New BBQ

Ben and I moved out of our parent's houses in July 2016.  Of course we wanted it to be sooner than that but life gets in the way and you have no control over it.  Mom and Dad gave me their BBQ to use so when we had people over we could grill.  Most likely we would be having a lot of the family gatherings over at our place anyways so it was fine with me.

I can't remember when exactly they bought the BBQ but it had to have been close to 2004 or 2005.  It's been well used since then.  Mom and I have replaced parts several times, it's gotten a good cleaning every year and it was well used and loved.  

Last year, I stripped it down to it's bare parts, gave it a good scrub with the metal sponge and shop vac and even bought some high heat black spray paint just to make the BBQ look a little better.  It definitely saw better days but I actually made it look pretty good.  We had several gatherings over the course of the spring into the summer.  Ben cleaned it out and we put it away for the season.

This year it was getting warmer and almost time to get the BBQ out again.  Ben went to go clean it out and just didn't think that we could resurrect it one more time.  We've had this BBQ for five years now and it was getting harder and harder to get it going again.  It was rusting, wearing thin in areas and really hard to find the replacement parts that go to it.

Ben and I had talked about getting a new BBQ for the past few years now so we just went ahead and did it.  Ben did some research on the ones that he wanted.  That included looking on Amazon, Lowe's and the Home Depot websites.  He decided on one from Home Depot.  That Saturday we went out to Hawks Prairie and looked for the one Ben wanted.  We asked one of the associate's if they had the make and model we wanted and he said that he would have to go look.  Meanwhile, we needed some grass seed so I found some that would work for a project of mine.  I met back up with Ben and he said that this Home Depot were out of the BBQ he wanted.  The guys said that the store on Fones Road had six of them.  That's where we went.

Once in the store, we wandered around the BBQ are and did not find the one we were looking for so we had to ask someone.  Ben was on it while I looked at the sledgehammers.  I called Dad to see if there was an extra sledgehammer at Grandpa's that I could borrow and he said there might be but most of them don't have handles on them.  Then he asked me to go see if they had any bathtub repair kits.  I went and looked while an associate got the forklift and got our new BBQ down from the shelves outside.   

Ben called to ask where I was and I told him that Dad had asked me to check up on something and that he was in the parking lot waiting for me to come help him.  I helped him put the BBQ into the Edge and then I said we had to go back in to see if they had the tub stuff.  Ben ran into an ex co-worker that used to work at Lowe's with him so we chatted for a while and she helped us find the tub stuff we were looking for. 

We took it home and left it in the garage for a day.  The following afternoon we assembled it in the dining room and of course the kitties needed to help.  I could not believe how much plastic, Styrofoam and cardboard came our of the box.  We took it outside, repaired the BBQ cover and made plans with Dad on what to do with the old one. 

We wanted to use the BBQ so we invited the Pablo's over and ate burgers, beans, potato and macaroni salad, chips and had cookies for dessert.  It was fun to host friends over to break in the new BBQ.  I know this is the first of many BBQ's, friends and family gatherings and many dinner experiments to come.  

Next Adventure:  Erika and Zach Move Again

Lewis County Adventures: Onalaska, Carlisle Lake, Two FTF's and Harold's Burger Bar

This weekend was suppose to be the warmest weekend this year yet and I wanted to go do something since it was nice, I wanted to get out and drive the Escape somewhere.  A couple weeks ago some caches published in Onalaska.  Mom and I went down there this past October and walked partially around the Carlisle Lake and wondered why there weren't any caches there.  That changed about six months later.

I asked Mom and Dad if they wanted to go first since I know they've both been there before.  Then I asked Bev if she was interested in going.  She said she was but wasn't sure about Bob.  I told her Bob can go if he wants to.  As the day got closer, it was just going to be Mom, Bev and I.  Bob wanted to stay home and work on his yard and Dad had to go help Doug with some defective outlets in his house.  I told them when I would be in Rainier to pick them up.  

I got up around 9:30 and got ready.  Ben was on a 24 hour shift in Tenino so he left earlier that morning.  I put the recycle in the Escape and headed into Rainier.  On the way to Rainier, two more caches published and guess where they were?  That's right.  The exact place we were going!  I was hoping we would get the FTF's but I wasn't going to hold my breath. 

I dropped off the recycle in Rainier, topped off with gas (my Escape has a capless gas hole), picked up Mom and then picked up Bev.  We headed west towards Tenino chatting about various things as we drove to I-5.  Traffic was stupid in some places and I let everyone know that I was irritated with it.  The sun comes out and a lot of dumb people start driving around.  We got onto I-5 south and then got off at the Onalaska exit.  We followed Hwy 508 on the short drive to Onaslaska.

We turned off at the fire station and drove into Carlisle Park.  We parked the Escape, got out and noticed there weren't very many people here like we thought there would be...especially the fishermen.  There were probably four other cars here and as far as we could tell, non of them were geocachers.  There is still a chance at two FTF's!

