Teleworking on Behalf of Covid-19

After my week long staycation, I went to work the next Monday.  I had no idea what to expect.  I knew every day the Covid situation changed.  I heard of the possibility of people working from home.  I had been for a year trying to get my boss to get the paperwork ready to telework so things were squared away.  I mostly wanted to do it for inclement weather and maybe doing it once a week on like a Thursday or something.  Nope, we didn't get it done until we were forced to.  When we were forced to every single person who worked at L&I also needed it done and all at the same time.  If only we would have taken care of it September 2019 we would have been able to work from home sooner.

There were lots of delays in the two and a half days I was physically at work.  Our boss got our paperwork done and we were allowed to work from home until at least to the end of the month.  The softphones were taking a really long time so I just asked my boss if I could just use my cell phone and she said she didn't care.  That meant I could grab what I needed, my laptop and the bag and head home.  I waited until Wednesday and I left at lunch time.

During those two days I wiped my desk, mouse and keyboard with the sanitized wipes and every time I left my desk I used hand sanitizer.  I probably turned into hand sanitizer after using it so much.  

That Wednesday morning, Debbie came in all frantic.  She had no idea what she needed to take with her since her son was picking her up around 10 a.m. that morning.  She kept asking me questions about it and I told her the last time I was allowed to telework was in March or April of 2017 but back then I was given a laptop that you locked into a monitor.  It was significantly different now with the new laptops so I really didn't know what she needed to make her equipment function at home.  So she unhooked the laptop, took the cords she needed and since she didn't have an extra monitor at home she took that as well.  When she left, I told her see ya someday.  At that point, we had no idea how long we would be out of the office.  

I left work at almost 12:30 and headed to the store before I went home.  I figured I had an hour during my lunch time to get what I needed and head home.  When I got home, I set up everything in the living room and just using the laptop was completely different than it being connected to a keyboard and an extra monitor.  I was so glad I spent the extra $25 at the state surplus store in Auburn (before it closed) on a monitor and cords.  For some reason I knew it would come in handy.  I say this because entering stuff into our programs was different on the keyboard versus the laptop keyboard.  You have to press shift and enter on the laptop rather than just enter on the keyboard.  I did not know this until Tammy told me.  I struggled until I connected the extra monitor and keyboard to the laptop.

It made the world of difference.

My last day physically in the office at L&I was March 25th.  Calvin, for the next few weeks or so, had no idea why I was home all the time.  I knew he loved every minute of it and so did I.  I got to spend a lot of time with him.

There were a lot of pros into working from home.  I got that extra hour to sleep in rather than getting ready and driving to work, I got to wear sweatpants, I didn't have to make my lunch the night before, I saved money on gas and wear and tear on my Escape, I got to do chores on breaks and lunch times, run errands at lunch time, watch some television, snuggle with my cat, save more times during my afternoons by not having to drive home in traffic and I actually felt like I got more done at home than I did at work.  There was one con, staying motivated when there was a couch nearby to nap on when you got sleepy.

I am living my best life.

Next Adventure:  A Mini Geocaching Adventure in Lewis County

**Update:  as of October 16, 2020 I am still working from home and they have no idea when we will be able to physically go back to work.  I don't think it will be anytime before 2021.**

My Forced Staycation

I took this week off originally because I was suppose to be in Peru on a tour but because of God Damn Covid I had to stay home during my week off.  There was no way I would be able to go to work and stay focused because I would have been mad and disappointed the entire time. 

I was very lucky this week because it was sunny and dry every day which is unusual for this time of year in the Pacific Northwest.  Most of the spring time it is raining and windy. I figured this would be the perfect week to go fix a bunch of my caches.  I had gone out with mom two weeks ago to fix my 507 series so why not the rest of them since I had the time right?

Sometime last year I spray painted a bunch of containers that I had been collecting for a while.  I had them sitting in a tote ready to go when I found the time to do it.  I went through some of the sizes I would need to replace my power trail on Waldrick Road.  I crammed them all into my small red back pack, threw some zipties, different sizes of plastic baggies, a couple of pens, scissors, my mini notebook for notes, water, snacks and a couple of pathtags just in case I wanted to leave one or two behind.

