My Adventures and Places Life Takes Me: A Little Bit of Geocaching, Errands and Top Rung

Saturday, February 4th

I was getting restless and needed to go outside to do something. The weather just wouldn't cooperate. I had my sights set on going to Chamber's Bay to get a tree cache (mostly because I needed the D/T for my grids) but the weather still didn't like us, and I didn't have anyone to go with me. Mom was busy, Ben had a date with some friends at the air soft place in Grand Mound and Bev was busy. I was hoping it would hold up just a little bit that day.

I made breakfast sandwiches and watched some random TV while I waited for Doug to figure out what he was going to do. Somehow Doug talked me into going to the dog park in Hawks Prairie with him and Charlie. I am not sure why Doug decided to go since the weather was iffy. We piled into the red truck and headed to the dog park. We got out, he and Charlie went into the gated area and ran around for a bit. Meanwhile, I walked over to where I thought the cache, Reduce Reuse and Recycle (GC7TRN6), was. There were pieces of the puzzle missing and thought I could find it with Bev's instructions. Alas, after several minutes of looking and the rain falling harder, I couldn't find it and returned to the truck, soaked.

I checked in with Ben and he said he and his friends were having a great time but wasn't a fan of the rainy weather. We got home and I put on a rain jacket and headed out to go pick up some caches I've had on my list for a while. I was hoping to dodge the rain squalls.

I drove out to LBA Park to grab a puzzle cache, LBLBL LLLLB LLLLL (GC96EDN), that I traded coords for one that I already found, Variations on a Theme (GC14VP7) years ago to Gabe. Turns out, the one I found was moved and the coords were changed so I couldn't help him. I got a free cache I didn't have to solve out of it. I parked in the west lot and walked through the small entrance through the fence. I haven't really explored that much out that way but remembered walking out this way once many years ago to get others.

I found the correct trail and headed up the hill. I walked past two groups of people already. They probably were wondering why I was out here looking at my phone. I saw several places where it could be and stepped off the trail. I didn't see the jogger with his dog coming down the hill and he saw me taking something out of the stump and sign it. He goes, oh...you geocaching? I said, sure am. He told me, he enjoys doing it from time to time and to have fun, as he and his dog continued jogging down the hill. I got a picture of it, put it back and walked back to the Escape now that I've blacked out the entire park once again.

I checked the app to see what the next closest one I haven't found was. That was 10-Year Anniversary Cache (GC9PJZ0). I had been to this area before to grab another one that was just up the paved trail. I parked on the street and made my way to the cache. I thought I would make an easy grab from how other cachers were describing it. For some reason, I was not able to locate it. I called Bev to see if she had any insight. I sent her a picture of the area and she looked up her log. She said, she kinda remembered it but at the same time she said it was so long ago she really didn't remember it. Super helpful, I know. I had to abandon it for another time or at least until someone verified that it was still there.

I drove up the road to Lion's Park. The last time I was here was with Brenda and Ray in August. We did the complicated multi cache. Today, I was here for the new traditional cache, Watch Out for Lions! (GC9YXM6), that was published at the community event I couldn't go to in September. I found a place to park and saw what corner of the park it was hidden in. Of course, there was a guy parked in his car jamming out to Running Up That Hill, by Kate Bush (I had recently heard this 1985 song on Stranger Things). This was going to make it awkward for me to find the cache without him watching me. Ughh, it was not quick easy one either. I called Bev again to get a hint. She said it was a hard one and gave me an approximate area to look and a huge hint. I told her about the guy in the car. I found the area she hinted at and I totally would have missed it. I could see why. I was super tiny and really hard to miss! I thanked Bev for the hint, signed my name, put it back and walked back to the Escape.

