Friday, August 6th
Trish's sister Becky was coming to visit from Texas and wanted to have people over for the weekend. I have not met Becky so it was going to be fun to get to know her. We could only come for Friday night to Saturday. Ben had to work on Sunday. Trish told us we would be having burgers on Friday night and chicken on Saturday. I asked her what we needed to bring with us and she gave us a small list of items. I told her we could definitely do that. As far as the sleeping arrangements, Ben and I were suppose to bring our sleeping bags, sleeping pads, blankets and some pillows with us. This would be the first time using them since June 2019, which is really sad but thanks to Covid, we didn't get to do anything really last summer.
Both Ben and I worked our day away. I got off at 4 and Ben came home around 5ish. We got all of our stuff ready, fed the cats, cleaned their litter box, double checked to make sure everything was off or put away, loaded up the Edge because it was Ben's turn to drive and made sure everything was squared away before we left for the night.
Traffic was a nightmare. There was an accident on I-5 therefore they were funneling everyone through Yelm and Lacey so we had to drove down Rainier road into Rainier. Once we got to Rainier, we stopped at the Chevron, got gas, drinks and snacks. We drove down Hwy 507 and I took him the back way to McKenna and then we went to Spanaway, through Graham, down the hill to Orting and then up the hill into Bonney Lake. It took us almost two hours but we avoided a lot of the traffic. We got to Trish's house around 7:45.
We unloaded the Edge and went inside to mingle with everyone. Dinner was running late because Trish's BBQ wasn't working properly. She was very upset because she really didn't want to spend anymore money on large things. I didn't blame her because she just paid a butt ton of money on her DECK. She brought the burgers inside and had to cook them on the griddle. We had potato salad and chips. It was delicious.
We played a game of dice and we taught Jean and Becky how to play marbles. They got the hang of it after a while and Becky annihilated us in both dice and marbles. I lost so bad in both. Ben and I started getting everything out and ready for bed and it took a while because I think there were two sleeping pads, six sleeping bags, two blankets and four pillows. We laid down and tried to get comfortable.
I didn't sleep well and had to get up a few times to pee.
Saturday, August 7th
Morning came and you could hear and smell people making coffee in the kitchen. As I got up for the day, the right side of my neck was so stiff and sore. It was awful, like affecting my day awful. I went downstairs and got ready for the day. Trish was making a tater tot casserole, we had bacon, sausages and some fruit for breakfast. I asked Trish if this was the same casserole she made a while back that was runny. She said it was and she didn't add that much milk into it this time. We helped her set the table and food was done. I was hungry.
We all sat at the table and enjoyed each other's company while we talked about random things. You could tell Trish needed this time with her family. She said it's been almost three years since she and her sister's have been together at the same time. She also mentioned that she took some time off so she and her sisters could go to the ocean and spend some time away from home for a while. I was excited for her and very glad she took that time to be with family. She really needed this after the last year we've all had. I still need to work on her to start planning to go see her brother and sister in law in New Mexico. We were suppose to last fall but that didn't happen. Stupid Covid.
We helped clean up the table and got settled in for the rest of the day. Ben had to go get ready because he scheduled the Edge for a routine maintenance check and oil change at 1 down in Puyallup. I really didn't want to go with him because I was feeling bad and wanted to lay on the couch with the heat wrap on me that Trish gave me to use.
Ed came over after breakfast to hang out.
Ben left for his appointment and the rest of us spent time playing dice and other games, Amy did the dishes and went back and forth to her room, I laid on the couch while I watched the Mariners with a heat wrap on my neck and Trish wouldn't sit down and relax a little bit. Meanwhile, Amy had a bunch of casserole for breakfast but wasn't quite satisfied so she ate leftover pancakes from breakfast the day before and leftover Chinese food from Thursday night's dinner. Amy, why are you eating more food? We just had breakfast.
A little while later, Ben came home, fixed the light bulb downstairs and Amy's towel bar in her bathroom. It rained off and on throughout the day and Trish, Ed and Ben went outside to check out the BBQ to see what actually was going on with it. Trish was very worried that she had to go buy a new grill. They unhooked some of the parts and saw that the lines from the propane to the grill were gummy. They cleaned them off and turned on the grill. That seemed to do the trick. I guess we will wait until dinner time.
We had a short birthday party for Jean and Becky since they had summer birthdays. Trish's present was taking her sister's to the Tokeland Hotel for a few days and I bought them each a book because Trish told me they loved to read. I tried to find books that they would be interested in. I gave Becky Wild by Cheryl Strayed and gave Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. They were excited to read them.
Trish started to prepare dinner. She had bought seasoned drumsticks to throw on the BBQ, leftover potato salad from the night before, chips and beans along with my platter of fruit and fruit dip. We ate outside on her DECK and had to talk Amy into coming out and eating dinner with us. I don't understand why she didn't want to eat dinner with us. Plus, I don't know how she is hungry for dinner because she just hate pancakes and Chinese food like an hour ago. We chatted some more and enjoyed the nice evening. The rain had finally stopped a little bit ago but when the sun came out it dried it up like it never even rained.
We helped clean up after dinner and Ben and I had to start thinking about getting out stuff ready to go. We spent a little bit rolling up sleeping bags, sleeping pads, rearranged our bags so everything would fit, made sure we had all of our food, ice packs and phone cords. We thanked Trish for having us over and told Jean it was great seeing her again (I think it's been a year since we saw her last) and to Becky, I told her it was finally nice to meet her. We put everything back into the Edge and headed back home.
We had to take a detour and got off at Hwy 7 in Spanaway/Parkland. We drove down towards the 507 junction so we could stop at the park and ride to replace my cache there. Trish had an extra container that I could have. I got it all ready and Ben parked near the cache site. As I was just about to get out, a Spanaway cop pulled into the park and ride and pulled right up beside Ben. We rolled down our window and he asked us, have you seen a woman wearing black wandering around here? We answer, no sir, we haven't seen anyone like that since we got here. He replied, thank you...have a good evening. I am so glad we didn't have to explain to him why we were here. I get out again, walk down to the distinctive tree and replace the cache that was in fact missing. I hopped back into the Edge and we went home through Yelm.
We got home around 9ish. We unloaded the Edge, started some laundry, got cleaned up, fed the kitties, cleaned their cat box, enabled my Spanaway cache and relaxed for the remainder of the evening. My neck was getting stiff again so I found something to rub on it until I could get to the store the next day. Ben got his stuff ready for his seasonal shift at the fire department and went to bed.
Next Adventure: The Olympics: Madison, Marymere, Sol Duc Falls, Some Geocaching, Spruce Railroad Trail and Frugal's
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