March 16

On Monday, I got up, had some breakfast and met with mom (who had this day off) and we went to the store to grab some stuff before the stores were out of it.  The Covid pandemic has caused people to freak out and horde stuff because they had control over that and not what was going on around them.  It caused a toilet paper pandemic and it was so stupid watching people self destruct at the grocery store.  A lot of the cleaning products were gone as well as some other items like rice, noodles and eggs.  It was weird watching this pandemic get to everyone.  I shopped like normal but was really annoyed when there was a product that we use a lot in our everyday routine missing from the shelves.  It caused Mom and I to search elsewhere.  Sometimes we had to go to three or four stores when we went shopping during that time.  I bought a turkey and decided we were going to have it on Friday for a Covid Thanksgiving.

I came home and decided since it was a beautiful day to grab my bike, throw it in the back of the Escape and head to Waldrick Road.  I chose to park at the trailhead lot near Waldrick and Steadman and do maintenance on #25-#15 of my Asphalt Adventures cache series. 

I stopped at every single one of them to make sure it was still there, wasn't broken, had a logbook and a baggie inside.  There were a few of them I couldn't find or were hard to find (it's amazing how far they migrate over the years) so I spent a while at some of them.  I changed some of the containers but not all of them were damaged or missing.  I changed out all the logbooks because you know, we live in Western Washington and it rains here most of the year and replaced all the baggies.  I also made new caches for Asphalt Adventures #18 and #25.  For some reason those ones disappeared a while ago and I didn't understand why.

I had a nano tucked in the bark of the tree for Asphalt Adventures #25 and could not understand why that one would disappear.  I had to make a new cache for this one and republish it.  I stopped putting nanos out because they seemed to disappear easily even though those are the hardest to find.  Instead, I made this one really easy.  It was going to be a micro behind the tree with some stuff over it to keep muggles from seeing it.  I wrote down the coords, made some notes in my mini notebook and continued on down the trail.

There were a lot of people on the trail because of social distancing and Covid.  I've been on this trail a lot over the years and have never seen this many people on a weekday let alone on the weekends.  It was an unusual time and I was already ready for it to go away as quick as it showed up.

Asphalt Adventures #18 was pretty unique.  When I placed it back in 2012, the coordinates were fine and the reviewer published it.  I tried putting a new one in its spot with the same coords and they wouldn't publish it because it was too close to a puzzle cache that has been here since 2009 so why did they publish my cache in the first place if this one interfered?  Whatever.  I found a new place for it and there was just enough room between the other caches for it to work.  I wrote down the coords, the hint and other stuff into my tiny notebook.  I moved onto the others until I got to the end of my goal for today.  Asphalt Adventures #15 was just before the trail crossed over Waldrick Road.  I turned around and rode my bike back to the Escape.  I rode by bike roughly around 8.5 miles.

On the way home I stopped by the Lowe's parking lot to grab Eeny Meeny Miny Moe (GC8JW5X) and I parked like 10 feet away from it and was disappointed that I had to find a micro cache in these bushes.  I had digging through bushes to find a cache.  Then mom called me to tell me that she didn't get the rest of this week off because they want her to come in.  She was disappointed because she really wanted a week off after not going on our trip we were looking forward to.  This March just sucks!  I found the cache, signed my name and went home.  It was almost time for Ben to come home and I had to make some dinner.

March 17

Tuesday, I got up, ate some breakfast, got ready to go, grabbed my caching stuff, threw my bike in the back of the Escape and headed out to complete the rest of my maintenance.  This time I parked at the trailhead of Military Road and where the trail crosses over.  There was plenty of spots so I backed in nearest to the gate.  I pulled out the bike and decided to head towards Rainier first and then work my way back.  It didn't take me long to get to my first spot.  

I started at We Don't Do That Here (GC4ZT8D) just to check up on it.  A lot of people have been finding it but then there are the ones who don't and that makes me wonder if it was missing or not.  It was in its spot and it gave it a little TLC and found a different rock to set over the top of it.  A biker rode by and asked if I was okay because he saw my bike laying on its side.  I told him I was good and he peddled on.

There was a gap I needed to fill with a new cache.  I figured out some coords, scribbled down the information in my mini notebook and named it Rainier Trail Cache II (GC8MYQR).

