Back to Where It All Started

It was going to be an awesome week of sunshine so we had planned to do something local because we both worked. After the hotel I drove out to Lacey and waited for him at Meconi's Italian Subs.

http://www.meconissubs.com/

I changed my pants into shorts in the front seat of my car.  He was getting close so I just chilled inside the car until he drove up.  We decided to eat first and then play disc golf at Woodland Creek Community Park, the vary same date we had almost six months ago.  This is where I first met him.

We got our subs  to go and decided to leave one of the vehicles there.  We first attempted my car but it wouldn't start.  Hmmm...I guess we will take Ben's Explorer.  We got to the park and found a nearby picnic table and ate our food.  We talked about various topics but mostly about his dad, who was very ill.  We needed to schedule a time to go see his parents soon.

After food, we grabbed our discs and hit the 9-hole course on the other side of the creek along the old railroad bed.  There were actually quite a few people disc golfing today.

I had an awesome run on hole 4.  I got it in two tries and I think it was a par three.

We even had a lengthy conversation with some guy around hole 6.  When we got to hole 7 we looked for the cache that was suppose to be there.  With some aid, we managed to find it.

We finished hole 8 and 9.

We went back to Ben's Explorer and he drove me back to my car and it started!  Yay!  We went back to my house to hang out until it was time for him to drive back to the station for his shift the next day.

Here's to many more times spent together!

Next Adventure:  Spanaway Lake CITO

Asphalt Adventures, CWT and a Bike Ride

After work I thought it would be fun to take the bikes out on the trail...for me to do maintenance and for Ben to find the caches.  We left off at AA#8 back in December so we parked at the trail head on Military Road and went from there.

I had Ben navigate and I helped him when the caches weren't suppose to be where other cachers put them.  It's amazing how far a cache you placed back in 2011 can move.  I even had him find the two others amongst mine.  Well Insulated for the BobBevLacie Clan (GC4A8XR) and Slanted Rock (GC1D66N).

Luckily a lot of my caches really weren't in that bad of shape.  I had to fix a couple of baggies and one smashed container.  I saw some really interesting containers people had left the past three years because they either could not find them or the containers were in bad shape.

We rode our bikes all the way to AA#15 and decided to call it good for the day.  It was almost dinner time and we were hungry.  The last cache was replaced with a coin purse by some cacher a while ago.  I put a new plastic container and a logbook out for the next people who want to enjoy the trail and cache.

Next Adventure:  Back To Where It All Started

Six Months

Today we celebrated our six months together.

Ben had his Kelly day which is paid time off and I also had the day off from the hotel.  We decided to spend the day together.  It wasn't really planned but we went with the flow.  We made our way towards Spanaway and stopped at the main park to grab some caches.  We tried looking for Muzzle Loader Medium Range (GC50PXZ) and spend more than a half hour looking for it.  We ended up saving it for another time.

We walked across the road to the Sprinker area to Bresemann Forest and the climbing crag rock.  We climbed up to the top and came back down and talked to a guy and his kid for a little bit, mostly about climbing.

We wandered around in the forest looking for Oliver's Hideaway (GCG5XF).  That bugger was hard to find when your GPS is bouncing all over the place.  Ben found it with his phone.  I was impressed.  My GPS never went below 30 feet and kept me walking in circles.

We followed the path to A Walk in the Park (GC2JVP9) and had a hard time with that one too.  The hint helped kinda.  I started looking through everything that resembled the hint.  After about fifteen minutes I found it behind one of the cut logs.

We walked back to the park and got back to Ben's Explorer.  We had time to grab one more, Play Ball (GC2PM47), which I tried looking for a while back but had no luck.  Ben found it right away and I was like, I should have found it last time then.  By now some of the paint had flaked off and you could see the yellow container through the gray paint.

It was dinner time and I thought it would be fun to go to Engine House No. 9.  The sandwiches there are delicious, they brew their own beer, they have trivia and shuffleboard.  We didn't play shuffleboard this time.  We enjoyed each others company but sadly we had to come back to my house and hang out for a bit.  He went back to the fire station and I worked at the dentist office the next day.

Here's to many more months with Ben!

Next Adventure:  Asphalt Adventures, CWT and a Bike Ride

A New Job and A New Opportunity

A few weeks ago I was desperate for money.  I had booked this Mojave Desert caching trip and I worried every day...did I make a good decision?  Will my income tax money pay for it all?  Will I be able to live off of my extra money for a few more months before I found something? 

I've been worried about money ever since I graduated from college back in December 2007.  I've also been living out of boxes since then too.  It's kinda sad.  I never in a million years would have thought I'd be in this position looking back as an 18 year old.  By 30, I had hoped to have had a great job, maybe married, maybe a kid or two, a car that actually runs and maybe a few trips outside of the country.  Not the story.

Instead I have been living at home, making barely $300 dollars a month and slowly paying off my bills I acquired while in college.  I had hoped the internship at Linfield after I graduated would have been more of a permanent thing...which it wasn't.  They had to let me go after a year because of the budget.  It sucked.

At one of our monthly friend get togethers, I had talked to Celeste if the hotel was looking for any extra people.  Turns out they were and I could use the extra $400-600 a month.  I immediately got my resume together and a cover letter that sounded somewhat smart and showed up one day at the hotel to fill out an application.

