Geocaching with VegasScotty

So I’m in Yuma for the annual Mega event.  This year like my previous visit was great.  The weather this morning was windy buy it died down before noon and they day was a perfect 72 and sunny.  Gotta hate that in Feb, huh?

Today I decided to do nothing but the event.  In years past I’ve skipped out after the morning and gone to do some geocaching or whatever, but today I chose to stay.  

I’m glad I did.  I got to say hi to some friends from Vegas and I met cachers from all over the country (and other countries!)  I visited the booths, did some lab caches (17 in total!!!!) and basically just chilled.  One of the events is the “closest to the spot” things.  It’s where they give you coordinates and you take your GPSr out and put a little flat at the spot that your deviced thinks is GZ (ground zero).

So anyway, I get up there and my GPSr (Garmin 64st) says the coords are here….. and by here I mean a good 15 feet from the other 100 or so flags that other people have marked as GZ.  GRRRRRRRRR……  my GPS SUCKS!   I’ve struggled with this since I bought it and I’m tired of it.  It’s clear that the coords are wrong.   I event went back to do it a second time and this time my GPSr said the location was 30′ THE OTHER DIRECTION!!!   WTF?

So I’m enjoying the day, chatting with neighbors and about 2pm as the event is ending they held final raffles and drawings and gave away the 50/50 prize and the kids’ prizes and did some other drawings and finally it was the end of the day and they did the main grand prize drawing…. a brand new in the box, Garmin 64 GPSr.   I looked at my ticket and glanced over at the field with all the flags and my lonely flag sitting on the outskirts, and said to myself ‘I could sure use a new GPS’.

OH HELL YES!   I WON THE FUCKING GRAND PRIZE DRAWING.   I went home with a brand new in the box $250 Garmin 64 handheld GPSr unit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Man I love this game.

Tira asked me if I was going to use it or try and sell it.  I looked at the crappy Garmin 64st in my hand and I was like, OH HELL YES, I’m going to use it.  🙂

I’m in Yuma AZ for the annual mega geocaching event.  The first and main priority of the trip was to finish the fire dancer series.  It’s a geoart in the shape of well, a fire dancer.  It’s the cover art from the Dave Matthews band’s 6th album, “Stand Up”.

I started this geoart 3 years ago when I attended the Yuma event in 2015 but I was unable to finish the series back then.  So for 3 years it’s been haunting me.  When I decided to come back, this is the first thing I did.  🙂

2 days and 400 geocaches.  Lots of dust, lots of beer, lots of whining puppy dog who hates to sit in the truck on rough dirt roads, but I’m done.  Outstanding!

I’m heading to Yuma AZ for their annual SWAG (Southwest AZ Geocachers) Mega Geocaching event.  This is the third time I’ve gone, but the last time was in 2015.   I really enjoy the trip and the time in the desert.  The last two times I was working so I had to do the trip quickly, up and back.

But now that I’m unemployed I thought I’d take some time and do it up right.  Tira and I were comparing calendars and we realized that the day after I get back from Yuma, Tira was heading for CA with some teacher friends for a Disney Spring Break.  What the hell….  why go home? 

So I got a sub for bowling, called my dad and told him I’ll visit him in AZ for a couple of days, grabbed the dog, the truck and the trailer and took off.

The first stop was for the CC4X series just west of Vidal Junction off of CA62.  I picked a place in the desert to park the trailer and for 2 days my plan was to do the 401 geocache power trail. 

After that I head to Yuma for 3 days, then visit my folks for 2 or 3 days, and after that I don’t know…. but I’ll bet it involves geocaching!