A Covid Halloween

I asked Erika a few days ago if she needed to go to Costco anytime soon because we needed to renew our Costco membership.  She said Saturday would work best for her and if I could pick her up that would be fabulous.  I said sure and told her I would be there around 10ish.  Ben was at academy for most of the day in Tenino.

I got up, got dressed, grabbed what I needed and took a breakfast drink with me as I drove over to their apartment.  I let her know I was here and she and Zach came down.  It turns out Zach was coming with us on our shopping adventure.  We drove out to Hawks Prairie, parked and went inside.  We renewed our membership first and then went and grabbed a few things.  They bought way more things that I did.  I ended up with bananas, chicken strips, PB pretzels, heads for Ben's toothbrush, olive oil and some silicone mats for my cookies sheets (I bought those for myself for my birthday.)  We paid and then loaded it all in the back of the Escape.  We went over to Walmart so I could get milk and some candy for the trunk or treat later on today.  They ended up getting stuff too and I had to wait for them in line.  We packed all of that into the Escape and drove back to their apartment.  I helped them bring the stuff in and gave Emmett some pets.

We were gone longer than I expected, got home as quick as I could, unloaded the stuff out of the Escape, put away the refrigerated and freezer items, used the restroom, grabbed my shark costume, my back pack, the recycle and headed out to Rainier.  I felt like I was being hurried because the trunk or treat started at two and I didn't like being late.

Trunk or treat was created by Christina and Shari because they wanted a place to where the kids could have a place to go for Halloween because Covid was destroying a lot of holidays.  We actually thought Covid would go away by now but we were all horribly mistaken.  They planned all kinds of activities, had people agree to come down to Woodbrook Chapel with their cars, candy and decorations.  I was glad that the weather held up for us.  In fact, it was probably one of the best days in October weather wise.

I dumped off the recycle and bought some gas really quick.  I picked up Mom and drove to Woodbrook.  We didn't have time to decorate our trunk but I was able to remember to get a container to put the candy in.  I put on my shark costume and mingled with the crowd.

I was actually surprised to see that many people there and there were tons of kids.  There were family members I haven't seen in years and it was hard to pinpoint which kids belonged to which people.  I made several rounds taking to people I haven't spoken to in years.  Mom and I stayed until about 6:00 talking to people around the fire pit near Bob and Bev's house.  

Shari brought out some Halloween Skittles and we had a Skittles challenge.  Eat your pack of Skittles until you get one that tasted disgusting.  I think I got maybe six Skittles in until I got a yucky one.  We were entertained for about a half hour doing that.  We thanked the hosts and said it was fun.  There was some chatter about possibly doing it again next year.

I took Mom home, gave her a check for my phone bill and started heading back towards home.  I then had this idea so I texted Megan to see if she was home.  She was but Matt, Mason and Miles were not.  I asked if I could stop by to drop off some Halloween candy for the kids and she said sure.  I stayed for about 45 minutes chatting about a bunch of random things.  She thanked me and I was on my way home.

I got home, brought stuff in, put the groceries away since I didn't have time earlier, Ben was home so I made tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner.  We watched the rest of some of the college football games, I worked on my blog and Ben played his game for a while.  We had no trick or treaters this year because of Covid.  I didn't even bother to decorate because no one was going to be around to see it.  I sure hope next year is different and we are able to get back to our normal lives.

Next Adventure:  Geocaching and Chores on Veteran's Day

How It Started, How It's Going

Ben and I started dating on October 27, 2013.  We made it official after the Sounders game that I attended with him and his friend Michael.  At that point, I was driving a crappy car that could blow up at any moment, I was working part-time at a dentist office (who refused to hire me full time or give me more hours even though I worked hard and was reliable), I lived with my parents, I had a lot of (school) debt, no insurance, no money to do anything fun, I was just tired of what I was doing and needed a change.  I had been applying for state jobs but wasn't having any luck.  I soon got frustrated and it seemed hopeless but I trudged on.

Ben on the other hand, was also driving a crappy car, lost his job at the fire department, was on the brink of losing his job at the ambulance place because of losing his job at the fire department, was living in his car because he lost his job at the fire department because driving back and forth to Bonney Lake everyday was a long drive that sucked up gas and money, he was living in a county where he didn't know anyone, also had school debt and he didn't want to tell me all of this because he thought I would dump him.  I told him circumstances change and so does life.  I said, think about where we will be five to seven years from now.

In 2014, was talked into applying for a job at the local hotel and I was hesitant to do it because honestly, I really didn't want to work at a hotel.  I didn't want to work my weekends away and I felt like my time was worth more than $10 hr.  I ended up just doing it and worked there for a year (which was way too long).  I didn't make much, our hours varied, was stressed out all the time, was over worked, I gained weight and I was very unhappy.  I was able to get a better vehicle that I trusted to get me from point A to point B and back to point A again.  I ended up getting mono from this experience as well and my body was never the same after that.  I was let go just after being there for a year.  In May 2015, they made up an incident that took place to get rid of me.  At least they could have done their research and actually made up that incident on a day that I didn't have off.  I was on unemployment for about three months and made $152 a week.  I was actually thankful they let me go because I was home when we had to take care of my Dad after a quadruple bypass surgery.  That, to date at the time, was the scariest day of my life.  He has since then recovered and changed some of his habits.

