Roger's Photo Contest Bonus Blog

The Nebraska State Museum of Natural History sponsored a photo contest this month and Roger entered these twelve pictures for consideration. Sadly, they didn't win but we thought you might enjoy sharing them also. This is Ashley's foot in a dinosaur footprint on the Paluxy River in Dinosaur Valley State Park, Glen Rose, Texas.

A beautiful large Golden Silk Orb-weaver spider on the back of Stacey's house in Florida. Notice the smaller male near her right rear leg.

A canyon in Zion National Park, Utah.

Some kind of wild mushrooms/toadstools/fungi on the Isle of Mull, Scotland.

A great blue heron in Orlando, Florida.

Tiger Swallowtail butterfly in Stacey's backyard, Florida.

Flock of bananaquit birds on a hummingbird feeder at Meg's Brother's home in Bonaire, Netherland West Indies.

Feeding a Bonaire whip-tailed lizard

The Nile River from the Old Cataract Hotel at Aswan, Egypt

Porcupine eating a roll outside a lodge in Utah.

A ringtail visiting our motor home in San Antonio, Texas.

"Knot what you'd expect to find" in Texas.

To see the prize-winning entries, click here.

Thanks for reading.

Man's Greatest Inventions

The Texas Aggie asked an engineer, "What was mankind's greatest invention?" and he replied that it had to be the screw, the wheel or the inclined plane, for they enabled the building of the world's greatest landmarks. The Aggie replied that he had thought about it, too, and decided that it must be the Thermos Bottle: "It keeps hot liquids hot AND cold liquids cold!! How does it know?!!!"

The T-Sipper (a graduate of the illustrious University of Texas), however, came up with the correct answer and is here demonstrating to said Aggie the preparation of what will ultimately be known as man's greatest invention: the S'More!!! The Aggie is listening closely (she explains it all slowly) and will (probably) be able to do this on his own in the future. We drove down from Edmond to Dallas and stayed with our good friends Jon and Geri Simms in their fifth wheel trailer, fixed S'Mores over a campfire, and danced with the Bluebonnet Scottish Country Dancers at the Texas State Fair. We performed four shows on Saturday and Sunday and had a great time being together again. Thanks, Jon and Geri and all the Bluebonnets!
Back in Edmond we had parties with the family, including Ryan's 6th. Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

One of Reagan's school lessons called for the development of this improv acting troupe. After their scintillating production before an admiring audience (Daddy) they received a prolonged ovation and, best of all, a delayed bedtime! Hooray!

All our kids pooled their money and surprised us with a dinner cruise on the Oklahoma River, which they gave to us at a surprise "41st Anniversary Party" at the home of Rodney and Linda Ross, Rod's parents. And what a surprise! They said we were going there for a "game night" and we fell for it.

Reagan and Ryan spent several overnights with us at the campground, treated each morning to Granddad's (soon-to-be) famous French Toast Breakfast. Mmmm! Makes me hungry again just thinking about it.

One of my favorite words comes from the French: "rapprochement", the reestablishment of cordial relations. Our word "reconciliation" is similar. One of the joys of our last decade has been the development of cordial relations and love with Roger's father's side of his family, many of whom live in the Oklahoma City area. His parents' divorce when he was six effectively severed contact until we were stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1995.

We had dinner together while on this visit. Here's Roger with Aunt Betty ("Boop"), flanked on the outside by his Uncle Bill and Aunt Debbie and their newest grandchild. A great evening!

After a wonderful time with family in Edmond, and having our motor home maintenanced by the great folks at Lee's RV City, (we highly recommend them if you're in need of repairs or an RV) we drove north toward Lincoln.

But we spent our night on the road in Hutchinson, KS at the home of Darlene Detwiler, a friend and nurse with whom we worked in Kenya over thirty years ago. We have written but not met since that time. She greeted us with a marvelous nostalgic dinner of Indian curry and we reminisced and looked at old pictures until the wee hours. (From L-R: Meg, Roger, Aineah (Kenyan), Darlene, Bill and Bea Anderson; ca.1970)

In turn we had Darlene over in the AM for breakfast together in our home (parked out front!) A blessed time together (more "rapprochement") and what we hope will be the first of many more.

