The Nines on the Ninth Flash Mob Event

The calendar date, 09-09-09, doesn't occur very often so we wanted to get together for a special geocaching event. A flash mob event is pre-coordinated and for a very short time. Borrowing ideas from the internet, we recorded an mp3 file and made it available to all geocachers. We contacted local cachers to generate interest, the more the merrier. The idea was to have everyone doing the same actions at the same time while listening to directions and music that no one else can hear. With the help of our favorite muggles, Jason & Kimberly, and five of our favorite geocaching teams, the event started at 6:06 (9:09 upside down). Not everyone was synced but that was part of the fun and it was over in less than seven minutes. Jason monitored the logging container, an ammo can, and Kimberly took pictures. We had a drawing for First To Find and a special event geocoin. Many thanks to BuffaloCat (FTF), zacoolkatz (winner of the 9-9-9 geocoin), BRUZRs Daddy (designated line leader) & Logibear (performed without mp3 player, good job!), toyjeep (yay, Elisa, continue your speedy recovery), and zoonslikezoey (us!) Kudos to Tom for spending so much time on recording the mp3!

After, we met at Schlotzsky's in time for the Happy Hour $2 sandwiches.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend 2009 took us to California with Chris, to visit April and Nitzy. April was getting baptised on Sunday, September 6th, and we really wanted to see her new apartment. We arrived at Nitzy's on Friday afternoon (before all of the traffic started) and had a nice visit. We visited with Dusty & Heather and finally say Jayden for the first time. What a cute little guy. well, he isn't that little anymore, being 18 months old. We had a nice dinner and good conversation and Jayden provided most of the entertainment.

Saturday we left Nitzy's for Aprils house. We had decided to go to the Griffith Park observatory. What a great place. So much to see and learn about. The views, while smoky from the Station fire over the hill from the observatory, were still pretty spectacular. From there, we went to the Science center by the LA Memorial Colosseum. USC was playing a game, and the parking and traffic was terrible. We found parking and made our way over to the museum. It was so crowded from USC students passing thru it. We made our way upstairs and found some of the exhibits. we were all pretty tired from walking and the heat that we decided to go to Aprils apartment.

Aprils apartment is small. But, for her and Penny, its just the right size, and its hers. We visited for awhile and left back to Nitzys house.

Sunday took us to Crossroads church for April's baptism. Steve and Vera were presided over Aprils baptism. She was fully submerged for her baptism. We are very proud.

We sat thru the service, which was not like another service that I have ever sat thru. Lots of LOUD rock music and the pastor was a guy that I think I went to high school with. He was inspiring in his talk.

Went church ended we went over to Steve and Vera's for homemade veggie tacos, and Ice Cream Drumstix for dessert. We had a great time getting caught up with he two of them.

We left Nitzys at about 4:00 pm for the 4 hour journey home. No traffic along the way and we were home by 8:15pm.

All in all, a nice family weekend in California.

Lake Caching with Oh Jeeperz!

Thursday, August 27, Linda and I were invited to go Lake caching with our friends Mark and Diane (Oh Jeeperz!).

We left in the afternoon from their place on the Island. It had started to cool down a bit to about 110 or so and we trekked off to get some of the caches on the lake that you need a boat or jet ski to get to.

We picked up a few and Diane said that we need to get the Copper Canyon cache. We all agreed and speeded toward Copper Canyon. We got there and they pointed us to a large hill and told us which general direction to go. Up! Linda and I began our ascend to the hole. We were up pretty high, but the view was beautiful. we managed to find the cache and make our descent down a steep hill with wet slippery shoes. We did make it and decided to head off to a quiet cove for some dinner and swimming.

We retrieved another very hard to get to cache and decided to float and have brownies (thanks again Diane, they were great).

Once it was dark, we left our spot and returned back to civilization.

It was a great afternoon out on the lake with great friends..

Vacation in Cottonwood

We left for vacation on July 10, caching along the way to Cottonwood, AZ. We had a beautiful vacation cabin at Thousand Trails Campground.

Our cabin was more like a single wide mobile home, but not like the mobile homes that you're thinking about. This one had a second story loft (which was kind of funny since we could only stand up in it on our knees). But it provided storage and it had 2 twin beds as well. For a vacation house, it was pretty cool. It had a small living room with a flat screen tv and satellite, a nice kitchen and bathroom, and a nice bedroom with plenty of closet space. It also had a flat screen tv and satellite. We received a newspaper delivered to us each morning too.

