My Adventures and Places Life Takes Me: Cache Maintenance and Some Papa Pete's with Bev

I started getting emails from cachers stating that some of my caches were missing. It was usually the same ones over and over again. I knew I had to go fix them, but I had to wait for a weekend where I had some extra time, it wasn't raining and if someone wanted to go with me...because it's way more fun with someone rather than by myself. I saw the upcoming weekend was going to be somewhat nice, so I had planned on doing maintenance then.

Mom was going to be at a quilt retreat at Camp Cascades with Grandma and Ben was on a 24-hour shift in Tenino. I asked Bev what she was doing and if she wanted to go for a ride and check on caches. I told her which ones I had planned on checking and replacing. She agreed to come along and asked if we could check up on some of hers. I said sure, bring some containers with you if they are specific.

I ate breakfast and got my stuff ready. I loaded up the recycle and took that to Rainier and then drove out to Bev's house to pick her up. She was pretty much ready to go. She grabbed her pump hand sanitizer out of her car and a container to fix one of her caches she had disabled.

I told her where we were going to stop first and that was the BobBevLacie's 50th Wedding Anniversary (GC4F2FP) since it was right down the road from where we were. The cache was dry as a bone, so I didn't need to do anything to it.

We drove the back way to Yelm out on Solberg Road. I needed to check on Triangle (GC2EYYM) since I know cachers don't like to put caches back where they're supposed to go. I found a place to pull over and I am glad I stopped here. I found my cache on the ground instead of hooked onto a tree branch keeping it off the ground. Luckily, the inside of the cache was dry. I hung it back up before I left.

We went into Yelm and out to a cache I adopted from RL Painter a few years ago. Bypass to Nowhere (GC2HFCM) was in a really weird spot. There was plenty of parking but that might change if this bypass ever gets finished. Bev stayed in the Escape, and I ran over to the stop sign and found the old beaten-up container. I decided to change it out with a magnetic hide a key container. I put a baggie and logbook inside of it and stuck it to the bottom of the stop sign. I put some rocks in front of it for more protection. I hopped back in the Escape and checked to see what the next one was on our list.

The 507 Series: Yelm, Wash. (GC3AMVW) was along the Tenino-Rainier-Yelm Trail and it has gone missing a few times over the years. I think it was due to the kids and or the homeless people in the area. They just can't leave stuff alone. We found a place to park in the housing development nearby, I grabbed a new container with some stuff inside and a code on the lid (Erika's label maker came is super handy on this trip) and walked over to its hiding spot. It was missing so I replaced it, covered it with rocks in the makeshift cairn and hoped that it would stay around for a while. We walked back to the Escape.

We headed towards Rainier and veered off 507 onto Tipsoo Loop. I had to go check up on the cache I hid at Gehrke Park. Gehrke Park (GC2EYXV) was right in its place. I decided to change out the container because I wasn't a huge fan of the skinny neck on the pill bottle. It makes it harder to retrieve the logbook. It was a quick switcharoo. I hopped back in the Escape, and we drove into Rainier.

We turned at the post office and city hall and parked in the newly paved parking lot to one of the several trailheads. We made comments on how nice this was now that we don't have to bottom out in large water-filled potholes ever again. We parked, grabbed containers just in case I had to change them out and walked across the street and headed down the trail to both Rainier Trail Cache (GC8MCG5) and The 507 Series: Rainier, Wash. (GC3AMVX). Both were fine but I changed out the baggie and logbook in the series cache. We walked back to the Escape and Bev asked if we could check up on A Little Farther Out of Town (GC2QP7D). I said of course we can.

We pulled over on the side of the road near the cache and we both go out. I had remembered coming here to get the first to find with Kenny and Mike with my Mom, when this published over ten years ago. Bev remembered where it was, so we moved around some of the cement blocks and rocks and found the small fake rock that was hidden in a lot of leaf debris. We cleaned up the area a little bit, stacked the rocks differently and stuck the fake rock underneath to keep it hidden from view but not to be crushed by the rocks and cement.

We went back to the Escape and safely got back onto 507 towards Tenino.

The One That Got Away (GC3A7P1) is located near the S-curve on the way into Tenino. It is intersected with Military Road right smack dab in the middle of it. Originally, this cache was a road turtle that was ripped up off the road (probably from construction or plowing snow off the roads) and Bob and Bev decided to use it to make a cache out of it. I was first to find on it many years ago. It keeps getting thrown away when volunteer groups do highway litter patrol, so they hung a micro cache on the back of one of the large cottonwood trees near the road. The last cacher came by and couldn't find it so Bev thought maybe it went missing. We parked and got out. We checked both trees because she couldn't remember which one it was in exactly. I saw it hanging there and told her that it was there. We got back in the Escape and drove into Tenino.