We walked to the first one on the east side of the trail, we walked the lake counter clockwise.  First one was one of the FTF's, Sneaky Pete and His Dog Diego (GC984BR).  We walked to it and it took us slightly off the gravel pathway near some sticker bushes.  I doubt the cache owner wanted us to walk in a patch of sticker bushes.  We fanned out either way and looked at the most logical spot.  I found the tree it was hoisted up in.  There was some fake dog poop nearby as well.  The string was pretty long so that took a while to unwind.  I lowered it down and had Bev open it up and the logbook was empty!!  FTF!  Woooo!  We put everything back and moved onto the next one, just up the trail.

Stonehenge in Onalaska?  (GC984CK) was a surprise.  Mom and I did not notice this are the last time we walked along here...but then again we weren't looking for it.  We knew it was going to be a rough search because it was a 4.5 in difficulty.  We walked up to it and started searching.  You could see that some people had pulled some of the moss off of it.  We tried not to.  I thought it was going to be a loose rock that had a tip clued on to it poked into a void in the wall.  I was right and we all over looked the cache.  Bev called Frisbee'r to get a hint so we weren't there for a long time.  We found it soon after.  It was poked in there good.  I had to pull hard to get it out.  We took a couple photos and we were on our way to the next cache.

Whistlin Willy (GC98554) was at the opposite end of the lake where we parked the Escape...right when you turn the corner to be on the west side of the lake.  We all guessed it would be at the lone tree but what were we exactly looking for?  It was hidden pretty well and when we moved the branch to see, we all thought it was a real bird.  Haha!  I unclipped it from the branch and we got the logbook out of it.  We all signed it and said that it's been a while since we found a fake bird cache. 

The second FTF was the next cache, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum (GC984BT) and we never saw any other cachers walk by let alone anyone so far, so another FTF was in our future!  We followed the lake trail until we came upon a well used side trail.  We followed it past a large tree and a sharp curve in the trail that lead up the hill.  I saw some downed logs and stumps in the curve and a spot perfect for a cache.  I found the lock n' lock with the fake bread glued to the top.  The fake bread threw me off for a couple seconds.  We opened it and found the blank logbook!  We signed our names, got a photo and put it back.

We walked back to the main lake trail and looked the next one up on our phone app.  Twin Peaks:  Log Lady (GC9838J) was slightly off the trail.  We had to walk up a dirt hill about 300 feet.  Bev decided she was going to stay while Mom and I walked up because she is not an off road vehicle.  Mom and I walked up the hill and found an area of trees that looked like the cache would be nearby.  We checked every tree and every downed log.  It was a fake log that had been carved out to hide a container.  We signed our names and put it back where we found it.  We walked back down and joined Bev.  We told her what we found and where it was.   

As we rounded the next part of the lake, before we got back to the parking lot, was another cache named Fairies ONLY...NO TRESSPASSING (GC984A4).  This one was slightly off the trail as well and Bev stayed behind once again but we could see her while we were trying to pinpoint where the cache was.  We walked in and it could have been anywhere.  Mom and I both saw the ivy on the trees but thought nothing of it at first because there was ivy everywhere.  After a few minutes we walked back to the place where we saw the ivy and it looked off.  Mom told me it looked fake so we inspected it and yep, it was fake.  So cleverly hidden.  Hanging off of the ivy was a small ammo can. 

The last one, Are You Up For Trolling? (GC984A1) was at the end of the trail near the small fish hatchery.  There was a small bridge that was half covered in tree limbs that the city had cut down recently.  At first we didn't see the small bridge but when we got closer we saw it underneath all the debris.  I saw where the cache was hidden.  Someone had made a ledge for it and you had to awkwardly grab it from the west side of the small bridge.  Mom and Bev thought the cache container was pretty cool.  We signed our name and put it back.

It was a nice stroll around the park and we got two FTF's!  We got back in the Escape and headed back towards I-5.  Bev was telling us about a multi cache her and Bob did a while back and they couldn't find the final.  I told her we could stop real quick on the way through and look one more time.  She said sure, we could look one more time with more eyes.  We stopped at Stan Headwall Park and looked to see if it was there and we couldn't find it either, even with a hint from Frisbee'r.  Bev was going to email the cache owner.

For lunch, we stopped at Harold's Burger Bar because it had opened back up since it's closure at the end of 2018.  I remember Dad sending us a photo of it earlier this year when he first visited it with his friend Randy after a day at the gun range.  We parked, walked up to the window and all ordered the same thing except I got a soda and they each had a shake, Mom a strawberry and Bev a chocolate one.  We ate it at one of the empty picnic tables.  The food was delicious!

We drove the back way through Bucoda, stopped in Tenino to say hi to Ben really quick and then drove to Bev's house to drop her off.  We hung out with them for a while in their yard visiting.  Then I took Mom home and asked Dad if he could take me over to Grammie and Grandpa's house so I could borrow the truck for a dump run the next day.  I really didn't want to leave the Escape at my grandparent's house unattended.  I found some flower pots and then headed to Grandma's house to pick up her garbage cans.  I dropped off the ladder with Doug and then went home.  I loaded my garbage cans into the back of the truck, ate popcorn, watched Chopped, took a shower, worked on my blog, logged the caches and got ready for bed.   

