A Mini Geocaching Adventure to Lewis County

I really wanted to go clear out the Centralia and Chehalis area.  I asked Ben if he wanted to go out and get some fresh air since it was going to be a decent day.  He said sure.  I made homemade McMuffins and had hashbrowns with it while we watched a television show since all the sports have been postponed due to God Damn Covid.  I checked the geocaching map, wrote some down to go get and hung out for a bit.

We got dressed, got into the Escape and headed down.  I mentioned a few posts ago that I was going through some of my old geocaching notebooks and found out that I have solved a bunch of puzzles but never went and got them.  I've been slowly grabbing them as we go out.  Today, I had PuzzleMania "Some Conjunctions" (GCK2CH) on my list so that was the first one we stopped for on the way down.  I got off before 183rd since there isn't an exit ramp off of that road.  We drove down Case to the intersection of 183rd, parked in the large pullout and walked to the cache.  It was another guardrail.  We added our names to it and then walked back to the Escape.

We went the back way to Centralia through Grand Mound and Old Hwy 99 down to Harrison.  Based  off of what we knew about the closures to parks and other outdoor recreational venues we assumed Borst Park was closed so we decided to park in the Safeway parking lot and walk over.  When we approached the gate we found out the gate was open and people were allowed to go in with their vehicles.  We asked ourselves, why is this park open but all the others are closed?  Hmmm.  Anyway, we walked over to the Block House (GC8AY2X) and Ben made the grab since it was high up on the structure.  We got our names on it and Ben put it back and it was better hidden. 

We paralleled I-5 and then got onto Airport Road.  When they developed the rest of this road they added a walking trail and someone put caches on it.  The last time I attempted to look for them they were missing so I didn't bother stopping to check.  Today, we were going to make an attempt to get these ones.  The first one was Mad Cow Palace (GC5VJXD) (this was a former site of a confirmed case of Mad Cow Disease in Washington State) and we pulled off the road into a pull out and attempted to look for it.  We probably spent way too much time here but I wanted to make sure it was missing.  I checked previous logs, looked at photos and we were in the right place...the cache was definitely missing.  Crap, now we have to come back.

We got back into the Escape, found a good time to get back onto Airport Road (this road is busier than it used to be) and made our way to Trans Alta #2 (GC5W86A).  There wasn't a pull off her so we just parked on the trail and hurried just in case someone came because we would be in the way.  We found the container and it had a bunch of water in the inside due to the crack on top of the lid.  Everything was moldy.  I signed the log the best I could, dumped out the water and put it back where we found it.  It was a quick park and grab. 

We drove into Chehalis to get a replacement cache of a series I've already done and found the final to, it was basically to just pick up caches at this point, at Millet Field - Chehalis Parks Series (GC8AFV2).  When we got there, there were too many kids playing on the basketball court to go look for it so we decided to skip it for a different day.  Bummer.

We drove up through Centralia and turned onto Little Hanaford Road and the onto Halliday Road to grab The Green House (GC8KYNT).  We parked off the road in this little pull off, basically only room for one vehicle, got out and went around the backside of the green building.  The cache wasn't even hidden well, it sat right out in the open.  I grabbed it and opened it up.  There were a lot of toys inside and a TB.  We took the TB and the alligator toy and I left a random piece of swag I found in the Escape behind.  We signed the log and put it back for the next cacher.  We moved on to the next one.

We headed up the hill on Halliday to Will B Back (GC5EFNJ).  There really wasn't a good place to pull of on the side of the road to park so we just winged it.  We got out and started looking along the fence line with all the trees and bushes.  The hint wasn't all that helpful and either were the logs.  I even asked Bev for a hint but she said she couldn't remember because it's been a long time since she was at that particular cache.  We spent way too long there and eventually gave up.  It was probably missing.  We will have to come back eventually after it has been confirmed that it's there.

We got back onto Hwy 507 and turned onto Zenkner Valley Road where the yellow and green convenience store is.  I have never been on this road and Ben said that one of his coworkers from the fire station lives along this road somewhere.  We turned left onto McElfresh and saw the corner where the guardrail was.  We parked and got out.  Ben remembered coming out here once on a call for a family that had a midget and he told me the story.  I could see how this road could be flooded during certain parts of the year since there is water on both sides of the road.  We looked in all of the obvious places and could not come with a find.  A cacher who searched before me couldn't find it and suggested that when it flooded the cache was taken with it.  We will have to wait until this is confirmed that it's there before coming back to look again.

