The Poppies

The weather may not say spring here in AZ, 

but my flowers do!

Certainly appreciate when the tags for flower

colors are right. Orange, yellow and white poppies.

Celebrating Valentine's Day

We got home from Yuma Sunday afternoon and drove to the Phoenix airport later to get OFD who arrived from Minneapolis for a 3 day R&R. That was perfect as I felt that is what we needed also. We ate out, played many games of Phase 10, slept late and enjoyed lunch each day on the deck.

We went to San Tan Flat for dinner on Valentine's Day with OFD and friends, Jerry & Linda.

We got home in time to see and document the colorful sunset.

I decided to buy some flowers this year. I haven't purchased any the last two years. I found some poppies as I do so enjoy the wild Mexican poppies that have started to appear. I bought a white, a yellow and an orange one and put them in the same pot. They are slow to bloom.

lots of buds

one flower this week

FINALLY!

I was hoping all the rain of last weekend would do the trick. Now we need some sunshine and warmer temps. More rain in the forecast for this coming weekend, and cooler again early next week. I'm not having much luck with the flowers or the hummingbirds this season. Oh, well. Your were probably tired of the hummingbird pictures. You just might see more of the poppies, though.

The Rest of the Yuma Trip

The number of photos taken on the rest of the days that week in Yuma diminished in number. Maybe because we saw the same stuff. Maybe because we didn't see anything extraordinary. Maybe because I got tired of taking photos. Maybe because we got too busy looking for geocaches and I couldn't give directions, follow the GPS AND use the camera. Let's go with all of the above.

This is what we did see on day 3 in Yuma.

We were at a location of a former mine. The geocache description said to be careful as there was a mine shaft near the site of the geocache. Hubby walked along a ridge line, not at all dangerous or treacherous. When he got to the final location he hollered, "Take a picture!" I climbed back down the part of the ridge I had reached and got the camera. Hubby is the item in the center of the hill at the horizon line. You see him, right????

there he is

 found the cache & signed the log

another plane crash

the crater in the sand with some plane debris

we could hear the jets, but couldn't see them

interesting contrails in the beautiful blue sky

The next day we met up with a geocaching friend from Austin TX for a day of special geocaching. We cached with Janice in Missouri in October on the Boon's Lick Road GeoTrail. This day we were on the Wicked Witch series of caches along a wash.

The caches were fun hides, all different and well hidden. The road was definitely in a wash and made for an interesting adventure.

Hubby on the hill

Janice marking the find and looking for the next one

I did my share in finding about 1/3 of them in this series

AND documenting the adventure

the best part of the road in the wash

we learned later the caches were placed with a Razor ATV

we took the jeep to a point where we decided it

was too dangerous to continue and stay safe

We attended the Flash Mob late that afternoon. The theme was green. Wear green and wave some green and donate to the Yuma food bank. The dancing was in progress when we arrived. (They started early!)

visited after the dancing with other Phoenix area geocachers

and two couples from SD

On Saturday we drove from one end of Yuma to the other 3 ends with a cacher from Monterrey CA. He did not now the area and was looking for someone to hang with for the day's adventure. We started about 10:00 and finished the search for the 20 Discovery and 10 Lab caches by 2:30. We picked up our geocoin and attended another event that evening.

veggies were the theme this year

cute play on words

This was Sunday at the main event, the Yuma MEGA (gathering of 500 or more people)

some cachers wear all their hardware

proof of my attendance

the event sign-in board

Winter Salad Capital

this year's geocoin

the T-Shirts were white with a wreath of salad veggies

I didn't buy one

another costumed cacher

and the Geocaching Mascot

Signal the Frog

Day 2 in the Yuma Desert

Wednesday was another perfect day to be driving around in the sandy Lechuguilla Desert of the Barry Goldwater Range near Yuma. We have found over 300 caches in the two days and come across some very interesting geocaches.

mountains in the Barry Goldwater Range

cache called the Missile Tree

somebody was digging for something

I saw lots of quartz

Unknown Person's Grave

Olga Smith writes about this area in her book

Gold on the Desert

Ocotillo are very green right now

remains of Smith's winter cabin

"GOLD MINING HISTORY: This honest account of a genuine experience, Gold On The Desert revises the usual concept of deserts and their inhabitants. In the formidable Lechuguilla Desert of southwestern Arizona, Olga Wright Smith established a home under a huge boulder while her 'men folk' prospected and mined. An Iowa schoolteacher, the author faced the absence of towns, neighbors, modern conveniences and water. And the presence of rattlesnakes, armed smugglers, sandstorms, and heat that burst the thermometer. Her sanity almost snapped from loneliness and fear until she found the desert companionably peopled with wild things; quail, orioles and hummingbirds, foxes and mountain sheep, water-frantic honeybees, exotic flowers. Comic characters too - insatiably curious lizards, the dancing mice, a cat in need of asbestos boots, and a burro named McGinty who signalled with his ears. Mrs. Smith penetrated the bashful hermit world of the desert prospector. She learned that he licks a mineral specimen before showing it, and trades water hole data, magazines and flapjack recipes with his friends. Hardened by sun, wind and self-reliance, Olga Smith achieved the status of enthusiastic "rock-hound" and master of the delicate art of goldpanning. She made daily notes of her adventures as the first modern woman ever to observe a full year's cycle on the Lechuguilla Desert, including the crucible of summer when wood becomes so dehydrated that nails fall out. With her engineer husband - the young Cap Smith - of the book - the author went to Arizona prepared for the worst and found it. Desert Settlers & Gold Prospectors" ~ Amazon synopsis of Gold on the Desert

leaning saguaro

area of tanks

looks like a man operating it

looks like, no so

variety of tanks, total of five

resting in the desert

Day 1 in the Yuma Desert

The SWAG Yuma Mega Geocaching event is this weekend. Hubby and I drove to Wellton AZ Monday after writing class to get a head start on the desert geocaching we have left to do on the Barry Goldwater Range. Here are some of the things we saw on our first day, Tuesday.

site of an F-4 crash a number of years ago

pilot died, co-pilot ejected safely by parachute

another plane crash, titled Kittyhawk

a mangled mess

no death in this crash...also a number of years ago

bird's nest in a saguaro

interesting container for a geocache

a toy boat

beautiful blue skies & interesting rock formations

a saguaro with a crack

a crested or fan saguaro

sibling saguaros

Where's Waldo?...Hubby?

more of the crested saguaro

desolate area, but picturesque

bombers or fighters playing tag

planes belonging to either the Air Force or Marines

here was the second one

very noisy

one of the engines from the first crash, the F-4

maybe 2 miles from the site of the crash

SWAG stands for South West Arizona Geocachers
Mega event means more than 500 people plan to attend
Main event is on Sunday, but other events happening Friday, Saturday and Monday
This will be the fifth Yuma Mega Event we have attended.