Yuma Poker Run - Photos

     S.W.A.G  Yuma Event #9 Poker Run time was great - and a different experience for me.  A hunt on foot - great.  The caches were fun and easy - perfect for everyone in attendance.  The pics tell the story better than I can, so pictures it will be.

 SchnauzerQueen - getting the inside scoop and instructions on the run. 

                      
                              And the race is on to cache # 1

    


 Cache # 1 gathering

Number 1 getting
replaced for the next group.





Now to Number 2 - I felt like I was back in
school again.  Following the rest of the class.

A little exercise is great on such a beautiful day.  I am wondering tho - doesn't the guy leaving the cache have a suspicious grin on him face.  Maybe he knows something about this game that the rest of us do not.

 
Number 5 was my favorite.  I love that old
piece of equipment.
We took a lot of pictures there the day before.
Neat angles - sort of a 'Steam Punk'  look.

Please don't confuse these people with Hobos waiting for the next passing train.   They are cachers !  I know - some days there doesn't seem to be a big difference. 

'The  BOARD'
It's the winners board -
absolutely no losers that day. 



Coming next -  all about the TB dogs.  Love them.

The EVENT !

     Since the S..W.A.G. Yuma Event #9 is my first event as a Geocacher, I am pretty excited to meet people and hear their stories.  The day is sunny and a bit cool which is perfect.  Many had gathered in the parking lot by 8 am and you can tell that most of them were friends from past caching events.  From this day on, this will be Us, the trio of SchnauzerQueen, WeenieQueen and myself, BeachBounde34, hooking up with friends from other events.

     Registration opened and had everyone who was scattered around the grounds, parking lot and restroom heading in the same direction.  From that very moment I realized that this was going to be a larger event than I had anticipated.  NEAT ! !  We first found a few cachers that we had met for the first time the day before at Lute's Casino.  Also saw Tucson Thompsen, who we had met along the trip to Yuma at a cache.  I also saw an acquaintance from Tombstone but never got the chance to talk to her.  Next time.

     The line went from registration, to raffle tickets, a display of The Traveler from Event #3 with 24,000 miles (gotta say WOW to that one), to the poker run info - just the beginning of the perfect flow of people.  Somebody knows how to set this up.  Raffle tickets were being sold by Wayne43, a favorite the day before, the guy that impressed me with his tactics of meeting people and getting himself the best event souvenir ever.  I feel compelled to come up with an idea that rivals his and can be anywhere near as much fun as having people write all over your body. 

      M & D was the first to approach us with the 'goal sheet' in hand for us to sign.  We barely had gotten a look at it but quickly learned what it was all about.   Following was Scratch and Lois, another great couple to meet.  We enjoyed the chatting (something that I am a bit of a pro at) for a bit and it was time to move on to the next activity.             

 
     By a bit after 8:30 we were all out after the best hand in the poker run.  This was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I guess I had never been involved in a poker run that didn't involve a motorcycle or 4x4 vehicle.  It looked like the mad dash of Dachshunds looking for a hidden bone, or in my case and a few others, a frog knowing that there could be a prize bug if we could only figure out which way it was to the finish line.  Watching was the most fun but we all found our envelopes in less than an hour.  ok - I took advantage of a large group and just followed them.  This was great start to the day.  Poker run deserves more info and that will follow in the future.

      Then it was back to mingling time and meeting new friends, finding TB cars in the parking lot and 'discovering' them.  We also 'discovered' a bunch of TB on the table next to registration.  What a great idea.  WeenieQueen had a lot of luck locating and meeting TB dogs, which I'll share more about later. Then there's Jessie and Skip Cable who were an absolute blast.  I think both of them could keep the party going if needed.  They had this really neat poster, which she has since posted on Facebook and  I won't post it here right now; gotta find out if it is ok to do so.   I think they will perfect to learn fun past stories from, if I can talk them into sharing. We ran into Exman on the path also.  This was a real treat.  On December 31, 2011, SchnauzerQueen and I did the MOH Path just west of Las Cruses, New Mexico.  We were literally following the foot steps of Exman on those caches.  Our history with this guy starts there and I am wondering where it will go from here.  He was a very visible person at the event, which I will talk about later.  Hopefully I will get some info from his soon to explain what he was doing and what his results were.  Future post on this guy - hopefully soon. 