We've struck out a lot today and it sucks.  I hope we can end the day on a find.

Our last cache of the day was out in Tono, a place I haven't been since 2012, we followed Big Hanaford Road out to Hanaford and then crossed over the valley and followed it to the turnaround.  We followed it literally to the end of the line where the bridge went over Hanaford Creek.  We parked and got out.  The cache has to be on the west side of the bridge.  We walk down the small hill and found the cache, Over the Wall (GC8A3Y1), underneath some rocks up against the bridge structure.  We added our names to it, enjoyed the creek for a few minutes and headed back towards home.  

We drove through Bucoda, went into Tenino and got onto Old Hwy 99, Rich to Fir Tree and eventually on Rainier Road to Yelm Highway.  We made homemade chicken teriyaki and rice for dinner, got cleaned up and I watched crime documentaries, logged my finds and worked on my blog until bedtime.  Ben played his game for a few hours.

Next Adventure:  An Afternoon of Caching in Steilacoom

Teleworking on Behalf of Covid-19

After my week long staycation, I went to work the next Monday.  I had no idea what to expect.  I knew every day the Covid situation changed.  I heard of the possibility of people working from home.  I had been for a year trying to get my boss to get the paperwork ready to telework so things were squared away.  I mostly wanted to do it for inclement weather and maybe doing it once a week on like a Thursday or something.  Nope, we didn't get it done until we were forced to.  When we were forced to every single person who worked at L&I also needed it done and all at the same time.  If only we would have taken care of it September 2019 we would have been able to work from home sooner.

There were lots of delays in the two and a half days I was physically at work.  Our boss got our paperwork done and we were allowed to work from home until at least to the end of the month.  The softphones were taking a really long time so I just asked my boss if I could just use my cell phone and she said she didn't care.  That meant I could grab what I needed, my laptop and the bag and head home.  I waited until Wednesday and I left at lunch time.

During those two days I wiped my desk, mouse and keyboard with the sanitized wipes and every time I left my desk I used hand sanitizer.  I probably turned into hand sanitizer after using it so much.  

That Wednesday morning, Debbie came in all frantic.  She had no idea what she needed to take with her since her son was picking her up around 10 a.m. that morning.  She kept asking me questions about it and I told her the last time I was allowed to telework was in March or April of 2017 but back then I was given a laptop that you locked into a monitor.  It was significantly different now with the new laptops so I really didn't know what she needed to make her equipment function at home.  So she unhooked the laptop, took the cords she needed and since she didn't have an extra monitor at home she took that as well.  When she left, I told her see ya someday.  At that point, we had no idea how long we would be out of the office.  

I left work at almost 12:30 and headed to the store before I went home.  I figured I had an hour during my lunch time to get what I needed and head home.  When I got home, I set up everything in the living room and just using the laptop was completely different than it being connected to a keyboard and an extra monitor.  I was so glad I spent the extra $25 at the state surplus store in Auburn (before it closed) on a monitor and cords.  For some reason I knew it would come in handy.  I say this because entering stuff into our programs was different on the keyboard versus the laptop keyboard.  You have to press shift and enter on the laptop rather than just enter on the keyboard.  I did not know this until Tammy told me.  I struggled until I connected the extra monitor and keyboard to the laptop.

It made the world of difference.

My last day physically in the office at L&I was March 25th.  Calvin, for the next few weeks or so, had no idea why I was home all the time.  I knew he loved every minute of it and so did I.  I got to spend a lot of time with him.

There were a lot of pros into working from home.  I got that extra hour to sleep in rather than getting ready and driving to work, I got to wear sweatpants, I didn't have to make my lunch the night before, I saved money on gas and wear and tear on my Escape, I got to do chores on breaks and lunch times, run errands at lunch time, watch some television, snuggle with my cat, save more times during my afternoons by not having to drive home in traffic and I actually felt like I got more done at home than I did at work.  There was one con, staying motivated when there was a couch nearby to nap on when you got sleepy.

I am living my best life.

Next Adventure:  A Mini Geocaching Adventure in Lewis County

**Update:  as of October 16, 2020 I am still working from home and they have no idea when we will be able to physically go back to work.  I don't think it will be anytime before 2021.**

My Forced Staycation

I took this week off originally because I was suppose to be in Peru on a tour but because of God Damn Covid I had to stay home during my week off.  There was no way I would be able to go to work and stay focused because I would have been mad and disappointed the entire time. 