Our plan was to retrieve our 1000th cache find in Cottonwood area, which we did!

The weather was kind of crazy. Since it's monsoon season here in Arizona, we did get some rain, but not much. If we would have stayed at the campground, we probably would have gotten more rain.

We ventured to Prescott to visit Cheryl and cached in that area after lunch at her bar and grill. We looked for "Big Nose Kate's" grave but were unsuccessful at finding it. We visited Whiskey Row in downtown Prescott and also visited Goldwater Lake. We collected caches both to and from Prescott.

We went back to Prescott on Wednesday to cache with Linda and Ernie (zacoolkatz) along the road to Lynx Lake. We collected caches and had a great time with them. Again, we cached along the way to and from Prescott.

We went up to Jerome to, what else, get more caches. We stopped in Jerome to look around, but a lot of the shops are closed. We continued over the mountain caching along the way. We collected quite a few caches and ended up in , where else, Prescott.

We came home on Friday by way of Williams. There was a ham fest there and we stopped to get some items for our ham radios.

We had a great vacation and hope to do it again in Cottonwood!

The Kids Were Here

Both April & Chris were here in Havasu for Fathers Day and Linda's birthday. We had a bar b que with some close friends on Saturday evening. It was really fun. I have posted some pictures for the four of us, as well as one of Linda and I.

Clock

Just a cool clock i found on the net!

Rovey's Needle and Cat Tail Cove with Cathy

Roveys Needle and Cat Tail Cove with Cathy

On Sunday May 24, Memorial Day weekend, Linda and I took Cathy for a little off road adventure.  We decided that we would take her to Roveys needle.  Linda had some coordinates for a trip further past the needle, and we thought we try them to see if they were accurate.

I had to put the back seat in the Jeep (it hasn’t been in since we bought it), we got some supplies and off we went.  Cathy had never been off roading before, but she said she had complete faith in our off road skills.  Boy is she trusting!

Once we got to the starting point, we aired the tires down and started on our journey.  We went up a rather large hill and I thought it might shake her a bit.  She didn’t even flinch.  She figured if we tried it, it must be okay.  We stopped at the top and took photos and showed her the cache that Linda and I planted in honor of our Dads, Allyn & Ted.

We then ventured toward the needle.  We took a different way there from the way that we have gone in the past.  It was pretty exciting, especially the climbing the hill and not being able to see the other side part.  No sweat, we made it just fine.

Once we got to the needle, the three of us hiked up to the eye.  It was cool under the rock overhang.  It is really amazing the beauty of the rock and all of its catacombs that were made by erosion.  We took a lot of pictures there.  Linda and I climbed thru the needle.  Cathy thought it better just to look through it.  I found a hawk feather on the ground and looked up to see where the hawks nest probably was. 

We took off again and headed down the trail toward the Bill Williams River.  Since it was hot, all we could think of was getting close to the water to cool off.  We drove over some really tough stuff.  At least it seemed tough.  Linda spotted me once and we got thru just fine. 

We went as far as we could go and parked.  Again the water was calling to us.  It had to be about 108 degrees and the cool water of the Bill Williams River would sure feel good.  We gathered our items and lunch and headed off toward the river.  We had to hike up 2 hills.  Once at the top, we saw that we were not going to get to the water.  If we hiked down we still had to go thru all of the pampas grass to get to the water.  A little disappointed, we found a little shade (and I mean a little) and had a great lunch of PB&J sandwiches and some cookies.

After lunch and a rest, we took some last pictures and headed back down the hill back to the jeep.  Cathy took a bit of a fall, but she was okay, just a scrapped elbow. 

We got back to the Jeep parking lot and headed back.  All of the “tough” things we encountered while going there, suddenly didn’t seem so bad.

We got back close to the highway and aired back up and headed home.  It was a fun adventure and were glad Cathy came along.  She is now a real 4 wheeler!

  

Survival Night Out - May 22

On May 22, Linda and I decided to have our survival night out in the desert.  If you’re not familiar with this scenario, we decided to try some of the survival skills that she had learned from her on line class.  And she also found new and unusual ways to cook meals.  We were out geocaching a few weeks before and found the perfect place.  It was secluded behind a hill so that you couldn’t see it from Route 66.  There were 2 mines very close to this area as well.

Since the 22^nd was her last day working before summer break, and since my sister Cathy was here to watch Zoey, we thought we’d give it a go.

