Since I had a three-day weekend, I planned on taking my bike to the trail outside of Rainier to do some maintenance on my Asphalt Adventure series. I got some stuff prepared the night before and set that stuff aside in a backpack.
Ben woke me up as he was getting ready for work, and I tried to ignore it but he made a bunch of noise. After he left, I went back to bed until about 9:30. I ate breakfast, got dressed and grabbed a few more things to shove in the backpack. I made sure my bike tires were pumped up, brought the tire pump (just in case), grabbed some snacks, water, my selfie stick and whatever else I found that I thought I needed.
I opened the garage and clicked my key FOB to unlock the Escape. Nothing. Did my key FOB die? I looked for the extra key FOB and that one didn't work either. So, I manually unlocked the car door and tried to start the car. Nothing. Hmmm, maybe a few weeks ago when we went to Oregon and then to Bonney Lake was a precursor? Side note: when we stopped at the Walmart in Bonney Lake to pick up salad, the Escape was running funny. But once we pulled into Trish's driveway, turned off the car, started it back up and drove through the neighborhood, the car ran fine. Hmmm?
It had to be the battery. I called Ben to ask. He said it was also the battery. I asked Doug to help me jump start it and it didn't do anything. We both got frustrated. I called Dad to see if I could borrow the truck because we suspected the car battery was dead, he said that would be fine and that he was at Grammie and Grandpa's house. I asked Doug to take me into Rainier. Of course, he didn't want to, but he did anyway. I couldn't bring my bike because it wouldn't fit in Doug's car, so I had to bring the rollerblades instead. I grabbed those and some long socks. He dropped me off, Dad told us where the battery charger was, Doug took it home and then I hopped into the red truck. I thought to myself, of course this has to happen before we leave for the TriCities on Thursday, and we were taking the Escape. Everything seems to happen when we have plans.
I drove it down to Military Road and Waldrick, backed it in to the pull out, strapped on the rollerblades and started down towards Rainier and Asphalt Adventures #1 (GC31DCY). There were quite a few people riding bikes and some people walking their dogs down the trail. It's always nice when they smile or nod at you. One guy, walking along with his wife, said, wow, you're hardcore! That's a lot of work to rollerblade. I just smiled at them and rolled along my way.
I got to AA#1 and replaced the whole thing because the container and contents were damaged. When I got to AA#2, all I had to change out was the baggie and logbook. That location had a small stump I could sit on while I changed out everything...it made it easier since I was wearing rollerblades.
I saw there was a newish one down the Yelm-Rainier-Tenino Trail not too far away from where that trail intersects with the Chehalis Western. I decided to rollerblade that extra milage to grab At the Crossroads (GC9RZH5). It was a quick find at the bottom of one of the trail signs. I signed my name and bladed back to the junction.
AA#3-#9 was mostly replacing baggies and logbooks. All of the containers were in pretty good shape. There were some of them it took a while to find them because they had migrated from their original hiding places over the years. Between AA#6 and AA#7, my rollerblades snagged a loose stick on the side of the trail, and I fell hard. Luckily, I did not hurt myself that bad. I had a scrape on my elbow and a sore right side of my body from where I landed.
I got up and made it back to the intersection of where I parked the truck. I checked on Rocks Among Us (GC3785X), crossed Military Road to finish AA#9-14 along the Waldrick Road section of the trail. I replaced a lot of the containers and most of the baggies and logbooks. One cache, AA#11 (GC35FPH), I had to replace the entire container because it had gone missing, and I had it disabled for a couple months because the weather was so bad to go out and fix them.
I crossed Waldrick Road to the to the other side and continued my way. I changed out everything on AA#15, had to make a new cache for AA#16 because I wasn't able to get out and fix it right away and the reviewers archived it. On AA#17, I just had to replace the logbook and baggie. I turned around and rollerbladed back to the truck.
Bev tried to call me, but I wasn't sure if she would be able to hear me because cell service is a bit spotty out here. I answered it anyway. She was curious of what I was doing, and I told her I was doing maintenance on my caches since I had the day off. It was a quick convo since she knew I was busy and in a bad cell reception area. I told her I would chat with her later.
I took off my rollerblades and got back in the truck to drive down to the Monarch Sculpture Park to check on AA#18 and #19. I found a place to park, got out and walked to them. It felt weird walking after rollerblading like three miles. I replaced the logbook and baggie in the first one and the other one was fine, so I let it be. I walked back to the truck.
I drove to Grammie and Grandpa's house to see what Dad was doing. He wanted me to help him throw some stuff into the burn pile and he mixed up some ant spray and we killed a bunch of ants trying to take over the yard. Before I left, we threw the ladder in the back of the truck for Erika and Zach. They mentioned needing one because they had baby raccoons living in their roof.
I went home and Ben came home around the same time I got there. We discussed the dead battery in the Escape, and we took my car apart to get to the battery, so it took a while.
We literally had to take the hood, the windshield wipers off and other various parts just to get the battery out, how insane is that? Why do they make cars so complicated now? He took the battery down to Auto Zone. Meanwhile, I made tacos for dinner while I watched game three of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Lightening showed up and won 6-2. We ate, watched random TV, talked to Trish for a little bit.
We cleaned up the kitchen, did the dishes, talked about the rest of the week, planned our weekend, talked to Ray and Brenda about the TriCities, got cleaned up and went to bed. It was a nice three-day weekend until my Escape decided it wasn't going to work, days before we were supposed to take it on vacation.
**We did get a new battery, and everything was fixed by Wednesday.**
Next Adventures: TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Lacey to Selah
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