Coming to Lincoln each year and staying with our good friends Fred and Janet has given us opportunity to keep growing friendships which have been in process for many years.
Lunch at a local restaurant with Sandy and Bill Thurmond, Baylor game day with Christ's Place friends at the home of Mike and Melody Kenney, a revisit at Wind Chimes Chinese with Carol Newsom, as well as lots of visits with Roger's brother Randy and nieces and nephews that have now moved to Lincoln.

Football!! Another in the list of man's greatest inventions!!!
There's absolutely nothing like a game day/or night in Lincoln, Nebraska! If you love college football, it should be on your "bucket list" to attend at least once before you die. The Sea of Red is phenomenal! AND there's NOTHING BETTER on game day than enjoying a Runza (also a recipe) at the stadium and watching the Huskers beat Oklahoma 10-3! Wish you had been there!!!

Our First Granddaughter Trip!

Whether you read the title above as "our first trip with a Granddaughter" or "our trip with our First Granddaughter", you'd be correct! One of our long range plans/goals in fulltime RVing was to travel with grandchildren and spend some extended quality time together. This year we were able to realize that dream! Ashley's beginning homeschooling this year provided the perfect opportunity. After a great visit with Stacey and Darren and family in Hernando, FL, Ashley said 'goodbye' to her folks, we loaded her up along with her school books and began our extended "field trip."

First major stop: Pensacola, Florida. We stayed almost a week at the Pensacola Naval Air Station Family Camp right near the beach.
The Pensacola Scottish Country Dancing group meets on Tuesday nights under the direction of Richard and Connie Walker. They're a very cordial and welcoming group; stop in if you're in the area.

We had a blast and Ashley danced great! The Navy's Blue Angels have practice sessions on many mornings. These are free and open to the public. They practice directly behind the Museum of Naval Aviation, which, along with its simulators and IMAX theater, is a must visit.

Nearby is the Gulf Islands National Seashore, part of the national park system, and it includes Fort Barrancas, Fort Pickens and the nearby beaches.

Ashley wanted to explore every nook and cranny of the old forts.

On the road again! We spent a night at Yogi Bear's in Louisiana, then moved on to Texas. A Texas waffle was waiting for Ashley at our first stop in the Lone Star State. We spent a couple of nights in Beaumont before moving on.

Once in San Antonio area we began sight-seeing in earnest. Ashley and Roger spent an afternoon exploring one of the old missions, San Jose. Along with Concepcion, San Juan, and Espada, these compose another of the nation's national parks. San Jose is one of the most intact and beautiful.

Ashley completed the Junior Ranger program at San Jose and was duly sworn in, with appropriate ceremony.

We reconnected with our friends Jon and Geri Simms in San Antone and enjoyed some wonderful meals and dancing together.

We spent the next month between the Summit, San Antonio, New Braunfels and Kyle, Texas. Abey and family have a new home in Kyle and it's lovely! Phineas is loving all the attention from cousin Ashley and grandparents.

We enjoyed another visit to the Ethiopian restaurant in Pflugerville with Abey's family, Ashley and Meg's parents.

No trip to New Braunfels is ever complete without a walk in Landa Park and feeding the ducks.

Located between San Antonio and New Braunfels are the Natural Bridge Caverns and nearby Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. We spent a lovely day exploring both.

Finally the time came to move on. We spent a couple of nights at Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose, Texas. This is the home of remarkably well-preserved prints from several species of very early Texas residents.

It's really hard to overstate the value of this kind of field trip. We all had a wonderful time. It was, however, a very hot dry August and I'd recommend the fall or the spring for your visit.

