Trish made us stew for dinner and talked about her Seahawk placemats one of her co-workers made her. Since it was our day off we also had some beer. I bought some Drop Top from the store earlier that evening from Fred Meyer. I had to get a nice shirt for the funeral the next day and why not bring beer home right?
The next day, we slept in a little bit and decided to get up and eat some food. Ben made his famous egg sandwiches. A little while later I had the itch to go out and find some caches nearby. We still had plenty in Bonney Lake to go get. I chose the few down South Prairie...a few miles from his house. We piled into his car and sadly it started raining. Just my luck. I get the days off that it rains.
The first one we went for was Russelwood's First Cache (GC5AZ37) in a housing development off of South Prairie. We had to turn around once I had the coordinates jump. It was at the neighborhood sign. We found a place to park, I read the hint to Ben and we got out to find it. I was looking in the wrong spot when he found it. I walked over, signed our names and put it back better than we found it.
I looked at the GPS and saw the next one we were after was also inside the Russelwood's neighborhood. Ben made a U-turn and we drove to the parking coords. I always hated navigating through a crazy housing development trying to find the hidden park amongst the houses. Again, it was a park nestled behind all the houses and the only way in was a small graveled path. If you blinked you missed the entrance. We parked and walked the gravel path and thought the cache was at the blue bench. We were wrong. Most of the time they hide nanos on the bench. This time it was on the playground structure. Russelwood's Park (GC5JGHV) was hard to find at first because there were lots of places it could be. Then it started raining harder making it even more difficult to find. I found a place under the structure and saw something that didn't belong. "Ben! I found it!" He raced underneath the structure with me and we signed the log together. It was a black micro hidden in one of the holes on the play structure. I sure hope a kid doesn't find it.
We ran back to the car and went to grab one more. It was raining harder. Hopefully the next one was quick. Pay toll to the Troll (GC13X98). I figured it was a bridge of some sort...and we drove past it. We turned around and found a drive way to park in. According to the GPS, we were still like 100 feet away from it. I followed the arrow and Ben trailed behind me. "How did we miss this from the road?" It was a small bridge the homeowners use as a part of their walkway over the ditch. The cache had to be underneath it. It was. We opened it, signed the log and I left one of my pathtags behind for the next person. We waved to the homeowners and they waved back.
We drove back down South Prairie Road to the Lowe's. We needed to find some part for our homemade monopod we were making for the GoPro. Then we went back to his house and his mom and sister were there. They wanted lunch so we went to Hop Jack's. It was happy hour adn I wasn't all too hungry so I had the chicken Caesar salad and a drink. Ben had a burger, Amy had a salad and Trish had some sort of Mediterranean pita bread dish. It was getting late so they left from there to go down to Puyallup and we went home to get ready for the funeral.
We played a few games of ninja dice, got all packed up and dressed. We headed down to Powers Funeral Home and signed our names in the book. We found out seat and waited for it to start. Amy, Trish and Ben all took some time to go see Joyce. After my cousin Jay's funeral and seeing my first open casket, I wasn't ready to see another one quite yet. I opted to stay where I was.
We watched a short video of Joyce and her life. It was a mixture of pictures from the various decades which included outings, family, friends, Halloween, dinners and Joyce having fun. Then the pastor said a few words and ended it with the video again and if anyone wanted to go see Joyce one last time.
A lot of people came to celebrate Joyce, the caregivers, family, friends and even the crew from Options, the institution Joyce lived at. I wondered how all of them responded to what was going on. There were a lot of different levels of understanding and thought processes. One girl, who was probably over 35 was so upset. Apparently, she was Joyce's roommate at one point and they didn't get along so they were given new roommates, she thought she killed Joyce because she didn't want to be her roommate anymore. Shelley, Ben's aunt, told her that wasn't the case and gave her a hug and one of the flowers from the arrangement.
After the funeral all the family went up the hill to the Olive Garden for dinner. It was packed so we had to wait a little bit. When we were seated, we were bombarded with water, bread sticks and salad. They ordered some appetizers and we wanted for our main course. I had lasagna and Ben had some seafood Alfredo. We ate way too much and it hurt to move. Dinner was on Shelley and Tony for being there for them and supporting them in their time of need.
We all used the bathroom before we left and me and Ben hung out in my car for about an hour just enjoying the evening. We talked about our upcoming trip and the next time we were going to hang out. We both knew we had to go back home so we could get up in the morning for work. I talked to Grammie on the way home and I got home before midnight.
Next Adventure: Grand Mound and Scatter Creek Caching
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