wouldn't be too bad.

Got a cache all scoped out that's right along side the main road into town so we'll grab that on the way in.

Dropped my weekly allowance at the casino........not enough smarts to quit when I was ahead so guess I deserved it. Made a quick stop at our favorite fish n chips place in the Foothills so now no more food or Pepsi for me until tomorrow sometime.

Later.............if I survive. W&B

Ridge Running Today............

The "road" and under the power lines.

"ID", some more road and JJ looking for a cache

The "start", road and Larry, Wayne & Robert.

One of the "high" spots on the trail, long way down!

in the Muggins Mt. area NE of Yuma. Lots of neat jeep trails out in this area and a series of geocaches had been placed here so away we went to enjoy the scenery and increase our number count. Beautiful weather in the high 60s and almost no wind. Doesn't get much better!

We started the day out with our monthly SWAG Breakfast and after breakfast JJ, la84fishn, Beagle39z and myself loaded up the RZR and Rhino and away we went. The roads (?) were very challenging in places, lottsa big rocks, off camber trails and steep climbs were in store for us. Even had to drop in 4 whldr low a few times to traverse the rocks. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures of the real nasty areas as I had to hold onto the steering wheel with a death grip. We managed OK and found about 40 geocaches as a bonus. I figured Larry probably crapped his pants a few times as he was riding with Robert and JJ doesn't slow down for anything! It really gets interesting when you're on a path just wide enough for one vehicle and you come over a rise and can't see anything in front, or to the sides for that matter. I don't think JJ even slows down then; but, Wayne (Beagle39) and I go quite a bit slower. As a result sometimes all we could see of JJ and Larry was cloud of dust about 1/4 mile in front of us.

We followed power lines for a good part of the route and it was really interesting when we stopped beneath the wires. You could feel the electricity when you were standing on the ground and touched the rails of the RZR and Rhino. Larry swears up and down that he received a shock the first time he did that............yeah OK. I never did.

A great caching day for us and Becky was out "shopping"...........she wasn't even home when I got there and I had left explicit instructions that she should have a late lunch/early dinner waiting when I arrived!! Some people just don't listen............maybe I'll have to send her through my "retraining" program in the near future. Later. W&B

Made It To Friday..........

and we managed to keep our geocaching "find" streak alive by going out and finding 4 or 5 today.

This is the "B" with our first find of the day.

We then drove down to Old Town where they had some sort of activity going on.........can't remember the name; but, it was supposed to call attention to the "homeless" pets in Yuma. We were sitting listening to some old guy singing some ancient songs..........he was pretty good, so good in fact that I purchased some of his CDs. He was very happy and even gave me an extra one..........which was nice because one of the CDs has a bad spot on it. Actually, he sounded better "live" than on his CDs............or well, it's just money that the casino didn't get.

While we were in Old Town I got a call from the hospital getting information for my nose "fix". Since I use a CPAP they had to change my surgery date to Wednesday so it could be performed at the hospital instead of the "outpatient clinic". Then I had to go down and get an EKG. Guess that turned out OK since the surgery is still scheduled for Wednesday. If I had kept my nose out of other people's business when I was younger it might not have been broken so many times and I wouldn't have needed the "fix". I'll probably be miserable for a few days; but, it should be well worth it.............gotta get all the medical stuff done before hussein's obamacare kicks in.

Geocaching breakfast on Sunday morning and then 4 of us are taking the RZR and Rhino into the Muggins Mountain area where about 30 or so caches await us. Never been in that area before so gotta remember to take lottsa pictures. I guess the trails are steep, narrow and off camber..........it outta be fun if we can keep the wheels on the ground!

More later. W&B

Warmer Weather Coming Back...............

the last couple of days.........well in the 60s anyways. At least it's been warm enough for the "B" to go caching. We found a few caches on New Year's Day and have been going out every day since then to pick up a few. Just enough to start a "find streak" and see how long it will last. There are enough new caches around here that we'll never run out..........the old body will probably give it up before the caches do.

Some news from the Doctor..........tests have been compared with results of Becky's lung surgery 2 1/2 years ago and they determined that the same cancer cells were found in her intestine. We're scheduled to see an oncologist down here; but, her surgeon is pretty certain that further treatment (chemo) will not be required. Anyway, we'll see the oncologist within a week and then we'll know for certain what the next step will be. Probably, annual tests will be needed for the next 3 years...........same as after her lung surgery. All in all, it's good news and she's feeling much better every day. I should have her washing and waxing the motor home by end of next week.

That's about it for now. W&B

H A P P Y N E W Y E A R !

.........celebrated the arrival of the New Year by watching the "Ball" drop in NYC on TV.....of course it was only 2200 here and by midnight I was dozing on the couch and missed the actual beginning of 2011. No biggie. I considered firing a few rounds toward the bombing range, figured there would not be anything out there at midnight except a few scorpions, but the TV stations kept warning about the firing of weapons to celebrate so opted against it. Probably a good idea.

Since the "Cold Spell" set in a few days ago we haven't been doing a heckofalot.........grocery run in case we got snowed in and managed to see the "Little Fockers" last week. Made couple of casino runs..........won a bit and lost some back, managed to stay about even.

Woke up this morning to see that a new rig pulled onto the lot...........don't know when they arrived; but, we got a full house now. Snowbirds are starting to arrive and the RV parks are filling up.............bummer, the next few months the traffic will really suck!

Sun is out; but, temps still in upper 50s; but, getting warmer day by day. Guess we'll get out and about today to see what the new year has to offer. Later. W&B