Be Happy

Here are some tiny changes you can make to increase happiness.
1.  Get a hobby.
2.  Ask for more responsibility.
3.  Take a hike.
4.  Eat happy.
5.  Get touchy. (Snuggle up with a pet or a significant other and watch a movie.)
6.  Have happy friends and friends of friends.
7.  Speak up. (Don't be a yes girl or guy.)
8.  Instead of buying stuff, do stuff.
9.  Face your issues. (Resolve the problems in your life.)
10.  Finally, do nothing.

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Tri-Cities Geocoin Challenge

We saw this event post a few months ago and just looking at the cache page we were excited.  A geocoin that came in three pieces for each city we were in and all of the pieces were trackable.  Nice.  We started preparing.  Then we hit some snags.  Then it was figured out again.  Luckily the Richland Parks and Rec Dept. had some spots open for tent camping at the last minute.  We jumped on it.  Now, we had to pack accordingly.  A few days beforehand, I started dragging out my camping stuff.  It hadn't been used since October when we went to Oregon to help on the rental down in Dexter.  I was so excited to finally cache in the Tri-Cities and get a free geocoin!

I was really hoping work didn't go beyond noon.  I wanted to hit the road as soon as possible.  Work did go past noon so I finished what I could and left around 12:15.  I am so thankful I bought a lunchable the night before (when I got groceries for the trip.)  I would have not had time to eat.  I got everything out and put it next to the door.  Then I waited for Derek to get there.  He arrived shortly after.  We packed the car and headed south on I-5.  We hit the 205 and then Hwy 14 along the Columbia River gorge.  We had a few caches to get in specific areas. 

We stopped at Beacon Rock because we needed the square and I’ve always wanted to go.  Last time I was down there, I went to a RHS playoff game in Stevenson back in 2010 with my mom.  We did the earthcache and took a few pictures

We got back on the road and headed east.  We stopped for a few random ones, looked at the views and enjoyed that it wasn’t raining…yet.  We had a few miles to go before we were in Maryhill and the Stonehenge.  I’ve always wanted to come to the Stonehenge monument.  I’d like to go to the real one in Europe but this one will suffice for now…

We got there and I literally jumped out of the car and ran to it.  We looked for the cache first.  The hint was weird so we just looked near every rock.  I eventually found a container that said geocache on it and took the logbook out.  I was concerned because I did not see BobBevLacie on it.  I know they were here earlier and they found the cache.  The last time it was logged was yesterday.  I flipped through the book to see if they wrote it somewhere else, nada.  We texted them and told them about our findings.  Bob thought we’d call because we would have trouble finding it.  I found the one in less than two minutes.  It was found 60 feet away from the coords.  I guess there were two of them.  It counts!  We took a few more pictures of inside the monument before heading out. 

We grabbed a few others along Hwy 14 to fill in our DeLorme squares.  It started raining so we really didn’t want to get in and out of the car that much.  It got darker and darker as we moved east.  The rain clouds were so low.  The wind was fierce and it was pouring.  We were very upset it was raining in the Tri-Cities and we had to set up and stay in a tent.  We stopped by Harbor Freight to grab a few tarps just in case to keep the rain and wind out of our tent. 

From there we headed to the campsite, which happened to be at the event location, and were confused on where to set up, park, etc.  We got out and a lady came out of her RV and we asked where we were supposed to set up camp.  She said anywhere along the grass where the cars were.  She then said, a night cache just published in this park, you guys wanna do it with me?  We never pass up a FTF if it’s get able.  We should have waited to do it because it was hard trying to find the glint tacks in the “twilight” stage of the evening.  Bob and Bev showed up and looked for it with us.  We only got to the 5^th glint tack before we came across a dead end.  We were using weenie flashlights anyway.  We gave up because it was getting late and our tent wasn’t set up yet.  We spent some time working on the tent.  We started seeing others with flashlights.  They also came to that very same dead end.  Then, the cache owners and a few other people met down by the 5th glint tack.  You really needed a strong flashlight.  The CO didn’t realize the light would come on down in that corner of the park.  It was hard to see but it was there.  We walked to the others and finally the final.  CO-FTF in Richland!!  Go us!  We chatted for a while and then went back to the tent.  Then we decided we were hungry and headed to Jack in the Box.