I got onto the freeway and drove into Tumwater. We haven't had very many nice days to be outside on the weekend but decided to risk getting soaked. I actually got lucky when I pulled into the cemetery and saw it hadn't rained and wasn't currently raining. I wanted to hang out with Grammie and Grandpa for a little bit but saw there was a funeral nearby and didn't want to be rude. I grabbed the Christmas wreath before Mills and Mills threw it away, left some other little things and filled Grammie and Grandpa in with a few things before I left. It was nice chatting with them for a few minutes. I sure miss them a lot.

I actually had solved the next cache I was after, Hidato (GC979T2). It was similar to a Sudoku but way harder. I had to go online to figure out how to solve the puzzle. Once I learned how to do it and double checked my work, I put it into the coord checker and I was right! YES! I fixed the coords on the map and saw it was over by the western side of the Olympia Airport. I have been over that way several times in the past to grab caches.

Of course, the road doesn't have a very good place to pull over, so you weren't in the way but not a lot of traffic comes out here. With my luck, someone would drive by just because. I approach ground zero and notice a break in the fence. I bet it was stuck to the side of the fence somewhere. I pull the Escape over as far as I could and got out. Guess what? A truck drove by just as I found the container. I was glad it didn't stop to ask if I needed help. I got my name on it, got a photo and put it back. I got back into the Escape before someone else drove by. So lame.

The next cache, My Name is Inigo Montoya (GC96CNY) was off of 93rd or Old Hwy 99, depending on where you were coming and going from but, it was the newish housing development at the south end of Tumwater (the Preserve at Tumwater Place). I enter off of 93rd and follow the maze of roads to get as close to the cache as I could. I found a place to park on the street and found a gravel pathway that snaked through the development.

I wasn't too far away from the cache and found myself behind the row of houses with a fence separating the woods from the pathway. Where could a regular be hiding? I saw the low spot in the fence, reached around and grabbed onto the plastic container. I hoped there was so fun stuff inside.

I opened it up and there were tons of toys and stickers inside. I signed the logbook, took a sticker and put it back where I found it. I walked back to the Escape and decided to call it a day because it was going to get dark soon.

I got home and prepared baked potatoes for dinner.

I logged my caches, got in a shower, watched some shows, worked on my blog and made some banana bread.

Sunday, February 5th

We slept in, got up, ate breakfast and lounged around for a little bit. I asked Ben if he wanted to go dump off the recycle with me and maybe go get a cache or two. He said sure. We got ready and drove into Hawks Prairie to dump off the recycle.

There was a cache here that I've had a heck of a time looking for but after striking out the day before, I didn't go look for it again. I needed more information before trying another go at it. Ben and I got rid of the recycle and went after a cache, Scout's 1st (GC977JT), just down the road. I've been to this cache before but didn't have enough time to figure out how to get it open because I had somewhere I had to be. This time, with Ben in tow, we should be able to figure it out since we had plenty of time and weren't hurried.

We parked near the gymnastics place and walked through the fence. I was trying to remember what the container looked like the last time I was here. It's been a few years. I opened the app to see if someone posted a picture of it and someone had. Oh yeah, it was attached to the fence. Except, there was no cache on the fence. The entire thing was missing. We both marked it as a DNF, just like our friend Rhonda 1Nascarnut, did in November. The last time it was found (and was still there) was in September. We walked back to the Escape and drove to one that either one of us had, Bunny's Ready for Tee Time (GC9JQQK).

We drove over to the golf course and all of the tightly packed houses in the manicured developments. We found a place to park and walked across the street to a house that we could trespass on. I was hoping it was a geocacher or someone who knows the geocacher...I always worry about front yard caches. I knew we were looking for something golf related and there was the golf ball right where the hint said it would be. We signed our names, got a picture and hoped the people who lived there didn't come out and talk to us.

We walked back to the Escape and drove back towards Hogum Bay Lane to finish off our outing with beers. We haven't been here since August 2015 which seems like a very long time ago. Our lives were very different back then. Both Ben and I ordered a pint of Box Alarm Amber. We sat and enjoyed it while soccer played on the TV in the distance. We talked a little bit about wedding plans and his upcoming birthday party.