Easter and Flying Down to Las Vegas, Nevada

I got up around 9:30 and saw that Doug didn’t come home the night before.  Oh well.  I heard mom making noise with the packaging tape that meant she was getting Erika’s books ready to ship to her.  I helped with the remaining ones and then went and found something light to eat for breakfast.  Later this afternoon we were going to cram ourselves with ham and potatoes, I wanted to make sure I had enough room.

I went over to Grandma’s house to see if she had a duffle bag.  No luck.  I really hate that my bag didn’t come in the mail last week.  I really did not want to use two suit cases.  Lame.

I went home and started the packing process.  I made sure I had all of the clothes I needed for about 5ish days, my geocaching stuff, shower stuff and other random things I wanted to bring along with me.  That took a few hours to do.  By that time it was close to heading over to Grammie’s house for Easter dinner at around 2ish.  I got everything packed in Doug’s car and started getting the food we were suppose to bring over in a separate container and took that outside to the car.  Then mom couldn’t find her key from yesterday.  I told her I set them on the counter.  Whatever happened to them after that is not my fault.  Doug got impatient and so I got in the car and we went over a little earlier. 

We got to Grammie’s house and unpacked the stuff we brought and took it in the house.  Roscoe greeted us with too much excitement.  I helped Grammie set the table and noticed mom and dad finally made it in mom’s car…they must have found the keys.  Turns out dad took them off the counter and brought them into the bedroom with him, why he did this, I haven’t a clue.  It did mean I was off the hook though.

Grandma arrived shortly after and Kevin and Karla were going to arrive late so we started eating without them.  The Easter food was delicious.  I probably had way too much than I really needed.  We talked for a while and then Kevin and Karla arrived with their food and some purple mashed potatoes.  They thought they heard Tracy say over the phone we were having pizza.  They weren’t sure if they heard her right.  That was the topic of conversation for the next fifteen minutes along with the purple mashed potatoes.

Grandpa went outside and hid the eggs and Easter baskets.  Tracy and Grammie cleared the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher. 

It was time to go outside in the gorgeous weather and look for eggs and baskets.  I found my ten eggs and my basket.  I traded silver money for pennies.  The Easter egg money came in handy for later on in my day.

We had about another hour before I had to leave.  We played croquet.  I got the course all set up and we all picked our mallets and balls out and had fun playing.  In the beginning I was losing and had to catch up.  Luckily, being in the middle of the pack worked out in my favor in the long run.  Doug took a huge lead and became poison and started going after people.  He ended up killing dad first.  I some how snuck by, became poison and started going after people.  My first victim was Grandpa, then Tracy, then Kevin and then finally Grandma. 

Then we threw sticks at the hanging limb from the huge tree in the back yard.  We must be from Rainier, huh?  It was actually fun.  Doug managed to get one of his sticks stuck up in the tree.  We all came close a dozen times.  I figured that we needed to throw the stuck kinda side arm and it did work after the first couple tries.  I managed to get it down from the tree and Doug got his stick out of the tree as well.

By that time it was time to go and we said our good byes and headed towards the freeway via Lacey.  I had to stop by the bank before we left.  I’m glad I did.

We had a couple of spots on I-5 that were a bit sketchy so we went 512 to 167 and then 18 to I-5 to avoid the construction in Tacoma.  We got to the airport with a little more than an hour and a half to spare.  He dropped me off and I went inside and checked in my bags.  I got my boarding pass I printed and started heading for the security check.  I realized my phone was still in Doug’s car.  I was so glad I had that bag of change from the Easter eggs in my backpack.  I frantically tried to call Doug from the pay phone.  I got a hold of him and told him I left the phone plugged into his car.  I really thought I put it in my pocket before I left.  Guess not.  He said he would be there in about 20 minutes because he had to turn around.  I’m so glad he answered his phone.

I went and stood outside and waited for him.  He got there, I told him I was sorry and thanks for doing that for me.  I went inside and went though security.  This time I wasn’t picked out of the crowd for more screening.  I walked down the terminal and looked at some stuff.  I called mom and watched the sunset from the airport.  Then I called Bev and told her Happy Easter and a few other things.

