It Was A Family Affair

     I will give SchnauzerQueen for pulling off a great event. Queens' TB Rods and Dogs Meet and Greet was such a great success. But more than anything, I love that it was such a family affair.

     Georgia, no aka but Penni's Mom, Penni Parrish aka SchnauzerQueen and little sis, Bailie aka WeenieQueen.

Ray Parrish of Team Tucson Bass Player aka Penni's dad and Bailie again, munchin' on some juicy watermelon.

Sara, aka Sunshine Sara, and our family bud for the past 45 years, with Bailie.   Love the foo foo drinks and the fact that Bailie pops up most family pics.

Sara, Ray Parrish, and myself, aka BeachBounde34.  Thanks Bailie, for getting me stuffing my face.  Then again, may have been difficult to get me not eating.  There was a ton of great food. 

And our Hostess, Penni, SchnauzerQueen

S.W.A.G. Yuma Event #9 Fun Photos

     There is absolutely no rhyme or reason for these pics except for  the fact that they are fun and some of my favs.  Also - a few people have asked that I share them.

When, other than this event, will you see a grown man playing with bubbles, out in public, on a crowded street, and not afraid to show that he is having a good time !?  I may be wrong but I think he has done this before.

   


     The art on the walls at Lute's Casino was a blast to look at.  Altho it did cause a bit of a problem.  A person tends to run into people when walking around with their eyes turned up wards.   Sorry to a couple of waitresses who had to dodge us.

 
    Great to run into old friends from the past.  "Good to see ya, Woody."

     Such an intriguing piece of equipment.  I could have taken pictures all day of this one.  We did get some great ones.

   
      There were a ton of coots feeding in the grassy area and along the water.   It was fun to watch them take off in such a large group.

     One little guy decided to stick around and do the poker run with us. 

       SchnauzerQueen &     WeenieQueen                                                            Isn't this cute !  Sisterly love.  Now - if they can just get along on that long ride home !                                                          

       Remarkable Travel Bug Hotel !  I have never seen anything like this.  Must be great to have connections.                                       We explored this one with Black Cat, Cute Kitty 1, and Johnny Cache Az, who were the ones who led us in this direction.  Thanks so much to them.  This is amazing. 

                                                                          We loved the event and all the people we met.  And will for sure be back again next year.  I am hoping that S.W.A.G. enjoys sponsoring this as much as we enjoyed attending.

                                                                       Next year we will know a little more about how to find the special caches and check those out also.

     WeenieQueen rocked out to her favorite tunes all the way home,
 while SchnauzerQueen caught up on some much needed sleep.  All and all, a great little road trip. 

Food - Prizes - Clean Up - Saying Good Byes

      The sun is warming things up, the poker run is complete and we all know what it takes to have the WINNING hand.  Everyone is catching up with fellow cachers.  You can just imagine what it must sound like.  Instead of telling stories about that big fish that got away you hear about the really well hidden micro with a difficulty of 4 that had escaped many a cachers keen eyes – only to be captured by the new master.  I do like these stories better than the old fishy ones.  

     The sweet smells of tri tips had been filling the air for hours and now that the tables are being set up with all the sides, plates and utensils, the crowd seems to be gradually shifting in that direction of the park.  This is when the strangest thing, to me happens.  I have to tell you a little bit of back ground about this first.  Earlier in the day I had told SchnauzerQueen that it would seem better if all those people with their chairs would not line them up around the short block walls that form the tree wells.  Ya know – then people without a chair could have a place to sit.  Right?!  That is a lot of seating there being wasted by chairs.  Right!?  Now for the realization that hit me like a ton of bricks.  All those people turned their chairs around to face the block wall and voilà !  They have instant table.  Man – I am such a newby when it comes to Geocaching events.  

      Back to the crowd – they have managed to form a line just about the time the food was brought to the serving tables.  From the looks of things, I figured it would be a good 45 minutes before the end of the line got fed and since I was in no hurry I decided to take a walk and check out more of the scenery, pet a few dogs and meet more cachers and even some locals.  Much to everyone’s surprise the line moved right along and seconds were being offered within 30 minutes. 

     Prizes were great and aplenty, from custom containers to the Garmin GPS.  A ton of lucky winners walked away with smiles.  After a bit more mingling, the crowd began to thin.  The brief clean up didn’t take long and that is the way the day ended. 

 
 Now it is time to find the next event to attend.

     Before that we have to cover some of the TB dogs that attended.   That’s coming soon

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.