Woke up early on this birthday morning, and went back to sleep, lol.

We had breakfast just after 6 and headed out once again to a spot suggested by Douglas. It was basically on the other side of the Saguaro National Park from yesterday and had petroglyphs inscribed on the rock face, very interesting. From there we popped around to his house to pick up the 600+ virtual puppies we had left with him the day before, and after a chat we headed off again to another suggested munzee spot. This was in an area where housing will be built, but currently is just roads, fences and open land. So we walked. When we had had enough there, we went back to the petroglyph place as Douglas had put out a virtual resort and we needed a room each, LOL. Back to our room for a quick sandwich and then we walked out to the bridge over the Santa Cruz River that was closest to the motel, munzeeing all the way there and back. Shower and change and we went out to dinner at 5. The Texas Steakhouse had a 25 minute wait for a table so we moved on to the Cracker Barrel, which had a 10 minute wait (well 20!) But they have a shop attached, so we browsed and bought and then they called us in for dinner. I had catfish and Maria had crumbed shrimp. Very nice meal. We have noticed that horseradish is a common ingredient in things like sauces (tomato+horseradish) and we had bought some horseradish cheddar cheese, which is very nice as well. From there we drove over to the University of Arizona, just outside Tucson and did some virtual munzees. Douglas had suggested we go on Saturday as the parking would be much easier, but as we want to leave early tomorrow, we decided on an after dinner trip. Boy, were we pleased we did. There were marquees and tents lining the roads inside the university grounds, as this weekend they are having a Book Fair, apparently it’s one of the largest held. So if we had gone tomorrow, we wouldn’t have found any street parking or been able to move!!! As it was it was a pleasant warm evening and easy walking.

BTW Maria took the sunset picture from the car as I was doing 60 mph along the freeway! Well done Maria.

As we have a long drive tomorrow, I won’t be writing an entry, but will catch you up the next night!

We had a great day today, almost tourists, lo.

Had breakfast, included with the room, and then headed out to the Santa Cruz River floodplain just up the road from the hotel. There is a virtual Mario garden stretched across it, so we had to walk both sides. I missed the road we were going to, so over the bridge and found a suburban street with an access way, obviously for overflow into the river. The Juan Bautista de Anza Trail runs along the river, so we walked a little along that, before finding a gateway through the barbed wire fence and started wandering over the floodplain, being careful to watch feet placements! Mind you it is quite chilly in the mornings so not much chance of a snake appearing. The floodplain is full of wild flowers, mesquite shrubs (watch those long thorns!!) and various other bushes. We did see a jack rabbit and also a road runner (no beep beep and no coyote though, lol) Lots of small birds, doves and one hummingbird. We worked our way over to the ‘river bank’ which has a trail on it as well and walked along that, Douglas tracked us down again and walked along the embankment with us for a while. Once we reached the top most munzees, we walked back to the fence as there were physical munzees along that, and down to the road bridge. Clambered up the embankment there, and then walked over the rather long bridge to the other side. Douglas caught up with us again, there, bottles of water in hand for us. He offered to take us up to the leprechaun munzee that had appeared up in the hills, but we wanted to finish Mario first, so we kept going. Down along the embankment on that side of the river, and this time the river was actually visible for most of the way. It’s only a small width currently, but the size of the floodplain is quite scary! Once we finished the virtuals, we went over to the road (the one I had missed when driving there) and walked back to the bridge, back over, and then some more of the Juan trail back to the car. Back at our room by 2, so lunch and we did laundry, as this nice establishment has a guest laundry available! Then on to the next adventure. We headed up into the hills for the leprechaun munzee. This area is on the edge of the Saguaro National Park and it was amazing. The trail was only a narrow rocky one, but we climbed quite a way. I did however find a rock to sit on when it became to steep for me, but Maria kept going! The cacti everywhere, mesquite and other shrubs were brilliant! Douglas has recommended another place as well, so that’s tomorrow. Stopped on the way home to just do a few car park munzees and then home for dinner, only 12 kms today, and the equivalent of 9 flights of stairs!
Another spot the bird!