Then I started in on my Asphalt Adventure caches and I knew this was going to be a daunting task because so many had issues.  Whether it was a missing container, a wet logbook, a missing baggie, etc., I still had to search for them and make the fix.  There were a few I absolutely could not find.  Either they walked away or someone put them back in the wrong spot.  I started at Asphalt Adventures #1 and ended with Asphalt Adventures #14.  I ended up riding another 8ish miles and fixed 16 caches.  I rode back to the Escape, threw my bike back in there and decided to go fix Near the Trail (GC3MB1G) just before the S-curve towards Tenino.  I gave it a new container, log and a new baggie.

On the way back home I noticed I had a cache to look for near McIntosh Lake. I stopped at the boat launch and made an attempt for McIntosh Lake CITO Bonus (GC89R6X).  There were a few people out on the lake fishing so it made it easy to look for.  The coords kept taking me to a tree and I remember Bev saying something about a cement structure.  I was striking out so bad so I texted her pictures and she said it was hidden in one of the parking curb cement structures.  I checked all the holes twice and found nothing.  She said it was probably gone then.  Ugh, a DNF.  I would have to come back later to look for it.

I got back into town and mom asked me to go to the store to pick up a few things for Grandma and Grandpa since we didn't want them to go out in the midst of Covid.  While I was at the store, I grabbed some stuff to change the oil in the Escape since it needed it.  We made dinner when Ben got home, I logged the maintenance on the caches and relaxed the rest of the night.

March 18

Ben took the day off from work and since it was a really nice day again, we decided to find the rest of the caches at LBA Park...essentially blacking out a park.  We ate breakfast and then got ready to go.  We drove out to LBA, parked in the same lot and decided which cache to go get first.  I knew I would be looking for a cache again that I found years ago.  I remember having trouble finding it.

We walked through the fence and onto the trail system.  I had the phone set to find Johnny's Scented Smedium (GC74ZDH) so we walked down that trail towards the cache.  It took us to a wide open hilly area and when we got there we knew which tree it was hiding next to.  I had Ben grab it.  It was an old Johnny's Seasoning Salt container which they had taped camo duct tape on its lid.  Ben quickly jotted down our names and we put it back where we found it.

We moved to the next one, Zodiac Series:  Scorpio (GC8EH2B) which took us a while to find because it wasn't hidden in the correct spot.  We were almost ready to call it quits when I started looking in not so obvious spots on the wrong side of the trail.  I actually spotted the container shoved in-between two trees on the opposite side of the trail away from the coords.  I messaged Harvey's Pack on the phone to ask where it goes because we found it not where it was suppose to be.  She explained where it needed to go so we followed instructions.  Before we could hide it back, a mom and her kid saw us and wondered what we were doing.  I explained geocaching to them and they said it sounded like a lot of fun they should start doing it too.  We wished them a good rest of their day and they hiked on.  We hid the cache back after we signed our names.  Off to the next one!

Like I mentioned before, I solved the Brought To You series by Ohjoy a few months ago and saw where they all were.  They were pretty much scattered in Thurston and West Pierce county.  Brought To You From Colombia (GC80TYB) was in the western part of this park.  We took the appropriate trail and made sure not to step in any of the various puddles on our way there.  

We found the area described in on the cache page and made the grab.  It was a small glass jar from Colombia inside a plastic peanut butter jar.  We signed our names, put it back and hiked on to the next one.

The Woods II (GC2C3Y3) was a 10 year old cache, hidden in the southwestern part of the park.  I have no idea why we never went and found this one sooner than we did.  I saw the beat up half a tree that had been pocked by woodpeckers.  I told Ben it's gotta be over there by the "tree."  We walked over there and there was the ammo can.  We signed our name and put it back before the hikers got closer to us.  We could hear them talking nearby. 

The last cache we walked to was 3 Months...One Week or 94 Days (GC2P0DY) and I remember back in July 2011 having a hard time finding it.  So I was telling Ben about it and tryin to remember where it was.  The coords jumped around all over the place so I tried reading the hint and instructions to find the cache.  We eventually found the stump it was in and Ben made the find.  Yay!  I never have to come to this cache again.  We walked back to the parking lot and drove back towards home.  We walked about 2.5 miles.

