Saturday, part 2

Since Steve went to the Metro Cruise on 28th Street today, I decided to spend my late afternoon and evening taking part in our church's digital scavenger hunt. My team and I, called "we want to play but don't have a team yet" set out with a list of shots to get and an hour & 45 minutes to get as many as we could. Had a great time - highlights for me included my getting "on" a motorcycle that was parked near a bar, the owner was up on the balcony and noticed....we just said, we're on a scavenger hunt and needed a motorcycle picture. We're done now. Thanks."

Another pix was on a skateboard. We saw a kid going down the street on one and stopped him to ask permission to borrow the skateboard for a picture. I guess when a middle-aged lady comes running at you, wearing a chicken hat, you're probably too flabbergasted to refuse. Oh yeah, we all had to wear crazy hats. I chose my chicken hat, though the flying pig hat was tempting.

We had to meet at Meijer at 7:15 to buy ingredients for tacos, then returned to the church for taco dinner and viewing the pictures and declaring a winner. It was nice to spend some time in fellowship with others in my church family, I don't get to do that as often as I'd like. We didn't win but we had a great time!

Saturday part 1 - Age of Discovery

Had a great Saturday. It started with a trip to the annual Age of Discovery geocaching event, in Jenison. Opted to go on my own this time around, since I had a church event in the late afternoon (more on that in part 2!)

Arrived at the park shortly after the event started, and immediately was greeted very enthusiastically by several friends. I was soon to find out that the get to know you game, where you gather signatures of people that fit different statements, like how many caches you've found, etc. had a statement "Find a cacher named redhedmary." So I got to sign everybody's paper, all in the same spot. At the same time I had my own paper. I didn't know, though, that I had been slipped a fake paper with impossible statements. Finally figured it out about a half hour later and got a regular paper...

Traded travel bugs and pathtags, got to chat with lots of people, then was invited to go find the new caches in the park with five other cachers. Went around with vj24, Dirty Gordy, Homebru, Mr. GeoFrog, and Mr. of Team Peterson. We found six caches in the park, the four we needed for the game plus two other new ones. Got back just before the food was gone. That didn't matter, for in my new quest to be "good" with eating, had brought my own little sandwich and my bottle of water so I was set. That plus the exercise made it good.

Had some more time to visit, then the prize drawing. Didn't win anything this yesr but that's ok. Found a few more caches on the way home, then had about an hour before the church event.

June 15, 2010 - Lake Superior Circle Tour Part 3

I was printing some stuff off my netbook last night and realized I'd never printed off the word version of the circle tour that I missed on publishing (the night we didn't have wifi.) So printed it and here it is.

Today started out to be a bit cloudier than we had been led to believe. Oh well, whatcha gonna do? We knew before we left the Thunder Bay area, we wanted to go check out Kakabeka Falls, just north of the city. We were glad we went, the falls were great! When we arrived, we found a self-service permit kiosk. For a two hour stay in the park it was $5 Canadian. Luckily I had enough Canadian quarters to buy the permit. We could have probably gotten away without paying but why take the chance? Neglected to mention that my coin purse full of Canadian change that Steve had saved was our only Canadian money on the trip. Otherwise we just used our credit cards (we pay them off every month.) Weird not to have any Canadian currency this time around. Note on 8/25: we did end up having to pay foreign transaction fees so in retrospect it might have been a better idea to changed some money after all....

After Kakabeka Falls (where I completed an earthcache) we went on down Hwy 61 to the border. Pulled out our passports, gave them to the US Border Patrol agent, and he said he'd have to confiscate our bike. After a long pause, he added "to take it for a spin." Ha-ha. This crossing was a lot easier (and less time, too) than crossing into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie. Stopped in Grand Marais, Minnesota for lunch - found the Blue Water Cafe in this little tourist town and had a nice meal. There was a really neat painting of the entire Lake Superior region on the wall, tried to get a picture but it wasn't straight on as there were people eating in front of it.

Continued on and stopped for a cache in Luttsen - a travel bug hotel where I left three travelers and picked up the only one there. Continued on and made our next stop at Gooseberry Falls State Park, where I'd heard (via geocaching, of course) that there were three very nice falls. There certainly were - and the set up was such that you could get pretty close to them. Lots of people out there on the rocks taking pictures. I was able to pick up another earthcache as well as a virtual here. So four caches for the day, not bad when you're with a muggle.

