August 23, 2010

From Great Falls, MT, N47°29.386’ W111°19.942’

Day 81

I spoke to the social worker at Missouri River Manor this morning Glenna’s planned release date is 8/26, Thursday. I have to go tomorrow and see what the plan for therapy at the motor home is.

Gerri stayed in all day doing wash and I went caching. I picked up four that I had looked for earlier and hadn’t found, plus five others.  The cache in he picture is in a hole drilled in the hunder side of a fence rail.  The container is a 5mm film can.

The hiding place

The container in place

I went to see Glenna at about 5:30. We visited in the dining room until it was time to go to a movie that was being shown in the auditorium. The movie was Sherlock Holmes, a recent release. Pretty weird but Glenna seemed to enjoy it.

Back at the coach, Gerri and I had leftovers. Tomorrow it’s either shop or eat out.

August 22, 2010

From Great Falls, MT, N47°29.386’ W111°19.942’

Day 80

Gerri and I tuned into the Church webcast in the morning. After that we went to the Double Barrel Café for a late breakfast. We both had chicken fried steak with gravy.

After breakfast we found a cache downtown that had just been reactivated.

The ache container and log sheet.

Returning the cache to it's hiding place.

We looked for two more that had been found since I didn’t find them. No better luck today.

I went to see Glenna and took her computer. We can’t get wifi in her room so we tuned in the Church webcast in the dining room. The lesson centered around Proverbs 6:6-11; 6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. 9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest- 11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. Very interesting lesson on working for what you need using the preceding verses more lessons on avoiding debt.

Sean called me when I got back to the coach and we played World of Warcraft for a couple of hours.

August 21, 2010

From Great Falls, MT, N47°29.386’ W111°19.942’

Day 79

I went to the local Jeep dealer this morning to have the rear window on the driver’s side replaced. They had told me it was a two hour job. It took 3½ hours. From there I went to Sam’s to have the new tires put on the Jeep. Before I went back to the coach I did some shopping.

At the coach I put the spare tire cover and the tire pressure senders back on the Jeep. With full tread the tire cover barely fits. After recent rain and a lot of driving on dirt roads the Jeep needed cleaned. So I spent some time doing just that.

We went to visit Glenna from about 6:30 until 8. We planned to go out to supper, but most of the restaurants around here close at 8 or 8:30. After checking the Prospector we found out they had run out of the prime rib. We went by Dimitri’s, another prime rib place, it closed at 8:30. We decided to check a pizza place near the RV Park, It was either that or leftovers. Howard’s was open so we dined on delicious pizza.

Back at the coach we spoke to Todd and the kids on Skype and then just hung out till bedtime.

August 20, 2010

From Great Falls, MT, N47°29.386’ W111°19.942’

Day 78

Yesterday I left my cane at a geocache north of town. This morning I went back up that way and did a cache. I drove the dirt loop east of I-15. Of course the cane was at the furthest cache.

Gerri called and she was dressed and ready to go caching with me. I picked her up and we went south toward Cascade. We did four more caches, mostly along the river. I hit one hundred for August. It’s been a long time since I did a hundred caches in a month.

Look out it's behind you.

Prairie Home and Companion

We went to visit Glenna and then had supper at the Fiesta En Jalisco Restaurant.

Rafters on the Mo.

Then back to the coach. I played World of Warcraft with Sean for about two hours and went to bed.

August 19, 2010

From Great Falls, MT, N47°29.386’ W111°19.942’

Day 77

The Rain of last night passed and the day started clear and bright. Today I expanded my area of search for area geocaches. There are a lot more along the Missouri downstream but they require a lot of hiking. I did some along I-15 north of Great Falls on about 2 miles by dirt road and I left my cane hanging on the fence. I didn’t realize my loss until it was late and I was heading back to town. Maybe I’ll go back and get the cane. A couple of the caches were along a dirt road and the prairie was very flat.

Wheat

Not Wheat

leave it wher it broke

I went to visit Glenna at about 6:30. We visited and watched TV until about 8:30. The home has scheduled a bus ride around Great falls tomorrow. I spent quite awhile convincing her that it was ok to go with her skid proof socks and no shoes. I’ll find out tomorrow who won the discussion.

Back at the RV Gerri fixed a delicious supper that topped off the day.

August 18, 2010

From Great Falls, MT, N47°29.386’ W111°19.942’

Day 76

Lewis and Clark statue.

Another clear day, with only a little haze, I went out caching and the caches I haven’t done are further out from the rv park and several required a walk of over ¼ mile each way. I found one that I had looked for twice before, very creative but I found it. Four of the six I found today were along the Riverside trail that goes along the south side of the Missouri River.

A cache container.

What looks like a stump is actually a cache container.

I went to see Glenna a little before five. I visited with her during her supper and for about an hour afterward.

Gerri and I had planned to go to the Double Barrel café for supper, but when I got home she talked me into Braunschweiger sandwiches instead, plus there was a storm moving through with rain. Nice night to stay in.

Sean was too tired to play Wow tonight.

August 17, 2010

From Great Falls, MT, N47°29.386’ W111°19.942’

Day 75

This morning I had an appointment at Lithia Dodge/Jeep to have the left rear window of the Jeep fixed. I got there and was told I didn’t have an appointment. I didn’t take the e-mail confirmation with me. The service writer said appointments weren’t available until the 26th. I repeated that I got a confirmation e-mail and was told that the reservation system has been malfunctioning. The service writer did check to see if they had the parts in stock, they did and she made me an appointment to have the installation done on Saturday morning. I thought of contacting the General Manager and complaining, but am convinced that would result in my being punished by the discovery that the parts weren’t in stock after all.

Yesterday Gerri had opened one of the over the dash entertainment center and a screw fell out of one of the hinges. I found the screw in the entertainment center after I had taken the other screw out to see if I had one like it in my supply of junk. I didn’t. Now, these are machine screws about ¼” long with a head about 1/8” across. You know what’s coming don’t you? When trying to reinstall the screws it takes two people, one to hold the door in place and the other to get the screws in. Getting the screws in requires contortionism. The second time I dropped one, we never found it. It fell by the driver’s seat and must still be down there along with other small things that have been dropped in the area. I digress; after leaving the Jeep dealership I went to Ace Hardware to try to match the remaining screw. It took two clerks about 15 minutes to find a match. I bought two. At 20 cents each and the time to find them, how does Ace make a profit?

While on the east end of town I did eight caches.

When I went back to the coach the saga of entertainment center door continued. After about 45 minutes and dropping the screws a couple of times, I tried taping to the screwdriver, but that 1/16 threaded hole is hard to hit the screw. I resorted to removing the door hinges from the wall. I assembled the door and hinges and reattached the hinges to the wall. Why didn’t I think of the easiest way first?

There are several caches in the area that I was unable to find. After other cachers posted finds I sent e-mails for a further hint. I found five of the six I had asked about, plus another, for a total of 13 today. I may find 100 caches this month, a record for me. One of the caches was along the river and I saw a huge white pelican in the river so I took my camera with me. I took a couple of pictures and realized I need a longer lens, by the time I got to the car the bird had swum around behind an island.

Tuesday is Bingo night at the Missouri River Manor. Gerri and I went at about 6:30 and played with Glenna. Between the three of us we had seven Bingos, replenishing Glenna’s chocolate supply. I also signed her up for a bus ride on Friday. The bus ride sounds like the same thing Gerri and I paid twenty dollars each for a couple of weeks ago.

Sean had called earlier and we planned to play World of Warcraft at 9 PM, 8 his time. He got really tired after about an hour and a half.