Next Adventure:  New BBQ

A Hawks Prairie Caching Adventure: The Path Through the Trees

This week was suppose to be the nicest week so far this year for us Pacific Northwesterner's.  I was super stoked to be having tank top and shorts weather so soon this year.  I had many things planned over the course of the week such as mowing the lawn (and Grandma's lawn), smashing cans, moving stuff around in the garage and some geocaching after work.  

We both went to work.  For a Wednesday, my work load was very light but there were a lot of date extensions.  I hate doing more than 50 date extensions a day and today there were 64!  Ughh!  At lunch time, I got the pulled pork ready to go but because Ben's crock pot is lame and I thought I had pressed the on button.  Apparently, I didn't and it wasn't cooking for almost an hour and a half.  Lame!!  I went in and made sure the button was pressed.  Now, dinner is going to be an hour and a half later than we anticipated.  I told Ben and he told me I was lame.  

I said to buy time he could meet me in Hawks Prairie to go get a few caches that published last week.  I told him where they were and he said sure, it will waste time while we wait for our food to get done.  I told him to let me know when he was off work so I can plan when to leave so we get there about the same time.  He said he will do that.

I logged off at 4, changed my clothes and did a few things before checking the food one more time.  I fed the kitties and Ben called to let me know he just got off work.  I got my shoes on and headed out the door.  I gave him the parking coordinates for the caches and there was probably going to be room for maybe three or four cars if you did it right.  He got there before I did because I got stuck in traffic.

I told Ben that the last time I was out here was with Bob and Bev several years ago in the winter time.  We picked up a few of them around the north Hawks Prairie area because Bev got a few solved puzzles and their coordinates from Frisbeer.  Before that, is when I first started caching and we grabbed the seat belt/wrecked car cache, the one that I was going to let Ben find once we got on the trail.

The first one we walk towards was This Cache Has Been Sanitized! (GC97V0X).  It was at least 200 feet off the paved trail hidden in the tall bushes.  We were getting close to it but weren't seeing it.  Ben got a better angle on it and saw it.  He pulled it out and I wasn't expecting a repurposed Diaper Genie.  Hahaha!  We took the lid off of it and got to the container.  We signed our names, got a fabulous photo of Ben and the cache and he put it back how he found it.  I can definitely say that this is a first I've found a Diaper Genie cache.  

We walked east on the trail so Ben could get Make Your Mark (or, Don't Take the Pens!) (GC1BP06) and I told him it was pretty straight forward as far as what you had to do.  It was an old broken down car and you signed the seat belts.  I found it on 4/8/2011 which seems like a very long time ago.  Life was very different back then.

We got back on the path and headed west again to get the rest of them cache.  The next one, Texas Bison (GC97T65) was thrown into the bushes by the last set of cachers.  We had to figure out a way to get around the pokey bush to grab the huge container without getting destroyed.  Ben, since he was wearing pants, did manage to grab it unscathed.  The lid was hard to get off of it but we pulled it and it came off.  There was a bunch of stuff crammed inside of it.  We found the baggie with the log book in it, signed our names, posed with the container and Ben threw it back in the bush.

I read up on the next one, Rainbird (Rainbird???) (GC97T63) to see what we were in for and what side of the trail it was on.  I knew we were looking for a sprinkler head but where would they have hidden it on a path in the woods?  Since the coords were a bit spotty (because of the trees) we looked on both sides of the trail for good measure.  We saw the large stump and found the sprinkler head.  We got the logbook, signed our names and put it back.  

We got back on the path and enjoyed the short walk to the next one, Keep Your Ammo Under Cover (GC97T5Y).  Ben read the hint wrong so we were looking in all the wrong places for the next 10 minutes or so.  I looked everywhere 18 inches from the pavement on both sides of the trail.  I reread the hint and I was like, Ben, it says 18 feet from the paved trail, not 18 inches you dork!  He said, oh, I read it wrong.  Derp.  We finally found it.  It was within reach quite a few times for the both of us.  We signed our names and put it back where we found it.

Now onto the last one, Pond View (GC97T5N).  This one was further away from the rest of the caches in this tiny series.  We saw that there was active construction, cut trees and branches, barriers, new ponds, stumps and construction flags everywhere.  We got closer to the cache and saw where we needed to go.  We had to step around a huge stump to grab the ammo can.  Ben stayed on the trail while I went and signed our names.  I got a picture of it with on of the several ponds.

We made our way back to the vehicles.  We knew we had to walk quickly so we could get home and check on the pulled pork.  I was hoping that it was going to be done after my mistake from earlier.  We both got home and we checked the crock pot.  I had Ben check it to see if it was ready to take out and pull.  He said we should give it another half hour.  I got the buns ready to put in the oven, cooked the beans, grabbed the extra BBQ sauce and the Cole slaw.  We got one of our giant plates out and Ben shredded up the pork, slapped it on our buns and added some more BBQ sauce on top.  I  added beans and some chips to my plate and found a show to watch and we ate our food with delight.  Pulled pork sandwiches are sooo good!

Next Adventure:  Lewis County Adventures:  Onalaska, Carlisle Lake, 2 FTF's and Harold's Burger Bar