Continued down Hwy 61 which followed the coastline of Lake Superior. It had become more drizzly by now, but still manageable. We headed for Duluth, knowing we'd have to pick up the interstate to get over to US 2 in Wisconsin. Well, we found it, and found massive slow downs because of construction AND rush hour traffic. Not good, but we survived. Headed across the bridge to Wisconsin, pretty foggy and couldn't even see the water. Finally on US 2, heading across most of Wisconsin, stopping for the night in Ashland.

Went to a Super 8 only to find out it cost too many of our "points" to get for free, and was out of Steve's price range for not free. So we ended up at a pretty small family motel at about $25 less than the Super 8. No wireless so I'm saving this to Word (see Mom, I listened. 8/25 note: but it didn't work out cutting and pasting, not sure why.) We ate dinner at Country Kitchen and I walked across the street from the motel to WalMart for travel snacks while Steve cleaned the bike. We're on the lake so saw somewhat of a sunset, the clouds prevented a more spectacular one. Right now Steve is just waking up so we'll get going. Weather doesn't look too promising today either but we'll see. It is what it is. Today we'll get back into Michigan and I can hopefully pick up some of my missing counties to complete the Michigan 83 county challenge.

Goodbyes and wonderings

The day is fast approaching...goodbye to Scott for at least a year and possibly longer. A year would be if we go to Germany to see him next summer. Longer would be if we don't. He is at camp this weekend, will be home later today. We'll go out to dinner tonight for a goodbye celebration and also to celebrate his passing his Staff Sergeant test, then tomorrow will go quickly and Tuesday noonish we'll leave for the airport. He has a lot of packing yet to do - he came with one piece of luggage, with two empties inside the first piece of luggage, so that he can take his maximum of 3 - 70# pieces back with him (still free of charge because he is active duty military.) He shipped about $70 worth of stuff back to himself already through flat rate boxes, mostly heavy stuff but also parts of his stormtrooper costume that he finally has room for in his apartment.

It's been a fun month - canoe/kayak trip, Michigan's Adventure (where we finally found out he got a tattoo in tech school, can't hide THAT from Mom when you're shirtless...) my birthday, lots of card playing, and just some general time spent together. My babies are all growed up!

Eric has been hanging around when Scott's been home, but I expect we'll see a lot less of him after Tuesday, too - mostly because his fall classes will start soon after. It's been good to have him home, too. I think I can safely say that though in distance they are far apart, as adult brothers they are close to each other. Hope they can keep it that way.

Then its just Steve & I and the dog. Don't know how things will be. I know the boys know that things are a struggle for us right now, Eric because he's witnessed things and Scott because Eric has shared with him (so Scott said to me.) Having the boys around has been a buffer zone.

I'm not holding any fairy-tale illusions though. I am beginning to realize that, in his heart, Steve finds it impossible to love someone who can't live up to his standards. Can I live with that? I already realize that we'll most likely never have a physical relationship again. That's hard, I'm still interested but he's not. My counselor is helping me to realize that I might not get to understand the reasons why the Lord still wants me in this relationship but I need to trust Him in all things. So we'll see how it goes. Learning some coping skills for when Steve puts me down helps some.

Cachin' Wisconsin....West Bend Cache Ba$h

Way back in January (before I knew Scott was coming home on leave) I decided to attend the West Bend $1000 Cache Ba$h, in West Bend Wisconsin. Cash prize giveaway for caching - my 50th birthday weekend - all good. Shortly thereafter I invited my sister, Deb, to join me as she has done some caching herself. I also invited a caching friend from here, also named Deb.

So Thursday was the day...picked up Deb L. at 7:30 a.m. and we were on the road after a Mickey D's breakfast stop and an ATM stop. We cached along the way in Michigan and Indiana. Our favorite cache along the way was one in Indiana called KA-BOOM - it was near a fireworks store and was an ammo box with a pringles can decorated to look like a firecracker, with notation that the log was inside. When we opened the can, out popped one of those snakes on a spring...after we screamed, we laughed. Probably won't ever pass a fireworks store again without thinking of that one. Also did about six caches at one shopping area, most centered around a Bass Pro Shop that was there.