 I walked down to a store that was still open and grabbed some Chex mix and a Cherry Coke for the airplane ride.  I walked down to my gate and sat down for maybe ten second and they started boarding the A passengers.  I was in group A so I got on the plane really early.  I got on board and immediately took a window seat close to the front of the plane.

I sat there and read some of my book while the others were boarding and the flight attendants were getting ready for our flight.  Around 8:30 we pulled away from the gate and made our way to the runway.

And then the best part of the whole flight is the take off.   I get excited every time.  As we got off the ground I heard a kid across the aisle say, “next stop Las Vegas!”  I couldn’t agree more.

I read my book for a while until we could turn on our electronics.  I turned on my laptop and got it on the Southwest Airlines page and got to watch our progress on the map that was updated every few minutes.  I didn’t want to spend eight bucks on WiFi so I worked on my blogs I got behind on.

The flight attendant went by with snacks and beverages.  I took the snacks but declined the drink.  I continued with my blogs until I heard the pilot mention that we were on our descent into Las Vegas.  I put away everything and stared outside the window.  Las Vegas was literally the only thing down in the desert.  You could tell from above where it actually ended.  We circled around and you could see the strip from the right side of the plane.  We were on our final descent onto the runway.  We got lower and lower until you felt the tires touch down on the asphalt.  We came to an abrupt halt and then slowly made its way to the gate. 

I let Brenda and Ray know we had landed.  I got my stuff and was one of the first groups off of the plane.  I walked and used the escalator to make my way down to the baggage claim.  My bags were right there as I got to the carousel.  I grabbed both and headed to the shuttle area.  I stood in line, got my booklet/ticket and one of the shuttle employees took my bags and put them in the trunk and I got on the shuttle and waited.  About ten minutes later we had a few more people on board and we were off to the strip!  I was the first passenger to be dropped off.  I was going to the Monte Carlo.  

 

 We made it in a few minutes, I got off, grabbed my bags and went into the lobby.  I met Brenda and Ray in a few short minutes.  We went up the elevator to the 30^th floor and I started getting ready for bed.  I had the bed next to the window.  You could hear everything from outside.  We all used the restroom and got into bed.  I did not sleep very well at all the entire night.

Next Adventure:  The first 500 caches of the ET Highway and The Little Al'e'Inn.

North Pierce and South King County Mini Adventure

The other day Bob, Bev and I planned on doing the Buckley/Wilkeson/Enumclaw/Bonney Lake area on Saturday.  She gave me a GC and I made my query.  Friday night I got all of my caching stuff ready, warm clothes, my backpack full of supplies and extra batteries and pens.  I made a sandwich and chips to bring along because I never know what's going to happen with the food situation.

My alarm went off at 8:15ish and I got ready.  I grabbed all of my stuff, some Fruit Loops and OJ for the ride.  They came down the hill and we were off to South Prairie towards Wilkeson, for our first stop.  There were three new ones in town since we've been there.  One we couldn't do because we haven't finished the rest of the series and gathered the codes.

It was a cold morning and I actually had to put gloves on.  The first one we went for was Failure Was Not an Option.  It was probably the only coolest lamp post skirt we've found to date.  Some thought and creativity went into it.

The next one was just outside the town of Wilkeson in a cemetery...

We were looking for a cemetery from the road and could not see it but we were getting close according to the coords.  Just then, Bev yelled, there it is!  We stop abruptly, park the car and walked into the cemetery.  Haha.  We parked in the wrong spot and had to walk a ways.  We got to searching and circled the same tree between the three of us at least twenty times.  We read the logs and one of them mentioned to expand search area.  I did and I found it.  A pine cone attached to a cedar tree.  Hmmm.  You had to be at the right angle to even see it.

We went into town to grab the other new ones., two traditionals and one puzzle cache.  Sadly we could not get the puzzle cache this time around until we finish the series and get the codes.  We tried to drive to the nearest cache but upon reading the cache page, we followed the rules.  There was a set of parking coords and we had to walk to the two caches; they were along the trail.  The first was called Rock and Cedar, which Bob found quickly and the other was Hemlock Bison, which took a few minutes.    We returned to the car.