Ben had a rough spring that year in 2014, his dad had passed away from a heart attack at their family home and he got a phone call from his mom that morning.  He called me, very upset, to let me know what had happened.  At this point, I did not know what it felt like to lose a loved one and I didn't really know what to do or what to say to make him feel better.  Also, Ben and I were still pretty new in our relationship and I didn't want to insert myself into another family's affairs.  I told him that I will support him in any way I could.  Ben spent a while at home with his mom and sister taking care of stuff.  I went to the service about a month later to support Ben and his family.  Their life had change drastically and in the midst of everything else, Ben kept on going.

The fire station ended up hiring him back as a volunteer but he also had to work another job to actually stay a float.  He was first working at REI but they cut back hours so he was forced to find another job at the Lucky Eagle Casino.  He was working the night shift at the casino as an EMT/Security officer.  Doing both those jobs at the same time literally destroyed his health and his sleep.  His car finally died and had to get another one.  He eventually set his sights on a Subaru at the end of the year.  Then a few months later, in the late winter of 2016, the fire district's levy passed in which they were able to hire him as a career firefighter so he put in his two weeks notice at the casino to work full time at the fire station.  The stipulation was, now that you are considered a career fire fighter you can not live at the station anymore and have to find your own place to live.  That caused a problem because we both were not making that much money to be able to live off of let alone rent a place to live.

That spring, we started the daunting task of trying to find a place to live that we could afford. I had been working at L&I since September 2015 and I was making more money than I ever had at my former jobs.  I was actually able to save some of that money.  He had some money that he has been saving just for this situation as well.  We managed to find a place in the middle of the summer of 2016 and moved in.  It happened fast and I really hoped that all of this worked out. I had moved from one job to another within the building but this one was permanent but it was part-time.  I wasn't making as much money as I had been so I was very stressed out and had to really monitor my money.  Somehow we made it all work.

He worked at the station for about eight months as a career firefighter under probation and one day, in January 2017, they just decided to let him go.  We are from a state where they don't have to tell you why you were fired.  They are not obligated to do so unless they want to be professional about it and actually have that meeting.  In this case it seemed like they never wanted to hire Ben...it almost seemed like they had to, didn't treat him very well at least not like the other career firefighters, told him what he was doing wrong during his reviews but never added constructive criticism on how to be better, there was no comradery, Ben always felt like he never belonged...almost like he wasn't a part of the good ol' boys club.  I knew moving into a house was going to be a problem.  It was a huge risk getting into a place knowing that he was on probation and could be let go at anytime.

A month before, in December, I was finally moved from part-time into full time because one of my co-workers decided to move onto a different opportunity.  That meant I was going to make double what I was making on part-time.  It came just in time too.

Ben was on unemployment through most of 2017 and trying to figure out how to stay a float.  It was a rough year.  We had to start getting creative if we were going to stay in this house.  Ben enrolled in school to take care of some prerequisites and because he was in school, unemployment was stretched out further for him.  We also got a roommate so they could pay for half of everything, even though we really didn't want a roommate.  Subletting was kind of frowned upon but we managed to talk the property management into letting us do it.  There was a catch, we were responsible for the damages or any problems that may occur while they lived there so we created a contract with signatures stating that everyone understood the situation.

We visited some friends over that summer that year and they suggested that Ben apply for EBT to help with food costs since he was on unemployment and going to school.  They said that it helped them a lot while they were in between jobs.  They were right.  It helped us tremendously while we were able to have it.

Also that same summer, my sister had to move from Nevada to come live with us with her dog. So now we had two extra people and a dog living with us and all the same house rules applied.  My sister understood because she knew I was being generous to let her live there since I knew she was basically starting over again and needed the help.  She appreciated it.  She did everything she needed to do and then some.  She was the perfect roommate.

It was fine for a while.  Then one day it changed and the other roommate decided they didn't want to hold up their end of the bargain.  I was frustrated that we've reached this divot in the road because we are all adults and should be acting as such.  It was like we had a 12 year old living with us.  They didn't want to do their chores, clean up after themselves, created more work for the others and the list just goes on.  

We had a pretty important rule about not bringing plants inside the house because we had pets.  Well, they brought a plant in the house and set it on the floor.  Unfortunately, I didn't see this right away but the damage was already done.  My cat had consumed a poisonous plant, tried to puke it up and we had to take him to an emergency 24 hour place in Lakewood because it was the only one in the area that had an EKG machine.  I was very thankful he was fine after a couple days of monitoring and a $1300+ vet bill.  We let them know that since they brought the plant in and caused this mess they were responsible for paying every cent back to us.  They agreed.   