We stopped by Welcome 2 Tenino (GC8N5G8) first because someone had said something about the logbook being full. We pulled off of 507 and parked right in front of the sign. I checked a couple spots and found the cache hidden where I thought it would be since they tend to move when people find them and put them back in the wrong places. The cache was in rough shape, so I changed out the entire container, baggie and logbook. We moved onto the next one in town.

For some reason people had been finding The 507 Series: Tenino, Wash. (GC3AMVY) but I had my doubts because this one goes missing often. We parked on one of the side streets and Bev stayed in the Escape. I prepared a container and made sure a code got on the lid. I walked to its hiding spot, and I could not find a container. I even grabbed a stick and scooted debris around looking for something that even resembled a container. Nothing. I have no idea what people are finding. I walked back to the Escape, and we were off to Bucoda the back way through Tenino.

We drove through Bucoda and got to see a train. Bev was pretty pleased. We approached the parking area to The 507 Series: Bucoda, Wash. (GC3AMW0) and fit ourselves in the small spot on the side of the road. Bev stayed in the Escape, and I ran out and retrieved the cache in the twin tree crotch. It was wet so I changed out the entire container, baggie, logbook and code on the lid. I ran back across, dodging some cars and put it back where I originally hid it. We zoomed away and followed 507 into Centralia.

They had done some work at ground zero. They made a crosswalk and put up some signs so I could see how The 507 Series: Centralia, Wash. (GC8M6XJ) would have been missing. I got out a new container, put a logbook into a baggie and made a code for it on the label maker I borrowed from Erika. I found a good place to hide it under the edge of one of the large rocks and put another rock in front to hide it from muggles. I hopped back into the Escape and Bev said she was hungry, so we drove to Papa Pete's.

We discussed the last time we remembered being there and we came up with Bev's birthday back in July. We ate it in Fort Borst Park after doing the Adventure Lab in town. We pulled up to the restaurant and noticed that it was still closed inside, and we had to go through the drive thru. Bummer. Bev said that she owed me a birthday pizza from November, so we ordered two medium pizzas. She got pepperoni and I got pepperoni and black olives. She paid and the lady told us it would be about 30 minutes and took down my phone number.

We drove to the new Dollar General to waste time and to see what it was all about since neither of us had been inside one before. It wasn't quite what I thought it was, but we ended up getting a couple drinks and I got some M&M's. We think we wasted enough time, so we drive back to Papa Pete's and went through the drive thru again. Someone came to the window, and we told her we were there to pick up pizza. She handed us our two medium pizzas and a bunch of napkins. We ate our pizza in the parking lot while we watched traffic on I-5. I used my box as a plate and got grease all over it. We chatted about random things as we ate. The pizza hit the spot.

We got onto I-5 and headed north to the Scatter Creek Rest Area because I had to pee. I asked Bev if she remembered where the final cache was to the Wherigo cache but she said she couldn't. She knew the general area but not a specific area. I peed and we got back onto the freeway and we to Tumwater. We got off at 93rd so we could go down Rich Road to fix her Deschutes River Cache (GC3B2YN) that they have meant to check on but just never remembered to stop. We pulled over at the guardrail and we found the cache right away so we have no idea why the last cacher couldn't find it. Bev traded out the old container that's been here for ten years because it has seen better days.

We hopped back into the Escape and got back onto Ol' 99 to head to Rainier down Waldrick Road. I had to fix Corner (GC3GXG0) because someone reported that the container was smashed. We parked alongside the road, I got out, grabbed a new container with a logbook and baggie and traded the containers out. It was a quick out and in. We continued down the road into Rainier. I dropped off Bev and then called Dad to see what he was doing. He said he was on his way back home from Lacey but was going to stop at Grammie and Grandpa's house. I stopped by there and waited for him and tried calling him again because he should have been there before I got there. I waited for about twenty minutes, and he never stopped by, so I went home.

I couldn't get Doug to walk his dog, so I decided to go to the store to pick up next week's dinner ingredients, get some decorations for Ben's birthday party at the dollar store, stopped by Value Village just because I could and then went home to unload groceries and put them away.