.: 3:10 to Yuma :.

It’s been a while since we’ve posted about the adventures we’ve been on. As with all things in life, things get busy and other things happen and before you know it a year has passed. Ideally, my plan is to revisit the many adventures we had last year and the cool caches we were able to discover along to way, but for now we will focus on the beginning of our 2019 adventures.

For many years we have tried to attend events, but every single time something got in our way of attending. This year we made a goal not only to attend an event but to attend a Mega event. One that we have had our eye on for the past few years has been the annual Yuma Mega event. After some humming and hawing, we made the commitment to attend. Sure enough as soon as we said we would go, we all got sick.

Through sheer willpower and a lot of medicine, we were able to depart on the Friday before the event. Our original plan had been to get everything organized and ready to go so that we could leave on the Thursday but with the illnesses zapping our energy and time, we settled on the Friday departure.

On the way south we were able to come across a nice rest area where a cluster of caches had been put out. Since we were on a timeframe to get down to Yuma before it got too late and knowing this would be a stopping point on our return trip, we found only one of the five before continuing down the road to Yuma.

Fortunately all went well on the remainder of our drive and we soon found ourselves at our hotel accommodation. Things were going good until TNT_Lando, had a coughing attack that caused him to vomit all over the bed. By the time we were able to get that situation handled, it was very late.

Naturally, the late night previous equated to a late start to our Saturday. This meant skipping the pre-event that was being held on the Saturday morning before the Mega. It seemed that the curse of missing events due to unforeseen circumstances was still in full effect.

We decided instead to visit the old Territorial Prison. It was a very neat point of interest. The prison sits on the banks of the Colorado River and overlooks a nearby rail bridge and the ocean-to-ocean highway bridge. I learned later that when the rail bridge was constructed, it required the demolition of nearly half of the prison. We also learned that had not the community stepped up to save the remainder of the prison, the whole thing would have been lost. We were grateful it still stood as it is a unique piece of history.

We enjoyed learning about the prison and some of the inmates that once took residence in its depths. We wandered along the open air cells with their triple bunks and iron clad doors. They had a neat system of having some of the prisoners stories told as you walked up to the various cells. They even still had the original Dark Cell which was carved into a granite outcrop. When Tatterhood first entered it, she swore that someone was standing next to her. Only when I turned on the flashlight to reveal only stagnant air and the remains of a steel cell.

The prison did cost a few bucks to get in, as it is a state park, but the experience was worth it as well as the preservation of this piece of history.

After leaving the prison, we went to a nearby park to find a cache. Though we gave it a good search, we came up empty handed. Luckily something else caught our eye before leaving. A local model train group were meeting at the park offering rides on their small, narrow gauge trains. The trains were enough to sit on and ride around on a lengthy course that the group had setup over many years.

TNT_Lando, being a train enthusiast, immediately jumped at the chance to ride on the trains. It was a fun opportunity and we all had fun.

Later on that same day, we headed over to a big steam train where apparently a cache had been hidden on it. I thought it would be perfect for little Lando but alas he fell asleep on the way over and refused to wake up despite our best efforts. We did however find the cache which was truly a well done one. The builder had made the cache blend in perfectly with the steam engine. Definitely a great cache to discover.

After finding the train cache, we headed over to the riverside park by the Ocean-to-Ocean bridge. There we found a virtual and another quick cache. With the sun getting low, we headed to the old downtown and ate at Lutes Casino. We then headed back to the hotel for an early night before the big event.

Once again, the curse struck. In the middle of the night, Tatterhood started throwing up! It looked like once again we may miss yet another event. Fortunately the remainder of the night had no further incidents and Tatterhood was able to get a good amount of sleep.

It was quite the spectacle to drive into the parking lot of the event only to see rows upon rows of vehicles sporting the unique travelbug symbol on their bumpers and herds of people zigzagging around various locations with GPS’ and phones in hand leading the way. Witnessing the amount of Geocachers in attendance was a first very overwhelming. It being our first major event, we felt a little lost and unsure what we were supposed to do.

Upon seeing the ginormous logbook board, I quickly headed for it to sign our names. That was a neat experience to see all the various names and more coming in by the minute. We then wandered around to the front desk to see what we needed to do. After some brief explanations we headed for the creative cache table where various cachers were displaying their creative geocache builds and gadget caches.

Around this point, TNT_Lando spotted a nearby playground so of course we needed to pay a visit to it. Eventually we were able to drag the little guy away from the slides and explore more of the venue. I picked up a Yuma Mega Geocoin and were pleased to be able to get a picture with Signal the Frog… The geocaching mascot. TNT_Lando enjoyed saying hi and was rewarded with a special Travelbug tag which we clipped to his adventure vest.

We then proceeded to begin the event Lab Cache. Honestly, I’m not entirely certain what a lab cache is, even after completing it. I’ve always heard cachers mention them and that they were considered experimental caches. For this event at least, the lab caches consisted of going to various locations and answering a question about a picture or some random piece of information. This particular lab cache had 10 stages, which I later found out that they count for 10 caches… I’m still not sure why, but I’ll take it.

Along the way in our quest for the lab stages, we stopped off at an amazing playground. Needless to say TNT_Lando was all over it. While he explored the playground, I took the opportunity to run around the parking lot taking pictures of the travelbugs stuck on the bumpers of everyone’s car. I ran into a few people doing the same thing, so I didn’t feel too much like a creeper. I even ran into someone from my hometown in Alberta.

After Completing the lab cache, we headed back to the main event making sure we stopped off at a few physical caches along the way. There was one that really stumped us and even another cacher came by, looked and then gave up. We found it right after he left, but only by pure geosense.

Getting back we found that everything was in the process of being packed away for another year. We headed back to the hotel and later on went out to find a large travelbug hotel. It turned out to be one of the biggest caches we’ve ever found. Our night then turned to food on Main Street followed by a few additional caches while heading back to the hotel for the night.

The next day we packed up and started our journey home. We stopped for a few along the way, namely the rest stop we had quickly been through on the way down. We managed to find the remainder before continuing our journey home. Overall it was a wonderful trip, despite the curse trying to entangle us but we made it and hopefully now the curse is broken.

If you get an opportunity to go to a Mega Event, go for it. It was fun and made for a unique experience. Remember that life is what you make it, so make it a journey to remember.