Again, it was fine for a while and then they started to become really withdrawn, secretive, turned into a recluse and started taking advice from their friends.  Those decisions turned out bad for them and they eventually moved out which ruined my weekend.  I was planning on going on a long weekend trip for my birthday but stayed home just in case something weird happened.  Something weird did happen and they decided they didn't want to finish paying us what they owed on the vet bill.  I wasn't going to let them off the hook. For the next few months and into the new year, we tried to settle it but they wanted to be difficult so we took their ass to court.

Meanwhile, Ben's unemployment ran out as fall began and he was forced to find another job.  He finished his college courses and looked into doing more some other time.  He did some seasonal work at Costco, became a volunteer at the Tenino Fire Department through a friend of his and had to start working at Lowes because Costco took their sweet time getting back to him after seasonal work ended.  He was back doing two jobs at the same time with an erratic schedule.

At the start of the new year in 2018, Ben was on his way home from Tenino and some lady didn't yield in a neighborhood causing Ben to not be able to stop in time resulting in his car going into her SUV.  He totaled his car and had to lease a new one for the next three years because that's all he could afford at the time.  When are the misfortunes going to end?  When will we finally have a good year?

That late winter, we won in mediation and they paid us the money they owed in one lump sum about a month later.  That was a large life lesson on how small claims court worked and further shows me how awful people can be when they don't want to take care of their responsibilities.  I was so glad it was over and we got our money.

The rest of that year felt very unknown and empty.  I took a year long non perm job in the last spring and I wasn't sure if it was going to turn into a permanent one.  I was running out of time, because it was going to end in May, and most of my time was spent trying to spruce up my resume, cover letter and interviewing skills.  It was taxing.  Two months later, I was so stressed out.  I had to return to the mail room, I had five interviews and were offered most of them.  I had to choose.  The job I wanted wasn't interviewing until the end of the month and the others were at the beginning.  I ended up with the DOT job but still kept my options open just in case the one (at L&I) at the end of the month was offered to me.

That month was spent learning an archaic job.  DOT was so far behind L&I when it came to filing, imaging and doing your time sheet. I was spoiled at L&I.  I didn't know anyone and spent a lot of my time by myself.  I mastered just about everything in two weeks or so.  I eventually was offered that L&I job, I wasn't their first choice but the person they picked declined it, so I accepted it.  I wanted to go back to L&I.  I was at DOT for only a month.

Ben spent most of that half of the year trying to get a better job whether it was at a fire station, a state agency or even at a private industry that didn't involve retail.  He had no luck but did talk Lowes into letting him leave for wildfire season over the summer for two weeks.  He spent his time in northern and southern Oregon.  When he got back, he continued working terrible hours at Lowes and the fire station.

The summer of 2018 was very hard. I finally, after almost three years, got myself a full time permanent state job.  I could not believe it took that long but a lot of hard work, support from those coworkers who cared and putting up with a lot of terrible coworkers went into it.  It was hard to be happy and proud of it because my grandmother wasn't doing too well after her stroke that spring and all my energy went into that.  She eventually passed and it was devastating.  I really don't remember how I made it through those three months.  Life had changed forever.

The rest of that year was trying to get used to our new reality.  It was hard because that person has always been in your life up to that point.  She had a giant role in my life.  Family holidays were going to be difficult.  I cried myself to sleep most nights.  It was a rough time in my life.  I now understood how Ben felt when he lost his dad.  Grief is the hardest human emotion to deal with and the toughest to overcome.

2019 showed up and it looked like we were going to be spared through the first quarter of the year.  Things were actually comfortable and nothing was going wrong.  Then I got a text message from Ben one day at work asking me to call him.  I walked down to the parking lot in the front of the building and called him.  He basically said that the landlord wanted to move back into the house and we had until the end of June to move out.  It was the beginning of April.  I was angry because moving was going to be expensive.

We started looking for a place to live that would fit three people, a dog and a cat.  We had some good leads but the places online needed to update their info because a lot of the places we contacted said that the place was rented already.  We got frustrated.  A few days later Ben found one so we went and took a look at it.  I wanted to be in a house before the end of May.  I wanted to enjoy the stuff I had planned for the summer.  We decided to take it because we just couldn't wait for something else that might not have become available.  It had plenty of room, a pretty good sized yard, less than a quarter mile from the other house, the price was decent and we could move in asap.  We struck a deal with the other house and had to be out of there by mid June.  We were frickin busy that May and June.

Ben's grandma had to be put in a home and it was a terrible place.  Her heath got worse throughout the year.  We tried to go visit as much as we could.

As we got settled in, we were able to go through a lot of our stuff and get rid of some of it.  My sister did the same.  We got into a pretty good routine and everything was going well.  I was learning the ins and outs of my job, my sister was working through her degree, the dog and cat were getting used to the new place and Ben had an opportunity present itself in the form of maintenance on JBLM.  We've had our "hard but true" discussions over the years about his ambition to become a career firefighter and it just wasn't happening for some reason.  I told him to just find something to start making money so you can have hobbies, pay off some of your bills and can go out and do some fun things again.  He decided to go for it and learned a lot of skills very quickly.  He was tired of working retail.