We drove to Lowes to find a new shower head because ours was leaking and the shower wasn't able to dry out properly.  Our shower curtain and plastic lining was molding.  We found one we liked and took it home with us.  We ate sandwiches for lunch.

After lunch, I moved some stuff around in the garage for a bit and came across a bunch of containers that haven't been spray painted yet.  I took the table out, put newspaper over the top of it and spent some time spray painting them.  The next time I do maintenance I will have a lot more containers to choose from.  

The rest of the day was spent in the garage and then I washed the Escape.  I came in and we made dinner and chilled out the rest of the evening since all of our sports were canceled due to God Damn Covid.

March 19

I knew I had to go out to Eatonville eventually to fix my caches.  Since everyone was at work and I wasn't so I asked Grandma if she wanted to go for a ride to Eatonville to check up on my caches and she said sure.  

I got all my stuff ready, ate some food and drove over to Grandma's house to pick her up.  To keep up with the theme of the week, I stopped by BobBevLacie's 50th Wedding Anniversary (GC4F2FP) just to make sure it was still there and if anything needed to be changed out of it.  I added a new baggie since the rest of it was still okay.

We drove out to Eatonville via McKenna and Hwy 702.  It didn't take us long because it was a weekday in the middle of the day so not as much traffic out and about.  I went to Rainier100 3:  Ohop Pioneers (GC6KEW0) because people were having trouble finding it or it was soaked.  I found it right away, wiped it out, added a new log and baggie and called it good.  We moved onto the next one in the Pack Forest.

I tried to remember where we parked last time we were here when we placed Rainier100 2:  Pack Forest (GC63GN3).  I eventually remembered, parked and we walked to the trail head.  From there I just remembered which turns we made.  The phone got us to where we needed to be and I checked up on it.  The cache was doing well but the spire I hid it next to wasn't.  I may have to find a new spot for this one eventually but until then it stays.  We walked back to the Escape and drove into the town of Eatonville.

There, I fixed Rainier100 4:  Eaton of the Ville while Grandma sat in the Escape.  I ended up changing out the log and adding a new baggie to the cache.  Water had gotten in it and molded the previous log.  Grandma had mentioned that she needed to use the restroom but now with God Damn Covid, most public restrooms were closed until further notice so that was a bummer if you were out and about.  I kept that in mind and we tried to find a store in town that would let us go in.  Nope, Covid.  I was so frustrated with this whole crap.  I told her that I needed to go grab one while we were here and she said it was okay.  

Gnome Home (GC7MN48) was off of the Bud Blancher Trail next to Smallwood Park and the Mill Pond.  I ran up the small hill and grabbed the cache and came back down to the park to see the Mashel River before we headed back to Rainier.

I thanked Grandma for coming with me and dropped her off at her house.  She said it was nice to get out of the house for a while.  I told her there might be many more times in the future to get out of the house for a while if this Covid crap gets out of control.  I saw it getting there.

I went home and made my updates to my caches.  I worked on my blog, made dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening.

March 20

We have reached Friday.  That meant my week off was coming to an end and it depressed me a lot.  I had to go back to work without going on my trip I so looked forward to.  I went grocery shopping again because I needed to get some stuff I didn't get the other day for a Covid Thanksgiving.  I came back and prepared the turkey.

While the turkey was cooking, I mowed the front and the back lawn, weeded the flower beds, planted the lavender that I got from Grandma's house and played a little bit of hoops in the driveway.  It was such a nice day and I felt like I had to get some stuff done while it was nice.

I invited everyone over but Doug and Jenn decided to stay home so it was just me, Ben, Erika, Zach, Mom and Dad.  The food was delicious and I think this was the first time I had ever had a turkey or a Thanksgiving meal for that matter during the spring time.

My week off was nice.  I enjoyed not thinking about work however, it really was really disappointing not being able to go on my trip I paid for.  I really felt like this Covid crap could have been avoided but "higher ups" wanted it to be worse than it was.  For some reason I knew I was going to have to be really patient until the next time I could travel.  This was seriously going to set me back on my plans for the next few years.  These experiences we can't get back.  We can't get this time back and it was killing me.  I was so angry about it and I think I will be for a while.

I literally can not wait until this goes away and I can travel and have experiences again.

