A Challenging Find and Scary Games

I realized that I didn’t do my blog last night, opting to crash out after time with friends rather than try to push through a post. It’s early right now, almost 8am on new time (did you remember to “fall back” last night?), and though I was going to get my Nanowrimo session done first, I figured I’d go ahead and kick out yesterday’s grind.

I started my day off with some hot tea and writing, working on my piece for Nanowrimo. I settled on erotic fiction, since it’s a genre I hadn’t yet really tried, and though I’m not regretting it, I don’t think I’ll be comfortable letting anyone in my family read it. So far it’s coming along nicely, though. Like most of the things I write, it’s doing things I didn’t expect, which is always fun and why I use a very loose outline when I write. Yesterday, I broke 6,000 words, and I’m hoping to break 8,000 this morning before getting started with the rest of the day.

Once we left the house, we headed out to the Wamego Boat Ramp once again to try to find that geocache. After talking about it with the cache owner and some others who had found it, we wanted to give it another try.  NCC had helped us eliminate some of the possibilities, so we focused our attention elsewhere this time. Within a few minutes, I saw a place where it could be, and Jon managed to get into a position to check it out. Sure enough, there it was! Talk about a sense of accomplishment.

From there we went to Zeandale to grab a few more on one of the back routes to Manhattan. This trek took us to Pillsbury Crossing, an area that we’d heard about and talked about but had never been to until yesterday.

It was a little weird driving across here.

Swing time!

Had to make a short hike to get down here, but the view was worth it!

We found one cache in a picnic area. There was another one near the rocks in the lower picture, but we decided to save that one for a day when we were geared to handle wet and rocky terrain. We ended the day with five finds and one DNF.

We called it a day there because we were hungry and because I had some prep to do for a small one-shot horror game I was testing out, After stopping at Taco Bell, we headed over to Forsh’s for puppy sitting. I finished up my game’s back story, and we watched the latest episode of “American Horror Story: Coven.”

Around six, Terry and Erica came over. I transferred some music over to Erica for her workouts and we ordered pizza, ate too much candy, and got the game going. Though it was only supposed to be a one shot game, we put it on hold to finish at a later time. It’s story based, so even though I had a general outline for it, I had to veer a bit since the players basically dictated what happened. This is actually a really fun way of running a game, at least for me. It’s like storytelling improv. To my knowledge, I only made one mistake in the telling, and I’m blaming that on being tired.

The goal for today is to “detox” and get back on track with eating well and exercising. When I say detox, I’m really just going to avoid sugar, drink a lot of water, get a good workout in, and maybe have a green smoothie for lunch for a nutrient boost. Last week was SugarFest 2013 (thank you, Halloween) and a short gym hiatus, but I want to get back into a routine. We have our St. Louis trip coming up, and I want to be ready for that and the high amounts of walking we’ll be doing.

For now, going to work on my Nano.

A.

Goodbye, September…

The last day of the month came and went. One part of my brain feels like September went on forever, while another part can’t believe it’s gone already. It was a busy month, and even though it had its rewards, I feel like I can breathe a sigh of relief now that it’s over.

After a frustrating work day, Jon and I went to the gym. I tried some new settings to make Zombies Run work on my machine, but still no dice. It was a good workout, though. I think I need to start changing it up between music and movies depending on how long of a workout I’m putting in.

We decided to skip the store and get Subway for dinner. While we were eating, I suggested we go grab a geocache, because I obviously didn’t get enough of it this past weekend. Jon was on board, so we went and grabbed one that we’ve passed many times. I don’t even remember why we put off getting it in the first place, but it was super quick and easy.

At home, we cleaned out the car to prepare for OKC. We have two passengers, Drew and a friend of his, so we need to make trunk and seat space. We accomplished a little of that tonight.

My plan for when we got inside was to put laundry away and start packing. But that hasn’t happened. I’m feeling tired, and I wanted to get this post done before I crashed out. I’m thinking of resting my eyes for a little bit, then getting up and doing it. Or procrastinating until tomorrow.

Either way works for me.

A.

Sunday Treks

I posted on FB this morning that we weren’t going to go geocaching today. It rained all night and we assumed things would be muddy and gross.  We figured we’d walk the zoo instead and then do some grocery shopping.  The mistake we made, however, was in saying “Let’s just find one geocache before going to the zoo.” Which then lead to no zoo and a full day of hunting.

There were several we didn’t find, including one that asked hunters to look casual around the general populace so people wouldn’t see the cache when you found it (to deter thievery, I believe). Yeah, I’m sure we looked real casual strolling up and down the sidewalk by Wal-Mart and studying the trees a little more than a normal person would or should. After awhile, we just gave up, and that’s partially because I was a little uncomfortable there.