As we got into 2020, everything was working out for us.  Things were paid off, we were able to save money, Ben started taking jujutsu classes with Josh and I had my entire year planned out and all the fun stuff we were going to do throughout the year such as a trip to Ecuador and Peru, concert with friends, geocaching in Canada and a visit to go see Ben's extended family in New Mexico.  I was so excited.

Then effing Covid hit and it ruined our entire year.  I wasted money on a trip I didn't get to go on and everything was postponed or canceled.  All we did was work our life away.  Ben had to physically go into work and I worked from home.  I was so done with Covid after a couple weeks.  It altered everything including my job.  We were forced to take furlough days because the state was losing money due to the stupid shutdowns. My sister moved in with her boyfriend in May so Ben and I had this giant house to ourselves.  With some of the extra time, I was able to go through a lot of stuff I had been putting off for about a decade or so.  We also did a lot of yard work.  Then in August, my cat that I've had for about 12 years was dying.  I had to take him to a vet where we had to make that horrible decision of putting him to sleep.  It was awful.  I've never been without a pet before and the house was very lonely. 

We actually thought it would be under control by the fall, hahaha!  Joke's on us!

Anyway, since 2013 Ben and I have had some ups and downs, losses and gains and learned a lot of patience and life lessons among other things.  These situations were not meant to last forever, however, they were put in our lives to teach us lessons on how to overcome, grow and deal with them.  A lot has happened since that day back in 2013 and we could have easily given up but we didn't.  We were determined to make the most of it no matter how difficult the situation got.  

Here's to another 5-7 years when we check in again. 

Next Adventure:  A Covid Halloween

A Meet and Greet in Astoria

The last event we were able to go to before Covid shut the world, country and state down was the Leap Day event that was held at Woodland Creek Park in Lacey.  Since then, nothing.  All of our planned caching trips such as TriCities, GeowoodStock in Canada and the 20th Anniversary Party in Seattle and all of the little events here and there were postponed or canceled.  I had to cancel my 10 Year "Cachiversary" event because the governor banned gatherings a week before my event.  It wouldn't have mattered because it was going to be outside and social distancing is easy.  I even had hand sanitizer available!  I will never get that moment back even if I do it next year.  It just won't be the same.

A few weeks ago I noticed that there was an event down in Astoria.  Bev messaged me asking if I was going to go because she would need a ride.  I told her to let me think about it.  I really wanted to go but what if it pours down rain?  Will going down there be worth it?  I ended up telling her probably unless the weather was gross.  Apparently that county in Oregon was allowed to have outdoor gatherings.

As the event approached I put in my "will attend" log on the cache page and waited until the weekend of to really decide to go or not.  I was keeping an eye on the weather.

The weather was going to be cold but favorable so we planned on what time we were going to go and such.  Mom decided she didn't want to go with us and neither did Bob, which was surprising.  I guess if he wasn't going to go get like 50 of them he didn't want to go.  Well, he and Bev had most of them because they've been down there several times in the past.  I had lots to get still.  The night before I solved some of the puzzle that were in the area we were going to be in.  Some were pretty easy and some required some thought.  I put a preliminary list together.  I got my stuff together and headed to bed. 

I also found out that we were going to miss the Seahawks/Cardinals game since it was a 1:30 start time.  We would have to listen to it on the radio.  However, it was a big game so it was changed to the Sunday night slot at 5:20 on NBC so we might be able to watch it if we got home on time.  We would have to see.

I got up around 8:45, got ready, put my warm clothes on in layers, since it was going to be cold and said goodbye to Ben.  He had just gotten home from a 24-hour shift at the fire station and wanted to take a nap.  I told him that I wasn't sure when we'd be back from Astoria.  He told us to have fun.  I grabbed my lunch and banana and headed out the door with my coat, hiking shoes and poles...just in case we needed them.  I drove out to Rainier and picked up Bev around 9:40, only to find out that I still need to do my front driver's side bearings now.  Ugh.

We drove towards I-5 through Tenino and Grand Mound.  Since Bob and Bev have most of the caches, we didn't stop and get any on the way there.  Traffic wasn't that bad which was nice since we had about a two hour drive ahead of us.  We got to Longview and went over the Lewis and Clark Bridge onto Hwy 30 west to Astoria.  Because we didn't stop for caches, it didn't take us very long to get to Astoria even though it's a pretty long drive.

We rolled into town around noon and had to pull off the highway into a parking lot to find out which cache was closest to us and where it was.  We put the coords into Bev's phone and she directed me to where I needed to go.  

Our first one, Skip A Bit Brother (GC83F4R) took us up the hill and onto a pull out.  When we got there I recognized where we were.  Not too far from where we parked the Escape, was a trail head that I remembered.  When we came here for the Long Beach Cache Machine, January 2012, we had gone up to the Astoria Column for some caches and were talked into walking down the Cathedral Tree Trail to pick up more caches and do the Goonies themed series around town.  That trail head a few yards away is where we ended up and we were taken back up to the column to our cars.  The cache we came here for was hidden amongst the logs.  I signed our names and we got back into the Escape.  