We arrived in Oklahoma the next day. We experienced a blowout on a rear tire of the motor home; no associated problems. We spent one night at the Fort Sill RV camp, exploring the nearby Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

After her daughter had been gone "long enough," Stacey flew up from Florida and spent a week with Andrea and us at Edmond, Oklahoma. We had a great time together exploring the area. We enjoyed a fun day at Frontier City, a local theme park. A short excursion to Arcadia, OK brought us to "Pops", an eatery dedicated to the soft drink. They have every conceivable type of pop/soda water/soft drink, from "All Natural Apple-Beer" to Avery's "Bug Barf" (kiwi-pineapple): "It's SODAsguting...Totally Gross Soda."

"Pops" is located along Historic Route 66 just a half mile from Arcadia's Round Barn. Both are within 5 miles of I-35 and worth including in your travels.
And yes, that is a GPS in Meg's hand; we had to pick up the local geocaches while we were there.

We enjoyed a fun meal together at the local Japanese steakhouse, entertained by the clever knife handling of the chef.

OK, be honest now: how many of you knew Oklahoma City had a river? Really? Well, we didn't until Stacey arranged tickets for our early morning cruise on the Oklahoma River. It's a 1 1/2 hour trip which includes a trolley ride back to your car at the dock. It was quite beautiful!

Of course, Ryan couldn't be satisfied until she "helped" the captain pilot our boat.

We stopped for a photo-op under this sign in Bricktown next to the ballpark, for obvious reasons. Oklahoma City has done a magnificent job of reclaiming and beautifying their downtown area and any visit should include lots of "wandering time." Take in a baseball game if you can. Bricktown Ballpark annually hosts the BigXII baseball championship tournament in May.
We visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial, a beautiful but grim reminder of the tragic bombing there in 1995.

Worth a visit! After a week Stacey and Ashley left us to return to their family in Florida. It was a wonderful "field trip" with our granddaughter, and the final verdict: we'd love to do it again! We're looking forward to the next time.

Thanks for reading.

Our Star-Spangled Guys and Dolls Disney Summer

We left our South Carolina friends in early June and travelled south. We spent another nice night at the submarine base in King's Bay, GA where we had stayed one time before. A great military campground and an easy one day's drive on to Stacey's home in Hernando, FL.

We arrived in time to be added to the local Art Center's cast of "Guys and Dolls." This time Roger was "Society Max" and "Margarita" was a doll at a Havana night club. We also played the roles of two tourists from Texas (easy for us!) We rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed....leaving us pretty well "used up" by day's end! But it was worth all the effort. The show was a popular success and we had loads of fun. Here's Darren ("Nicely Nicely") singing "Sit down you're rockin' the boat!" We had a cast party after the final matinee, where cast members each received awards for their accomplishments. Meg's was for "Best Substitute Hooker" and Rog's for "Best Characterization."

Roger entertained the rest of the cast with his mysterious feats of magic.

The cast members enjoyed each others' company so much we had a couple of impromptu parties at a local restaurant as well.



Florida visits are never complete without a trip to Mouseland and we spent several days at Typhoon Lagoon, Disney Quest, Blizzard Beach and Animal Kingdom. We shared the fun with Darren's parents, Lynn and Darry Griffis. Darren's back really started hurting; good thing Meg is a physical therapist. The military and Disney provided me with complimentary and discounted family tickets in appreciation of my service. A neat blessing! Very popular are the "can't miss" shows: "Finding Nemo" and "The Lion King" While in Orlando the kids treated Meg and Roger to a birthday dinner at the local Ethiopian restaurant. It's one of our favorite foods and the hostess provided us with cake and coffee.

We've made some wonderful friends in Hernando, FL and, along with Stacey and Darren, we hosted a "murder mystery" party. This fun evening was spent questioning suspects and accusing one another, until we finally figured out "who dunnit." . Darren won the Sherlock award for the best solution to the crimeAll the time our intrepid sleuths kept up their strength with wonderful fondue dishes topped with chocolate fondue for dessert. Wow!!