I was very lucky this week because it was sunny and dry every day which is unusual for this time of year in the Pacific Northwest.  Most of the spring time it is raining and windy. I figured this would be the perfect week to go fix a bunch of my caches.  I had gone out with mom two weeks ago to fix my 507 series so why not the rest of them since I had the time right?

Sometime last year I spray painted a bunch of containers that I had been collecting for a while.  I had them sitting in a tote ready to go when I found the time to do it.  I went through some of the sizes I would need to replace my power trail on Waldrick Road.  I crammed them all into my small red back pack, threw some zipties, different sizes of plastic baggies, a couple of pens, scissors, my mini notebook for notes, water, snacks and a couple of pathtags just in case I wanted to leave one or two behind.

March 16

On Monday, I got up, had some breakfast and met with mom (who had this day off) and we went to the store to grab some stuff before the stores were out of it.  The Covid pandemic has caused people to freak out and horde stuff because they had control over that and not what was going on around them.  It caused a toilet paper pandemic and it was so stupid watching people self destruct at the grocery store.  A lot of the cleaning products were gone as well as some other items like rice, noodles and eggs.  It was weird watching this pandemic get to everyone.  I shopped like normal but was really annoyed when there was a product that we use a lot in our everyday routine missing from the shelves.  It caused Mom and I to search elsewhere.  Sometimes we had to go to three or four stores when we went shopping during that time.  I bought a turkey and decided we were going to have it on Friday for a Covid Thanksgiving.

I came home and decided since it was a beautiful day to grab my bike, throw it in the back of the Escape and head to Waldrick Road.  I chose to park at the trailhead lot near Waldrick and Steadman and do maintenance on #25-#15 of my Asphalt Adventures cache series. 

I stopped at every single one of them to make sure it was still there, wasn't broken, had a logbook and a baggie inside.  There were a few of them I couldn't find or were hard to find (it's amazing how far they migrate over the years) so I spent a while at some of them.  I changed some of the containers but not all of them were damaged or missing.  I changed out all the logbooks because you know, we live in Western Washington and it rains here most of the year and replaced all the baggies.  I also made new caches for Asphalt Adventures #18 and #25.  For some reason those ones disappeared a while ago and I didn't understand why.

I had a nano tucked in the bark of the tree for Asphalt Adventures #25 and could not understand why that one would disappear.  I had to make a new cache for this one and republish it.  I stopped putting nanos out because they seemed to disappear easily even though those are the hardest to find.  Instead, I made this one really easy.  It was going to be a micro behind the tree with some stuff over it to keep muggles from seeing it.  I wrote down the coords, made some notes in my mini notebook and continued on down the trail.

There were a lot of people on the trail because of social distancing and Covid.  I've been on this trail a lot over the years and have never seen this many people on a weekday let alone on the weekends.  It was an unusual time and I was already ready for it to go away as quick as it showed up.

Asphalt Adventures #18 was pretty unique.  When I placed it back in 2012, the coordinates were fine and the reviewer published it.  I tried putting a new one in its spot with the same coords and they wouldn't publish it because it was too close to a puzzle cache that has been here since 2009 so why did they publish my cache in the first place if this one interfered?  Whatever.  I found a new place for it and there was just enough room between the other caches for it to work.  I wrote down the coords, the hint and other stuff into my tiny notebook.  I moved onto the others until I got to the end of my goal for today.  Asphalt Adventures #15 was just before the trail crossed over Waldrick Road.  I turned around and rode my bike back to the Escape.  I rode by bike roughly around 8.5 miles.

On the way home I stopped by the Lowe's parking lot to grab Eeny Meeny Miny Moe (GC8JW5X) and I parked like 10 feet away from it and was disappointed that I had to find a micro cache in these bushes.  I had digging through bushes to find a cache.  Then mom called me to tell me that she didn't get the rest of this week off because they want her to come in.  She was disappointed because she really wanted a week off after not going on our trip we were looking forward to.  This March just sucks!  I found the cache, signed my name and went home.  It was almost time for Ben to come home and I had to make some dinner.

March 17

Tuesday, I got up, ate some breakfast, got ready to go, grabbed my caching stuff, threw my bike in the back of the Escape and headed out to complete the rest of my maintenance.  This time I parked at the trailhead of Military Road and where the trail crosses over.  There was plenty of spots so I backed in nearest to the gate.  I pulled out the bike and decided to head towards Rainier first and then work my way back.  It didn't take me long to get to my first spot.  

