Cache Maintenance and Some Papa Pete's with Bev

I started getting emails from cachers stating that some of my caches were missing.  It was usually the same ones over and over again.  I knew I had to go fix them, but I had to wait for a weekend where I had some extra time, it wasn't raining and if someone wanted to go with me...because it's way more fun with someone rather than by myself.  I saw the upcoming weekend was going to be somewhat nice, so I had planned on doing maintenance then. 

Mom was going to be at a quilt retreat at Camp Cascades with Grandma and Ben was on a 24-hour shift in Tenino.  I asked Bev what she was doing and if she wanted to go for a ride and check on caches.  I told her which ones I had planned on checking and replacing.  She agreed to come along and asked if we could check up on some of hers.  I said sure, bring some containers with you if they are specific. 

I ate breakfast and got my stuff ready.  I loaded up the recycle and took that to Rainier and then drove out to Bev's house to pick her up.  She was pretty much ready to go.  She grabbed her pump hand sanitizer out of her car and a container to fix one of her caches she had disabled.  

I told her where we were going to stop first and that was the BobBevLacie's 50th Wedding Anniversary (GC4F2FP) since it was right down the road from where we were.  The cache was dry as a bone, so I didn't need to do anything to it.

We drove the back way to Yelm out on Solberg Road.  I needed to check on Triangle (GC2EYYM) since I know cachers don't like to put caches back where they're supposed to go.  I found a place to pull over and I am glad I stopped here.  I found my cache on the ground instead of hooked onto a tree branch keeping it off the ground.  Luckily, the inside of the cache was dry.  I hung it back up before I left.

We went into Yelm and out to a cache I adopted from RL Painter a few years ago.  Bypass to Nowhere (GC2HFCM) was in a really weird spot.  There was plenty of parking but that might change if this bypass ever gets finished.  Bev stayed in the Escape, and I ran over to the stop sign and found the old beaten-up container.  I decided to change it out with a magnetic hide a key container.  I put a baggie and logbook inside of it and stuck it to the bottom of the stop sign.  I put some rocks in front of it for more protection.  I hopped back in the Escape and checked to see what the next one was on our list.

The 507 Series: Yelm, Wash. (GC3AMVW) was along the Tenino-Rainier-Yelm Trail and it has gone missing a few times over the years.  I think it was due to the kids and or the homeless people in the area.  They just can't leave stuff alone.  We found a place to park in the housing development nearby, I grabbed a new container with some stuff inside and a code on the lid (Erika's label maker came is super handy on this trip) and walked over to its hiding spot.  It was missing so I replaced it, covered it with rocks in the makeshift cairn and hoped that it would stay around for a while.  We walked back to the Escape.

We headed towards Rainier and veered off 507 onto Tipsoo Loop.  I had to go check up on the cache I hid at Gehrke Park.  Gehrke Park (GC2EYXV) was right in its place.  I decided to change out the container because I wasn't a huge fan of the skinny neck on the pill bottle.  It makes it harder to retrieve the logbook.  It was a quick switcharoo. I hopped back in the Escape, and we drove into Rainier.

We turned at the post office and city hall and parked in the newly paved parking lot to one of the several trailheads.  We made comments on how nice this was now that we don't have to bottom out in large water-filled potholes ever again.  We parked, grabbed containers just in case I had to change them out and walked across the street and headed down the trail to both Rainier Trail Cache (GC8MCG5) and The 507 Series: Rainier, Wash. (GC3AMVX).  Both were fine but I changed out the baggie and logbook in the series cache.  We walked back to the Escape and Bev asked if we could check up on A Little Farther Out of Town (GC2QP7D).  I said of course we can.

We pulled over on the side of the road near the cache and we both go out.  I had remembered coming here to get the first to find with Kenny and Mike with my Mom, when this published over ten years ago.  Bev remembered where it was, so we moved around some of the cement blocks and rocks and found the small fake rock that was hidden in a lot of leaf debris.  We cleaned up the area a little bit, stacked the rocks differently and stuck the fake rock underneath to keep it hidden from view but not to be crushed by the rocks and cement.  

We went back to the Escape and safely got back onto 507 towards Tenino.