One final entry: Florida boasts a beautiful large spider, the Golden Web spider, so-named for the golden threads she weaves into her web. This large, but harmless, weaver had her web right outside Stacey's home.

So you see, Florida is not all manatees, dolphins and giant mice! Wish you were here!

Journey into the Past

Genealogy is both fascinating AND time-consuming. Retirement and our RVing lifestyle have allowed us more time to think about where we've come from, as well as giving us the opportunity to visit the lands of our forebears. As is the case with many Americans, we trace our family roots to the original colonies and the Revolutionary War. They immigrated to Virginia and the Carolinas, then gradually moved through Tennessee and Kentucky to Arkansas, or through Alabama and Mississippi to Texas.

Our first major stop after leaving Texas was Shubuta, Mississippi. Roger's maternal grandmother was a Joiner; her parents, Sam and Regina are buried here in the Shubuta Cemetery. Shubuta is an interesting little town that even most Mississippians we met had never heard of. At one time, it was the county seat, but that was long ago. Known for its "healing red artesian waters", the town houses its well in this gazebo. A local historian, Jerry Mason, wrote an excellent book on the town, which guided us in our efforts to learn more. We had the joy of spending several hours with Jerry's Mother, Betty, one afternoon, as well as worshiping with her at the Shubuta First Baptist Church with her on Sunday. Roger's aunt grew up in this town and that was her church. Betty showed us many of the sites in town, including the well and the remains of the "Hangin' Bridge", where lynchings took place in a thankfully distant past.

Next stop was Chambers, Sumter County, Alabama, the birthplace of Roger's great-grandmother. In most of these places we didn't learn new facts. Rather we were able to associate real places with family names and stories which heretofore had been only words. Quite a treat!

After a couple of days in Alabama, we traveled on to Watson Mill Bridge State Park in northwest Georgia. We visited friends in the area and spent time in the Athens library researching names in Meg's family line.

The Watson Mill Bridge is the longest covered bridge in Georgia and is beautifully preserved. The park is also a splendid place to stay if you're visiting the area, or for just a picnic if you're only passing through.

The main reason for our visit to this area was to attend the wedding of our friend Anna Felz to Donny Stamper on Saturday the 23rd of May. It was held on the beach of a lake at a beautiful resort in western South Carolina.

The parents of the bride are our very good friends, Mike and Suzie Felz. Mike and the happy bride going down the aisle; the happy new couple coming back!

The wedding was officiated by another friend of ours, Rodney Elkins of Florida.

The reception and dinner followed indoors, and Joanna Elkins, accompanied by the bride's brother Daniel, provided very special music.

The food was wonderful; the music was great; the dancing was fun!

We stayed for a week at Hickory Knob State Park in South Carolina, a few miles northeast of our old home in Augusta, Georgia. We had several more fun times with the Felz family after the wedding, including golf, lots of good food, and a Bruce-Felz ritual: popcorn in a hot tub! We've managed to repeat this together in Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles and here in Augusta! Good times!

Leaving our Georgia "family" we moved on to Spartanburg, South Carolina where we stayed five days at Pine Ridge RV Park in nearby Roebuck. This gave us easy access to the Spartanburg Library, the Laurens library and Revolutionary War battlefields of Kings Mountain

and Cowpens. These Patriot victories were fought primarily between Rebel and Loyalist militias. The stories of these battles make very interesting reading. One of Roger's Bruce ancestors, Daniel McClaren, fought at both of these battles. His daughter, Nancy, was Roger's gggg grandmother.

These beautiful green treefrogs were regular nighttime visitors in our camping area.

One main line of Roger's ancestors are the Felders. Hans Heinrich Felder came to South Carolina colony in 1735 from Switzerland, bringing his infant son John Henry with him. Hans died shortly thereafter, but Henry, as he was called, lived to become a Revolutionary War hero. He and his seven sons all fought for the Patriot cause, and he was ultimately killed by Tories in 1780. He was my ggggg grandfather. An independent film of his life, "All For Liberty," was completed this year and has won awards at several film festivals. Hopefully, it will be released to the general public later.