We used the bathroom near city hall.  I thought the building was pretty awesome.

We drove towards Mt. Rainier on Hwy 165 to get two of them we didn't get the last time we came this way.  The one was new, Kevin's Stache, honoring a cacher's brother who had passed away recently.  It was an easy park and grab on a pull out.  Bob made the grab and there were two trackables inside.  Bev took care of them.  We moved on to one that Bob and I couldn't find back in January.  The coords jumped all over the place, it was cold and rainy.  The hint was terrible.  When I finally found it, it was not in a log but inside a hole with a piece of bark in front of it.  Thank goodness for nice weather and sunshine.

Since this was the end of the line, we drove back through Wilkeson and into Buckley for a few of them.  There was this wooded area next to the White River and it had about seven caches in it including a night cache.  We wouldn't be able to do the night cache this time but maybe in the future.

We got the first one near the parking coords and figured out we needed to walk down the road next to the water line.  There, we grabbed two.  One that required us to walk down to the small creek, around the sticker bushes and across a log.  When we got to the cache zone we then realized that the huge log we just crossed was cut down by beavers, hence the Eager Beavers name it was given.  The cache was easy to get.

We walked back to where Bev was and moved onto the next one a little further down the dirt road.  This one was called The Cedar Tree, we knew we were looking for a ceder tree.  We got within 60 feet of the cache and realized we had to jump across a moat.  Luckily it was pretty low.  Bob and I found large rocks and old boards to put across the water to use to hop over.

We found the cache right away.

We put the cache back and jumped back over the moat and continued down the road.  There were four traditionals and a night cache.  We skipped the night cache and went on and did the others.  The first one we came to we think is missing.  We called the cache owner and he couldn't even remember it that well.  We knew we were at the right tree and everything.  It might have disappeared since January.  We admired the White River from this location.

We moved onto the next few, Scrat's Hidey Hole, Into The Woods and How'd We Get Here.  They were all hard to find and we just happened to be looking in the right areas because the coords bounced a lot.

There were some pretty gnarly trees on our walk through the woods.  We met up with Bev who stayed behind on some of our short walks through the trees, she exclaims, "I am not an off road vehicle!"  Makes me giggle every time, haha.

We walked back to the car back down this road.

When we got there, we were so glad to finally sit.  We went up to Enumclaw for Taco Time.  I didn't need food because I brought my lunch with me.  So I sat there and went through the list while they ate their lunch.  We found a few that would add up to twenty for the day.  We found one more in Buckley that published the other day and we took the South Prairie Road for a few others that we needed to get.   Flash of Light, X Marks the Spot were two creative ones.

This one was a total dead giveaway because the cache owner spelled disturb wrong.  Haha!  Do not disturbe!

We got a few others around the area before calling it quits at our twentieth cache in Bonney Lake, The Unknown Future.  It was in the woods at the end of a blocked off road.  Bob has been here a few times and has struck out.  He was really determined to find it this time.  After a couple of circles around each tree, I had an idea.  Oh yeah physics and pendulums.  There was a log suspended in the air and the one side was heavier than the other.  It required two people, one to lift the bottom and one to check the top after it was lowered.  Just as I thought, it was a bison tube stuck in a hole at the top.  You couldn't see it unless you moved it.  It was a great one to end on.

We drove home, logged our finds, added pictures and relaxed.

Next adventure:  ET Highway in Nevada

St. Patrick's Day 2013

I wasn't doing anything and nothing as far as I knew was happening on Sunday.  I saw St. Patrick's Day was approaching and so I asked Barlow what she was up to that day.

She was totally game to host a gathering of friends, food, games and drinks.  We started the planning process.

I immediately started a Facebook group as soon as I found out the information.

"Everything should be as green as possible!"  -Lindsay Barlow

And we tried to make everything as green as possible.

We got a phone call from Grammie a few days later inviting us to a birthday party she was throwing at her house.  It was going to be a pizza party while we celebrated our March birthdays, Kevin, Karla and Karen.  We let Doug know and he had planned on coming too.