Next Adventure:  Teleworking on Behalf of Covid-19

Dupont Geocaching

I was so pissed I couldn't go on my trip to Ecuador and Peru because of God Damn Covid so Ben and I headed into Dupont for some caching.  We haven't been there in a while and a lot of new ones published within the last year or so along a neighborhood nature trail.  I looked at the caching map and picked a chunk of them to write down on a list.  

After breakfast, we dressed warmly and headed out to Dupont.  The first one I had on the list was Nisqually Prairie (GC83JNC) but stopped for Stop Monkeying Around (in a tiny tin cache) (GC202Y7) so Ben could find it.  I found it back in 2011 when I was starting out.  I had him find it while I stood there watching him.  I really don't remember it being in that spot when he found it.  

We got back in the Escape and headed to Nisqually Prairie.  It was at the end of an unfinished road.  We parked and saw the sign that talked about Mount Rainier, the prairie and the City of Dupont.  The cache was a magnetic key holder on the back of the sign. We signed our names and put it back where we found it.

The next one was Brought To You From India (GC852G6) and it was one of the caches from Ohjoy's series.  I took some time a few months ago and solved them all.  This was located inside a small wooded area called Andre Park.  I remember coming here years ago with mom to grab a cache that used to be here.  The coords jumped around a lot but with the hint we finally made the grab.

We walked back to the Escape and drove it about a half a mile down the road to the next one, Polka Dot Rock 2 (GC5ENDF).  We parked nearby and walked across the street.  The rock wall ones are very deceiving because it could take you a few minutes or it could take you a long time.  Rock wall caches aren't my favorite hides but this one was fairly easy to pinpoint.  We signed our names, traded toys and hid it back exactly where we found it.

We drove the Escape back to where we came from and found a parking spot near the trail head.  There were six on this trail I had written down to grab.  I figured since it was a nice day we should enjoy it with a walk.

We started up the trail.  It was a well manicured dirt trail that meandered through the neighborhood and the best part was that it contained geocaches.  The first one along the trail was called  The Green Box (GC81Z85) and it was hidden next to a broken Cedar tree.  I let Ben find it.  He pulled it out, we opened it, signed the log and placed it back in its hiding spot.  We checked the phone to see what the next one was.  We trudged on.

We walked past a few people who were out walking their dogs on this dry, sunny spring day.  The Waterproof Box (GC82Q90) was our next target.  When we got to the cache site there were a lot of root balls to check.  I even saw a discarded dog kennel that has been out in the forest for a while.  We finally managed to find the root ball in question.  The coords were off a little.  We got our names on it and put it back.

A Nice Place to Sit (GC8CEYW) was a little further up the trail and the difficulty level was pretty high which meant that it was hard to find most likely.  I was hoping we found it quickly when we got there.  We saw the stump and started looking.  I found it immediately and have no idea why this is rated a 4.5/2.  We scribbled our names on it and put it back where we found it.

We walked down the short embankment and onto the main trail and headed to Xmas Tree Cache (GC8H69C) and without looking at the hint I assumed it was going to be hanging somehow off the tree.  When we got there I was proven wrong.  It was under the tree but the container was pretty cool.  We looked through the swag in the container, signed the log and placed it back under the tree.

The next one, which is one of the older ones in the area (published in 2011), I have no idea why I haven't found this one with all the trips I've taken over the years to Dupont.  I'm not sure why we didn't look for A Cistern or Not (GC30Z6M).  Maybe because we didn't have a lot of time to hike out here?  I don't know.  Anyway, we continued down the trail and saw the huge tower up a head.

We went down and small hill and I noticed the cement structures up a head.  We must be getting close.

I followed the instructions on the cache page because according to the logs there might be two containers here, a lock n lock and a metal container.  The coords were all over the place so I spent some time and read the logs.  Most cachers were having a hard time finding it.  

We looked and looked and looked.  I found a picture someone had posted years ago and oriented myself with it.  We were near the concrete drainage ditch and we could not find it.  I gave it another few minutes and as our luck would have it I finally found the darn thing.  Holy cow!  We had to have been there for at least a half hour looking for it.  I was so glad to find this thing because I didn't want to come back.  We put it back where we found it and maybe the next cacher will be able to find it?  We will see.  