We drove down the hill and decided we should hit up the Safeway and use the restroom while we were here.  I wasn't sure where else there would be a public restroom available because of Covid.

I asked her what cache we should go to next and she said let's go to the Columbia River Maritime Museum because that's where the next couple of them are.  We parked, grabbed a snack and had to choose between Astoria Riverwalk East or West and we chose East (GC7HWA3).  We grabbed our hats, gloves and coats and started on our walk and wow what a walk it was.  

It took us to six different places along the trail, which we had to answer questions about to gather coord numbers, we did the math and then walked to the final.  It wasn't too far from where we turned around to head back to the Escape.  There were quite a few people using the trail including walkers, joggers, people on bikes and people walking their dogs.  

At one point, a creepy homeless guy snuck out of the bushes carrying around a Starbucks cup.  We weren't sure if anything was in it but the guy sounded pretty sick since he kept hacking and coughing.  We steered away from him just in case he had Covid or something.  At the final, we ran into a pair of other cachers who were probably here for the event, MrWalkie and snosrfpolo, who were both from the Oregon area.  We found the cache together.

We walked back to the Escape and I just about wore Bev out.  We did a lot of walking.  We had to have walked at least two miles.  I noticed my Discover Pass was on my windshield underneath one of my wipers.  It must have blown out of the Escape when we were leaving.  Who ever saved it for me thank you!  We pulled up the coords for the event and Bev led the way.  We turned into some baseball fields and parked the car.  I recognized this area.  The fields were below the school that Kindergarten Cop movie was filmed at.  We grabbed our masks and headed to the WSGA booth.  The Superknots gave us both tickets for the raffle and we weren't able to sign the log to Hey You Guys WSGA Meet and Greet (GC906DE) so they signed the logbook for us...because you know, Covid.

We spent most the time talking to Sean and Seth and then we saw Rhonda and talked to her for a bit.  We did the raffle and Bev won twice and I didn't win.  Sad day.  We thanked everyone and headed back to the Escape and then went to go grab one more cache that Sean gave us coords to so we didn't have to do a lot of walking for the multi.  It was called Pipe Dreams (GC7W6A6) and we tried looking in the trees where the coords pointed to but we were pretty off.  Then Cool Cow Cachers thought about following me into the woods but checked in one tree closer to the trail and found the container.  We all signed the log and he put it back.  We told them to have a nice day and we walked back to the Escape to head back towards home.

We went the same way home and the traffic wasn't bad getting back into Washington.  We got onto I-5 north and stopped in Kelso at the Taco Time because Bev wanted some dinner and that there is always time for tacos.  This was the first "fast food" restaurant that we actually got to go into instead of having to use the drive through.  We both ordered the burrito meals, used the restroom to wash our hands and enjoyed our food while we chatted about random things.  

We used the restroom one more time and I asked Bev if she was up for finding two more caches just down the road.  She said of course.

We grabbed Welcome to the Corner of My Road (GC4KE2H) and Happy Anniversary Geocaching! 15 Years of Fun! (GC5TRMX) and both caches were hidden by our friend Freda (bearsandme) who we miss dearly.  We are glad her daughter checks up on her caches and keeps them alive.  

We got back on I-5 and drove the rest of the way home listening to the Seahawks on the radio.  

When we got to her house she invited me in for some carrot cake.  We got wrapped up in the game and eventually stayed the duration of the game working on the current puzzle she and Bob were working on.  Sadly, we gave the game away with a field goal in OT to the Cardinals after leading the entire game.  It was stupid.  I thanked them for inviting me over and headed back to Lacey to get a shower, log my caches and headed to bed.  Ben asked how the event went and I told him it was different but it was an event.  It was also fun being able to see some of the cachers we haven't seen in person in a while.  Hopefully we get to go to events again soon like normal.

Next Adventure:  How It Started, How It's Going

A Furlough Day: Cache Maintenance, a Cemetery Visit and Go Fish

I hate furlough days.  This was our last one of the year and they are down right terrible.  This one was suppose to be at the end of the month but it was changed because the shared work program was about to end. I hated being on unemployment, which is not user friendly, and the furlough days created a ton of work for us to do on the next work day.  I deemed them double Mondays or double Tuesdays.  Man, I dreaded those days.  At least we had some nice weather during the summertime furlough days.  I would have probably planned something with Mom if it was on a Friday but this time it was moved to Monday, a day in which no one has off, so I had to figure out what to do with my day.

I decided it would be a good day to check up on my caches since it's been about six months since I last checked on them.  I was only going to check on the ones that have been reported missing or needs maintenance. The night before I made a list of those caches and an efficient route to go along with it.

I got up around 10ish, it is always nice to sleep in on my days off, grabbed some food and headed out.  I made sure I had my geocaching back pack full of maintenance supplies.  I decided to drive out to Spanaway first and make my way towards Tenino and then into Tumwater and finally home.  A giant circle if you will.

My first stop was in Yelm at Bypass to Nowhere (GC2HFCM) since I really needed to change the container anyway.  The last time I was here I didn't have the proper containers, baggies or logbook so I threw down a temporary one until I could get a proper one for this spot.  I parked, got everything together and the place I wanted to put it wasn't magnetic so I had to scrap that idea.  I went with a basic micro cache and stuck it near the stop sign.