Then Mike and his family rolled in about 11 that night.  He got out of the car and walked towards us, I said, I know you.  He said, oh, is that Val?  Haha.  We talked a bit and then took him out to the cache before we hit the hay.  We said our goodbyes and headed to the tent.  We got ready for bed, situated and passed out.  The entire night I heard semi trucks and cars driving up and down Hwy 12.  We were at least a football field away from the highway.  I was so tired I tried to drown it out.  I woke up a couple hours later from the wind blowing hard.  It shook the tarps.

I got up around 8 and got ready for the day.  I headed over to the bathroom and on the way back I grabbed another cache that was in the park.  People started to arrive at the event.  We made sure we had everything ready for the crazy trek around the three cities.  We visited, saw people we knew, looked at the stuff Lisa brought with her Cache Advance store, speculated on the event, etc.  At 9:45, Jen gathered us around for a picture and a speech about what we were going to do.   

The caches would publish at 10 a.m. and we will be given a passport and coordinates.  The coords were scrambled and we would have to figure out which was which.  Each cache contained a word we would have to write down in our passport to get credit for the cache and the coin we would be getting at the end.  And of course sign the logbook. 

And we’re off!  We wasted too much time trying to figure out where all of them were from the park.  We found out there was an easier way to get it on the Nuvi and the handhelds.  We found the nearest Starbucks and loaded them up.  I thought it would be the most efficient if we started across the river in Pasco, then Kennewick and finished in Richland since the event was there.   We had no trouble finding them.  They were pretty easy straight forward.  We got turned around a few times and went the wrong way but eventually got back on track again.  We headed into Kennewick and Shari bought us burgers while we looked for the three in the park.  We ate as we went.  It poured down rain on us at one point and then it was 80 and hot again.  We finished Kennewick and headed into our last city, Richland.  That part took us the longest because the caches were further apart.  Each area took us roughly an hour and a half.  We grabbed our last one and headed for the park, it was about 4:30. 

I got out of the car like my pants were on fire.  I was soo excited to get my coin.  They checked my passport and handed me my coins. 

We looked at some of the trackables for discover before figuring out what we were going to do next.  We had a pre-arranged plan and I wanted to leave to go do it before it got too late.  We didn’t expect the coin challenge to start so late.  We grabbed Bob and Bev and headed out to what they called the Horse Heaven Power Trails.  There were about 200 caches.  

 I guess that they added another string of them that weekend.  They weren’t on our query.  Oh well.  Next time.  We grabbed about 75 of them that evening.  It was about 7:30 before we called it quits.  It was time to eat and shower at Bob and Bev’s hotel.  We ate dinner at Applebee’s and took turns getting clean at the Super 8.  We headed back to our campsite.  We decided to go for the other three at the other end of the park.  It was such a nice warm night.  We found the first two and didn’t find the other because it wasn’t there.  We went back to the tent because tomorrow was going to be a very long day.

We got up around 7 and packed our stuff and the tent.  We drove over to the hotel and met up with Bob and Bev to get more along the power trail.  We had to drive both cars because we didn’t want to head back into town since we were going south.  We started at the north end of the circle and worked our way east and then south.  We got at least 120 of them. 

 It was about 12:30 and we needed to go because we had to drive to DeLorme 89 and 90 and those were kind of out of the way.  We didn’t have those two caches downloaded so we had to drive into Hermiston, Oregon because that was the closest Starbucks.  There was a cache in the parking lot so we grabbed that before we left.  Now a race against time.

We didn’t stop until we got to the cache on page 90.  It was out on a windy canyon road with Mount Adams in the background.  It was on the western side of Goldendale.  An Altoids tin near a guard rail, one down, one more to go…

We headed west.

