Viva Las Vegas!

There’s a lot NOT to like about Las Vegas, and I won’t list all that here. The trick to enjoying this burg, at least for me though, is to find those things that are not what the typical visitor encounters. This makes geocaching in and around Sin City irresistible. I know I’ll find something unusual somewhere at a cache, and the sheer numbers of caches all around are available for every level of ability and interest.

I’m spending the week here for three reasons: first to get to 19,999 finds so that my #20,000 is at a special Event Cache, Murder Among The Mateys – A Murder Mystery Event, this weekend, and second, to visit and dine with one of my best friends, a self-proclaimed bon vivant, Bob, and his buddy, Rex. He certainly taught me everything I know about wine, and for him to pick the restaurants for dinners is the best way to find culinary nirvana.

The third reason is to do some research and photography for what I call Season 2 of my Twitter novel, The Adventure of Helen and Daniel. I should be starting that up in a couple of weeks, and to read it, you can follow me on Twitter, or read whole chapters after they are “broadcast” – please contact me for links for that.

I’ve opted to do most of my caching out of the city, away from muggles…
Population 57

and in the scenery of the surrounding desert…

and mountains….

… where everything is about the smiley:
S18

Most caches are typical desert hides:

… but this one was worth the drive up the mountain road to find!
GRIDLOCK!

Only in Vegas can you REALLY go from the sublime to the ridiculous:

I even got both at once, when I spent a ridiculous amount of $$$ to try the most incredibly sublime Kobe beef from Japan. Wow. It’s hard to describe, but the flavor was not beefy as we know it. It was mild and…. creamy… and marvelous.

Until next week, may you enjoy ridiculously sublime caches!

Winter Geocaching in Southern California

January is probably my favorite month to be here.

It starts with the Rose Parade on the 1st, which almost invariably has perfect weather that much of the rest of the country gets to watch on TV between bouts of shoveling snow or braving subzero temperatures to go to the store.

My sister came down to visit this year, and we got tickets in the bleachers to see the parade. It’s something to be experienced at least once, as it’s one of the most spectacular events of its type anywhere. Only in person can you get a sense of how large the floats are and how truly ornate the decorating is. The marching bands are big, too, some stretching for over a city block. The horses and Western roping, the celebrity grand marshall, the general feeling of celebratory renewal of the new year, the opportunity to eat bacon-wrapped hot dogs (we were SORELY tempted, but passed on those!) are all best seen/felt/smelled while sitting right there. We got bags of free snacks from a local grocery chain: Stater Brothers. We saw an overly fatigued tuba player in the USC band sideline himself and have to wait for a rescue van. We marveled at the motorcycle cops showing off their synchronized driving skills.

Yes, we found a geocache, too! It was at the Burger KIng across the street from our bleachers, even!
The King and I

I’ve been out to the parade a couple of times before, and already knew what my truly favorite part of the morning would be: the flyover of the STEALTH BOMBER. It looks like a work of art floating over. f0t0m0m (Karen) got a superb photo of it on its practice run this year:

I got to watch it a couple of years ago flying around the Lancaster area as I was geocaching out there one day. It never fails to leave me stunned, impressed, and moved by its beauty and power.

Winter in Southern California means clear air for great vistas and cool temperatures for hiking. Here are just a smattering of photos I’ve gotten so far this month:

sunrise in Lancaster (taken by Andy of Team Perks)

fog in Sycamore Canyon

crunchy trail in the Santa Monica Mountains

the view of Catalina Island from Charmlee park in Malibu

looking out from the summit of Saddleback Peak in Palmdale
Saddleback

snow on the mountains west of Joshua Tree National Park

trainspotting in Palm Springs

sunset over I-10 westbound near Cabazon

a bucket of “snow” in a cache at Desert Hot Springs!!
You’ve got to be kidding, this is the desert!

Does anyone know what this stuff is?? It felt cool to the touch, was not sticky, but felt like it would make a nice snowball! It was way too funny to find this in the warm, dry desert. You can always count on the Wheeler Dealers for surprising and entertaining hides.

January is also a great month for working on that tan!

I did find cache #18,000 this week, too! f0t0m0m and I made a 63-cache run in Palm Springs and this Wheeler Dealer hide was the milestone! The container was even a little gecko. I liked choosing this one, as I found my first 10,000 or so caches using a Garmin Geko – actually two of them – and I wore them both out!
One Heck of a Gecko

Until next week, keep on caching! (if you’re not buried in snow … Ha!)

Four-wheeling through festive flora

Yesterday I grabbed two caches in the Manhattan Beach area,
Hb park cache
HFB

on Sunday went to an event with an unusual theme,
Tie Dye Party !!!

and as well as finding assorted caches around the event, did a dozen in an hour at the Puente Hills Mall (I’m just linking to the first one),
The Great Puente Hills Mall run #1

but the highlight of the week was a 4×4 run with f0t0m0m out in Yucca Valley and Desert Hot Springs. We attended and event and found a few fun ones nearby,
No Frills Non-Event Event
Photo Finish – commemorating the Wheeler Dealers 2000th find, we all signed the hood of an abandoned car!
H2O Required – yep, one of those bring-your-big-water-bottles grab-it-quick caches

then headed for the desert for over 60 more caches. The finds themselves were standard, but we were there for the scenery!

View of Yucca Valley

Desert Flora

A hawk in her nest!

Caching by moonlight?

We were being watched!

May the flowers be with you! Happy caching!