Yuma Mega Event #10 - Fun and Games

On a weekend filled with violence on the news, how great was it to be in the mist of over 1,000 happy and friendly people.  The Yuma Mega Event #10 was all about great feelings and smiling faces.  S*W*A*G* really pulled off an amazing event.

Games were great this year.  A couple of new ones for those of us who have attended in the past, and of course the good old faithful Poker Run.  Then there was the food and auction and drawings and the CITO - and did i mention amazing food.  If you were not there, you may not be able to wrap your head around the fact that all of this could fit into less then 6 hours.

These two young teens are brand new cachers.  This was not only their first event but their first week of caching.  Can you imagine what a thrill it is, or will be when they are old enough to really get a grasp on the fact, that their first event was a MEGA event.  Arizona's very first.

The Poker Run was pretty typical.  The spots were spread out so that they were not too difficult to get to and yet we did get in a bit of exercise to retrieve them.  Since this part of the event started at 8:30, it was a perfect way to warm up while waiting for the sun to do it's job.

A few stairs, a small hill, and a hike around the park - all fun.


 From what I hear, the $100 prize went to the proud owners
of 4 nines. 

There were new games this year that helped pass the morning and were pretty neat too.

 The CITO Makes Cents Challenge looked like a simple bit of fun.  But only until you tried it.  I felt like those little pennies must have been oiled up, but it was only my serious lack of ability.  One of the best parts of this game was that it was great for any age.

 

And what about the 'G Spot' Challenge.  This was a blast.  Not that the search for the area to stick you flag was difficult in any way but the conversations that were shared while in the area were funny and had a whole new bunch of strangers talking and bonding.  

Handing out flags and giving instructions on how to find the
'G Spot'.
 
Ya know - some body's gotta do it.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to find the area.  Sort of pretty - all those flags. 

 

There were a few cachers who got very close to the mark but Greesepot took the prize.  It's the closest flag.  It's no mistake that this car was sitting on the spot.  Thanks to Gideon-X for supplying the base and windshield wipers to hold flags in place.


Can't forget the drawings, raffles, Podcacher and TB table.  More on that will follow soon.  

Cachers Freezing In Yuma, Arizona

     Weather for Yuma, Arizona, August 5, 2012 - High 109 degrees; Low 82 degrees.  So just how do we have cachers freezing?   Thanks to S*W*A*G*'s Robert McNeece, there was some relief from the heat.





    The McNeece family invited the Sub-Zero Bear into their home.

Sub Zero Bear hung out over on 4th Ave, made friends and did photos with a smile.

And then the details of the Bear's visit came out.  Not a random visit at all.  This is the beginning of the Sub Zero In Yuma Flash Mob!

Here's how it is to go -

It's cold here, so cold were going to have a contest who can take minus 15 degrees the longest.

 Winner gets a nice GeoCoin donated by Jeep'en Jumpers.

Others might just want to have their picture taken with a Polar Bear and move on to warmer weather.

If you wish to be part of the contest it's summer attire only!

 

The temps were lowered in the man cave and the ice began to form.

 Believe it or not, contestants entered the cave.  This is the inside looking out.  

Some were smart enough to stick to the outside looking in.  Kids today are pretty darn smart. 

 

Top two contestants - Cacheator & Bronco Busters, lasting 32 minutes and 54 seconds!  These guys must have formed an alliance and stuck together.  

Linda Fulmer also lasted over 30 minutes.  And ya gotta figure she knew that someone had to give in - - 

     Robert McNeece said that there were no whiners and that he may just make this a yearly event.  The way he does things, I think he will need to find a much larger freezer by next year. 

     Congrats to all the participants who braved the cold.  I bet you all are back next year and ready to last even longer.   Can you see how the prep for the event would happen.  All over town, there will be people hanging out at the freezer department at the local grocery stores.  And all thanks to S*W*A*G* and Jeepen'Jumpers.

  

Yuma Event #10 Date Scheduled !

     As the temperature today in Yuma Arizona soared to 109 degrees today, most people may be thinking it would be crazy to plan a trip to such a desert.  But please remember that it is a dry heat and in February the weather is perfect.  When the blizzards are blowing in Minnesota and those in Wyoming are attempting to find a way to get their frozen car doors open,  Yuma is living up to it’s reputation of being the ‘Sunniest City in the United States’.  

     Perfect location is all that can be said for the Yuma Event #10; a geocachers dream weekend.      

     Before I talk about the event, just let me tell you about the caching world that surrounds Yuma.  First – Yuma has over 2000 caches within a 50 mile radius.  There is something for everyone including night, desert, water, mountain, puzzle and the biggest TB Hotel you have ever seen.  

Accommodations - There are a ton of RV parks in the area for those who travel in their home away from home.  Yuma has a more than adequate number of reasonable priced hotels.  

Recreation – besides the caching you can keep yourself occupied and out of trouble with water sports on the river, quick trip across the border to Los Algodones  for some great Mexican food (don’t forget the required passport to return home) and historic sights galore. 

If you haven’t been to Yuma in the past, you now know a few little tid bits about the city.  

For the Event !  We’ll talk basics for now so you can all put it on your calendar.  Then watch for weekly reports covering more details right here on SwagHunter.  

Date -  February  8th to 10th, 2013

Time – 9 a.m.

Location - Gateway Park in Historical Old Town Yuma  (that is the location for the Main Event)  Other Satellite Events will be held on Friday and Saturday at various locations around Yuma

Need to bring – chair, plenty of beverage,  sunscreen, thinking cap and your basic cacher’s tool box. 