The graves of Henry's grandson, Daniel, and his wife Rachel are in Union County, South Carolina. We visited them there.

Their daughter Louisa Amanda Felder became my gg grandmother, marrying into the Wallace line that had moved to Brenham, Texas.

We went exploring the woods around Spartanburg and found this idyllic scene of waterfall and ruined mill wheel.

Spotted this beautiful skink nearby.

A local landmark in Spartanburg is The Beacon, known for its good burgers, big plates and thick milk shakes. The reputation is well-deserved.

The downtown Spartanburg Square has been renovated and is quite lovely. There is artful sculpture everywhere. Here's a pretty locomotive, across from a great little restaurant, the Monsoon Noodle House; specialty: Vietnamese pho. Mmmmmmmm!

Meg checked the paper out with a local Spartanburg regular: no news.

On to Orangeburg, South Carolina, the original home of the Felders. We found the old Felder cemetery there.

Henry Felder rests there and his two cannons used to defend the area are mounted permanently in the town square.

We spent a lovely day in Charleston with our very good friends Chris and Jessica. They treated us to a wonderful meal in a local restaurant, Poogan's Porch, where we had for the first time "shrimp and grits." If you haven't tried it, don't knock it! So good we brought the recipe home! (You can click on the name for the recipe, too.)

One last fun thing. Many of our readers know that one of the largest grocery chains in Texas is H.E.B. What some do not know is the name of the founder: Howard E. Butt, a remarkable Christian businessman. Now, the reason this is funny at all was that our friends drove us out on the South Battery in Charleston where we saw the home of the founder of another chain, "Piggly Wiggly." These were the ornaments in front of his home:

Now, I could not help but muse: if this had been H.E.B.'s founder's home: what would HE have on his porch? Hmmmmm? Interesting thought.

Wish you were here.

Scots, Fiesta and the Toilet Seat Museum!

San Antonio in April means "Fiesta!" and it's always a fun party. On April 21, 1836, just a month and a half after the Fall of the Alamo, Sam Houston and his Texian forces defeated the Mexican dictator Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, and won independence for Texas. The Republic of Texas was born. (Ten years later Texas was joined by the United States, and lost that independence. There are those who say we should have left well enough alone...but that's another story.)

So, every year the week that includes April 21st is set aside in San Antonio for a week-long party, Fiesta San Antonio! There are dances, carnival rides, a band festival, four (or more?) parades, including the longest torchlight parade in the country, the Fiesta Flambeau. It's a great time to visit the River City, with fun for the entire family. We stayed for part of the week at a downtown hotel with our good friends, Jon and Geri Simms, and together walked in the Battle of Flowers Parade, representing the Scottish Society of San Antonio. The Battle of Flowers follows a 2.3 mile route through downtown San Antonio; this was the fourth time we've walked it. After the parade we met at Mi Tierra, a famous and popular Mexican restaurant in the market square of downtown. It's one of very few local Mexican restaurants to stay open 24/7; worth a visit if you're passing through.

When we're stopped for awhile, we take the opportunity to clean up the motor home. Here "we" are cleaning the roof! (Someone has to supervise and take the pictures!)