The One That Got Away (GC3A7P1) is located near the S-curve on the way into Tenino.  It is intersected with Military Road right smack dab in the middle of it.  Originally, this cache was a road turtle that was ripped up off the road (probably from construction or plowing snow off the roads) and Bob and Bev decided to use it to make a cache out of it.  I was first to find on it many years ago.  It keeps getting thrown away when volunteer groups do highway litter patrol, so they hung a micro cache on the back of one of the large cottonwood trees near the road.  The last cacher came by and couldn't find it so Bev thought maybe it went missing.  We parked and got out.  We checked both trees because she couldn't remember which one it was in exactly.  I saw it hanging there and told her that it was there.  We got back in the Escape and drove into Tenino.

We stopped by Welcome 2 Tenino (GC8N5G8) first because someone had said something about the logbook being full.  We pulled off of 507 and parked right in front of the sign.  I checked a couple spots and found the cache hidden where I thought it would be since they tend to move when people find them and put them back in the wrong places.  The cache was in rough shape, so I changed out the entire container, baggie and logbook.  We moved onto the next one in town.

For some reason people had been finding The 507 Series: Tenino, Wash. (GC3AMVY) but I had my doubts because this one goes missing often.  We parked on one of the side streets and Bev stayed in the Escape.  I prepared a container and made sure a code got on the lid.  I walked to its hiding spot, and I could not find a container.  I even grabbed a stick and scooted debris around looking for something that even resembled a container.  Nothing.  I have no idea what people are finding.  I walked back to the Escape, and we were off to Bucoda the back way through Tenino.

We drove through Bucoda and got to see a train.  Bev was pretty pleased.  We approached the parking area to The 507 Series: Bucoda, Wash. (GC3AMW0) and fit ourselves in the small spot on the side of the road.  Bev stayed in the Escape, and I ran out and retrieved the cache in the twin tree crotch.  It was wet so I changed out the entire container, baggie, logbook and code on the lid.  I ran back across, dodging some cars and put it back where I originally hid it.  We zoomed away and followed 507 into Centralia.

They had done some work at ground zero.  They made a crosswalk and put up some signs so I could see how The 507 Series: Centralia, Wash. (GC8M6XJ) would have been missing.  I got out a new container, put a logbook into a baggie and made a code for it on the label maker I borrowed from Erika.  I found a good place to hide it under the edge of one of the large rocks and put another rock in front to hide it from muggles.  I hopped back into the Escape and Bev said she was hungry, so we drove to Papa Pete's.  

We discussed the last time we remembered being there and we came up with Bev's birthday back in July.  We ate it in Fort Borst Park after doing the Adventure Lab in town.  We pulled up to the restaurant and noticed that it was still closed inside, and we had to go through the drive thru.  Bummer.  Bev said that she owed me a birthday pizza from November, so we ordered two medium pizzas.  She got pepperoni and I got pepperoni and black olives.  She paid and the lady told us it would be about 30 minutes and took down my phone number.  

We drove to the new Dollar General to waste time and to see what it was all about since neither of us had been inside one before.  It wasn't quite what I thought it was, but we ended up getting a couple drinks and I got some M&M's.  We think we wasted enough time, so we drive back to Papa Pete's and went through the drive thru again.  Someone came to the window, and we told her we were there to pick up pizza.  She handed us our two medium pizzas and a bunch of napkins.  We ate our pizza in the parking lot while we watched traffic on I-5.  I used my box as a plate and got grease all over it.  We chatted about random things as we ate.  The pizza hit the spot.

We got onto I-5 and headed north to the Scatter Creek Rest Area because I had to pee.  I asked Bev if she remembered where the final cache was to the Wherigo cache but she said she couldn't.  She knew the general area but not a specific area.  I peed and we got back onto the freeway and we to Tumwater.  We got off at 93rd so we could go down Rich Road to fix her Deschutes River Cache (GC3B2YN) that they have meant to check on but just never remembered to stop.  We pulled over at the guardrail and we found the cache right away so we have no idea why the last cacher couldn't find it.  Bev traded out the old container that's been here for ten years because it has seen better days.