Other events  that we will cover later – Poker Derby, Geo-Bingo, 50/50 Draw, Door Prizes, Travel Bug viewing and the famous Tri-Tip BBQ lunch

 

This is just beginning.  Stay tuned for more news as it becomes available or beware of the repercussions.    

TB Dogs - love them

     As a lover of dogs, this is one of my favorites when it comes to caching.  The Travel Bug Dog.  I had read about them and seen a few pics on sites but when attending the Yuma Event #9 in February 2012, I got to meet my very first TB dog.  And my second.  And my third. 

 

     SchnauzerQueen, WeenieQueen and I headed out on the Poker Run  and ran into Tiger, a beautiful and so well behaved pup.  It was obvious that Tiger was as excited to be at the event as we all were.  Later in the day we saw that her owners, Cwolvs,  had come equipped with her own little pop up crate so she could chill out in style.  

     Next up was Serang Nanake.  WeenieQueen and I headed out to meet a couple who had a lot of memorabilia, and willing to let their fellow cachers thumb thru their scape books full of photos, newspaper clippings, coins, tags, and more.  And there she was, the little Serang Nanake.  Our interest shifted quickly from memorabilia to the pup.  She is a petite little thing, comfortable with these busy surroundings even tho she is blind.  Yep, totally blind.  At first a little tear comes to the eye just seeing her there, not able to see the beauty of her surrounding.  That doesn't last long, not even long enough for the tear to fall,  when you see the confidence she has and the ability to be social with all these strangers and enjoy herself.  Great little girl. Her owners, Rainbirds, told up the meaning of her name but for the life of me, I can’t remember.  Darn.  Tho we adored this pup, her owners were a couple of the neatest and most knowledgeable people at the entire event.  Love them.

     Again, WeenieQueen and I went in search of interesting people and photo ops.  We found our TB Dog number 3.  Spikester, a long hair Chihuahua, was in the arms of one of is owners, Bronco Busters.  Again, a super neat dog; it was a little later in the day and I think he was ready for a nap. 

     Here's my thought.  My partners in crime, when it comes to Geocaching, are WeenieQueen and SchnauzerQueen.  They each have two dogs, who they love dearly, consider their children, thus their caching names.  So - Why no TB Dogs in my group?  This is an issue I believe needs to be addressed.  I will ask each of them and share their response. 

     And then it will be time to figure out TB Vehicles.   

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.

Around the World with 1,532,000 active Geocaches

     I really enjoy traveling, mostly with family members.  Geocaching and trading swag has added still another reason to make stops along the way.  We stop to take pictures, take that quick pee while getting gas and now to Geocache.  I have been real lucky to have had to opportunity to make a few trip in the past year that ended up caching trips; and I will start sharing those trips in the new post.  Every trip has post worthy info to share.

     I am hoping to venture out a little further and turn into an international cacher in the near future.   Granted - it may only be into Mexico but that is a start.  The travel into the first cache across the Mexico border is less than a 30 minute drive from the Yuma Event #9 in February 2012.  I am so there!  And I am a day dreamer so my mind goes to other countries also.

     To keep things realistic I decided to check out the facts that go along with World caching.  I am amazed and excited with some of what I found.  I'll share a bit and also supply you with the links to some great sites.
     Did you know -

Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. After 10 years of activity there are over 1,532,000 active geocaches published on various websites. There are over 5 million geocachers worldwide.

This proves that there is more to this Geocaching thing than a few bored people hiding containers with toys.

    I found this great link for Europe connections that even shows a map.  AND - you can continue to link to all these countries also:

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Africa, the Near and Middle East, and Russia.

     Crazy ! Right ?  so if you are one of those lucky people who bounce all over the our Mother Earth, then here is a site for you.  Or if you are one of those day dreamers like myself, it is fun to visit the sites and live vicariously thru others who have been there.

     WARNING !  I found a link that could very well induce insomnia to those who generally have good sleep habits.  I  got on this site, Cacheopedia, and before I knew it the sun was coming up.   
I bounced around some much that I found myself having to go back to the very beginning, over and over again, just to get myself back to the subject I was wanted to read more of.  Crazy stuff.  Fun stuff. Be prepared.   ( and if you don't find this site entertaining, please let me know so I can consider the fact that I may be loosing my mind )

     I hope you find yourself enjoying these sites.  There is way too much to include the info in the body of this post.  All links are easy to follow, but I really am not worried about that since we are Geocachers, seekers of hidden objects.
    

     Coming soon - Geocaching from Iowa to Arizona.

PUT ON YOUR PARTY PANTS !

    Or - put on your cachy pants and hiking boots.  Either will work because this event sounds like a lot of fun and best of all is that there is plenty of SWAG ! !  And we at SwagHunter are all about the swag.
    Here is the scoop on the Yuma Event -

And this is where it is happening -  N 32° 43.691 W 114° 36.965 (directions for the hard core cacher)

Yuma Event #9

City of Yuma, Arizona

02/19/2012

Activities Start At 9:00 AM with BBQ At Noon

 TRI-TIP BBQ

S*W*A*G Donations & Prizes

  Poker Cache Run

Goodies-SWAG-Free Stuff



by S*W*A*G  &  JEEP'EN JUMPERS

     I can't say that I have ever been to a caching event; I am pretty new at this.  SchnauzerQueen, WeenieQueen and I are going to spend a couple of days and nights in the area to take in some new caches.  There are a ton of them in the area.  And you can drive just across the border into Cali and finds lots more all along the freeway.  Feeling adventursome ?  Los Algodones is just across the Mexico border with caches waiting to be found.  

     Mark your calendar and plan on being in Yuma to meet other cachers, hang out at the pre-events the night before and find all of us from SwagHunters.

Here's a great site to start out with -
https://sites.google.com/site/swgeocachers/

Watch for our updates on this event.