I got all the presents wrapped and put my green on.  We got to Grammie's house around two and she had messed up the pizza order and had to fix it.  The table was set and now we were waiting for Doug to show up.  He never came.  He had some sort of excuse.  We ate pizza, told jokes, laughed and had cake and ice cream while everyone opened their presents.  We usually play a game but talking took up most of the time. 

We gathered all of our stuff and went home.  I got ready for my next gathering.  Barlow wanted me to come over around 6:30 and help her tidy up.  I grabbed the stuff I was suppose to bring over, threw it in the car and drove over.

Along the way I got a phone call from Shauna.  She didn't know how to put coords into BJ's car's internal GPS.  I told her not to worry, the directions I gave would get them there.  I tied two balloons to the gate just in case.

I unloaded my car and went inside to help Barlow out with some light moving of stuff off of the table.  The place reeked of corned beef and cabbage.  LOL!  That smell will always take me back to high school when Janet Aschenbrenner made it every St. Patrick's Day.  The school stunk like it for days.

Nicole came followed by Shauna and BJ.  A few minutes later Celeste came through the door.  Small world note:  apparently Celeste grew up in the Yelm area and goes to our dentist office.  She was in last Monday and I made her appointment.  I had no idea!  It was fun visiting with her.  She is dating Nicole's brother Garrett.

We ate some of the food people made and brought.  I tried corned beef for the first time.  Nicole told me before I had a bite what it kinda tasted like.  She said kinda like ham mixed with roast beef.  Haha, to me it was more of a dry ham taste.  We had chips and dip, fruit, veggies and drinks.  I made green beer and BJ made fun of me.  She told us a little about her trip to the east coast.  Shauna told us about her chickens and ducks.

Shauna and BJ had to go but I was glad they came and got to hang out for a while.  We pulled out the games and had fun with them.  A lot of laughing happened.  We visited, ate food and shared stories.  Celeste had to go home and it was fun meeting her.

Then we decided to take a buttload of pictures in our green hats.  Nicole thought it would be fun to try and get a picture of us all jumping in the air.  We took a couple hundred trying to get the right one.

We event took some couch poses.  We're so weird.  Haha.

It got late and we all went home so Barlow could get some sleep for work the next day.  It was a fun, quickly planned party.  Until next time!

Tearing Down an Old Gas Station in Eatonville

Shauna had asked me to help her get free lumber from a guy who lived in Eatonville.  His property was sold and he had to get all of his junk off the lot.  Shauna asked him if she could have his boards and 2x4's and he said yeah, take all the ones you want for free. 

We loaded the tools up in the truck and headed out to Eatonville.  It wasn't raining yet.

We pulled in behind, parked the truck and got the tools out.  Shauna went and talked to her friend to let him know we were here and if it would be cool to ask for his help a little later.  He said it was cool.  We dove in.  She took the fence down with the sledge hammer and I got up on the roof with the drill and started unscrewing the hardware. 

About an hour to an hour and a half later, I had unscrewed all the screws and had taken down all of the metal roofing.  I am going to feel the bending I did tomorrow.  The sledge hammer wore Shauna out.  I got down and we started loading the metal and boards into the back of the truck.

Then it started raining.  I was so glad I got all of the roofing down before it rained.

We got the ladder and saw out and took apart some of the braces that was holding the corners and roof together.  That took us about a half hour.  We tore the walls down and piled them up into a pile.  The guy and his buddy brought the truck around and we got it chained up to tear the whole building down.

The first time we tried, we ripped the sides down and the roof stayed put.  We tried it again.  We did not expect it to fall the other way.  Shauna and I started taking the roof apart.  We started getting hungry but we really wanted to get it done.  Plus, she just wanted to come back tomorrow to load them and not have to take anything apart.  We finished taking the roof apart, put it in a neat pile and put all the tools back into the truck.  We said our goodbyes and headed over to Subway for some food. 

It hit the spot. 

We went back to Yelm, sat in the hot tub for a while and enjoyed the rest of the day taking care of chickens and ducks.