We hopped back into the Escape and got back onto Ol' 99 to head to Rainier down Waldrick Road.  I had to fix Corner (GC3GXG0) because someone reported that the container was smashed.  We parked alongside the road, I got out, grabbed a new container with a logbook and baggie and traded the containers out.  It was a quick out and in.  We continued down the road into Rainier.  I dropped off Bev and then called Dad to see what he was doing.  He said he was on his way back home from Lacey but was going to stop at Grammie and Grandpa's house.  I stopped by there and waited for him and tried calling him again because he should have been there before I got there.  I waited for about twenty minutes, and he never stopped by, so I went home.

 I couldn't get Doug to walk his dog, so I decided to go to the store to pick up next week's dinner ingredients, get some decorations for Ben's birthday party at the dollar store, stopped by Value Village just because I could and then went home to unload groceries and put them away.

I ate some of my pizza, did laundry, worked on my blog and watched a few movies until it was time for bed.  I got a lot done today and it felt good.

Next Adventure:  Celebration of Life: Remembering Sandi Sprouffske

Some Geocaching and Walter's Birthday Party

We got to talking to Wendy about a month earlier and she said to mark our calendars for the 29th because that's when they would be celebrating Walter's 60th birthday and she would like us to come.  I told her that I would write it on the calendar and let Ben know.  I asked if we needed to bring anything and she said no, since it was being catered by one of Walter's favorite places.  I asked her what time we needed to be there, and she said around 3:30. I told her we would see her then.  She said looking forward to it!

I was at the store a few days before his party and asked Ben if we wanted to get Walter a gift.  He said, that would be nice and what I had in mind.  I said, would he like one of these?  I sent him a picture of one of those oversized bottles you would put money or something else in.  It was green and had a Seahawks logo on it.  We knew Walter loved the Seahawks and would go perfectly with his collectibles.  Ben said sure and wondered what we were going to put in it.  He asked Wendy and she said an assortment of sugar free candy.  That was totally doable.  When I went to go look for some sugar free candy, it had been wiped out everywhere.  With the snow, Covid and truck strikes, the store really needed to go to the store.  I did find a couple bags to dump into the bottle.  Ben imagined filling the bottle to go differently but I told him this was the best I could do.  I wrapped it up and we wrote in his card.

That day, I got up by 10, ate a quick breakfast and got my stuff ready.  It was really hard to get Ben out of bed but he promised he would so we could leave early.  I wanted to fix a few of my geocaches and find a few since the day was going to be nice.  I had to constantly get after Ben because he would find ways to stall getting ready.  

We finally left by 11:30. We went the back way through Spanaway so we could fix a couple caches along Hwy 507.  Our first stop was in McKenna, just to check on The 507 Series: McKenna, Wash. (GC8MCGV).  The place I hid it at originally disappeared, so I had to move it and create a new cache back in 2020.  I got out of the Escape and noticed my cache was on the ground out in the open.  The post, its former hidey hole, has been compromised.  I will have to move it.  I changed out everything and hid the new container near the power pole hidden amongst the rocks.  At least there, it could be covered up out of sight.  

Next, we drove to Roy.

The 507 Series: Roy, Wash. (GC3AMVP) has been a difficult one to keep around.  For the longest time no one bothered it, it was never missing, and it was just one I didn't have to worry about.  The rock I hid near it moved to another location so two years ago I had to move the cache to where the rock moved to.  Then it was fine until the container went missing.  I had to disable it for about a week or so.  I parked at the nearby gas station and brought an entire new cache with its code and hid it better near the rock.  I sure hope it stays put for a while.  

We got back on 507 and headed for Spanaway but I pulled over so Ben could get Pacific Harbors (Glacier View) Cache to Eagle #5 (GC256PW) before we left Roy for good that afternoon.  He was tall enough to reach it.  I found this one with Mom many many years ago when I was still considered a newbie.

We pulled off at the park and ride at the intersection of where Hwy 507 and Hwy 7 meet.  I really didn't need to check The 507 Series: Spanaway, Wash. (GC3V7QF) but I did since we were here.  I needed to see the condition it was in.  First off, I found it not in its original hiding spot...it wasn't even in the tree, so I changed out the container and stuck it where I had hidden it back when I put this series out in 2012. 