I got a phone call for an interview immediately.  I went in on a Monday and by the afternoon I had gotten the job.  They wanted me to start the next day but I had my trip planned so I started the Monday after I got back.  I am not one for change and it was really hard getting used to something different than working one day a week.  Plus I wasn't too keen on the idea of working on weekends.  But it was money and I needed some.

Here's to new opportunities and maybe something that could lead into something better in the future!

Next Adventure:  Six Months

Saying Goodbye to the California Desert and Giant Dinosaurs on I-10: Day 8

I got up around 7 to the sound of Brenda using the blow dryer.  I managed to get out of bed and started getting ready to go.  We had 106.7 miles to drive from 29 Palms to Ontario, plus checking out the giant dinosaurs along the way.  We weren't sure how bad the traffic would be or how bad the construction was in Yucca Valley.

We packed up the van and decided to stop by the Denny's in Yucca Valley instead of back tracking to the other end of 29 Palms.  We all ordered the $4 Grand Slam again and wanted my eggs runny just like yesterday.  This time service was really slow.  We had a schedule to obey people!  Get a move on!

We followed California 62 all the way towards Palm Springs.  When we got in between Morongo Valley and the Springs it got awfully windy.  To the point where it was kinda scary being in a van.  We drove through the mountain range with the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south of us.  We came to the I-10 junction and when we reached Cabazon we immediately saw the giant dinosaurs.  We found the exit and when we got out of the van it was like being in a hurricane.  It was 30 degrees cooler and crazy windy.

Information about the giant dinosaurs:

Claude Bell's giant dinosaur sculptures are icons of roadside America: while many have grown up with them along the highway in southern California, others may also remember them from various films and videos, perhaps most famously Pee-wee's Big Adventure. The site features two sculptures: a 150-ton building in the shape of a larger-than-life-sized Apatosaurus (begun in 1964, completed in 1975), and a 100-ton Tyrannosaurus Rex structure (built in 1981). The dinosaurs, nicknamed "Dinny" and "Mr. Rex" respectively, were originally built to attract customers to Claude Bell's Wheel Inn Cafe. The dinosaurs were purchased in 2005 from the Bell family for $1.2 million by developers.

We didn't get to stay long because we had a plane to catch around noon and we had to drop Jim off at his car at the hotel and we were still almost 70 miles out from Ontario.  We got to Jim's exit and we messed up and had to do a large loop around on I-15.  No harm, we still got Jim to the hotel and we got to the car rental place, dropped off the van (we drove that thing a total of 1180 miles), got on the shuttle and into the Ontario Airport with time to spare.

Our bags and ourselves were checked in very quickly...we actually had to wait around for a while at our gate, 405.  Brenda and I used the restrooms and I grabbed a snack from one of the stores inside.  I even wandered the concourse for a bit just to see what all this tiny airport had.  We found our our airplane was 15 minutes late. 

When it was time to get on the plane, I had a B boarding pass and Brenda and Ray got on with a disability pass, which allowed them to get on the plane first.  I would have liked to sit with them but it wasn't a big deal.  When I got on I sat almost to the back of the plane.  I sat next to an Army guy and an empty seat and I just read my book to Sacramento.

When we got to Sacramento, Brenda waited for me to get off the plane and told me they were going to pay people to take another flight because the Sacramento to Seattle was overbooked.  What I was going to have to do if I chose to do it was, give up my seat, fly to Phoenix and then to Seattle and arrive after 9 p.m., earn $300 plus a buddy pass for my next flight.  I could have done it but I was ready to be home besides I had mom picking me up at 5 and Ben was waiting at the station in Rochester with my car.  A little while later they had the same scenario except you would fly to Las Vegas and have a two hour layover and then arrive in Seattle around 10 that night.  I might have done both if they paid for me to stay in a hotel over night and actually enjoy the cities while I was there. 

Brenda and Ray's flight to Portland was about an hour before mine.  We sat at a restaurant and ate some food before they had to take off.  Brenda's best friend had won tickets to the country concert at the Tacoma Dome, so basically they would get off the plane, drop Ray off at home and head up I-5 to Tacoma as quick as she could.  When they boarded I sat near my gate and talked to mom for a bit to waste time.

When it was time to board, I got on the plane...almost to the back again, sat down by the window seat and read my book.  I sat next to this eccentric older couple from I think the Everett/Monroe area, he was decked out in Seattle Seahawks gear and she was dressed comfortably in baggy traveling clothes.  We had a little bit of turbulence when we reached the Oregon border but nothing really to worry about.  I watched the mountains pass by...Mt. Hood, Mount Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier.

We made our descent into SeaTac and getting off the plane was quicker than I anticipated.  I called mom and let her know I was landed.  She was in the cell phone parking lot hanging out.  My bags were one of the first ones off the plane.  I walked outside the baggage claim and waited until I saw her car.  She made me drive and it was smooth sailing.  We stopped in Hawks Prairie because she needed to get a few things from the store.  I was starving so I bought a Lunchable.  We headed down towards Rochester and met up with Ben at the station.  I gave mom her Joshua Tree bag and The Route Beer I got for Ben.  Mom went home and I stayed and visited with Ben for a bit.  He said I definitely looked tan.  I was tired so I decided to leave since he was on shift.  I got home around 9 and did a load of laundry.  I fell asleep shortly after.  

This trip was a great history lesson for me.  I got to travel to a place I've never been to, cache our faces off and all in company with some good people.  I hope to go again next spring break.

Next Adventure:  A New Job and A New Opportunity