A Day Off in Dupont for Geocaching

I had the day off from work because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.  It was a nice day (which means it wasn't raining) and I wanted to do some geocaching since I haven't done a lot of it since July.  The night before I got together a few caches nearby.  I haven't been to Dupont in a while so I centered my search around there.  I also had a few mystery caches I've had solved for years and just never went and got them.  We had breakfast and got some warm clothes on.  Even though it was sunny it was nippy outside.

We headed down Yelm Highway towards Reservation Road.  Just before you get to the freeway there is a few pullouts along Mounts Road.  On December 18, 2017 at 7:33 a.m. Amtrak train #501 derailed, killing three people and injuring hundreds.  Both passengers and interstate travelers acted heroically in caring for the injured immediately after the derailment.  The southbound lanes of the interstate were closed for three days during the time of assessment and later removal of the train cars and the engine.  Nearby JBLM opened alternative routes around the closure.  A cacher placed In Memory of Train #501 (GC7GVZD) just before you merge onto I-5 on Mounts Road, exit 117.  I found a pullout of course someone was parked in the way.  We parked nearby and waited until they left, Ben decided to stay while I jumped out and grabbed it behind the tree.

We dove across the bridge across the freeway and made our way to the solved puzzle This One Time in Belize (GC24PZD) which took us to a rock wall behind a fenced housing development.  I should have read the hint because that would have saved us so much time at the rock wall.  It was underneath one of the rogue road median blocks about 40 feet from the rock wall on the hill.  I was beginning to think I solved the puzzle wrong and we were in the wrong place.

Music Series #5 Hard Habit to Break (GC6CAT9) took us into the town of Dupont.  It was near the Starbucks parking lot nestled into the rock wall.  I tried to park as close as I could to it so the Escape could act like a shield to the coming and going muggles.  I really didn't want to give the location away.  Unlike some rock wall hides this one was fairly easy to find and didn't take up a whole lot of time.  We signed the log, put it back and got back in the Escape before someone wondered what we were doing.

Another one I solved a few years ago and still hadn't gotten was Baby Steps 6 - Rusty Bucket (GCXAGJ) so we headed down one of the other main streets and managed to find a close parking spot at the park n ride/transit station.  We walked across the street to the rusty metal structure and found the "rusty bucket" we were looking for.  I let Ben pull it out of its hidey hole so we could sign it and put it back quickly just in case a bus load of people drove by.  We walked back to the Escape.

We followed the road that paralleled I-5 to the Old Glory Cache (GC5FXZQ).  I knew we were going to have to park in the lot near the State Farm building and walk to the cache since there wasn't any available parking along the road.  We found a few side trails and took the one down the middle because we figured this one led us to the road we turned off of, plus you could see the flag and the flagpole.  We found the small trail that lead into the oak trees and the cache was pretty easy to find.  We signed the log and put it back as we found it.

I wanted to get at least one more cache to make it an even six for the day.  I knew I didn't want to go into the woods for them mostly for the amount of time we had left before the end of the day and it got dark.  I knew there was one at City Hall just down the road.  I haven't been here in years and I was glad that we didn't have to walk the trail, again mostly for the amount of time we had left.  Summer Fun #10: Exploring Nature (GC7B4VT) was just off the trail next to a bunch of trees inside of a smaller stump.  We acted like we weren't doing anything when the people and their dogs walked by.  We signed the log and put it back quickly.

We left the lot and headed back to the freeway.  As we drove towards Lacey and drove under the overpass where the train derailed.  It was surreal to me because just a few weeks earlier in this same spot people died and were injured.  It's just something that never happens and when it did and I heard about it on the TV it was hard to wrap your head around.  This actually happened less than five miles from our house.

We needed to stop by the store on our way home for some milk since we were out of it.  We picked up a few other things as well so we could make dinner and get prepared for our upcoming week ahead.  When we got home, we made dinner, got cleaned up and I did some blogging and logged my caches that we found today.