I continued my way towards Spanaway.  As I approached the town of Roy, I decided to stop to fix the The 507 Series: Roy, Wash (GC3AMVP) cache instead of following a large truck so I pulled into the convenience store parking lot.  About a week to two weeks ago I got a message on the app stating that the Roy cache was missing and the rock it was hidden underneath was also missing.  I told them that I would go check it out the next time I was out that way.  Well, that was today.  I walked over to the original location and the rock was indeed gone from the spot.  It looks like they moved the rock to the corner of the fence away from the sidewalk.  I picked the rock closest to the store and hid a new container and took new coords.  I also had to be patient because the owner of the car lot was out walking around and I really didn't want to talk to him.  I did manage to get it all done and walked back to the Escape.

I drove the rest of the way to the end of where Hwy 507 meets up with Hwy 7.  I pulled into the Park N Ride and it was pretty empty for it being a Monday.  It was good for me because I could replace the cache in peace and not have to be stealthy.  The cache itself, The 507 Series:  Spanaway, Wash (GC3V7QF), was indeed missing as the logs stated.  I was hoping it wasn't true because I really hate coming out here just because to check on it.  I got my replacement out, found a baggie and a logbook and made sure to put the code on it to where people could see it.

I got back onto Hwy 507 and drove back into Yelm.  I had a cache, Curious George (GC8YF5Z), that I had to check on along the trail.  I had just placed this one back in August and it's already having problems.  I parked at the nearby neighborhood and walked to the cache with replacement in hand...just in case.  Yep, it was missing.  This time I put it behind the tree so it was hidden away from being able to see it from the trail.  I walked back to the Escape.

I took the back way towards home near 133rd and Solberg and had to replace Triangle (GC2EYYM).  The original cache has disappeared into the brush since it's grown up since I've placed it...many years ago.  I had a container with a handle on it so I decided to find a good tree to hang it off of out of sight from the road.  I took coordinates and walked back to the Escape.

I drove into Rainier via Koeppen Road and parked behind the Rainier Market.  I needed some food so I ate my tuna and crackers for lunch while I contemplated what I was going to do for the two caches I needed to check up on.  As I looked at the areas, I knew I was going to have to replace both of them.  The City of Rainier had done a lot landscaping and maintenance over the past few weeks and the cache locations were compromised.  Ugh.

I walked out to The 507 Series:  Rainier, Wash (GC3AMVX) first, since it was the furthest from the Escape.  I saw the city got rid of a lot of the Scotch Broom in the area along with the various brush and tree limbs.  There weren't a lot of places left to hide it.  Last time I stuck it near a tree with some rocks next to it since it was a fake rock but I can't put it back there.  I found some large rocks off to the side roughly 75 feet from the original coords.  I took some new ones and made sure the container had everything and the code. 

I took the fake rock and had to find a new home for Rainier Trail Cache (GC8MCG5) since the city got rid of all the railroad ties and rocks from the location I had it hiding in.  I ended up moving it about 100 feet near some large rocks on the south side of the trail.  I made sure there was an appropriate amount of feet between the two caches so they could be reactivated.  

I walked back to the Escape and drove towards Tenino.  I had to stop at Asphalt Adventures #1 (GC31DCY) because it was actually missing.  I parked in the driveway nearby and made the new container switch.  I got back onto 507 and drove back into Rainier.  I called dad and he was on his way to the bank and somehow got behind him but I stopped to check up on Nifty Gifty (GC2N0E9) and it was good to go.

My next stop was in Tumwater so I took the back way down Waldrick Road to Old Hwy 99.  I stopped at the store first to pick up a few things and then went to the cemetery to visit with Grammie.  I told her the stuff we've been doing and how we're tired of Covid.  

I stopped at the bank to drop off some checks I've been holding on to and then I stopped at Pioneer Park to find a cache.

I've been driving past Go Fish! (GC89H30) for months and wanted to stop and grab it but never actually did so I thought today would be a perfect day to get it since there weren't that many people in the park.  I walked down the trail to where the coords took me.  I wasn't sure what to expect but had an idea so I brought my magnet.  I found the sign and the pipe on the backside of it.  I tried using the magnet to side the cache up to the top.  The tricky part was there was a bracket that made you take the magnet off the pipe so the cache fell to the bottom again.  Hmmm.

I walked back to the Escape for some supplies.  I was going to have to make my own fishing pole.  Luckily, I had my caching back pack with me full of odds and ends.  I walked back to the sign, made a very sad looking fishing pole and it took me two times to finally get the container out of the pipe.  I signed the log, got a few pics and put it back for the next cacher.  

On the way back to the Escape for a second time, a PT Cruiser slowed down and rolled down their window (I thought it was going to be someone who needed directions or something) and I had no idea who it was until I heard them say, Val!  Haha, it was Celeste and she was here to do some Pokemon Go.  We chatted for about 15 minutes or so.