We walked to the end of the trail where it crossed the road to another neighborhood because there was one up here called Mr. Rogers Neighborhood (GC1VRW6) and Ben didn't have it yet.  I grabbed this one back in 2011 on a Dupont run.  I'm still not sure why we didn't grab the other one when we were here then.  I had Ben find the cache since I've already found it.  I don't remember it being where he found it though.  It may have been moved over the years.

We walked the trail back to the Escape and passed some people walking, jogging and walking more dogs.  We were getting cold as it was getting later on in the afternoon.  We drove home and did a couple chores, made dinner, logged our caches and I worked on my blog as we watched some TV.  Ben had to go to work the next day and I had the entire week off because I was suppose to be in Peru but because of God Damn Covid, I had to stay home.

Next Adventures:  My Forced Staycation

We Almost Made it to Peru

I was so excited for this trip because we were finally going to Machu Picchu and I was going to be gone from work for 16 days.  It took a lot of will power and patience to save up vacation leave for this.  I made sure everything was on my calendar, I told my coworkers all the information they needed up to the point I was gone and when I would be back in the office.  I needed a vacation so bad it was literally eating at me.  Almost like when you're a kid and you can't wait for Christmas to come.

Machu Picchu has been on my bucket list for a long time so being able to go was a huge deal.  We were suppose to go last year but plans got messed up.

(Not my photo but I wished it was.)

Since January, I've been painstakingly collecting the gear I would need for our upcoming Ecuador and Peru trip.  I got a small back pack for when we went to Machu Picchu, I bought a couple of pairs of dental scrub pants so I would be more comfortable, I bought snacks, tuna, crackers, breakfast bars, I bought new underwear and made sure it was all visible when I started to pack my suitcase.  

As we got closer to March and everyday after, my hopes dwindled every day as we approached our leave date because of the Covid pandemic.  We had already got the email from Khealynn stating that the Love Project in Ecuador was canceled due to the Covid outbreak.  Mom and I decided that we were still going to go to Peru until we can't.  We were super disappointed we weren't able to go to Ecuador this year.  We were really looking forward to it.

On the day of our trip, I got up around 9:30, took a shower and then washed laundry.  I had a couple more things I wanted to have with me on my trip that were in the hamper.  I ate some Corn Pops, got the recycle ready and drove out to Rainier to dump it off at the recycle.  I had gotten off of Spurgeon Creek Road and noticed a light dusting of snow.  As I got closer into Rainier, there had to be at least a few inches on the ground and the trees.  Rainier is definitely at a higher elevation than Lacey is because we had none.

I drove home and folded my clothes and set aside the ones I was taking with me.  I little while later I went over to Doug and Jenn's house to feed their cat because they were able to travel to Vegas before they stopped travel due to Covid.  They were suppose to be home Sunday evening.  The last time I went over there and fed their cat and made sure I had a copy of their key just to make it easy.  I get over there and made sure Freya had water and some food.  I sat there for a few minutes and gave her some pets.  They took Charlie, their dog, over to one of their friends house so I didn't have to worry about him.

I came home and started packing my stuff into my suitcase.  It took a little while because I had to make sure I had everything and it all fit.  It would have been different if we were also going to Ecuador as well...I would have had to fit more clothes into it.  Meanwhile, I had Ben go pick us up some sandwiches for "linner" because I didn't feel like making anything.  I did my final checks on everything and made sure I had my money, passport, ID's and was able to open up the tickets on the app from the phone.

Around 5:30, we loaded up the suitcase and back pack into the Escape and drove out to Rainier to pick up mom and her luggage.  When we got there, Mom was actually ready to go with all of her stuff ready.  Ben took her suitcase to the Escape while I made sure she had all of her money, passport, ID's and phone.  Off we go to SeaTac with our fingers crossed.  At this point, the Covid pandemic has freaked out everyone and no one knew what was going on.  I wasn't freaked out as long as you kept your distance, wore a mask and washed your hands.  The only thing that was giving me anxiety was not being able to go to Peru after we paid for everything.