Next Adventure:  Ben's New Car

Ben's Car Accident

I got home from work and Ben asked if I wanted to go with him to Tenino to go get sized for his bunker gear.  I had told him no because I just got home from work and I wanted to go wear sweat pants and relax.  I told him I would have dinner done when he got home.  He told me okay and he headed out.  I told him to drive safe like I do every time he leaves. 

I put on sweatpants on, grabbed my computer, sat on the couch and watched some TV for a bit.  I got up and started making some dinner because I was getting hungry.  I wasn't sure how long he was going to stay in Tenino so I saved him some to heat up when he got back. 

Around 7:30ish, I got a phone call (I usually get a phone call when he leaves work just to know he left and when to start or heat up dinner) with him stating that he needed me to come pick him up.  His voice was a bit shaky.  Giving me a couple seconds to internalize, why?  you still in Tenino?  what happened? were all the things I thought about in those few seconds.  I spoke up, why? He said, oh I just got into a car accident. He seemed very calm about it.  Probably because of the adrenaline.  My reaction was what!!? were are you? did they hit you?  was it their fault?  He told me he would tell me everything once I came and got him.  He added that he wasn't too far from home off of Balustrade and Prism.  That was literally right down the street and maybe less than a mile from our house. 

I put some warmer clothes on and my shoes (since it was a rainy day), got in the Escape and headed to Prism.  I had no idea what to expect or even if Ben's car was still drivable. I saw the flashing lights from cop cars preventing people from driving through the wreckage.  There were pieces of car parts scattered all over the road...most of it was Ben's car.  Ugh.  I hope he isn't injured.  As I got closer I couldn't tell what Ben's car looked like because I was on the other side of the destruction.  I got as close as I could.  I got out and asked a million questions.  He answered them as quickly as he could because we had to take all of his stuff out of the car and transport it to mine.  Meanwhile, I was horrified at the front of the passenger side...you could barely get the door open because of the damage.  I kept asking Ben if he was okay.  He said he was.  He had a scratch on his shin and some signs of bruising and he said he was going to be sore tomorrow.  We had to hurry and get his stuff out so the tow truck could take his car away.  It was totaled.

 

I spent some time taking pictures mostly for documentation later for the insurance and to let everyone know that he was alright but the car wasn't.  He had tons of stuff in his car.  The back of my Escape had tons of stuff in it.  We took one more sweep before we released the car to the towing company to make sure we didn't leave anything behind.  I stole Ben's rear view mirror as a souvenir since I knew he probably wasn't going to see it again.  I wrote the car's information and date on it when we got home.

Ben and I stood at the corner, we noticed a bunch of the people that lived on this corner were out on their porches or yards watching the accident clean-up.  I was able to hear how the event unfolded and who hit who.  Of course the people in the suburban were trying to throw Ben under the bus as they talked to the officer on scene.  The woman was crying and her boyfriend and/or husband was trying to comfort her.

Basically Ben was driving down a one way street towards our house.  There is another one way road going the opposite direction.  There is also side roads going through those two one-way roads with stop signs at each of them to enter the arterial.  Well there is an area between the two roads where you are suppose to yield if going straight or turning left.  Well Ben was approaching that intersection and a lady driving a suburban didn't yield preceded through the intersection and Ben smashed into her.  She did not give him any time to stop plus the road were wet from the rain.  There was another vehicle involved in the accident at the opposite stop sign of Prism waiting to turn and his vehicle was hit by the suburban.  Visually Ben's car and the man's vehicle looked totaled.  I wasn't sure about the suburban.  As I see it the woman totally barreled through the small intersection and Ben had little to no reaction to avoid from hitting her.  Case closed.  The officer totally agreed with us too. 

We watched the tow truck guy load up Ben's car. He cleaned up the debris the car left behind and swept it into a bucket.  He got back into the tow truck and started to drive away.  It was an end of an era as we watched it drive away into the non-existent sunset. 