Headed into Illinois, and the tollway. Slow going at first with construction on 80-94. And the tolls - my how they've changed. I-PASS is the way to go now, apparently - if you don't have one, you have to go all the way over to the right side for a cash booth. And the prices have gone up and are even different depending on the booth - we paid anywhere from 80 cents to $1.50. I think Deb L. thought it was funny that I was so verbal about that - but I grew up traveling the tollway a couple of times a year or so and still remember the Pay Toll One Mile, Cars 30 cents signs. And oh, yes, the baskets are gone, too. If we were the lucky kid sitting behind the driver, we got to throw the toll into the basket.

No real delays around Chicago other than 80-94, so smooth sailing. Didn't cache much except a few at the Oases until we got to the Gurnee exit, did three there. Then headed up into Wisconsin and by then we were getting tired and pretty much just wanted to get to the hotel. After we arrived, checked in, we walked across the street to Applebee's and ate dinner. After dinner, we both logged our cache finds from the day then went to bed.

Friday morning - woke up, ate the hotel breakfast, and had a few hours to kill before the new caches were released and registration opened at noon. So we decided to go for some nearby caches, then went over to the park and did some caching there. Our first one was at the park's playground. Just couldn't find that one so went to the next two which were both pretty mosquito-guarded. Then decided to do one more - it was on an island, I volunteered to wade across. A team of a dad and two sons soon joined us, it took a while but the dad finally found the cache. Then we made our way back to the park, registered, then decided to go back to the hotel and shower, then pick up my sis Deb who arrived at 2 p.m. Once we had sis Deb checked in, the three of us set out to do just "10" caches - the new ones all had 10 as their prefix. We had to collect a stamp or codeword from each one to prove we were there, and received tickets to the prize drawing based on how many caches we could find. We managed to find 27caches on Friday, even though there was some rain, mostly light though. There was a meet & greet at the park but we decided to keep on caching anyway. Came time for supper, we were going to grab sandwiches and take them back to the room, but then I saw a Noodles restaurant and I had a coupon for a free birthday meal so we ended up there. I had Wisconsin Mac & Cheese, Deb L. had stroganoff, and sis Deb had buttered noodles with meatballs. Again, spent the evening logging finds. Sis Deb had some trouble getting the wifi so went to the lobby. She met several West Michigan cachers down there without me even introducing her!

Saturday - today's goal was to get me to 3000 finds. I knew we couldn't do it on just 10 caches, and the tickets were only good for prize drawings, not the cash prize, so we were doing anything that came our way that wasn't going to give us a long walk. Definitely a numbers day! We were all over but managed to get me to 2996 by the time we came back to the park to turn in our cards just before the deadline. I grabbed two more caches while waiting for the prize drawings, and logged the post-bash party before the bash, which made the event my #3000 cache find.

We passed the time while waiting for the prize drawings by doing a little cache shopping, pathtag trading, and visiting with other cachers. We didn't win any cash or prizes, but had a good time. Went back to the hotel to clean up, then stopped by the Post Bash party (another event.) I had logged that I would be having my 50th birthday the next day, so they had a special prize for me - a book called "The Joy of Geocaching" which was autographed by the authors. Very good book! We didn't stay very long at the party as it was quite crowded and the bar didn't serve any food other than Tombstone Pizzas so left in search of better food. We ended up at Qdoba for mexican food, then went back to the hotel and (you guessed it) logged our caches. Had 39 for Saturday so it took a while.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed over to the Breakfast, a third event for the weekend. Enjoyed some pancakes then did the turkey shoot which involved finding four plastic wildlife creatures and figuring out the closest coords. Didn't win that either, oh well!

Oh, when we came out to the car at the hotel, I discovered that sis Deb had decorated the car with balloons, "50" written on the windows, and over the hill streamers. She made me a sash out of some of the streamers, and I got to wear a Burger King crown as well, proclaiming me the birthday girl. Had received the crown the day before, and the counter guy actually sang Happy Birthday to me when I received it....

Then back to the hotel to load up, check out, and head for home. Said our goodbyes to sis Deb, I'm really glad she could join me though I think it'll be a while before she does another event, at least a huge one like this one. Left the balloons and other decs on the car all the way home, at first when people honked as they went by I couldn't figure out why, then the "oh-duh" meter went on and I waved back...