We arrived at another little town called Trout Lake, the gateway to Mount Adams.  We were on our way to an ice cave.  I read a little bit about it on my handheld but for some reason part of it was cut off.  We got into Trout Lake and headed northwest on a forest service road to where we needed to be.  We got to the turn off and headed to the parking area.  We looked at some of the caves nearby.  We did not know we needed a recreation forest pass instead of a discovery pass.  So a forest ranger let us off the hook since we were not staying.  She knew what geocaching was.  We almost left without actually seeing the real cave.  Luckily, the forest ranger told us to look over on the other side.  We almost missed the main event!  It was the coolest (literally) earthcache I’ve ever done so far.   

We spent some time taking pictures and looking at the info.  We needed to go because we weren’t gonna get home before 9.  We took a wrong way and lost some time but managed to make our way to Hwy 14 to Vancouver and then I-5 to home.  We got gas in La Center and grabbed one more cache just for fun.  I got home about 9:15, showered and got ready for work the next day.  It was gonna be a long week.

Next adventure:  Spokane Hoopfest

Yakima, Wash. and Elgin, Ore. Visit

I packed the car the night before so I didn't have to do a lot of stuff the next morning at 5:30 a.m. All I had to do was put the bike rack and bike on the car and put the rest of the stuff I used in the car that morning. As soon as I clocked out I was on the road. I was really hoping for a huge drop in gas prices, however it only dropped 10 cents. I guess 10 cents was better than nothing. It still cost me 56 bucks! Ouch. I got onto Hwy 7 and headed east towards Mt. Rainier. I got to the third Eatonville cutoff and had to be detoured into Eatonville. They had the road blocked off. I never heard the reason. I got into Eatonville and had no idea how to get to the road I wanted. I was getting frustrated. My Nuvi didn't want to work properly and it was pouring down rain. Luckily my mom called and she helped me get out of town. I finally got back onto Hwy 7 and stopped in Elbe for a cache. I had to at least get one for the day. I grabbed it and headed further down the road and stopped at a place I've driven past many times, an old building in Mineral. I knew exactly were it was.

I wanted to stop in Morton to grab two I've been meaning to get. Both were easy. I grabbed one more right off of Hwy 12 and got soaked. I decided to stop until I got over the pass. I got behind a motor home through Glenoma, Randle and parts of Packwood. It finally pulled over. I got up the mountain pass quite a ways until I hit a patch of cars and a semi truck going 30 miles per hour. Great. It's gonna take me forever now. Just before the summit, I got to pass it. We sailed down the hill. I had to make up the time I lost. It started turning into eastern Washington and no rain!


I grabbed one more, this one a easy virtual just before getting into Naches. I let Willmarth know where I was and he told me they were at the Applebee's celebrating the last day of school. I had eaten right after work so I was still kinda full. They ordered me a lemonade drink with booze in it, and the chicken fingers basket. I ate everything and was full for the rest of the night. From there, we went into the dog store (Petsmart) and grabbed some stuff for the dogs and thenwe headed back to the house. I brought my stuff in and we had a relaxing night. We watched tv, surfed the internet, watched youtube videos, etc. We drove to the ghetto Albertson's for a few things and got milkshakes from the ice cream store on the corner. Some lady almost backed into us.  We made it back and chilled the rest of the night.  I slept on the couch because the guest bed was still in Forks.  As soon as I laid down, I was out until the next morning.

I got up to the sound of the shower running and things being gathered for our trip to eastern Oregon.  I got ready, grabbed the stuff I would need and Willmarth told me we might stay the night there so grab stuff for that.  We put everything in garbage bags because they would be in the back of the truck and the forecast for Tollgate would be rain and some snow in areas.  We put the stuff in the truck and headed down the hill to Powerhouse Cafe and Grill for some pancakes.  We sat down and ordered.  A while later we had pancakes and Shannon was happy.  Then she found out yes, they do serve blueberry pancakes. Shannon and I ordered buttermilk and I got one of Willmarth's blueberry pancake.  Shannon was jealous she did not get any.  It was a running joke for the rest of the day.  We hit the road soon after.