Ben had just celebrated having the car for three years as of  December 31st.  So many things has happened to this poor little car in those three short years.  When we got home, I got the rear view mirror that I had written the car info and date on and we played Taps for it.  I was surprised Ben didn't know what Taps was.  Well now he does. 

The following night we posted on Facebook to let everyone know what had happened and that Ben  was alright.

"Last night, I got a phone call from Ben asking me to pick him up and I asked why.  I knew he was in Tenino getting sized for his bunker gear and he usually calls when he is on his way home. Well, about a mile from our house, on this way home, a lady in a suburban plowed right through the neighborhood intersection without yielding.  Ben had no time to react and ended up hitting her into another vehicle coming out from another side street.  His car is officially totaled and he's only had the car for three years.  In fact, he celebrated his car's three year birthday just last week. I showed up to the scene to help Ben take all of his belongings out of his car.  For fun we took the rear view mirror as a souvenir. We watched the tow truck driver load up his car and drive away with it.  Ben is okay but sore."

Next Adventure:  A Day Off in Dupont for Geocaching

New Year's Eve with Fireworks

Every year we decide who was going to host, what kind of food and games we were going to do.  This year we were all going over to Matt and Megan's house because they wanted to host and I had some fireworks left over from last July we needed to blow up.  I figured we couldn't blow them up at Nicole, Lindsay or my house so that left Celeste's and Megan's.  We chose Megan's.

We also decided that we were going to do our traditional "around the world" NYE traditions.  That included, grapes, black eyed peas, lentils, marzipan, champagne, ringed food, wishes, matches, the color of your underwear, stepping on the right food at midnight etc.  We all had it down to a T since this was like the 5th year we've been doing this.

We all made food as well.  Nicole made a French dessert and little smokies, I brought rice krispy ring, grapes, chips and dip, pigs in a blanket, ciders, beer and soda.  Megan's friend Sam brought meatballs and Megan made Italian wedding soup.  We had baked mozzarella on tomatoes, a chex mix, various sparkling cider and more chips and dips.  We definitely had enough food for everyone.

We got there, settled in, ate food, hung out, got reacquainted with Sam and met his girlfriend and started in on some of the board games Nicole and Del brought.  We were deserted on an island and we had to survive each night or we ate someone.  This game actually was pretty long so it took up most of the time.

By about 11:30 we had all prepped our stuff for midnight.  There were quite a few things we had to get ready including writing down our wishes for 2018.  I won't type down what I actually wished for but I really wanted 2018 to be better than 2017.  2017 was a pretty hard year for us.  Matt tried to find one of our local news stations to watch on the TV through the phone to know when midnight actually was for Pacific time.  Plus we got to watch the Space Needle and fireworks for a few minutes.

The countdown began.  5....4....3....2....1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Everyone gave their people midnight kisses and we ate our weird concoctions, set our wishes on fire and drank them...you had to do all of this in the first minute of midnight.

Since it was cold, we all bundled up and we all went outside to watch Matt and I blow up the rest of my 4th of July fireworks.  He got us a board and we set up the tubes accordingly by their bon fire pit.  We shot them out away from the house.  I told everyone just to brace themselves just in case some of them don't do what they are suppose to do.  We always have one that surprises us.  We lit as many as we had tubes for which was about three when they all were lit at the same time.  The fireworks were so awesome to look at in the clear starry sky.  Near the end we did have one blow up sooner than it was suppose to and scared everyone to the point where we were hiding behind cars in her driveway.  That sure got the adrenaline flowing.  I sure wasn't cold after that!

When we went back inside Miles was not too happy about getting woken up by the noise outside.  Megan had to rock him back to sleep.  We gathered up all of our stuff, thanked Megan and Matt for hosting and headed back into Lacey.

When we got home we took our traditional picture with my cat and our NYE picture props.

It was so late we decided just to go to bed.  I could not wait to sleep in.

Next Adventure:  Ben's Car Accident