Ended up with a grand total of five caches on Sunday. First was the breakfast event, then one in Wisconsin to drop off a coin that wanted to stay in the area, then an Oasis cache in Illinois, then one in Indiana when I needed a driving break, then an event in Portage, Indiana that other West Michigan cachers had told us about. We didn't get there in time to search for the new caches from that event, but we visited about 15 minutes and so received the smiley anyway. Got home about 7 p.m., then Steve and the boys took me to Outback for dinner.

Got a new digital pix frame from Steve, a Deutschland license plate that said GEO CACHE on it and a Transatlantic Council Wood Badge patch from Scott, and a beautiful card and a promise to buy me a massage certificate from Eric. Plus a cheesecake for birthday cake.

A great birthday weekend. You only turn 50 once, right? : )

Kayak/Canoe trip on the Rogue

How to spend some family time together while Scott is home? Get out the canoe and the double kayak and take a river trip! Saturday proved to be perfect weather: warm but not too hot with low humidity. Waited until about noon then got the boys up (shades of their youth!) and got everything loaded up and were on the road by 2ish.

Still had not figured out where to go. I had suggested the Rogue, admittedly because there are seven caches on islands. That pretty much ruled it out until nobody could come up with anything better, plus the canoeing book said it was good canoeing. So we started about 3 miles or so above Rockford with the plan to go all the way down to the Grand.

We dropped Eric's car off at the parking area by the Grand, then went up to Rockford to check out the dam. Yep, Steve, there is a dam there even though it wasn't shown in the canoeing book. Don't believe me. I digress. Anyway, determined we could portage so went on to the put in point, 12 mile and Grange. Got everything off loaded, got Max's little life jacket on him, and off we went. Eric and Scott were in the canoe, and Steve and I were in the double kayak with Max in front of Steve. A beautiful afternoon to be out on the river, though it was a bit more shallow than we'd anticipated. So shallow in parts, that one or the other of the boys probably dragged us in the kayak over about a dozen sandbars or other obstacles. Thanks boys!

Took us about 3 hours to go the distance to Rockford. About 20 minutes before we arrived, we saw an orange construction barrel submerged in the middle of the river. Now Steve has this thing about orange barrels so as a joke I called to the boys, "You should get that for Dad!" They took me seriously because not too long thereafter, they caught up to us and, sure enough, they had the barrel sitting in the middle of the canoe! It clearly said City of Rockford on it so they decided to leave it at the dam. Their CITO for the day, I guess.

It was sixish by the time we were almost to Rockford. We'd passed then paddled sort of with a family for a while, asked them how far from the dam down to the Grand. They told us we probably hadn't ought to try it tonight, we wouldn't make it by dark. When we arrived at the canoe landing, friends of theirs were meeting them. They agreed that it wouldn't be a good idea and, since Eric's car was at the Grand instead of in Rockford, gave Steve a ride down to Eric's car while we waited with the boats.

While we waited for Steve, we had our sandwiches and I suggested the nearby ice-cream stop. The boys wanted to wait for Dad. Fine. Dad came back and the boys went to get the van up where we'd left that, so that Steve could eat. Afterwards, I suggested ice-cream to Steve. Let's wait for the boys was the answer. The boys came back with the cars. "Let's load the boats first, then go for ice cream." Ok.

Boats loaded. "I have to go to the bathroom and there's no place to go, so lets go and we'll stop for ice cream somewhere on the way home." (This was Steve talking and he had gone for a walk before the boys came back, looking for a restroom.) So we bypass every single gas station and other possibility in Rockford, go all the way down to Northland Drive in Grand Rapids (a good 10 minutes plus drive) and Steve ends up deciding it would be a treat to get "ice cream" at Burger King..... after the anticipation of getting some really good ice cream (yep Mom I know I didn't need it) that was not worth spending the calories or sugar on. Very disappointed but typical Steve. The trip itself was good and guess that's what counts the most.

Boys both left last night - Scott back up to camp for a few more days of friend time and Eric decided to check in at his apartment since Dad & I both had to work today.

This morning, got ready to go and discovered a flat tire on the van. Everybody already gone - so did what was logical and called Steve. He was quite p.o.'ed at having to come home, never mind the four trips I've made to pick him up because of bike issues in the last few weeks. Told me that he probably spent more in gas to get home than I would make today at work. Also asked me when I was going to do something with my life. Wow, went all the way back to emotionally abusive pretty doggone quickly. Should have anticipated it since we had a good day on Saturday. Good days can't be tolerated so they must have some put downs to follow.

Maybe I'll feel better about it later. Right now, no.