Surprise!

Steve finally left for his bike trip on Tuesday about noon. This was in no way guaranteed up until the last minute. Last post I said we'd be going to the Ionia Free Fair. Not. He decided to drain the oil from the lawnmower before we left. Not sure how, but oil leaked all over the garage floor. And of course it was my fault for not telling him it was happening. (I was looking at him, not the dang lawnmower.) Anyway, we got over the hump - I remembered what my counselor had reminded me of - a verse in 1 John that says perfect love drives out fear. By the end of the evening Steve was still depressed, but talking. Tuesday morning he woke up and said he might as well get started on the backyard project. It took a lot of talking, but he finally decided to pack up and get on the road. He really needed some time away, and I'm hoping he's getting it. He called from just into New York State last night.

When he left, I loaded up the van with Max and me, and we were on the road. First stop was downtown GR, to pass off a pinewood derby Race to 2010 car to my friend Fitz who was leaving the next day for the national jamboree. Then headed toward Hastings where the last Treasures of Scouting geocache that I hadn't yet found was waiting patiently for me to come.

Found two cemetery caches along the way, then a single stage cache at the same nature area, so that the Treasures cache would be #2900. Weather getting very warm - Max getting tired and hot. We both had plenty of water, though, so that wasn't an issue. Started the 5 stage multi that was the treasures cache. Got to the first stage area - no luck. Read the clue off the nuvi and expanded my search. I was able to find it, but it was 120 feet away. Headed off toward the second stage and this is where I struck out. Clue was "rim" and I did find two rusty old barrels there. But looked up, down, inside, outside, and all around. Nada. Since Max and I were both hot and tired, decided to end the search and headed back to the car. Did four other caches on the way home, including one that did become my #2900.

I pulled into the driveway, intending to drop Max off and do a little more caching towards Ionia and go to the free fair by myself. Eric's car was in the driveway. He knew I would be home alone so I figured he'd stopped by so we could go to a movie or something. He walked into the kitchen as I walked in from the other way, and we started talking. All of a sudden I felt a tap on my shoulder from behind me. Turned around and there was Scott, home five days earlier than he'd told us. Surprise!

They had set this up all along. I'd been suspicious that something like this was afoot, and even asked Eric once. The only bad part of it was that Steve had left just a few hours before Scott came home. He'll not be very happy that he missed the homecoming. But Scott doesn't want me to tell him for fear he'll cut his trip short and head straight home. The good part is that Scott has already left for camp, so he'll be able to spend more time at home when we are both home to see him. (he'd planned to spend time at camp the first week he was home which would have been next week.)

After getting over the shock and having some nice visiting time, I suggested we might check out the free fair. I wish we hadn't. Not much there to do unless you wanted to spend lotsa bucks on ride tickets for rides that weren't all that great, buy overpriced carnival food, or go through the merchants tent where most of the merchants were trying to sell things, not give away pens and such like at the Lowell Expo or the Kent County Fair. We did get our picture taken for free at a Meijer display, that's what's posted above.

We headed for home, stopping at Jim McCormicks for a short visit since he was home from his honeymoon. Then stopped at Meijers because "there was no food in the house" and ran into Pastor Dave there, who was quite surprised to see Scott, of course! Went home where Scott promptly went online and discovered I was signed into Facebook so hacked my status with a message that I'd given up "GeoChaching." If you're gonna hack my status, at least spell geocaching right! I'll attribute that to jetlag...

Scott was planning to go to the Secretary of State's office this morning to renew his drivers license, then head up to camp. I had my counseling appt. this morning, then headed over to my new favorite wifi place, the East Grand Rapids library. I'm sitting in a comfy chair with a desk attached, using the wifi while looking out onto Reeds Lake and watching the sailboats go by. Beautiful! Headed from here to Steve's dad's to check on him. To tell or not to tell - that is the question. He doesn't need any surprises at this time in his life.

S'pose I'd better get over there.