Saturday, May 13

Fixing Caches: Spanaway to Centralia

I have been needing and meaning to go out and fix some of my caches that have been under the weather for quite some time.  I had a goal in mind of what I wanted to accomplish, and which caches needed fixed.  The night before, I made sure I had all of my supplies, Erika's label maker, a couple snacks and I even tried to talk Mom into going with me, but she didn't want to.

I set my alarm for 9 the next morning but was woken up around 8 when Mom called me with a crisis.  Dad lost his phone and had absolutely no idea where it was.  They searched everywhere and Mom called it like 97 times.  I tried looking for it on the "where's my phone" through the Google platform only to find out it wasn't set up yet or very out of date.  Lame.

I borrowed the Cougar pop up tent from our neighbor Rhonda and ended up chatting with her for a little bit.  Meanwhile, Mom called AT&T to see if they could help us.  The only thing they could do was provide Mom with a way to view his last phone calls and such.  Very unhelpful, I know...but at least we found out he made an outgoing call at 7 p.m. the night before.  So, it was either at Grammie and Grandpa's house or at their house. 

I got ready, packed up the stuff I would need, while Doug made plans to take the kayaks to Lake St. Clair with Sonja.  He asked me to help him load them into the truck.  I drove out to Rainier and stopped by Grammie and Grandpa's house to look in obscure spots, just because you never know.  I really thought it was in the brush where the burn pile and logs were, but I couldn't find it.  I gave up and went over to Mom and Dad's house and searched inside the house...in all the weird places again.  Yes, I checked the fridge and all the cupboards, because, you just never know.  I did not find it.

I went outside and searched all over the yard and the odd places he might have gone to.  I stood out in the middle of the yard for a few minutes near his trucks and low and behold, it was face down sitting on the rear bumper.  Are you serious?  I brought it into the house and asked Mom, guess what?  She looked at me knowing that I found the phone but asked anyway.  A four-hour long crisis was averted, and the phone had a sleep over outside. 

I asked Mom again if she wanted to go for a ride and again, she said no, so I went to go fix my caches by myself.  I drove out to Spanaway first, since that one, The 507 Series:  Spanaway, Wash. (GC3V7QF), had been out of commission for a while.  I didn't take me very long to get out there but once I got to the park and ride, I had to sit there for a while because some butthole in a green Jimmy, sat there where I needed to be and stuffed his face with a couple of hamburgers.  I called Mom and gave her the play by play since I was bored.  I literally had to sit there for ten minutes while the entire process would have taken me less than a minute.  I did finally get it replaced.  I drove back towards Yelm. 

I stopped and grabbed the newest one in Yelm first, Cache and Dough (GCA58QK) at the Farrelli's that opened a few months ago. It was a quick lamp post skirt hide.  I think the cache container was supposed to be difficult to open but someone had broken it, making it an easy find for me.  I noted it was broken in my log. 

Along the Yelm, Rainier, Tenino Trail, I had to fix two, Hwy 507 and 105th Trail Cache (GC8YF5W) and Curious George (GC8YF5Z).  I found a place to park the Escape and I walked to both of them since they weren't that far away from one another.  When I originally hid these, there was more brush hiding them from view.  Now, it's harder to keep them hidden and they go missing more often.  I wish people would leave them alone.  I fixed them while Mom was called into work to help with an emergency rock to teeth accident. 

I walked back to the Escape and drove into Rainier.  I didn't need to fix any of mine there, but I wanted to get the newest one in Rainier, Cutie Pie Memorial Park (GCA7RA0).  I knew it was going to be at the sign at the Rainier Sportsmen's Club.  I parked the Escape near the sign as close as I could, looked and saw where it was.  I was almost too short to reach it but got on a rock and was able to grab it.  I signed my name, stood back on the rock and placed it back where I found it.

I got back into the Escape and drove towards Tenino.  I didn't need to fix any of mine in Tenino but there was a cache out by the Skookumchuck Grange that I wanted to get before it disappeared again.  This was a replacement cache, Just Because (abandoned but now revived) (GC9Q0G4).  I arrived only to see there were people everywhere.  I parked and started looking.  I figured someone would have noticed that I didn't belong there while pulling a plastic ammo can out of its hiding place.  No one said anything and no one questioned me.  It was weird. 

While getting back on the road, I saw a fire truck drive by and was like, that looked a lot like Ben in the driver's seat.  I messaged him later on and he said, that was him and Mike at the fire station, just a few yards past the Grange.  I also found out that the people at the Grange were having a funeral.

I continued on through Bucoda and into Centralia to fix, The 507 Series:  Centralia, Wash. (GC8M6XJ).  It has been disabled for a bit. I got it replaced quickly, made a few notes in my notebook and drove back to Tenino.  I stopped by the station to hang out with Ben for a while.  He and Mike were sitting at the table hanging out.  Mike chatted to us about buying model trains on Ebay.  I left and drove back into Rainier.  I picked up Mom and we drove into Lacey to hang out with Mandee for a bit.  She was having a going away party before she moved to Kentucky. 

I drove Mom back home, checked on my friend's dogs, got home, ate some food, started the potato salad and got cleaned up.  It was a busy day!

Next Adventure:  Mother's Day

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