I went and found a geocache overlooking Price today that was more fun than I've had in quite a while. Only two people had found it before me, and they both hiked up from the bottom with an elevation gain of about 500 feet. I wasn't feeling up to a strenuous hike, but with the help of some up-to-date maps from Carbon County, I was able to drive my car to within two-thirds of a mile of the cache. The round trip hike ended up being 1.64 miles, and there was a lot of zig-zagging around trees and boulders, but the terrain was mostly flat. The views from the overlook were awesome. I could see Pinnacle Peak, Price, the San Rafael Swell, Cedar Mountain, and almost 180° of the Book Cliffs from Helper all the way to Green River. The drive home was nice because the sun was setting and the lighting and shadows were just pleasant.

Out of the 40+ geocaches that I've placed, I've only had one come up missing. A couple of days ago, the cache I had on the Helper Parkway came within a few inches of being destroyed by the Helper Interchange project. Luckily a construction worker apparently saw my disguised cache (it looked like a rock) and moved it to a safe location, away from the water line construction on the Parkway. I was able to go there and find it (thanks to the astute observations of a geocaching friend) and bring it home until the construction is complete. I put a lot of work into the cache container (though not too much expense), so I'm glad I was able to save it and the logbook.

Not that I expected any differently, but today was just another day. I worked on my birthday, which is a first in the past few years. It just wasn't worth taking a single vacation day in the middle of the week. Hell, I even mowed the lawn and did some other work around the house. I fixed a dinner of ribeye steak, french fries, and a nice green salad, which is one of my favorite meals.

I suppose I could consider that last weekend was my birthday celebration--after all, I did party it up with some good friends--or I could use this weekend as another excuse to live it up. ;)

Michael started kindergarten today, and tomorrow is my 30th birthday. Strange, but I don't feel that old. :) I suppose Michael's school principal should feel really old, since he was the principal at my school when I was five. Michael seems to be settling into things very well. He rides the bus, and the bus stop is down the street and over one block. We're not used to letting him go that far alone, so it's going to take some getting used to for Traci and me.

This weekend's campout at Potter's Ponds was great, I didn't want it to end. We were there Thursday through Sunday, and that wasn't nearly enough time to socialize and go geocaching and everything else I wanted to do. We spent Thursday just setting up camp and finding a couple of the nearby geocaches. After breakfast on Friday morning, we took a small inflatable raft over to the pond and I rowed over to the island to find another cache. One person had already arrived for the get-together, so he borrowed my raft and paddled over to the island after I did. It wasn't until around 5:00 pm that a lot of other people started showing up. That night we had a good-sized group around the campfire, and I stayed up until about 2:00 am just bullshitting with Chris. Even more people showed up on Saturday, and we did the poker run, a nice potluck dinner, then had another nice evening around the fire. Sunday was pretty uneventful, with everybody packing up to leave fairly early in the day. We took our time and made sure both campsites were clean before starting to load the truck and trailer. Right after I hitched the trailer onto the truck, I heard air escaping from one of my tires, and it turned out to be a bad valve stem. Changing it was pretty easy, then we were on our way back home.

Since then, I've been trying to catch up on a few projects at work, but other than that I've been lazy at home. I've still got to finish unloading the truck and take the tire in for repair. I'm sure there are things in the trailer that'll have to eventually be unloaded as well. We probably won't go camping again until October, so I'll have a brief respite where I can catch up on those pesky home projects that have been in progress for longer than my wife would care for. ;)

Oh, here are some pictures from the last few days.

This weekend was a good one, and relaxing for a change. On Friday, I got an unexpected early birthday present. My mom made me a quilted applique wall hanging based on this picture. It's easily the best gift I've ever received.

Friday evening, just after sunset, my family, my mom, and my sister's family headed out to our spot on Airport Road and sat around a campfire, roasted marshmallows, and drank some wine. The Perseids were still going, and we saw quite a few meteors, including one large fireball that was probably the second largest I've ever seen in person. It was a great night--I think I could have stayed out there 'til dawn.

Saturday was a lazy day, I don't think I did much of anything except cut some firewood in the morning. And I don't remember any details from that evening. ;) I changed the oil in my truck on Sunday, and cut down some weeds and tree limbs in my back yard. I finished cutting down the weeds this evening, and I plan on spending tomorrow loading the truck for the Potter's Ponds get-together. So far about 75 people have RSVP'ed, so it's going to be crowded. I think many of those people will only be staying during the day Saturday, but a lot will be camping overnight as well. Should be good times.

