COAST Spring 2011

After a busy week, last weekend was our bi-annual COAST training, outdoor leader skills for scout leaders at Gerber Scout Reservation.

As usual, I started the day (Friday) by geocaching my way up to camp. I headed out Lake Michigan Drive from Grand Rapids, as there was a series set up along Lake Michigan Drive that I wanted to finish. I had done the first six earlier and did the last nine on Friday. Then did a few more caches while beginning the drive north along the Lakeshore. Ended up near the WalMart in Grand Haven for a cache, then made it a bathroom stop. While in the store, I remembered that I needed to get a birthday cake and card for Steve (present already bought, his new Rick Steves convertible suitcase.) Mission accomplished.

My second geocaching goal for the day was to complete a cache called "Peaks." Located in the North Ottawa Dunes, it was placed on November 30 and was the last placed date I needed to complete a challenge. I knew it would be a bit of a physical challenge as well, hiking through the dunes - .7 miles from parking as the crow flies, I'm estimating it was over two miles round trip. Many logs had talked about taking the hard way to the cache, and as I walked I thought I'd dodged the hard way. Got about 400 feet from the cache and I saw the hard way, unavoidable - pretty straight up. Did the hard way, found the cache after a bit of searching, then looked for the trail down. Nope. So did the hard way in reverse, about half of it on the seat of my pants. Good exercise and a completed challenge as well.

No more caching, time to get to camp. Got everything unloaded and set up registration. It was pretty chilly with a stiff wind coming at us. But we survived thanks to hand warmers and blankets. Wusses R Us! The wind blew in some rain by the time the evening was over. Ok for us since we were staying in staff housing. Not so ok for the participants (80 or so) as they were camping.

Saturday proved to bring quite a few challenges in the form of weather (rain which turned to snow flurries by the end of the day) and covering for absent staff. I got to teach a session of Leave No Trace which was fun. Also did a walk thru of cub camp with other Wood Badge senior leadership team members. I was worn out by the end of the day! We ended the day, though, with dutch oven cooking, a Wood Badge beading ceremony for one of my good scouting friends, and a great campfire. The latter two were moved inside, thankfully, as the weather was getting downright nasty!

Sunday morning brought snow that even started to stick on the ground a bit. Everything was inside, though, and we got through the morning and then through check out. Some sessions, after my co-chair and I get all the participants checked out, most of the staff are already gone but this time they were still there and we had a great staff meeting and fellowship before leaving for home.

Arrived at home, and Eric & Steve came back from his dad's house shortly after. We went out to Red Lobster to celebrate Steve's birthday, and Eric (and Scott) paid the bill. Always a bit weird when your kids take YOU out to dinner! Came back for cake (yep, the WalMart chocolate fudge cake) and thus ended a great weekend.

For Steve's actual birthday on Monday, we went to Gilly's, a seafood place in downtown GR. They offer a free lobster dinner on your actual birthday only. That was a $33 value - only catch was that you had to have someone order an entree as well. No problem. For just over $20, both of us ate a nice meal and Steve's was lobster. Since the day started out with a surprise spring snowfall of several inches, this was a nice way to end it.

We're working on dad's house most of the week, and will celebrate Easter this weekend. Another busy week! BUT - three weeks from tomorrow, we'll be leaving for Germany! Still unknown whether or not Scott will be there, now he says he might be moving on to another undisclosed location. I just can't worry about it anymore.

the rest of the weekend...

Made it home from Buffalo Saturday night. The trip back was nice, much better to travel in sunshine than in rain. Forgot to mention in the last post that, because we'd done all the rest of the way around in other trips, we've now completed the Lake Erie circle tour...now we only have Lake Ontario to complete and then we've done all five Great Lakes Circle tours! We didn't go to Niagara Falls. Realized thanks to the wonders of satellite map views that you don't get that full frontal view from the American side, plus we got a later start than we'd planned, so decided to just head for home. We did stop for three caches on the way - one just inside Pennsylvania and two in Ohio. We stopped in PA as one of the travelers I'd picked up on Friday wanted to go to a PA destination so didn't want to bring it back to Michigan when it was so close. The Ohio caches were in the same rest area, Steve was getting tired and I suggested a break - bonus that there were two caches there! Seriously, there was a nice paved nature trail and it did us all good to stretch our legs (Max included) and there was a nice view of the Vermillion River there as well. Yesterday we finally got to talk to Scott - he is still in Aviano but thinks he'll be home before we go to Germany (ONE MONTH FROM TOMORROW!!!!) Also, he says that if he still happens to be in Aviano (northeastern Italy) we could visit him there. We'll see what happens. After phone call, we headed over to Steve's dad's where we started the process of cleaning and packing, in prep for the remodeling/repair work as part of the "spend-down." I still fear Steve is going to want to save much more than we need to, but am choosing my battles, as I've said before. He has done some work in both the basement and garage to make room for things he'll bring from his dads. Plus, Eric is going to be moving in after the remodeling and be the official caretaker - still on his own but closer both to us and to his downtown GR nursing classes provided he makes it into the school of nursing this time. So some of what we move to our house might be able to be moved back.... It'll prove to be a busy week - with taxes due, more spend down, more clean up, not to mention both Roundtable and COAST. I think I need a vacation in about a month.....