I started at We Don't Do That Here (GC4ZT8D) just to check up on it.  A lot of people have been finding it but then there are the ones who don't and that makes me wonder if it was missing or not.  It was in its spot and it gave it a little TLC and found a different rock to set over the top of it.  A biker rode by and asked if I was okay because he saw my bike laying on its side.  I told him I was good and he peddled on.

There was a gap I needed to fill with a new cache.  I figured out some coords, scribbled down the information in my mini notebook and named it Rainier Trail Cache II (GC8MYQR).

Then I started in on my Asphalt Adventure caches and I knew this was going to be a daunting task because so many had issues.  Whether it was a missing container, a wet logbook, a missing baggie, etc., I still had to search for them and make the fix.  There were a few I absolutely could not find.  Either they walked away or someone put them back in the wrong spot.  I started at Asphalt Adventures #1 and ended with Asphalt Adventures #14.  I ended up riding another 8ish miles and fixed 16 caches.  I rode back to the Escape, threw my bike back in there and decided to go fix Near the Trail (GC3MB1G) just before the S-curve towards Tenino.  I gave it a new container, log and a new baggie.

On the way back home I noticed I had a cache to look for near McIntosh Lake. I stopped at the boat launch and made an attempt for McIntosh Lake CITO Bonus (GC89R6X).  There were a few people out on the lake fishing so it made it easy to look for.  The coords kept taking me to a tree and I remember Bev saying something about a cement structure.  I was striking out so bad so I texted her pictures and she said it was hidden in one of the parking curb cement structures.  I checked all the holes twice and found nothing.  She said it was probably gone then.  Ugh, a DNF.  I would have to come back later to look for it.

I got back into town and mom asked me to go to the store to pick up a few things for Grandma and Grandpa since we didn't want them to go out in the midst of Covid.  While I was at the store, I grabbed some stuff to change the oil in the Escape since it needed it.  We made dinner when Ben got home, I logged the maintenance on the caches and relaxed the rest of the night.

March 18

Ben took the day off from work and since it was a really nice day again, we decided to find the rest of the caches at LBA Park...essentially blacking out a park.  We ate breakfast and then got ready to go.  We drove out to LBA, parked in the same lot and decided which cache to go get first.  I knew I would be looking for a cache again that I found years ago.  I remember having trouble finding it.

We walked through the fence and onto the trail system.  I had the phone set to find Johnny's Scented Smedium (GC74ZDH) so we walked down that trail towards the cache.  It took us to a wide open hilly area and when we got there we knew which tree it was hiding next to.  I had Ben grab it.  It was an old Johnny's Seasoning Salt container which they had taped camo duct tape on its lid.  Ben quickly jotted down our names and we put it back where we found it.

We moved to the next one, Zodiac Series:  Scorpio (GC8EH2B) which took us a while to find because it wasn't hidden in the correct spot.  We were almost ready to call it quits when I started looking in not so obvious spots on the wrong side of the trail.  I actually spotted the container shoved in-between two trees on the opposite side of the trail away from the coords.  I messaged Harvey's Pack on the phone to ask where it goes because we found it not where it was suppose to be.  She explained where it needed to go so we followed instructions.  Before we could hide it back, a mom and her kid saw us and wondered what we were doing.  I explained geocaching to them and they said it sounded like a lot of fun they should start doing it too.  We wished them a good rest of their day and they hiked on.  We hid the cache back after we signed our names.  Off to the next one!

Like I mentioned before, I solved the Brought To You series by Ohjoy a few months ago and saw where they all were.  They were pretty much scattered in Thurston and West Pierce county.  Brought To You From Colombia (GC80TYB) was in the western part of this park.  We took the appropriate trail and made sure not to step in any of the various puddles on our way there.  

We found the area described in on the cache page and made the grab.  It was a small glass jar from Colombia inside a plastic peanut butter jar.  We signed our names, put it back and hiked on to the next one.

The Woods II (GC2C3Y3) was a 10 year old cache, hidden in the southwestern part of the park.  I have no idea why we never went and found this one sooner than we did.  I saw the beat up half a tree that had been pocked by woodpeckers.  I told Ben it's gotta be over there by the "tree."  We walked over there and there was the ammo can.  We signed our name and put it back before the hikers got closer to us.  We could hear them talking nearby. 

The last cache we walked to was 3 Months...One Week or 94 Days (GC2P0DY) and I remember back in July 2011 having a hard time finding it.  So I was telling Ben about it and tryin to remember where it was.  The coords jumped around all over the place so I tried reading the hint and instructions to find the cache.  We eventually found the stump it was in and Ben made the find.  Yay!  I never have to come to this cache again.  We walked back to the parking lot and drove back towards home.  We walked about 2.5 miles.