     All in all, the morning started out great.  More soon on the event.  Gotta get to work and start planning the next event to attend.

And the hunt begins -

     101 New caches for the event !  I want to say hooray but I am bummed, we can't find where these caches are.  We have looked on recent caches, checked out the map, asked a few friends and then emailed the S.W.A.G. people.  I anxiously awaited the respond but unfortunately we didn't hear back until too late to do any caches on Saturday.  But we did get a response and will check them out S.W.A.G.'s 101 Bucks Tubular Power Trail when we come back in the future.  I am hoping to get come correspondence from others who did the trail.  Anybody want to share their info?

     We did a few caches during the day and I found a super neat travel bug.  It's a thumb drive that originated in Russia and has a Russian children's story along with music.  At first I was afraid to actually put it into my computer but my curiosity has the best of me and I am glad that I did.  We also did a little farmer's market shopping and spent a little down time at the room so SchnauzerQueen could attempt to start feeling a little better and hit the downtown just in time for the Bubble Flash Mob in front of Lutes.

     Then registration for the Warm Up event at Lutes, and the waiting line.  The line itself was fun - that is where the meeting of new friends began.  

     Then it was Lute's Casino time and what a blast.  With one side packed with Mardi Gras celebrators and the other side with crazy cachers, there was no shortage of fun things to see and great conversations and stories to get involved in.   WeenieQueen and I spent a lot of time just taking in all the unique wall and ceiling decor including the alligator on the women's bathroom door, on the inside.  So if any of you guys hear about it and didn't get to see it, well we are taking care of that for you right here.

     One of my favorite people of Saturday was  Wayne 43.  He knows how to get out there and meet people with his t-shirt signing routine.

 





  I spent some time talking to JohnnyCacheAz who has over 24,000 and over 900 trackable caches to his claim.  Black Cat was also at the table with WeenieQueen, SchnauzerQueen and myself - she is hitting 1800 found caches this week. Talk about interesting for me.  I was excited when I hit 200 caches - now I am totally inspired. 

      I have to give big kudos to all the staff of Lute's for the great service and their ability to keep smiles on the faces even with all the rush.  I am sure some parties into the night but this trio headed back to the room to ready for the next morning.  More stories to come on SwagHunter.

On the road again -

     We may not be the 3:10 to Yuma but we are an unpredictable trio of SchnauzerQueen, WeenieQueen and BeachBounde34, heading to Yuma for the S.W.A.G. Yuma Event #9.  I can tell you that we are all excited about this trip even tho the SchnauzerQueen is sick as a dog.  Pardon the puny part of that.  We stumbled out of my home base mid-morning, just after a few light snow flakes had fallen, in SQ's little Kia Sportage, a TB, packed to the gills and stopped shortly into the trip, on the outskirts of Oro Valley, Az to grab what I thought was going to be a real quickie.  Not so much so. We crawled under fences that we probably shouldn't have and climbed over gates, again a questionable action, to grab a nice little cache called Victoria's 1st Cache.  Then it was freeway time.

    We let SQ do a little snoozing and resting along the way but kept not too much as we had decided to cache along the way.  No DNF on the way - in fact none on the entire trip.  I am more than a little thankful that the sun was out by noon and we had a fairly warm trip.

     A couple of 'worth mentioning' caches along  the way.  First was a recently set cache called CG Mountain Trails Commemorative.  This park is right along the freeway but not quick to access.  This time of the year is great as far as weather and wild life goes so perfect place to take the day and enjoy this cache.  Check out the site for Casa Grande Mountain Trails if you are going to be in the area.  Beautiful if you are into desert hiking and picnicking.