I got home, unloaded groceries, started the lasagna, watched Monday Night Football (Cardinals at Cowboys, Cards won 38-10), logged my caches, worked on my blog and talked to Mom and Trish for a bit.  I got cleaned up and Ben and I got ready for bed.  It was a nice day off but I'd rather be working instead just because I hate double work days.

Next Adventure:  Meet and Greet in Astoria

Mom's 60th Birthday Party

Mom has finally reached the big 6-0.  My parents just don't seem that old to me but chronologically they are.  It's weird how fast time goes by.  One minute you are 13 and your parents are in their late 30's and then you're in your mid 30's and they are approaching or already 60.  It is just amazing.  I hate that time is just flying by.  Covid has been making that seem faster.  What I mean by that is, yeah Covid is keeping us from doing all the fun stuff we typically do every year so it seems like we're doing nothing and time is slow but we are hoping it goes by so we can get back to normal which eats up a lot of our time we could be living our life.  It's so lame.

Anyway, I asked Mom what she wanted for food for her birthday party and she said chicken teriyaki.  I'm sure most of us haven't had teriyaki in a while since ordering food and going out is rather annoying due to the Covid rules.   I told everyone we were going to do it on Friday instead of the weekend so we didn't have to do anything this weekend and everyone can be free to do what they wanted.

I had been gathering presents over the past few months when I see them so I didn't have to get anything at the last minute which is what everyone is prone to doing.  I found Mom a sloth door stop (basically a stuffed animal that was weighted down) at Fred Meyer over the summer and thought to myself, I will probably never see this again.  Erika found a really cool sloth onesie from the Goodwill.  You just never know what sort of treasures you'll find when you go to places like that.  It's a never ending yard sale of awesome.

On Thursday I went to Hobby Lobby after work to get the sloth decorations I saw the last time I was with Mom at Hobby Lobby.  I had no idea they had these kind of decorations especially sloths.  I picked up a pack of sloth decorations and then headed over to the Dollar Store to see if they had anything else that I could use.  I did find some sloth cut outs so I could decorate the table with.  

As soon as I was done with work on that Friday I immediately cleaned up the house, set up the tables in the dining room, decorated and around 5, I called the teriyaki place and had Ben go pick it up.  I then had him go over to Safeway to pick up those giant chocolate chunk cookies for dessert.  I wanted to do something other than cake or cupcakes since we just had that at Dad's party about two weekends ago.

Everyone arrived just before 6.  They commented on my decorations and Ben arrived with the food.  I told everyone just to make sure we have enough food for everyone to spoon it out on a plate and eat it.  Once everyone has food that you can go for seconds and thirds.  I miscounted how many people were coming so we ended up with leftovers which was okay.  We ate cookies and watched Mom open her presents.  

We laughed at some phone apps and talked about funny things.  Everyone went home around 7:30-8:00ish.  I spent some of my night putting stuff away, washing dishes and cleaning up the dining room with Ben's help.

I spent the rest of the night watching the rest of a college football game, working on my blog a little bit and then got cleaned up and ready for bed.  Today was busy.

Happy Birthday Momma!

Next Adventure:  A Furlough Day:  Cache Maintenance, a Cemetery Visit and Go Fish

A Quick Caching Jaunt to Deschutes Falls Park - International Earthcache Day

Since every geocaching event this year was canceled due to stupid Covid I asked Bev if they were going to go out for International Earthcache Day.  I saw there was a new earthcache inside of Deschutes Falls Park, which was not that far away from us.  Most of the earthcaches were miles and miles away so we were pretty thankful there was one local.  I told her that we were going to go grab all the caches in that area since there were a few new ones.  OhJoy had published a couple of her Brought to You From's, a virtual cache that I helped 13Survivors with and there was a traditional off of Piessner Road, where I spent two summers at Camp Cascades as a prep cook.  She asked if I could pick her and Bob up as we headed out that way.  I said sure, we can all go.  I am going to make Mom and Ben go with us too.  We set a time and it was a date!  

The night before I made sure I had the two puzzles solved and loaded onto my caching app.  I also made a list of the caches we were going to get.

That morning, Ben and I got up around 10ish, made pancakes, bacon and eggs and kinda watched college football on TV.  Most of the good college football games were postponed or their season was pushed back like the Pac-12.  We weren't suppose to start until after the first weekend in November.  I highly doubt that all those games will be played.  We will be lucky if we get four games in before post season...if there is one.   

We got dressed and got the recycle ready since we were going into Rainier.  I called Mom to make sure she would be ready to go once we got there and she said sure.  We got into Rainier and dropped off our recycle and I saw some people I knew.  Jaime Evans, a lady who was a teacher at Rainier a while ago who I got to know and Raj, a guy who I know who works at L&I.  It is a very unlikely couple but they are crazy about each other and make it work.  I am happy for them.  We chatted for a bit and then Ben and I made it over to grab Mom.  We took her Expedition over to Bob and Bev's so all of us could fit in the vehicle comfortably.