We were packed and ready to go by 7.30, but we headed the wrong way for a little while to capture a room in a resort munzee, then onto the I 10 again headed for Tucson. This leg only took 2 hrs and I’ve forgotten to check the mileage! In California trucks (and there were lot of them) are only allowed a maximum speed of 55 mph, but here in Arizona they are allowed to sit on the speed limit of 75 mph! I generally sat in the slower right lane doing about 71 mph, but it is disconcerting having these huge trucks overtaking you! Anyway we rocked up at our next hotel at 10.30 to discover check in wasn’t until 3. LOL we knew we were early, but not that early. Anyway, what a dilemma then, which way to walk and which munzees to get, as Maria found this place in the middle of the 8^th largest mystery cluster in the world!! So we left the car in the hotel car park and kept going. This little corner actually has about half a dozen hotels/motels and other eating places all in one sport with Walmart and a few other shops across the highway. The local munzee hunter, Douglas, tracked us down for a chat. I commented that everyone drives fast, and he said that 10 mph over the speed limit was overlooked, however in Texas some of the highways have a limit of 85 mph. That won’t be me!!!!!!! We carried on munzeeing and got back to the car about 12.30, had lunch, just a sandwich, and then we drove out to a virtual garden called Toad. It was created over the top of a suburb and it was great driving through looking at all the great cacti in the gardens. Lots of the had the saguaro cacti, as well as the barrel cacti and other different ones. It was a very clean, nice looking suburb. From there we headed over to the virtual garden depicting Yoshi. Douglas had said that it was in an area that had been badly storm damaged and was going to become part of an estuary rather than reclaiming it. So with his warning of rattlesnakes starting to appear (it’s spring here) we headed off into the wilds of Arizona. It was lovely, sunshine, wind with just a little chill to it, blue skies, casurina trees and others I have no idea what they were. We stayed on the tracks and open spaces, but we walked around the whole area, it had been a disk golf course. It obviously had had water at some stage as the ground had those almost hexagonal cracked dried mud patterns everywhere. But we laughed at the sign about what not to do in the water! As we were leaving we saw a little ground squirrel, small & cute. We had seen some little lizards and heard a few birds, but nothing else.

From there we went back to check in, 4 pm by now, unpacked and then headed out to the Walmart for a couple of nights worth of frozen dinners, munzeeing all the way!

Today was almost a take it easy day, only walked 10.6 kms lol. We concentrated on a shopping centre car park again as we wanted to do our share of greenies for our clan requirements. However, as usual our munzee eyes could see more than our feet could walk, so we didn’t get it all done as there were lots of car parks lol. We left the car about 9.30 and got back to it about 2.30!

There were lots of boat-tailed grackles flying around, obviously a flock bird, and their repertoire of calls was amazing, great to listen too.

I actually heard a dawn chorus this morning which was good to hear as well.

BTW our bed is very squeaky so that proved interesting overnight! lol.

Another couple of general comments. The roads so far have not been smooth. Lots of joins especially in the concrete roads which sounded like we had flat tyres for miles! Also those indicators I mentioned in an earlier post. Not many people know how to use them!!!!!

Woke early, but Maria didn’t so did some computer stuff, then at 7 am the heavens opened and thunder, lightning and lots of rain!!!! Leisurely breakfast (our standard fare of fruit loaf lol) and finished off the packing and then rain had almost stopped. Maria packed the car as I finished checking the room and after dropping off the key we had to head over a couple of streets to replace a missing munzee for Douglas who we are meeting here in Tucson. However we got ourselves mixed up and instead of being on the same side of the road we went round the block to the wrong side, lol. Maria hopped out and crossed over whilst I programmed the GPS for our next destination and then we filled up with fuel. It’s really strange having to pay first and then go back for the refund! Left there at 8.30.

Finally we got onto the I 10, the interstate highway and negotiated our way through a cobweb of intersections a couple of times! It continued to rain for a couple of hours, then down to spitting, then cleared up finally. We stopped somewhere at about 11 and had an early lunch at Popeye’s Lousiana Kitchen. We had popcorn shrimp which was very nice if a little spicy. There were 3 munzees in the parking lot and 5 when we left, lol. Lots of wind farms closer to the city area, but it got quite hilly and then quite desolate looking with sand storms blowing in the distance. The road had warning signs about sand being blown across the road in areas and we did drive through one blowy sandy bit!

Crossed over the Arizona border and kept going. Noticed that on the California side all the exits had sequential numbers, on the Arizona side the exits were numbered for how many miles from the border they were! Lots of hills again and lots of saguaro cacti in the desert!

Found our hotel (340 miles/517 kms, 6 hours later) and unpacked, no lift, so Maria lugged the luggage up the stairs. Popped out for a little walk around a shopping centre car park, and back here for dinner.  So only walked 5 kms today. Sharing a bed so that will be interesting lol.

It rained all night, and the cars sound completely different driving past on wet concrete roads rather than wet bitumen! Our last full day in California and it was fine, but with a rather cool wind. Maria left her coat behind so she was not a happy girl! We headed back to Yorba Linda as there were still heaps of munzees still waiting for us, lol. However we did a little side trip to Angel Stadium again and capped the new ones there. This time at Yorba Linda we walked the Santa Ana River Trail, which runs all along the river. It was lovely, once we were accustomed to the constant noise of the traffic on the motorway on the other side. Lots and lots of birds, all sorts of chirpings and tweetings in the trees, even buzzed by several hummingbirds!! The pine smell of the trees and the river flowing past were great. Walked about 9.5 kms though Maria’s says 12, but going to stick to mine as hers was in her shoe, lol. Actually back at the hotel just after 6, how early was that! Basically packed and ready to go in the morning, heading for Phoenix and 2 nights there.

Just a couple of notes, most cars here don’t have indicators as separate lights, the brake light flashes instead! They also do lots of u-turns, which is funny as my GPS tries to send me around the block all the time rather than a u-turn at the lights, LOL

A real scavenger

Have to find out what these are
Maria capping physical munzees

Sorry I forgot the PS for the night of the 3^rd. We fiddled around a bit and then we went to the All American Military Store as Maria wanted something special for John. Lots of great things there and a successful shopping trip. Capped a few more munzees around the place and then left the car back at the hotel and walked back to California Adventure for the light show. Only thing was everyone had to stand to see so was a bit stiff after standing round for just over an hour. Oh well. The show was great with images being projected on jets of water telling the story of Walt Disney and how the whole empire began and developed.