     Another fun cache, again not a quick one off the freeway but worth the stop, was Jackrabbit For Megan, located in the West Pinal County Park.  This is a super RV/camp/picnic area with lots of space and covered tables.  The most fun thing we saw was an old hippy bus that had been turned into a double decker, complete with art.  This had me wondering - where is the Partridge Family now?  hummm.

 Well, I just throw in a little pic of the three of us at this cache.  That is WeenieQueen in the middle, showing off her belly button.  Teenagers - what can you do? 

     At another cache we ran into a fellow cacher, Tucson Thompsen.   He pulled up a bit behind us and still beat us to the cache; ya know how women are - we take for ever to get ready, even if only to take a small walk into the desert.  The encounter had me wondering, as the day went on, just how many of the vehicles that were honking at us walking along the frontage roads were from fellow cachers heading to Yuma.

     Our last cache was sort of uneventful with the exception of the strange vibe.  It was dark, had the feeling that we were being watched even tho there was nobody in sight, and SQ and WQ were acting a little possessed.  I thought it may be fatigue until this photo told us different.  Yep - the sisters have been taken over yet again by a stranger, even stranger then them.  Time to hit the road again.

We pulled into Yuma and the Day's Inn, got the keys  and headed around the corner to grab a little dinner from Penny's Diner.  Gotta say it was the best chicken strips I had ever had and they are open 24 hours.  Great place, as is the Day's Inn where we ran into a few other cachers staying there also.

     We made our game plan for Saturday - which is a whole other day and story.  Coming soon - the Warm Up Event.

Happy Valentine's Day

     First and foremost -  I hope you all have a special someone in your life to share this day with.  I personally don't believe that you should need a specific day to show you love but it sort of a good excuse to mix up the daily grind with a little something different.

Then, get out there to your local Walgreens, Walmart or any store that may have left over Valentine Day candy and pick up some bargains for caches.  Those heart shaped tins are great.  Now with all that energy and calories that you need to burn off from the sweets, do a little hike and start a new cache in the name of your main squeeze.  After all, from the Geocacher's  point of view, what says love more than a long lasting cache for the world to find.   Sweet, right?

     I will leave you with this little song, especially for those who can't be with the 'love of their life' today, from Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Just a week away

     The Yuma event is just a week from today !  It sounds like it is lining up to be another great event for S.W.A.G. and Jeep'en Jumpers.  I have checked out a couple of there info sites and have found that the caches will be posted on Saturday at 9 am.  I can just see all the vehicles taking off and racing around town at that time.
     Here is what they have posted on one of their sites - 
Yuma Event #9, which will be held the weekend of February 19th.

This event has grown every year and is one of largest in Arizona.  Our goal is to provide plenty of fun and games for the weekend and a free Tri-Tip BBQ on Sunday, event day.

There are over 2,000 caches within a 50-mile radius of Yuma.  So, there is plenty to do for all age levels and abilities.  Yuma has beautiful winter weather and the event is held at Gateway Park near Historic Old Town.  

We have a variety of cache types: night caches, desert, water, mountain, city, puzzle, hand-carved containers and event caches.  We have an ATM cache and the biggest TB hotel you’ve ever seen!

Come out & enjoy the food, fun and best of all – the caching!!!

and this also -

There are 101 GeoCaches placed for the Yuma Event #9. As the trial name says "101 Bucks" this trail is worth One Hundred and One Dollars!

First To Find Cachers might find a "Special Cache" containing money or a card for money. One cache has a dollar bill in it, two other caches will have a card for a prize of 50.00 dollars each. If a cacher finds both cards one must be left for the second finder to claim the prize.

and they list their prizes -

Grand Prize

Garmin Oregon 450t GPS                     

(5) Jeep'en Jumpers Geocoins

Telescoping Flag Pole

(5) Gerber Multi Tool

High Sierra Hydration Pack

(2) Maglite XL50

(2) Leatherman Squirt PS4

(4) Mini LED Hat Lights

Signal's Home Decoration

And here is the info they list for the warm up on Saturday -

A great opportunity to see Downtown Old Town Yuma and meet your fellow Geocachers prior to the main event the next day.

