Liz and Bruce Genuine Travel Bugs

We have been to Tucson Arizonza so many times there is a real sense of comfort and familiarity when returning. This time our agenda was different. Earlier in the year during a brief conversation with Betsy (Grandmabetsy) while cruising Africa we discussed the attraction we both had to head to the Mohave desert to do the Highway to Hell caching trail. So here we were with Betsy's husband Allen (Hiking Solo), their 2 cats, the motor home and jeep on the back heading to Needles California and the central location to venture into the desert from different directions to access the caches on the Highway to Hell. The four and four and a half terrains were accurate as we laboriously crawled over rocks, washouts, disappearing tracks, hills and ravines. Betsy and Allen knew their vehicle and how to drive it so even though the going was often slow we managed to find cache after cache and were relieved as we got past each hundred find. We didn't manage to complete the trail but we gave it a good shot and felt pleased that we had been able to do a lot of maintenance to keep this trail alive for years to come. In Needles we stayed at the Red Roof Inn for the week while Betsy and Allen stayed in their RV at a RV Park.

We have spent most of this week with Rudy and Diane who we have been friends with since our time in Woomera in the late seventies.

Tomorrow an early start for our flight to Spokane Wasington State where we will meet up with Paul and Elaine for Christmas and New Year. Tucson has been unseasonably warm for winter but we have our feather jackets out for tomorrow.

Christmas good wishes to you and your family and may the New Year be full of joy and happiness.

Our last night in Florida and an early transit to the Miami airport will have us leaving our airbnb at 4am. We are staying in the town of Melbourne, convenient to 3 Adventure Lab art pieces and lines of challenge caches. We will be heading to Tucson and Paul and Elaine to New York. It is snowing up that way but still moderate weather in Arizona. In our two weeks we explored the Florida Keys and particularly loved Key West. A beautiful and historic town, full of quirky sights and beautiful beaches. We visited the most southerly point of the continental USA along with lots of other tourists and also Hemingways house where we learnt about the authors philandering ways and the polydatyl cats. These cats have 6 and in some cases 7 toes, the normal is 5. There is still about 60 cats in the garden which we were allowed to pet. We spent a week in Naples, our airbnb was out in the boon docks. It was classed as Naples South and we were on Everglades Avenue. Could not leave rubbish out as it would attract bears. On our nature walks while caching we saw several alligators and crocodiles, a bear and turtles. Lots of bird life too. We had a tour with Captain Jacks airboats and that was fun scooting around the mangrove trails and we saw 2 alligators. On one of our adventures in the Everglades we managed to remove a back covering off the car when we went through a deep body of water, then I tripped over a piece of barbed wire fencing but no real harm done other than a reminder of how important it is to watch where we are walking. Bruce however took a fall in a sandy, marshy area where he said the ground gave way. He did hurt himself and has been using our tens machine to hopefully settle down the area at the back of the knee that hurts.
Let's see what Arizona has in stall for us.

Discovered it in San Antonio while our Aussie friends were visiting. Thanks for the great time!

We have just had a week with a large contingent of the geocaching community at the Block Beach Party which was held around different venues on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. The week started with a community event hosted by us at a small town called Pomona. We attracted about 70 geocachers many of whom had dinner at the pub and helped us celebrate our friend Warwick's birthday. It was a great way to kick off the week long celebration of 25 years of geocaching.

Now we are down to getting organized for our next venture as we head to the Caribbean for a cruise and to geocache in some new locations. The cruise will finish in Barbados where we get to spend a few more days then a flight back to Florida where we want to explore The Keys and other locations around Florida. Then it's onto Tucson for some caching in the Arizona desert.

As the time gets closer to Christmas we are privileged to be spending a couple of weeks in Spokane Washington. Our first experience of having a Christmas in coordinates quite different from our own. From Maryborough Queensland to Spokane Washington it's approx 14,231 kilometers. We have some winter woollies packed and are looking forward to this new experience.