We got onto I-5 and it really didn't take us long to get there.  We pulled into the the departures in front of Jet Blue around 7ish.  We said our goodbyes and Ben said to be safe and wear the masks on the airplane.  He drove off towards home.  We wheeled our luggage into the airport and found the line that we needed to be in.  I have never seen the airport empty before.  It was eerie.  We saw that the Jet Blue line didn't open until 7:30 so we waited in line with all of our stuff.  We chatted with a few people who were on our flight to JFK in New York.  They asked us where we were going and we told them Guayaquil, Ecuador and then connecting to Lima, Peru.  Then we had a discussion about Machu Picchu and how excited we were to go.

Once the line opened up, we had trouble printing off our bag tags for some reason so we told the guy at the ticket desk.  He said sometimes that happens and that he would help us.  While he got all of our stuff situated, we talked about pies because it was pie day.  We finally got our bags checked in and he printed us our boarding passes.  We thanked him and continued to security.  There wasn't anyone waiting in security which was also eerie.  Security is usually packed.  This was the quickest I've ever gone through security.  It literally took us like five minutes.

We grabbed our stuff and checked the board to see where we had to go and because we were international we had to take the train to the S concourse.  When we got there, we walked around, got water in my Nalgene and use the restroom before we sat at our gate.  

Literally before we were to board our plane to JFK in New York, Khealynn, from the Love Project, messaged Mom on Instagram stating that Ecuador was going to close its borders on Sunday at midnight to foreigners due to Covid.  That means if we did go down there, we would be stuck in Ecuador and never make it to Peru.  Then we weren't sure if we would be able to leave Ecuador and be stuck down there for who knows how long.

Mom tried to get a hold of Adam (he is our Peru contact) while I tried to find out more information from Khealynn.  She said that Peru (she has an aunt who lives there) will also probably follow suit but at that point most places are closed to Asian and European travelers.  This sucks so much!  I was so disappointed at this whole situation!  Mom and I quickly discussed our options and we didn't want to be stuck in a foreign country for an undetermined amount of time so we just decided not to go.  I was so crushed.

We quickly talked to the airline and told them our situation.  They got our bags off, gave us credits to use our tickets some other time (within the next two years) and we thanked them for the inconvenience we caused but they understood our predicament.  They gave us instructions on where we could get our bags.  We thanked them again.  Mom and I got back on the train and went to the main concourse and grabbed our bags from the oversized luggage near carousel 8 and made some phone calls.

We couldn't get refunded for our hotel in Guayaquil so we ate that $26, luckily we booked it through hotels.com and that was mom's free night so we used it to book it.  The $26 we paid were for the hotel fees.  I figured out how to cancel our international data plans we had on both of our phones and now we just had to work with Adam to see if we can get anything back from our tour or reschedule it for another time because this was out of our control.  We called Dad, Doug, Trish, Grandma and Amy to let them know what happened and I called Ben to turn around and come get us.  He said he was in Lakewood when he got my phone call.  He turned around and told us he would get there as soon as he could.  I told him we were going to be by the Jet Blue area.

He arrived around 10:30 and we packed the stuff in the back of the Escape and got back onto I-5 to head home disappointed.  Mom wanted some French fries so we stopped at the McDonald's near the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila.  We stopped and ordered two cheeseburger Happy Meals, a side of fries, a vanilla milkshake and I bought everyone apple pies because it was pie day.  We all essentially ate our feelings because we didn't get to go on our trip we were so excited for.

We got back on I-5 and got off at Mounts Road.  There were a few geocaches that published a while back and I save them for a time we went through here at night when this road was less busy.  We picked up Nisqually Overlook (GC8C958) and Nisqually River Fishing (GC8C94J).  The overlook on a nice day you would be able to see the Olympic Mountains from this point.  It took me a little bit with a flashlight to find the cache hidden amongst the rocks.  The river fishing one was in the guardrail about 100 feet from the Nisqually River.

When we got to Nisqually, near the Red Wind casino, Ben pulled over at the gas station to fill up.  However, he only filled it up halfway which I didn't get why he just didn't fill it up.  We drove into Rainier and dropped mom off and then headed home ourselves.  Once we got home, I unpacked my stuff in utter disappointment.  This virus is such a wasted of time.  It has taken so much away from us so far, money, experiences, sports, it is just awful and was totally preventable.  I hope it goes away soon because it is disrupting our lives.

Eff you Covid! (middle fingers)

Next Adventure:  Dupont Caching