We realize that this is "Prime caching time"....and with the many new caches placed in Yuma this past year you can be very busy when you arrive; however, if you can make it to Lutes for the Warm Up Event we are sure you'll enjoy a couple of hours visiting old friends and meeting new ones.







Where the Elite Cachers Meet
Lutes Casino from 3:00pm to 5:00pm
February 18th, 2012 

So now you know  -  who will we see there?   

 

The town too tough to die

     Tombstone Arizona motto is "The town too tough to die".  From what I can see it could also be called the "The town full of great caches".

     One of my early cache trips with SchnauzerQueen was to Tombstone in search of one cache in particular,  El Diablo's Treasure.  SchnauzerQueen has caching friends that live in the area.  One of whom is Sanruft, the man who got this whole thing started for her and then me.  Much thanks to Sanruft for getting us off our butts and out there caching.  

    Here is the scoop about El Diablo's Treasure:
It is located just west of the town of Tombstone in a beautiful desert area.  It is listed as a difficulty of 1 1/2 and the terrain 1 1/2 also.  I found it to be a nice little hike and was glad that I forfeited the usual flip flops for tennies.  It's a large cache and the owner has lived up to the reputation of the town old west where gunfighter ran crazy and the ghost still remain.  So beware if you are weak at heart.  From where we parked we had an easy little hike thru desert bushes and some really neat wash areas.  I especially like the washes since you can find all kinds of signs of the wild life.

     When this cache was originally placed there were a few people that thought this cache was symbolic of something evil.  And ya know it only take a few to make something out of nothing. The cache was nick named The Happy Halloween Cache to pacify those few. Originally hidden in October of 2004 makes the nick name a good one.  
     
     There have been 348 logged visits in the past 7 years and the post from the finders are great.  Here are a couple of them -

 Found it

01/03/2012

By far our favorite in the Tombstone area.Thanks for the extra effort on this one.

 Found it

10/12/2011

One of the best ones yet, w/ serial70. Very interesting at night

 Found it

01/29/2012

#617 Noon: The sun was directly overhead when we parked the covered wagon & journeyed on foot the last few yards to the site. Buzzards circled in the distance hoping for one or two more souls to become victims to El Diablo's curse. As we opened the cache, a slight breeze blew across our faces! El Diablo's odor flared our nostrils and wrinkled our faces in agonizing grimaces! We signed the log & left a kaleidoscope, taking Hoher Stiefel boot TB. Suddenly, the odor vanished & the buzzards soared away into the distance. We walked back to the wagon and after giving our horses a sugar cube, we made our way toward the next cache.

As you can see, people just love this cache.  And oh that SchnauzerQueen - she falls for the most interesting guys!

     I contacted the owner of El Diablo's Treasure and asked him how he came up with this idea.  This is how he responded -

Actually, we teamed up with friends of ours that live there in Tombstone. We were sitting around having a few cocktails one evening about doing unusual Caches, and we all giggled about doing some really elaborate Caches that would be strange and unusual in the desert. We were fairly close to Halloween, so we thought it would be awesome to do a theme that resembles Halloween. We were honestly going to remove it after Halloween, but it became so popular, we decided to leave it where it lies today. There has been a newspaper article written about it in one of the Tombstone papers, due to someone hiking one day and thought it was a Satanic Ritual of some sort. The Sheriff Department and all kinds of folks went to see it and discovered it to be what we know and love as a Geo Cache. . . . 
 

      Well - this is my favorite cache to date.  There are more in the area that I will post about over the next couple of weeks.  Like I said - Tombstone is a great place to eat, drink, sight see and cache.  And just out of town to the east there is another great find, if you like oddities.  Check it out.

      Just to let you know -  Tombstone Boothill Graveyard does not support Geocaching at this time.  There are no caches hidden there and the manager does say that if he hears or finds a cache there, it will be tossed out.  Too bad since it would be such a great place to play.