Most folks that RV full-time are members of one or more RV organizations, usually determined by interests and affiliations. There are the Good Sam (for Samaritan) Club, the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association), the Newmar and Winnebago and Holiday Rambler clubs, among others. We are members of S.M.A.R.T., the Special Military Active and Retired Travel Club.
Composed of present and former members of all the military services of our country, the organization plans get-togethers ("musters") all over the nation. We attended two musters on this trip, one in Bandera, TX and the second in Schertz, a suburb of San Antonio. The dinner one evening was a Hawaiian luau:

During these events we plan tours of local sights, historical and "hysterical." One small museum which should definitely be on your list for San Antonio is Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Museum.
Barney is a retired master plumber who has for over thirty years been creating masterful works of art on his favorite medium: the toilet seat! The themes cover everything imaginable: from all the states to the Boy Scouts to the military services to clubs to nations to our country's wars. If you visit and name anything, chances are good he'll have a lid for you to sign. He has over 700! That's right: he'll invite you to add your name to his creation. He'll etch your signature in permanently. Barney is a lovely person who delights in company and will be happy to show off his gallery. Saturday mornings are his planned times. It's free; just call ahead.
Here I'm holding the SMART seat from a previous visit of our club.... I added my name today.

Three of his seats are actual geocaches. If you're a cacher and you visit his place, just tell him so and he'll help you locate them and log them.

The Scottish Society is well-represented: When our family visited Barney's as part of our 2006 family reunion, he asked them to sign the seats from their states; here they are:

Click on the links above for more info, and be sure and visit Barney when you're in town.

Gone to Texas!

After a long absence, we were anxious to spend some time with family and friends back in the Lone Star State. So, we headed the motor home back to the Texas Hill Country. When we're there we set up at the Summit RV Resort, where our membership allows us to remain without charge for two weeks/month. That puts us close to Meg's Dad in New Braunfels, Abey and family in Austin, and friends and Scottish Country Dancing in San Antonio. Here four generations met at the River Pub Grill in San Marcos, a fun family restaurant on the San Marcos River. Another day we met our good friends, Dave and Deb Evans in Austin for dinner and got a chance to catch up.

But the main event of March this year was the birth of Abey and Sunny's third child and our seventh grandchild: Phineas Roger Bruce! He's a beautiful healthy boy and a glorious addition to this family! Of course, this called for a celebration! So, we had a wonderful meal at an Ethiopian restaurant in Round Rock, Texas, followed by dancing:

though some skipped the dancing in favor of more eating!


We had lots of special times with the older kids while Mom was recovering from her delivery and getting used to the new baby at home. It was great being able to attend Lydia and Christian's school track event

Sometimes "onlookers" from the crowd couldn't help themselves and just joined in on the track. (I'm just "pacing" her, you understand.)

There was time for reading and bedtime stories,

as well as taking them to their first Longhorn baseball game! Here they met "Hook 'em", the Texas mascot.

It was a great time with our Austin family!

Meg's Brother Thomas and his wife Melody, who live much of the time in Bonaire, Netherland Antilles, visited us and the parents during our time in the Hill Country as well. Whenever we're together it's off to the Clear Springs Catfish Restaurant near New Braunfels; a "must" if you're ever in the area. It wasn't voted "Best in Texas" for nothing! Wish you were here!

From Kartchner Caverns to Tombstone

After our relaxing week in Yuma, we moved to the campus of the Arizona School of Health Sciences, where Roger teaches PA students each year. We stayed two days, but this time it was so Roger could go "back to school" himself. Every two years most physicians must recertify their training in acute cardiac life support, or ACLS. Roger's friend and fellow faculty member, Bob McMullen, graciously offered to bring him up-to-date on the procedures and drugs. So, with the help of several student friends, Roger spent the day in class and lab, repeatedly saving the life of "SimMan", to the relief of everyone involved.

Speaking of "cardiac support", Roger's "valentine" to Meg: a heart-shaped cherimoya. Mark Twain described the cherimoya as "deliciousness itself!" Try one sometime.

I did follow up with a marvelous meal at the Outside Inn, a small family-owned restaurant in Sierra Vista which specializes in a small, but extremely flavorful menu. Highly recommended!

We moved the next morning to Kartchner Caverns State Park, home of one of the country's newest and best cave experiences. We took two different tours of the caverns and spent more time hiking the surrounding mountains and, of course, geocaching. This state park is within 10 miles south of I-10 and west of Benson, so it's within easy range of most travelers on this route. Check out the virtual tour on the link above if you like.

Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista, Arizona were our home for the next week, and we used the time to explore them and the neighboring towns of Tombstone and Bisbee. One of the distinctive "treats" of our lifestyle is the enjoyment of local color and flavors. We had a great steak dinner at the Sierra Vista VFW, and attended a high school band performance of a wonderful patriotic concert in conjunction with the Army Band from Fort Huachuca.

We hiked the hills and valleys of Fort Huachuca, noting the unusual birds of the area, and visiting the site of Indian pictographs in Garden Canyon.

These decorate the ceiling of a small cave in the wall behind where Meg is standing. They are assumed to be several hundred years old.

Within thirty miles of Fort Huachuca are the old towns of Tombstone and Bisbee. Tombstone has been popularized in many movies and the town majors on replaying "the gunfight" for all who will watch. The most popular reenactment is at the actual site of the O.K. Corral, and is theatrically quite well done. We had a great time exploring, reading the signs, watching Wyatt Earp with brothers Morgan and Virgil, along with Doc Holliday, fight Ike and Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers, and then visiting the graves of three of them at Boothill Cemetery. and finding a few geocaches in the area, as well.

Another day we spent exploring the old mining town of Bisbee. It has beautiful old period houses built on the sides of the hills, where, as one old-timer so well put it: "you can spit off your porch down your neighbor's chimney!"

Bisbee was a center of copper-mining, as well as gold and silver, and at one time was one of the wealthiest towns in the country. The mining of copper left Bisbee with one of its most distinctive features: the Lavender Pit. It's over 900 feet deep and pictures do not do it justice. Awesome!

After a full week of exploring, we were ready to move on toward Texas.

On To Yuma

On 6 February we said "goodbye" to Sabrina and LA friends and headed our home eastward. First stop was overnight with new friends Claire and Jerry McCleery, whom we met last March

on our trip to Egypt and Jordan. They invited us to park in front of their home and we enjoyed a wonderful fish dinner from Claire's kitchen. Sweet southern hospitality! (Southern California, that is.) The next morning they joined us at our table for breakfast with us. Neat times with fun people!

We drove on to Yuma, AZ in time to arrive for a geocaching get-together, the "Yuma Event", wherein cachers from all over descend on an area, look for special caches hidden just for that purpose, compete in navigation contests, and generally have fun. It started with food at Lute's Casino and Saloon in "old Yuma" downtown. Look what Roger found there in "take-out!"

We met the next day in the park near the historical Yuma Crossing, where the railroad line connected east and west in the 1800's. We had free barbecue and a fun time outdoors. Met some new friends and found some great caches.

I know some of you are STILL wondering what this "geocaching" thing is all about. Well, simply put, it's a game played by thousands of people all over the world. Players hide containers, from "micro" which might be as small as your fingernail, to "regular", the size of a shoebox. These are hidden in spots which are interesting, out of the way and fun to see in themselves. They then publish the GPS coordinates online. Would-be finders who will be in that area download the information, and begin the hunt. Using a handheld GPS the searcher can often get within a 12-15 foot radius of the actual site. Then using the clues published along with the coordinates, he looks for the actual hide. For example, we went looking for a cache in a park in Yuma, without much success at first. Then Meg noticed this innocent looking piece of wood on the ground. We had both walked around it for several minutes. Then she said,

"I wonder..." and picked it up: and there was the cache: a medicine bottle glued to the underside and placed in a hole in the ground beneath it! That's the kind of ingenuity that makes this such fun. For more info and how to get started, check it out on http://www.geocaching.com/

We spent a week in Yuma, relaxing and learning the history of this fascinating place. There's a weekly farmers' market on the main street of old Yuma: the fruit and veggies were fresh and tasty. The Yuma Territorial Prison is now a museum and cemetery. It has a very interesting history, and, as it is right on I-8, is worth a stop. From here it's back to Mesa for a visit.