We packed a few things in the Jeep and headed off.  We got there around 5pm and it was still comfortably warm.  We found our camp and began to unload the Jeep.  We set up the tent and unrolled our bags (well, it was survival with a bit of comfort, and I emphasize a “bit”).  We also brought the small camp stove rather than make a fire (Linda is great at making fires and I am the King of smothering them).    Once we were set up, we took off to look at the mines.

They were marked off and one was filled in.  The second mine close to us was partially open and you could see into it.  It was really interesting. 

We decided to go back to camp to eat.  Linda had brought foods that could be prepared in her “pouches” that she made for this.  We had “Bagsgiving dinner’ which consists of dry stuffing and powdered gravy that you mix with boiling water and canned chicken.  It may not sound like much, but it is delicious.  Linda had the vegetarian version of this meal.  We had brought minimal items with us.  After all, if you’re forced into a survival situation, you might not have much.

We took a lot of pictures and also walked up the hill to look out.  We found some rocks that look remarkably like tools, but Linda said they're just rocks.  Pretty cool rocks I think.

We went back to our camp and goofed around a bit and decided to turn in (about 10pm).  It had gotten pretty windy during the evening, and so we decided to keep the tent open for air flow.

It was a challenge to sleep with the wind blowing so much.  And were really not used to sleeping on a little foam mat on the ground with a sleeping bag on top of it.  I figured that the wind stopped at about 4am and we did get some rest after that.

I was up at 6 am to see the sunrise over the desert.  It was really beautiful.  Linda got up about 6:30 am and we had instant coffee and a breakfast concoction that she had made so we could use the pouches again.

We took a few more pictures, broke camp and headed for home.  All in all, I believe that our night was a success and that we could really survive in the desert if we had to.  We’ll be doing this again, but probably after summer when it is a bit cooler.

We headed for home at about 8:30 am and hit a few caches along the way. 

 

Havasu 4 Wheeler Peach Spring run & Company Picnic

On May 9, 2009, Nine Jeeps and one Toyota FJ with 20 members and two guests left Terribles at I-40 on a very warm, beautiful, and clear Saturday morning. We picked up another jeep with members Mike and Cathy Howe at our fuel stop in Kingman, bringing the total to 24 members and guests. There was a lot of pavement to cover before we got to the trail.

We stopped in Hackberry at the Hackberry General Store. Quite a few of our group had never stopped there before to check out all of the memorabilia that the owner has collected over the past 40 years. Everyone had a good time at the store and was amazed at all of the items that the owners had collected. Bill Mitschele took a picture of an outhouse and said,” I wonder if there’s a Montgomery Wards catalog in there”. Sure enough, he opened the door, and there it was, with pages missing!!

We continued on to the Havasu Lodge to obtain our permit (it cost each member $16.05 per person to go). I had arranged to have the paperwork all done in advance. I went in the lodge, met with Chanelle, the concierge, and paid for our group. It went off like clockwork!

We aired down and began our descent into the canyon. The road was a bit washboard, but we all made without losing any kidneys. We did stop for pictures occasionally and the group stopped to look for the actual Peach Springs. We found some burro trails but no peach trees.

Two miles before we arrived, we ran the Diamond Creek. We crossed water several times before we arrived at the bottom. The Colorado River was beautiful today, and the water was very blue.

Immediately, we set up for the cookout. The cooks, Charles Leipart, Bill Mitschele, Dennis Callighan, Bob Scholl and I cooked the hamburgers and hot dogs. Everyone brought something to share with the group from salads to desserts. Everyone had enough to eat and, of course, there was great company.

All the moms were presented a rose, in honor of Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 10.

When we were done, we all packed up and headed out of the canyon. Everyone made it out and headed for home.

My thanks to everyone who attended brought food to share and some extra shade. Thanks to Dennis and Charles for helping me plan my first run as a trail boss. Also, thanks to Vince and Diane Davis for Tail Gunning.

Golden Shores Loyalty Parade.

On April 25, Linda and I and several other Havasu 4 Wheelers participated in the Annual Golden Shore Loyalty Parade. This parade is sponsored by the VFW in Golden Shores Az. The town is a very old Route 66 town and it appears that time hasn't really changed it all that much.

There were 6 jeeps in attendance from H4W. I was elected to lead the parade, which was only .46 miles long! The main street in Golden Shores was lined with locals of all ages. We waved and were offered water from folks along the parade route. Everyone from Golden Shores thanked us for our participation. It was quite an experience. When it was over (keep in mind that the actual parade only lasted about 10 - 15 minutes), the rest of the 4 Wheelers headed over to Topock Marina to a restaurant that is only open on the weekends. Its kind of a dumpy place, but I'm told that they have fantastic food.

