I've been a Nana for 13 years!!

I was up early to type up my entry. Rich got up about 7 and we went out to McDonald's for breakfast. Then it was still too early to go out to the bowling alley, so we found the first part of a history multi-cache. This is over by the old cemetery with the Civil War plot. It was bought, initially, for $180 in gold, and cared for for many years, but neglect and vandalism eventually took their toll.

We picked up a grocery bag full of trash for me to take to the Cache In Trash Out event. Then we drove over to Sparks and were still there way way too early, so we went down to a lovely park on the fast-but-shallow Truckee River to look for one. This one is by the same kid who put up the one we couldn't find yesterday. It's stuck in a piece of trash, a black venting hose. I wonder if it survived the Big Reno Cleanup! We did hide it a little better.

I dropped Rich off at bowling and made my way back to the CITO site. (First, of course, I hit my head on the sunvisor, which he hadn't put up all the way.) I introduced myself to the Reno cachers, showed off my trash, said I'd only come for the coffee and doughnuts, and had a real good time meeting people and comparing notes. Their scavenger hunt sounded like fun.

I stopped at the great book store in Sparks and I was OH so good, only got a couple of kid's books, one for Casey and one for a granddaughter. Then I stopped to check on Rich, who'd bowled 163 his first game. He gets so intense! I heard another man say "I thought this was supposed to be FUN!" under his breath when R. missed a one-pin spare. Outside, I got to see a mourning dove pair working on a nest. At the motel this morning we saw a robin take a napkin to work into a nest here.

Then it was time for lunch with GoE's dad. He insisted on taking the dog in the car though I was worried about broiled Lhasa Apso. In the event, the dog was OK. We went to the casino restaurant he usually frequents, and I had a really good chicken caesar salad. Afterwards, he let me log travel bugs using his phone line. This was quite a comedy of errors: first we tried at the kitchen counter, but my phone cord wouldn't reach if the electricity did, so he cleared off the table, but then the phone outlet was too skinny, so then we went downstairs. Next to his computer, all set up, no dial tone. The phone cord is wound impossibly around. I said "one more try then forget it" so he got up on a ladder to attach the phone, I dialled in, and heard nothing. "It's not working!" I thought, but it actually turned out to be that I've muted the laptop so as not to wake Rich in the morning. (ha!) I got to be on for an hour. Then I tried to help Dad with a problem he was having getting his new digital camera pictures to go where he wants them on his 'puter. Looks to me like he's done it! He's learning the camera the way I'm learning the cellphone.

Close to now is when what had been a really nice day began to fall apart. I went back to pick Rich up, just about the right time, and he hadn't bowled well the other five games. We went to find a nearby cache, in a cute little park. The next one was in the old Reno arch. (This one has a LOT more charm than the new one! I remember when it REALLY was the "biggest little city" instead of the hybrid Las Vegas wannabe slurb it is now.)

Then our troubles began. We went for the second stage of the multi "Dash through History" cache, which was easy enough, but there's a nearby cache by the same guy which had been recommended to me, and we looked and looked and looked, and had no luck at all. We did get the three benchmarks nearby.

Since we were at stage three yesterday, because the plaque about the first airmail delivery to Reno was of interest, we didn't actually need stage two. I looked at the plaque picture with a magnifying glass and thought the date was September 8, 1920. Now, that 8 was important. We went over to the coordinates this gave me and searched, but nothing was around except a party at the bar. The hint was "Tricky Dick at a cold party." Hmmm.

We finally gave up and were on our way toward another, when we passed the Cathedral just as Mass was starting. So we did that instead. In church, which was hot and stuffy, I suddenly remembered we'd been on or crossed Nixon street today. Hmmm. Back in the car I looked at the map, and sure enough... there's Nixon... crossing Donner. Aha!

I don't think Rich ever quite understood what went on here. He plugged in the coordinates of the Nixon-Donner intersection and when I looked at them, it was apparent that the actual date was Sept. 9, since everywhere I'd plugged in an "8" was a "9." My aging eyes just couldn't see it right. Fine. Now, there might be one other little problem, but it's only 16 feet, .003 minutes, because when Rich printed up this sheet he didn't get the letters under the blanks, so this one was either a 1 or a 4. I asked the cache hider this morning where the letters were supposed to go, and he didn't remember.

OK, then, with good coordinates, we found the area, but we also had a neighbor across the street doing yard work. Of all the nerve! Rich blew up. "I hate multis. I hate people who put out 1.5 caches. I hate micros." I said "fine, let's go back to the motel" and he said "aw, I hurt your feelings" and he stormed off southward, ordering me to find another cache. I simmered for a mile or so, but eventually got us to the only one I had down in this direction, a recipe exchange (geocachers don't have time to cook!) which was supposed to be a 1 terrain but is at least a 2 down the hill.

I say, if it's not fun any more, it's time to stop. Either for the day or forever. And that goes for bowling, too, which is what was really bothering him.

Eventually, 8, I asked if he was hungry, and presumably he was waiting for me to say something. (He always underestimates my passive-aggressive side.) We passed the next-door Vietnamese restaurant that I had wanted to try, not that eating food he doesn't like would have improved his temper at all. We went past every restaurant in three casinos, and there were lines and lines. I was considering fainting right there, THAT'd show him! Finally, we spy a Subway in a casino, and I make a beeline. 8:30, and .9 miles later.

Well, ick. These people are new and they don't know how to do anything. The woman got the chicken out of the fridge and cut it up, but she never warmed it, so it was cold and chewy. I'd have stopped on the way out to tell her but they had a customer.

We went back to Fitzgerald's, and Rich got a bucket o'nickels first thing. I got bupkis till the very end, an hour later, when he'd lost his winnings so was ready for me to leave, just as I found a hot machine. I'd been wanting to come back to the motel for a half hour or more, so I cashed out my $1.50 (total for day, -$15) and we walked back. I have a headache, am still annoyed, think that dreadful dinner will stay down, and am ready to call this a day. Grumph.

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Earth Day.