Before we left the park and ride, I checked my app to see where we needed to go next.  I wanted to at least get a couple caches before we went over to Walt and Wendy's house.  I saw one that was nearby called (Not) Ocean Front Property at Granny's (GC8JXGQ) and made our way to it.  We drove through Elk Plain and got on a side road towards Graham and I noticed that this was the way I went when I picked up Wade two Novembers ago.  We continued following the roads and pulled into a housing development and as we got closer to the ground zero, I noticed that I've been to this house before.  Did I forget to log this when I found it ten years ago?  Then I looked at the cache and when it was placed...it was definitely a replacement cache and I have been here before for the prior one that used to be here.  I went out and grabbed it, brought it to the Escape, we signed it and put it back.

We got back on the main road and followed it to Frederickson.  I knew there was a Safeway over here so we could pick up our veggie tray.  Ben said it was great timing because he had to use the restroom and I needed to find a snack soon because I was getting hungry.  We picked up the veggie tray, I got a lunchable and Ben went and used the restroom.  I sat in the Escape and ate my lunchable while I listened to one of my podcasts.  I got done and decided that I should pee before we left.  I ended up crossing paths with Ben and told him I was gonna go pee and handed him the keys.

I hopped back in the Escape and told Ben we were headed to Reflect and Rail 2 (GC85GK1) and it was going to be a tricky one because we had to find a place to park and then we had to walk across the busy highway to the guardrail, opposite of where we parked.  Fun times.  We tried parking on the same side of the street as the cache, but it was private property. We did a U-turn and had to park at Ricky J's Restaurant and Bar.  Ben and I got out and saw there was a break in the traffic so we ran across the street to the guardrail.  We found it quickly, got our names on it and then had to find another break in the traffic to run back across.

We got back to the Escape, and I checked my phone to see if there were any more caches around the immediate area.  I did see one that I DNF'd with Bob back in 2012 and never went back to avenge it.  TJC-1-CANYON-160TH (GC3PDC9) was in an obscure place and I knew I should have parked away from the driveway, but I pulled in and the person who lived there came out.  I really don't like talking to people.  I just want to get the cache and leave.  Ben started talking to the person and I got in the Escape to move it to another location.  I turned around and parked it near the driveway but tried to be out of the way of the driveway.  Ben didn't like how I parked so he got in and parked it kitty corner on the other road at a gravel pull out.  I went and looked for the cache while Ben sat in the Escape on his phone.  I tried to hurry because I didn't want to be here very long... just in case the driveway guy came out to see what I was doing.  I did eventually find it.  Yesss!  I can now avenge this DNF.  I walked back to the Escape, and I looked at my phone app to see if there was at least one more in the area we could get.

I saw there was one at the South Hill Park that we didn't have yet.  I am not sure why we didn't get Mammoth's Soccer Cache (GCP2AQ) the last time we were here (which was a couple month's back) or when Bev and I came out here many years ago.  Oh well.  We parked and because it was a nice day, there were a lot of people at the park and on the Nathan Champman Memorial Trail.  We started our half a mile walk down the trail.  It was a nice walk.  There were lots of people walking their dogs and their small children. 

We made our way to ground zero and of course we chose the wrong side of the bridge to start searching.  I figured that this area would be inundated with water during certain parts of the year so the other side of the bridge would most likely be where it was hidden.  We got off the trail and crouched down to find the magnetic hide a key on one of the metal plates holding the foot bridge together.  We signed our names quickly and put it back.  We walked back to the Escape and saw a lot more dogs and children being walked.

I had Ben call Wendy to see if we could come a little earlier and she said to come on over.  Since we were a few blocks away it didn't take us very long to get to their house.  We parked, grabbed all the stuff we needed and went to the front door.  They were very excited to see us.  I can't remember the last time we saw them. I think it was in maybe November.  We put our stuff down, they gave us our Celebrate Family and Friends board we had ordered from them a couple months ago and Ben and I each gave them $20.  I couldn't believe they only wanted $40 for it. 

We sat on the couch for a while catching up on all the crazy stuff, we've all done in the last few months.  I asked Wendy how many people we were still waiting for and she said Chris, Rosa, the kids and one more of their friends.  More were supposed to come but they have Covid and were self-quarantining.  Good times!