We drove to Lowes to find a new shower head because ours was leaking and the shower wasn't able to dry out properly.  Our shower curtain and plastic lining was molding.  We found one we liked and took it home with us.  We ate sandwiches for lunch.

After lunch, I moved some stuff around in the garage for a bit and came across a bunch of containers that haven't been spray painted yet.  I took the table out, put newspaper over the top of it and spent some time spray painting them.  The next time I do maintenance I will have a lot more containers to choose from.  

The rest of the day was spent in the garage and then I washed the Escape.  I came in and we made dinner and chilled out the rest of the evening since all of our sports were canceled due to God Damn Covid.

March 19

I knew I had to go out to Eatonville eventually to fix my caches.  Since everyone was at work and I wasn't so I asked Grandma if she wanted to go for a ride to Eatonville to check up on my caches and she said sure.  

I got all my stuff ready, ate some food and drove over to Grandma's house to pick her up.  To keep up with the theme of the week, I stopped by BobBevLacie's 50th Wedding Anniversary (GC4F2FP) just to make sure it was still there and if anything needed to be changed out of it.  I added a new baggie since the rest of it was still okay.

We drove out to Eatonville via McKenna and Hwy 702.  It didn't take us long because it was a weekday in the middle of the day so not as much traffic out and about.  I went to Rainier100 3:  Ohop Pioneers (GC6KEW0) because people were having trouble finding it or it was soaked.  I found it right away, wiped it out, added a new log and baggie and called it good.  We moved onto the next one in the Pack Forest.

I tried to remember where we parked last time we were here when we placed Rainier100 2:  Pack Forest (GC63GN3).  I eventually remembered, parked and we walked to the trail head.  From there I just remembered which turns we made.  The phone got us to where we needed to be and I checked up on it.  The cache was doing well but the spire I hid it next to wasn't.  I may have to find a new spot for this one eventually but until then it stays.  We walked back to the Escape and drove into the town of Eatonville.

There, I fixed Rainier100 4:  Eaton of the Ville while Grandma sat in the Escape.  I ended up changing out the log and adding a new baggie to the cache.  Water had gotten in it and molded the previous log.  Grandma had mentioned that she needed to use the restroom but now with God Damn Covid, most public restrooms were closed until further notice so that was a bummer if you were out and about.  I kept that in mind and we tried to find a store in town that would let us go in.  Nope, Covid.  I was so frustrated with this whole crap.  I told her that I needed to go grab one while we were here and she said it was okay.  

Gnome Home (GC7MN48) was off of the Bud Blancher Trail next to Smallwood Park and the Mill Pond.  I ran up the small hill and grabbed the cache and came back down to the park to see the Mashel River before we headed back to Rainier.

I thanked Grandma for coming with me and dropped her off at her house.  She said it was nice to get out of the house for a while.  I told her there might be many more times in the future to get out of the house for a while if this Covid crap gets out of control.  I saw it getting there.

I went home and made my updates to my caches.  I worked on my blog, made dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening.

March 20

We have reached Friday.  That meant my week off was coming to an end and it depressed me a lot.  I had to go back to work without going on my trip I so looked forward to.  I went grocery shopping again because I needed to get some stuff I didn't get the other day for a Covid Thanksgiving.  I came back and prepared the turkey.

While the turkey was cooking, I mowed the front and the back lawn, weeded the flower beds, planted the lavender that I got from Grandma's house and played a little bit of hoops in the driveway.  It was such a nice day and I felt like I had to get some stuff done while it was nice.

I invited everyone over but Doug and Jenn decided to stay home so it was just me, Ben, Erika, Zach, Mom and Dad.  The food was delicious and I think this was the first time I had ever had a turkey or a Thanksgiving meal for that matter during the spring time.

My week off was nice.  I enjoyed not thinking about work however, it really was really disappointing not being able to go on my trip I paid for.  I really felt like this Covid crap could have been avoided but "higher ups" wanted it to be worse than it was.  For some reason I knew I was going to have to be really patient until the next time I could travel.  This was seriously going to set me back on my plans for the next few years.  These experiences we can't get back.  We can't get this time back and it was killing me.  I was so angry about it and I think I will be for a while.

I literally can not wait until this goes away and I can travel and have experiences again.

Next Adventure:  Teleworking on Behalf of Covid-19