Usually procrastination pays off pretty well for me, but I wish I'd have tried adjusting the rear brakes on my truck sooner. I thought it was going to be a pain, probably requiring the removal of the wheels (and lemme tell you, removing and reinstalling 16 lug nuts is hard on the back), but I managed to do it during my lunch break today with plenty of time to spare. When I replaced the brakes, I adjusted them so the shoes were just barely dragging on the drums. But apparently after driving the truck, everything loosened up and the new brakes stopped worse than before I replaced them. All I did today was raise the rear-end, adjusted the brakes (through the small hole in the backing plate) until they dragged, then applied the parking brake several times, adjusted some more, braked some more, etc., until they became fully adjusted. Now it stops well, and I won't worry when I'm pulling the trailer next weekend.

I've still got to change the oil on the truck before we go camping. It costs $75 to get it done at an oil change place, or I can do it myself for around $35. I just need to find a 15-quart (or larger) oil drain pan--I don't think they sell them at either of the Marts around here, so I might have to bend over and buy one at a parts store.

The windshield wipers stopped working on my car last week, so that's one more necessary expenditure that I can't afford. I think the wiper motor has crapped out, and a new one is around $70. It's something I wish I could do without, but almost every day for the past few weeks it has either rained or threatened to rain, and I don't think I can hold off any longer.

Five years ago, I was putting new brakes on my old truck. Some things never change. Well, at least I can do a brake job without screwing it up now.

I tore into the brakes on the truck yesterday and found that both return springs on the left-rear were broken. I'm not sure how that's even possible, but apparently that was my problem all along. I bought a kit that had all the springs and other various small parts for both sides of the rear brakes for $12, and today I replaced everything. After putting the truck back together and going for a test drive, the parking brake light and ABS light on the instrument panel finally went off. I'd actually gotten used to the lights being on all the time, but it's nice to have them working normally again.

The brakes really don't feel right though, but I'm hoping the adjusters kick in and tighten up the rears soon. I'm planning a caching trip on Saturday to Ferron and back, and I guess I'll be shit-outta-luck if the brakes don't feel like they're back to normal by then. If that's the case, I'll have to try to get them fixed at a shop before next Thursday, which is the start of our 4-day camping trip at Potter's Ponds.

I'm finally getting around to replacing the rear brakes on my truck. About two months ago I found out something was wrong with them, and today I bought some new rear brake shoes. I'm only about 95% sure that the rear shoes are worn out--the fact that the parking brake doesn't work well anymore is my biggest clue. I spent about $85 on new brakes and a repair manual. Owning a '97 F-250 is a pain in the ass sometimes, because Ford made two different F-250s in '97--a light-duty and a heavy-duty. I own the heavy-duty (over 8,500 GVW), but some parts stores don't make that distinction. On more than one occasion I've gotten the wrong part because of this problem. I think I've got the right brake parts, but I won't know for sure until I tear things apart tomorrow.

It's taken me until today to finally get caught up on the daily grind, after being gone for nearly a week. We spent six days and five nights in and around Fishlake National Forest with some geocaching friends, and it was one of the best weekends ever. We arrived Wednesday, and spent the day setting up camp and relaxing. On Thursday, we went out geocaching with the Hunt family, then went fishing at Fish Lake that evening. Michael caught his first fish there, but Bradley and I didn't have any luck.

On Friday, other cachers started showing up, and by that evening we had a nice group around the campfire. The next morning after breakfast, we all headed out in a convoy and found a bunch of geocaches on the west side of Fish Lake. Saturday evening we had a nice potluck dinner, during which a lot more people showed up. Sunday morning brought another caching convoy, this time on the Mytoge Mountain road on the east side of Fish Lake, where there are several awesome overlooks with views down onto the lake. We found our 500th geocache up there, and it was great being able to share it with our friends.

Monday was our last day, but it was pretty busy. First thing in the morning, Cortney and I hopped on his ATV and drove up to Fish Lake Hightop, the highest point in Sevier County. A road got us to within 0.2mi of the high point, and though the hike was steep, it was still pretty easy. The views from off the west side were amazing. We tried finding a geocache that was supposed to be up there, but after a lot of searching we gave up because some bad weather was rolling in. After returning to camp, we went for another short hike to the top of a nearby hill to find a benchmark. After that, we packed up camp and headed for home.

Two days later, I'm still trying to get back to my normal sleep schedule, but I've managed to get everything else back in order. We've got another big camping trip in less than a month, and I'm looking forward to doing it all over again.