We drove over to Elgin through the Tri-Cities and down highway 12 through Walla Walla.  I have never been through Milton-Freewater.  The town is known for it's frogs and Muddy Frog Water festival.  Willmarth's mom grew up there and graduated from high school there.  We went and visited his aunt who lives in town.  We spent about a half hour visiting.  We headed out again.  Over the Blue Mountains through Tollgate.  It was steep!  It rained the entire time.  It even snowed when we reached the summit.  We dropped down in to the valley and headed for Summerland, where they were picking up the puppies.  We were hoping it would stop raining.  It didn't.  When we got to their house, after a short detour, I grabbed my rain jacket.  We sat and talked to the people who owned the dogs.  They gave us the paperwork and pedigree of the puppies.  We went out to the kennel and grabbed them and put them in the car and headed to Elgin.

We got to Paul and Metta's house and met Metta's son, Drew.  He is an interesting kid.  We played with the puppies until Paul and Metta came back from La Grande.  We sat around and talked to them for a while.  We got onto the internet and she found out I was a geocacher.  She knew what it was!  I was excited.  She told me her friends do it.  She grabbed her gps and asked if I could get it to work.  It was so outdated we could not.  We went to Sig's, a tavern in Elgin, for dinner.  The food was good.  Afterwards, we had ice cream and strawberries.  I told everyone I needed to get the cache in town and Metta wanted to go with me.  We got to the location and I told her what we might be looking for.  It was a magnetic key holder and she found it.  She was so excited.  You should have seen her face.  She was now hooked.  I got to sleep in Metta's youngest son's room for the night.  When I laid on that futon, I wanted to die.  It was like sleeping on a piece of plywood with a sheet on top of it.  I made due.

The next morning I took a shower and packed.  We needed to leave before noon because the youngest son was coming home and I guess he is a little monster.  We got out of there around 10.  We headed towards La Grande.  We grabbed Taco Bell for lunch and went to Eastern Oregon University to eat and let the puppies run around.

After lunch and wandering the campus, I walked a couple streets over to grab a cache in La Grand.  I couldn't help myself.  They picked me up a few minutes later.  We headed to I-84 and continued west.  We stopped at Snoopy because we just had to.  I've seen it a few times driving down the freeway towards Idaho.  It's been a while since I've been out this way.

We headed down the grade into Pendleton and stopped to let the dogs go potty.  We really couldn't find a good place so we stopped near the cow/horse statues.  As luck would have it, it was also a virtual.  I headed over.  I did what I needed to do to qualify and headed back over to the truck.

We stopped at a truck stop to go potty and of course we had to get A&W Rootbeer as well.  We got to the junction and headed towards the Tri-cities.  Willmarth told me we would stop at the 9/11 Memorial just inside Kennewick.  I was really excited.  I love history.  I have seen all the documentaries, read most of the books, I watched the entire chaos unfold that day.  I needed to see and touch one of the trusses used in the WTC in New York.  We stopped, let the dogs go potty and I headed over to see it.

I just couldn't believe I was touching one of the pieces of the WTC.  It was surreal.  I probably watched this very piece on TV, fall from the sky.

It was now time to head back to Yakima.  Everyone was tired and the dogs didn't need to be in the truck anymore.  We got to their house about 3:00.  We unloaded the truck and put the dogs in the back yard so they could see where they lived and to go potty.

Meanwhile, I helped move the bamboo out of the back yard, Shannon mowed the front yard and Willmarth planted his fruit plants.  Afterwards, we relaxed a bit.  I went and shot some hoops for a while.  Then we went to the store to pick up some stuff for dinner.  We ate hotdogs and beans.  We watched The Chronicle, had popcorn and got ready for bed.

I was woken up several times from puppy sounds.  It didn't matter because it was their house and I was a guest.  I was so out earlier that morning because I didn't hear them take the puppies out at 3 a.m.  We shot around for a while since it was going to be a very nice day.  We had hotdogs and beans again for lunch.  Nathan's hotdogs rule, FYI.  I talked on the phone for a while and shot the basketball.  I came in for a bit and found out Willmarth was taking a nap.  His next 24 hours were going to be busy.  He had to go bring his stuff back from Forks.