But there were a few we did find, and another few that we just decided to hold off on until the ground dries up and/or winter gets here.  We were right on the ground being wet and mushy. I came home with wet feet. I may need to invest in a good pair of hiking boots one of these days. We hiked through a nature trail in the woods and made our way through plenty of trees.

In our searching, we found a new trail to walk and saw some really pretty scenery.

 

It wasn’t too hot today, and I really wanted to get out and move to prove I could after yesterday’s excursion. It wasn’t that difficult. Ibuprofen and rest work miracles on a sore body.

I’m not sure if geocaching will be a long term thing or if we’re going to gorge on it for a couple weeks and then be done, but fair warning: until we get tired of it, it may feature heavily on this blog. Of course, then again, it may not.  I just want you to be prepared and understand that I already understand the ways my little obsessions take form, and this may be one of them.

As for our day, that’s really all that happened. We decided to procrastinate going  shopping until tomorrow night after the gym. We did make a drop off at Goodwill though. The rest of the world waited for the reveal of the new Doctor Who. I Googled it during a rest stop on our walk.  I can’t say I feel one way or the other about it. I’m sad that Matt Smith is leaving. He’s my favorite. But I trust Moffat and Crew to bring the awesome, and so shall reserve judgement until I see the new guy in action.

Monday comes early, so it’s shower, then reading, then bed time for this sleepy girl.

A.

All Kinds of Treasures

I woke up this morning with the idea of going on a small adventure that might involve a little geocaching along the way. I’d seen some information about Paxico, KS and decided we should take a little drive there to be touristy. On the way, I wanted to stop and find a geocache at a place we’d passed a sign for on the highway several times and were always curious about; let’s face it – a rifle and bible church just sounds interesting.

I’d like to note that at this point in time, I’m pretty sure Jon still wasn’t completely sold on the idea of geocaching. And it got a bit iffier when we had to take a detour due to one of the roads to our destination being closed.

I half expect that a troll lives under there.

We finally found it, and even though we had to crawl through some brush, it was totally worth it. This was our first physical/traditional cache, and it really is an exciting moment when you spot the “treasure.”

We drove on toward Paxico, but as we were driving, our GPS and app alerted us to another one. So we stopped on the side of the road and found our second one of the day.

Jon spotted this one, and by the time we drove away from this area, he was hooked.

We finally made it to Paxico, where we wandered around the antique mall and art gallery, both of which were really neat. There were some antique stoves that I adored, as well as several other things I could find a suitable home for if I ever win the lottery.

We were going to grab a bite to eat and something to drink at the local bar, but they didn’t take credit or debit cards, and we had no cash. Instead, we rolled up the highway a few miles and got some water and a slice of pizza at a highway side gas station. Before we did that though, we found yet another cache. I didn’t take any pics for the third one. For awhile, we didn’t think we were going to find it because it was so well hidden, but we finally re-grouped, checked the logs, and scored another treasure!

Our last cache of the day was also our last stop, because even though we had plans to try to find a few more, this one took a lot out of us.  We knew from the start it was a hill, and the logs said it was a short hike. But a short hike for a hiker and a short hike for a person who hasn’t climbed a hill in about three years are two different things. We started out okay, but I had to stop and catch my breath several times.

We can do this…right?

About halfway up, and this hill just keeps going…

The cache was called the Guard of the Plains. Incidentally, that is also what the trail led to.

Jon got the job of taking the pictures in the area, because while it really was beautiful at the top of that hill, I was busy getting sick. Not my best moment, but at least it was earned by hauling my butt up there.

And yes, we found the cache up there, so that made it even better!

When we got back down to the car, I got pretty emotional and cried a little. It wasn’t all bad crying though. I was really exhausted and sore from the hike, but I also felt really good about this accomplishment.  There had been a point, a little over halfway up, when I stopped and told Jon I didn’t think I could make it and that we should just go back down. He would have too, but I thought for a second and realized that I didn’t really want to quit. I wanted to make it up that hill because it was another accomplishment and another milestone.  So I kept going and made it, so getting sick because I pushed myself really wasn’t the worst thing ever.

In that emotional moment, there was some recent frustration over some negativity coming from people we thought were our friends mixed with the knowledge that in just five months, I’ve come really far with my mobility. And really, that fact, combined with the fun that Jon and I are having with this new hobby, kind of blows that negativity out of the water, making those other circumstances pretty inconsequential. I don’t know if geocaching is something we will do long term. We both enjoy it, but it could be something we do now and then let fall to the wayside. It’s the nature of hobbies for me. But for now, I’m going to enjoy it.

We made a quick trip to the IGA, then came home to rest and relax. We’re planning to go out again tomorrow if the weather holds, but right now, food, a shower, and some Biofreeze need to happen.

A.