Chris, Rosa and the kids arrived shortly after, and the kids were getting so big!  It is amazing how quickly time flies by.  We visited with Chris and Rosa for a bit and then one more of their family friends came by, I think her name was Pam.  We chatted with her as well.  We got up and all loaded up on BBQ food.  We had three different kinds of meat, corn bread, beans...it was so delicious!  This was my kind of food!  Wendy had catered it from one of Walter's favorite places.  Of course, we ate too much.  We shared stories as we ate.  We had these little Bundt cakes for dessert.  I had a white raspberry one.  It was very good. 

We cleaned up and cleared off our plates and Walter went front and center to open up his gifts.  He really liked our present.  He opened a couple more from everyone else and then he told us about their large purchase they made during Thanksgiving.  Since they've opened their business and go to shows to sell things, they would have to pile everything into two cars and drive to locations.  Now, they would only have to drive one vehicle.  They purchased a truck that is supposed to be here soon.  It was currently on a ship in Mexico on its way to the dealership in Puyallup.  It would give them plenty of room to take their stuff to their shows.  They showed us a picture of what it was going to look like.

We hung out for about another hour or so and then thanked them for the invite.  Hugs were given out and we called Trish to see if she wanted us to stop by for a while.  We drove out to Bonney Lake through the back way.  When we got there, we hung out, chatted, ate popcorn and played a game of 10,000.  I lost.  We thanked them for having us over, even though it was a short time this go around, more hugs were given out and we started heading towards home.  We went the same way home, the back way.

We didn't get home until after 10:30 that night because we had to stop at my parent's house to grab the truck.  We had to go to the dump really bad because our garbage cans were full.  That is what we had planned for tomorrow...the dump and football.  We texted Trish to let her know we got home safely.  We did a few chores, got cleaned up and started getting ready for bed.  Today was busier than I thought it was going to be.

Happy Birthday Walter!

Next Adventure: Cache Maintenance and Some Papa Pete's with Bev

Doug's Gender Reveal Birthday Party

Doug had been having a rough couple months, since the October life change, so Erika and I decided to throw him a birthday party even though he didn't want one nor did he think that he deserved one.  Everyone deserved a birthday party whether they thought they did or not.  I asked her what kind of a theme we wanted to do, and she said to give her a few days to think about some.  I asked Doug what kind of food he wanted for his birthday dinner, and he said he didn't care.  I did eventually get an answer out of him.  He wanted cubed steak, mashed potatoes and green beans.  I told him that I would make that happen.

Erika got back to me and threw around some theme ideas such as Star Wars, Disney Princesses, dinosaurs and SpongeBob.  I really liked the Star Wars theme, so we agreed on looking for decorations for that.  I'm glad I waited a few days because Erika called and told me she changed her mind.  She said she got to talking with Zach and they wanted to do a gender reveal birthday party.  I asked, why?  She said that Doug needed a little weird in his life and that the idea came from Zach.  I asked her what I was responsible for.  She said, to host it at my house, provide the food and get decorations.  She said she would make the cake and decide if she wanted to make him a boy or a girl.  It was super weird, but I went along with it.

In lieu of a gift, I decided on that Tuesday after work (on a dry evening) to clean and vacuum out his car because the car desperately needed it and I needed some exercise after sitting in front of my computer working all day.  I even organized his glove box by taking out all the papers that didn't need to be in there.  I put those in his file box with all of his other important documents.

I was in Tumwater on Wednesday for my massage appointment, so I stopped by the cemetery to see Grammie and then the Dollar Tree to pick up some pink and blue baby decorations.  I went to go pay for my decorations and the lady ringing me up saw the decorations.  Oh, you're having a gender reveal party.  In my head, I said, yeah...something like that but my mouth said, yeah, we are.  She asked, oh, when is it?  I said, next weekend (at this point I was just answering questions randomly.)  She asked me one more question, oh, do you know what it's going to be?  I said, no.  It was a surprise.  I paid for my stuff and she told me to have a fun gender reveal party.  I thanked her as I walked towards the door to leave.  Well, that was fun.