OK back to today!

Might not have done as much walking only just under 9 kms, but lots of socialising and munzee capping. Started off the morning with breakfast at a Carls Jr and then moved on to Yorba Regional Park where the main event and the main reason for coming to California, Munzee Madness 5. More socialising, walking around the park and munzeeing, lunch, raffle, more munzees, clean up and then more munzees, both Maria and I managed 100K in a day which is an achievement that we can’t do at home. Did however hear lots of hummingbirds, heard and saw a woodpecker and obviously the squirrels get fed as they thought we might feed them! Also blue jays and a turkey vulture soaring over the river in it’s concrete canyon! From there we then headed over to dinner after a little more munzeeing. More socialising and then down the freeway and a flyover as well to change direction and finally home!! Two more nights here and then on to Arizona.
P.S. so far we’ve walked about 90 kms and driven about 200 miles.

 Turkey vulture Woodpecker & hummingbird hide and seek!

Well today was the first day of the reason we came to California. Munzee Madness V kicked off with an event at Elliot’s shop in La Habra. Lots  of special munzees around the area and other players to meet and exchange social munzees with. They can be quite obvious, 2 or 3 people standing around a lamp post with phones in hand is a dead give-away, LOL. From there we drove to the Brea Mall and once again munzeed around in the car parks around the buildings. Another huge shopping centre! Then across the road for a few more, but these were scattered through the Craig Regional Park. So we had a lovely couple of walks. We did try to find a geocache but were unsuccessful. From there we headed for the next phase which was the Food Truck Fandango. Apparently the trucks have that area of the car park on Friday nights until 9 pm. So once again lots of munzees to cap and people to meet. We had Japanese fried chicken and chips for tea, rather tasty! Had a walk up and down the street, said our goodbyes and headed home. Going to be a full day tomorrow, for the main event, having breakfast, lunch and dinner and being very social, lol.

Couldn’t resist – spot the bird

Important things first this morning, grocery shopping! Mind you there was a little park with a few munzees in it a couple of streets away from Vons, so we did those first! Filled up with fuel on the way back, this paying first when one has no idea of how much the car will take is bizarre!

We then walked up past Disneyland to do a few virtuals in the car parks and then back to Disney’s California Adventures, which is the theme park on the opposite side of the plaza. It’s more adult orientated, but that roller coaster was way to big and scary to even contemplate trying. Wandered around munzeeing as we went, and Maria popping into all the shops on the route as well, lol. As the light/laser show is on tonight at 8.15 we got fast past tickets so we have a designated area to stand in and watch it. So will do the 30 minute walk back there later tonight, if we haven’t fallen asleep lol.

Beautiful cyclamens

P.S. For the 4^th:
Didn’t get home until 9.30. We left the hotel about 5 and headed for the Angels Stadium. (Lots of munzees there) It is a very large place, and car parking for the zillions, lol, we drove around and around and around. Concrete blocks and fencing separated out different parking areas and it got darker and darker until it was full night and we were still cruising the car parks. There was only one with vehicles in so it was easy as I didn’t have to stress about where to stop and park when we got to a new area of virtuals. From there we drove off to another couple of smaller virtual gardens and Maria finally got the 2 munzee badges she was chasing!

Okay, now back to today. Woke late again, and after some fiddling around we left 9.30 to go and visit Elliot, the local munzee reseller. He also sells coins and stamps and such stuff, very interesting shop. Did a little buying and then we capped the munzees around the shop and headed back to the hotel. Actually managed lunch at 12, and then we walked over to Disneyland again but this time to do tourist stuff! First off Pirates of the Caribbean, then on to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which was a roller coaster, but only a small one, lol. From there it was the Haunted Mansion and then Splash Mountain with it’s 50 ft drop and lots and lots of water! We came out dripping, LOL. We headed over to Tomorrowland, but there was a 65 minute wait for the ride there, so we gave it a miss and did the submarine Finding Nemo ride, it was very well done, but then they all are well done. But we must have spent about 3 hours in queues for about 20 minutes of rides! We found a seat and waited for the Paint the Night evening parade. Wow, lots and lots of coloured lights on floats and dancers. That was followed by Disneyland Forever Fireworks Spectacular which included the projection of images and lights onto the Castle.  BTW the fireworks can be seen and heard every night all around this area, we even saw them last night when driving around after the virtual munzees. No good having a nervous dog in these environs. LOL. Another amazing feat of entertainment. However getting out was a feat in itself with thousands of people all exiting out of one area!! Walked home and had a very late dinner! Now 10.30 in the evening, so finishing this off with a few photos and bed!

Spot the bird! 
We don’t care that thousands walk past we are going to sleep!

Maria’s hat queuing for Pirates …
Now about that 50 ft drop and I had to be in the front!