ROAD TRIP!!!

Today was our road trip to Buffalo, New York. Steve sold the Beemer to a guy in Fulton, NY - and he agreed to meet up with us in Buffalo to conclude the transaction and pick up the bike from us. Forecast for today at home was rain....so Steve decided last night to tarp the bike. Good thing he did as yep, it was raining. Rained most of the day, until about the time we hit the NY state border. Bike still looked great except for a bit of engine dirt from the bottom from spray. Buyer was very pleased.... We took off just after 7:00 a.m. - along with Max. He wasn't too sure about things at first but was a good boy all day. I had bought him a doggie car seat which helped boost him up so he could see. First stop at a rest area still in Michigan, then not again until we stopped for gas at a Sam's Club west of Cleveland. Steve had been hearing a pump-type noise, he thought it was the compressor for the shocks. He disconnected the right fuse to see if the noise went away. Nope. So he suspected the fuel pump was starting to go out. We found the nearest GM dealer and after a consult, decided it was the motor for the rear wiper. All was well after that. Steve had just replaced that motor in January after my surviving a few years without one. I didn't do anything to it, of course - so must have just received a lemon this time around. Steve kinda had his heart set on a genuine Frisch's Big Boy - but none were to be found nearby. We ended up at a Long John Silver's east of Cleveland. Hadn't eaten there in years and though it tasted ok, not in a hurry to get back there anytime soon. Steve has a thing about not wanting to take toll roads as it's "not fair that the taxpayers from other states don't have to pay taxes or tolls on Michigan roads," so we took alternate routes. That of course added on time. I had been promised a Pennsylvania cache, and a New York cache. Got them both today. For PA, stopped at a travel bug hotel about 6 miles into PA. Steve had to call the buyer at that point anyway and let him know where we were, so he could head over from his home about the time we would arrive. The cache in PA was wet, I poured water out of it, and hadn't been found in several months. I rescued the TBs that were in there and left some I had brought from Michigan. Arrived at the motel and Al the buyer was waiting for us. Took quite some time to unwrap the bike, then we got it down from our trailer and Al looked it over thoroughly. He was very pleased and then gave us the cashier's check for the remainder of the purchase price and we filled out the paperwork and that was that. Steve was going to take the bike over to Al's trailer, and I had to remind him that it wasn't his bike now and Al should probably do it. Steve told me later he didn't think Al had secured the bike in his trailer the right way, but it was his bike now so - so be it. Got settled into the room then, and left Max in his box in the bathroom while we grabbed a quick bite to eat and the cache at that restaurant (Cracker Barrel.) That was my New York cache. There's another one within walking distance, so maybe in the morning...not holding my breath. We talked a little about making a short detour to Niagara Falls tomorrow morning before heading home. It's only about 20 or so miles from where we're at. We saw the Canadian side about 10 years ago with the boys but not the American side. We didn't bring our passports so can't go home through Canada anyway. We'll see. Steve was asleep by 9:30 if not before after a long day of driving. Other updates: Scott's last FB message told us he might get sent to Greece from his current location in Italy, or he might get sent back to Spang like some others deployed with him already have been. So who knows, he might be there after all. We'll see. Steve's dad is settled, somewhat, in the nursing home. A week ago Thursday was tough. He was somewhat more lucid than has been and definitely did not want to go to the nursing home. Eric was the one who finally convinced him to come, praise God for putting just the right words into his mouth to share with Grandpa. Steve actually got to join the "Cecil Cooper doesn't trust me" club (I'm the president) for a day until Dad forgot he'd been mad by the next day. Oh well. Now comes the task of going through things in his house. Steve still feels guilty but he has done the best he could.