That Friday, I went shopping for all the food because I had the day off.  We were supposed to go get our Covid booster shots that afternoon at the Yelm Walmart, but Walmart called and canceled them because they were short-handed due to Covid.  Instead, we had to do it another day which was probably going to be after work the next Friday as walk ins.  Doug said he was probably going to do it on Tuesday since he had Wednesday off.  Doug came home early, since he had a half day, and we went to the Walmart and then the Safeway.  He needed a few things and I had to pick up cubed steak and the green beans.  Doug offered to buy the green beans which was nice of him.

The morning of, on Sunday, I got up around 9:30, ate a quick breakfast and started getting the house presentable for people to come over.  I didn't go above and beyond but made sure the house wasn't a total disaster.  I let Ben sleep for a while since he was on a 24-hour shift the day before.  I vacuumed and then set up one of the tables along with the small table on the end.  I didn't want to set up both tables because it's a lot of work to take my work stuff down.

I had the Penguins/Jets game on while I cleaned.  The game went on to a shootout and the Pens won, 3-1.  It was a great win.  

Ben got up and helped me bring in chairs and decorate everything in baby pink and baby blue.  It really did look like we were having a gender reveal party.  The only thing we were missing was someone who was pregnant.  Mom got here early to help me make the cubed steak since I've never made it before and had no idea how long to cook it.  While she did that, I made the mashed potatoes.  It's been at least 20+ years since I've had cubed steak.  She also did the gravy because I don't do gravy.

Everyone showed up around 1 and Mom was putting the final touches on the gravy.  Doug really didn't look that impressed but deep down I knew he appreciated that we had a birthday party for him.  He saw the decorations and thought they were weird.  Erika threw Zach under the bus by stating that the theme was all his idea and that she just made the cake.  We all went into the kitchen and threw some food on a plate and sat down in the living room.  

The Rams and Tampa Bay game played in the background.  I hated both teams and didn't want any of them to win.  I really didn't want Tampa Bay to win because I want Tom Brady to lose and finally retire. 

We ate our food and chatted about random things.  Everyone asked Doug questions, and this was the chattiest he's been since Christmas time.  My guess is that he was just humoring everyone because he had to be there.  The food actually turned out pretty good and I am not a fan of cubed steak and gravy all that much.

We cleared the table and Erika brought her cake in.  I bought two sets of candles, blue and pink, so we arranged them all over the cake to make it look nice.  Before Erika lit the candles, she asked everyone what we think he's going to be, and again, everyone thought that was weird.  I had to think about this for a min.  What would Erika do?  Hmmm.  I knew she was going to try and trick us thinking she picked girl, but that would be too obvious, so I went with boy.  I heard a couple girls and boys as people were guessing.  

We sang happy birthday and then he blew out the candles.  We got him a knife and he cut into it.  HE'S A BOY!  Yay!  I was right!  We all made jokes about him being confirmed as a boy since you know, we needed confirmation.  I am not sure gender reveal parties were all that popular in the 1980's.  I think it's more of a 21st century thing these days.  We all dished up cake and watched the dramatic end to a football game the Rams were trying to give away.  I was getting rather anxious.

The Rams did end up holding on and I was so glad we were going to watch a Super Bowl without Tom Brady in it.  We were all marked safe from Tom Brady.  Now, I anticipated him retiring at some point over the next few weeks.  I am crossing my fingers!  Doug opened his presents.  Mom got him a couple of containers to put his stuff in, so it didn't have to sit in the garage in cardboard boxes and some clothes.  Erika got him a beard hat off of the internet, but it wasn't going to come for a few days and Grandma got him a couple gift cards for Starbucks.  He thanked everyone for the gifts.

Everyone was pretty much partied out and wanted to head home.  I went in the kitchen and started doing some of the dishes and I bought the right amount of food because we didn't have any leftovers to put away.  We had some cake leftover but that wasn't a big deal.  Everyone went home and Ben and I took the decorations down and put the tables and chairs away.  We watched the Bills lose to the Chiefs in the night game.  The last five minutes of the game was truly insane, and it ended up going into overtime.  It was a bummer because I wanted the Bills to move on to the Conference Championship.

Happy Birthday Doug!

Next Adventure:  Some Geocaching and Walter's Birthday