I told Shannon I was going to head down to the river and ride the Greenway Trail for a few hours.  I couldn't let my bike go to waste, right?  She gave me a can of mace, just in case.  I headed to the bike trail, parked the car and took the bike off the bike rack.  Since I was in Yakima and I didn't trust people, I took all my stuff from my car and put it in the trunk.  I took my bike rack off the car and put it in the back seat and locked it up...you never know.  The trail was kept very nice.  I rode under several bridges and a lot of the trail was along the Yakima River.

I made it to a great stopping point.  Sarg Hubbard Park about 3 miles from where I parked my car.  I saw the time and headed back.  I got about 15 caches.  I got back to the car, put the bike rack back on and went back to the house.  When I got there, Willmarth was about ready to head out to do errands.  I went with.  When we got back it was almost time for him to pack, grab the U-haul and drive the 7-8 hours to Forks and back.  We drove down, he loaded his stuff up and I drove the car back.  I grabbed Arby's for Shannon and I.  We watched TV, took care of the dogs.  I went and took a shower and went to bed.

The next morning I packed up my stuff, said my good byes and was off towards home.  I grabbed about 10 geocaches from Naches to Morton.

I got home about 2.  It was a great visit.  I might go back in July depending on what's going on.

Mount St. Helens/Monopoly Series

I have pondered this trip for some time.  I knew we had to wait until at least late spring/early summer to do it because of the snow.  I haven't been up this way in a very long time.  I believe it was back in the mid-1990's.  My last time to the actual mountain was with Lindsay and Shaun when we went on that hike back in 2010.

We contacted our new geocacher friends, Chris and Shelley to see if they wanted to go since they seemed interested the other day.  Chris was exhausted that week at work and needed the weekend to rest.  So they decided not to go.  I was to meet Derek  at 8:30 in the morning to head down south.

Morning came, I got dressed, grabbed my stuff and some food to take with me.  I hopped in the car and headed towards the school.  I was almost into Rainier when Derek drove by in his car.  He turned around.  I asked why he was here and why wasn't he at the school like we discussed?  He said, oh, well I didn't see you there so I started to drive to your house.  I was on my way like I said...oh well whatever.  I put my stuff in his car and we headed off.

Our first stop was Toledo.  I have never been to the actual town of Toledo and they were in our league in high school.  Their school was outside of town so there was no reason to go into town.  We stopped by the jail and grabbed the cache there.

We went to Splunker because we thought it was a cave.  It wasn't and we were disappointed.  Tons of people were not finding it so we tried our luck at it.  We turned the rock over and found a snake.  Then we called Bev to ask if we were in the right spot.  We were.  We turned the rock over again and I noticed a black tube really squished into the ground.  I grabbed it and opened it up.  It was the cache.  Yes!  We grabbed the rest of them in town and headed off to Hwy 504.  I've never gone  this way to Mt. St. Helens, we always go through Castle Rock.  We grabbed a few as we headed east to the mountain.

Once we got closer to the mountain, it started raining.  That bummed us out.  It's almost not worth going up to go see it if it was cloudy.  We stopped a couple of times getting caches and learning about the earthcaches along the way.  By that time the rain stopped and the clouds lifted up.  We could actually see the mountain this time. I love coming to this area.

We did all the earthcaches all the way up to Johnston Ridge.  Wow, they sure changed the place.  We had to pay $8 each to go inside the visitor's center and to walk up the hill to do OhJoy's cache.  It was quick.  Most of the stuff I already knew.

We made it short and sweet because we still had to do the Monopoly Series down the road.  There were 30 of them and we were already getting tired.  We got back to the car and had our sandwiches, chips and Pepsi's.  We grabbed a few more down Hwy 504 and finally made it to the series.  We did not realize it was going to be up hill but we should have assumed with logging roads and the elevation change.   Each section of road has at least 4 caches.  The first section was all the utilities.  The next few sections were the properties.  It was getting late and we were getting tired but we didn't want to come back so we HAD to finish it.

We got them all and headed home towards Castle Rock to get on to I-5.  Derek still had to get one more for our 40 no micro challenge.  We grabbed one near Toledo-Vader.  Then we headed back to Rainier, where my car was.  Long day.  My feet hurt.  I need to get better hiking shoes.

Next Adventure:  TBA