Linda and I took the opportunity to leave the group and head out for a day of Geocaching. We ended the day getting another 11 finds. We did have a few didn't finds along the way. We also found a great place for our experimental campout. It was off Route 66 and close to an abandoned mine. More on this later.

Enjoy the pictures.

We've gone green!

Well, now the blog page is green.
This should help.

Happy Easter

Well, it might be a little late, but Linda and I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter. We certainly did. We were out in the Jeep doing some geocaching and had a great Easter dinner at Red Robin. All in all, it was a pretty good day.

We'll be doing the Relay for Life walk later this week, so keep tuned and I'll post some photos from that as well.
-Tom

Driving the Grand Canyon

On Saturday, March 21, the Fulmer's and the McGowan's took to the road and headed for the Grand Canyon. Yes, we drove to the bottom of the Grand Canyon!

We started out towards Kingman and fueled up there. We headed out Route 66 towards Peach Springs to start the dirt portion of our journey. It was a bit windy and overcast when we left. By the time we got to the Hualapai Indian Lodge in Peach Springs, it had gotten a bit chilly. Our thanks to Craig & Karen for springing for the permit to drive down the canyon!

We began our 19 mile descent into the Grand Canyon. About 8 miles in, we decided to air down as the road was a bit uncomfortable (washboard effect). After airing down, it was a much more pleasant drive the rest of the way. We did manage to see a burro, who was not afraid of us at all, and came right up to have a few pretzels, which were fed to our burro buddy by Linda. we continued down into the canyon. the last mile or so, we crossed several streams with very clear water. Once we made it to the bottom, we dismounted the Jeeps and took in the awesome sight of the Canyon and the Colorado River. the water was pretty murky and brown. Looking to the North, the water was fairly calm. Looking South is where the rapids begin. You'll see some of the white water rafts that are used for the rafting tours. They are pretty big and will hold 10-12 people.

We ate our lunch at the bottom and took many pictures. It had begun to really warm up and clear up. There were several groups at the bottom admiring the views and looking around.

We left after about 2 hours at the bottom, and began the long climb out of the canyon.

We had a great time with Craig & Karen, as usual. We did some caching on the way home, so it was a great day all around. We can't wait to go again!

On The Lake With the McGowans

On Friday, March 20- we went out on Lake Havasu with our friends, Craig & Karen McGowan. We took out their small boat (about the size of a small fishing boat) with a 15 horsepower motor on it, and headed down the Bill Williams River. We had a blast! We just putted along enjoying the scenery. We went around Blue Heron Island and saw many Blue Herons nesting. From what we could tell, the nests were pretty full. Craig & Karen were in their boat, as it will only hold the two of them. We went about 2 miles down the Bill Williams and found a great shady place to eat our lunch. On the boats of course.

When we were done, we headed up the river toward Lake Havasu and opened up the engines. According to Linda's GPS, we were traveling at a blazing 13.5 MPH!! Whoa!

We went over by Parker Dam and then to the intake tubes, about a mile or two up from where we launched.

After another trip around Blue Heron Island, we decided to call it a day. We celebrated our sea-faring adventure with dinner at Schlotzky's Deli, as it was $2 pizza Friday.
Our Thanks to Craig & Karen for the use of their boat. We really did have a fun time.

Geocache Bash at Cattail Cove

WOW!!! It's been a month since the Geocache Bash at Cattail Cove. Boy, I didn't realize it had been that long. I know I should have put up the pictures, but i have had issues with my computer. So . . . .

The event was a success. There were approximately 160 people in attendance. Some new to Geocaching, and some not. We had a lot of the local cachers come to help out with the event. They took groups out to help them and answer any questions that they had about Geocaching.

A special thanks to all who got involved. We learned quite a bit with this event, and next year (we've already been asked to put it on again), we'll do things a bit different. We also had quite a few of the locals say that they will definately help next year.

It's been a while . . .

Its been a while since I posted to the blog.

I have had a few issues with my PC, and had a hard time basically doing anything! BUMMER!

I had spent so much time trying to fix my PC that I didn't even do anything on my laptop.

Oh well, i'll be trying to catch up in the next few days or so.