We arrived that afternoon and picked them up.  They were ready to go.  We drove out to the falls, which was roughly a 20 minute drive from Bob and Bev's house.  When we got there we noticed a bunch of other cacher's cars in the parking lot.  One lady was leaving and one was just getting there.  We made sure we had our Discovery Pass, grabbed the things we would need and set out down the hill.  Bob couldn't find his GPS so that sucked.  He said he probably left it on the table when he went to grab his other things.  I sure hope the caches were saved on my phone since there isn't cell phone service out here.  I checked and all of them were there but unfortunately we couldn't open the earthcache questions.  At least the weather was nice for us...for now.

We walked to the virtual first, Deschutes Falls ~ In Memoriam Jay Nelson (GC88ZXT).  It basically wanted us to learn that staying behind the fence and warning signs were very important when enjoying the falls.  I ran into 13Survivors a few springs ago while getting one of his caches in the park.  

He asked us who we were and we chatted for a few minutes.  He asked if I was interested in helping him with the virtual he was rewarded.  I said sure and asked how I could.  He knew that my cousin Jay, died here back in February 2010 and wanted some information about it.  So I emailed him anything that would help him get his cache page ready.  

We got our photos and started off to the earthcache, Upper Deschutes Park - an eroded mountain (GC8CDJ0) at the other end of the park.  Thankfully, Cool Cow Cachers was walking towards us and we were able to get the questions from him.  We chatted for a few minutes and then thanked him for his generosity.  

We got on the wooded trail and walked to the earthcache location.  I thumbed through the list of geology questions and we talked them through together.  We got our pictures at the location, enjoyed our time and then decided which one to walk to next. 

I looked at my phone and pulled up one of the puzzle caches.  I had to decide which one was at this end of the park and I chose correctly! 

Brought to You From Russia (GC8G665) was way the heck out here.  We weren't sure if we were still in the park as we made our way down this terrible unmanicured trail.  We had to climb over downed trees and step over other brush and debris.  Mom and Bev stopped because Bev is not an "off road vehicle" and I was surprised she walked this far while Ben, Bob and I continued on.  

We weren't that far from the cache at this point anyway.  Mom stayed with Bev.  We found the area and saw where it could likely be.  I saw the ammo can and of course they are Russian nesting dolls.  I opened every single on of those containers, wrote our name down and put them back together.

We met back up with Mom and Bev and walked back down the horrible trail.  We got back to the open earthcache location and looked at the phone to see where the last puzzle cache was.  It was along the trail on the way back to the car.  We started back to the main trail when the sky opened up and started to pour down rain on us.  I had wished I brought my other jacket but oh well can't do anything about it now except to stay under the trees where it was less wet.  We walked past a guy who I've never met before but Bob and Bev knew him.  His caching name was JackPenny and he was having a hard time finding Brought to You From Mongolia (GC8ENQR).  So we looked for it together.  It was hard to find.  The hint kinda helped but it really didn't.  I decided to expand our search away from where it was telling us to look.  I finally found it and it was 50 feet off the solved coordinates.  Everyone was happy we finally found it since it was still raining.  

JackPenny thanked us for helping him and he went to the earthcache and we walked back to the parking lot.  We piled back into Mom's Expedition and left the park.  I knew Ben didn't have Brought to You from Australia (GC7YP5N) yet but the rest of us did, so we stopped and let him find and log it.

The last one on all of our lists was a traditional cache, #1 Statistic Padding Cache (GC8RZZQ) and it was on the guardrail of a new bridge that was above a low spot in the road.  Apparently this area receives a lot of rain and typically floods here.  I guess they were tired of it and put a bridge in here.  We found the cache and then I took them just a little bit further up the road to show them where Camp Cascades was.

We dropped Bob and Bev off at their place and they thanked us for a nice afternoon.  I told them we should do this again soon.  They agreed.  We went back to Mom and Dad's house and I asked Dad to help me with the Escape.  The Escape had been making weird noises and Dad said that he would take it to TK during the week to have it looked at.  Dad took Ben and I home and I was going to be carless for a few days which was okay since I work from home.  I really didn't need to go anywhere.

Earlier that day, Jenn messaged me to ask if Ben and I wanted to come over to watch the Ole Miss and Alabama game with them.  We said sure.  We weren't doing anything anyway.  We changed our clothes and put on some more comfortable clothes.  We drove over and they ordered pizza from Dominoes and it was delivered to the house.  We brought drinks with us.  The game ended up being a shoot out but Alabama eventually won.  During the game, their dog Charlie decided to sit on me while we were all on the couch.  He was wearing his new Seahawks sweater.

We thanked them for the invite and the food and headed home.  I worked on my bills, cleaned up the house, did some laundry, dishes, logged my caches from earlier today and we watched TV for a bit.  Ben eventually got onto his video game to play with Josh.  I took a while to work on my blog for a while.  My goal was to get it caught up and I was doing pretty good.

I am not sure the next time we will be able to go out and geocache because we were getting into our wet fall and winter months and it makes it hard to go out.  I hope we have a few weekends where we have some dry mild or dry cold weather.

Next Adventure:  Mom's 60th Birthday Party