Working with CERT at 1st HavaBBQ. Lots of meat. Free food for workers. Mmmm meat! lol Our job to hand out band aids.

LF finally finished reading The Book Thief. Really liked it once I got going on it. Started City of Thieves, another WWII book with nazis in Russia.

Note to Linda: teach Tom how to tweet & DM on twitter.

The new Zoey sitter is lined up. Got our info for Saturday's hamfest. Meeting good friends to play all weekend long & see cachers we haven't seen since last yr.

Done creating PQs for the Yuma weekend. Will have to run it again on Saturday for new event caches. Got the new Geowerly TBs activated & ready to be discovered.

Trying out mobile blogging. Maybe this is something we would use more on the go to send short updates or reminders. Hmmm can i text to me google calendar?

Alamo Road Slot Canyon

You meet the nicest people Geocaching . . . .

We were driving west on Interstate 40 to check on one of our caches that was reported as missing. As we were driving and talking about this cache, we were passed by a VW with 2 people in it. We both looked over and noticed that the occupants were waving their GPS's at us. WHOA!! Cachers were acknowledging that they were also cachers! Kind o' cool.

We gave them the thumbs up and they sped past us. We, noticed that they had a travel bug on their their bug. So, we sped up to get the travel bug number off their car. They changed lanes to make it easier for us to get the number. They knew exactly what we were doing. We got their TB number and followed in behind them in traffic. We thought that we would again pass them and get off the freeway. Since we were in the Jeep, they were speeding away with ease.

Then, we noticed that they were getting off the freeway! So, we followed them and when they parked, so did we. It turned out to be Little Castle Queen and McAttk. A very nice couple of cachers. We talked for about a half an hour and swapped stories. They were on their way to Bullhead City to cache for the rest of the day.

Now we have 2 new friends because of geocaching. I'm sure that we'll see them again. Oh yeah, we did make it to the "cache that wasn't there". And, it was there, right where it should be.

A fun day on the road.

Happy New Year

Not that anybody reads this, we hope everyone has a happy and prosperous new year. Things are bound to get better, hopefully.

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.