Tom

Yuma Geocache Event #6

Rovey's Needle Valentines Day Jeep Run

Well, today was the first jeep run of the New Year for us.  We had signed up for a couple before this, but things always kept coming up and we’d have to cancel.  Well, we were determined to make this run, and it was really fun. 

We started out with 4 other jeeps.  There was a limit of 5 for this trip as it is pretty tight area for any more than that.  We left at 10:00 am and headed for the needle.  The needle is a really high rock mountain with a hole (the eye of the needle) in it.  Once you get there, you have to climb about another 100 feet or so.  Being Jeeps, we decided to take the hardest way to the needle.  And, since our Jeep is stock, I had some concerns, especially with the rocks that we had to climb over.  Well, with good spotting, I only got kind of stuck once, and got out, made an adjustment to the path I took and made it just fine.  The rest of the pack have lifted jeeps with lockers and had no problems.  They were all really great helping us get thru. 

We trudged on and made it to the needle.  Climbed up to the “eye”, and went thru.  Once thru, we hiked down the other side.  We made our way back to the jeeps and went back to the highway.  It was a great run and everyone made it thru just fine.  

Once the run was over, we all decided to go to Casa Bonita for a great Mexican Lunch.  That was good too.  After that, it was back home for a nap. 

All in all, it was a fun Valentines Day.    

Coming down from the Needle

Tom coming thru the "Eye"

I thought this was funny

No, Really. I thought this funny

Super Bowl

Its a shame that the Arizona Cardinal didn't win the Super Bowl.  They played very hard and came closer than everyone expected to winning.

Kudos to the Cardinals for their efforts.

And, to be honest, the commercials really werent that good this year.  I am glad that e-Trade brought the baby back to do more commercials.  They are really very funny.

Quartzsite

Linda and I went to Quartzsite AZ this past Saturday to go to "Quartzfest 2009".  This was supposed to be a Ham fest (Amateur Radio, not the meat).  We got there and all that was there were a couple of tables set up in front of a few RV's.  Quite a bust, and not what I expected.  Oh well, we spent the rest of the day geocaching.  Lets see, i climbed up a mountain (literally).  Too bad I didn't have a camera to take a picture from there.  It was RV's for as far as the eye could see.

We did manage to get about 12 caches, so it was a good day for caching.  And any day is a good day for caching.  I'll post some photos here and create a slide show and post it as well.

-Tom

Facebook

Oh My God!  Yet another thing to waste time with!!!

No, really.  Its not that bad and I guess that it can be fun.  It does appear that you have to type an awful lot to communicate with someone.  

Both Linda and Tom have facebook pages, or places (whatever you call it).  So, if you're inclined, stop on by our facebook things and leave us a message.  As opposed to leaving us a message or comment here, or at one of the multiple email pages that each of us have, both together or individually. AAARRRGGGHHH !!!

Really, I'm just ranting a bit.  This facebook thing could be fun.  I'll try it and see.

-Tom

Palm Springs Geocaching Trip - In Pictures

Here are all of the pictures from the Palm Springs Geocaching Trip. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

Palm Springs GeocachingTrip

On January 2, 2009 we went to Palm Springs to attend the GeoRally III with our friends Linda and Ernie (zacoolkatz).  We cached all the way to PS traveling down Hwy. 62 thru Desert Center.  

We arrived in Palm Springs early, so we helped set up with Bryon and his girlfriend, who were putting on the rally.  

It was a different type of geocaching event, and it was really fun.  It only lasted about 2 hours.  We were lucky and found a "time stamp" and returned victorious.  Unfortunately, we were the last ones in that found a "time stamp", but hey, we finished just the same.

We spent the rest of the weekend caching with Linda and Ernie.  Saturday we found several movie star caches and even the "Walk of Thighs" at the nudest condos (no, no one was seen nude.  Just as well, since it was very cold).

We attended a meet and greet Saturday morning at 7:00 am.  We did some caching and met some really great cachers as well.  Saturday evening, we attended another meet and greet at a pizza parlor.  Our friends Trizumi, Black Cat and her daughter cute kitty were there from Phoenix.

We returned home on Sunday afternoon.  We found 71 caches during that trip, with a high of 31 finds on Saturday.

That's a new record for us!

-Tom

Our FIRST blog

This is my first post. Wow! Is this exciting!
No really, I thought that Linda and I would use this as a place to keep up with our crazy schedule and also post a few photos, and have some fun. Since Linda and I both will be submitting items, we will sign the bottom of each of our posts. Have fun and enjoy.
-Tom