The Bloated Festering Head of My First Victim...

I've looked at this cache page over a dozen times thinking, when am I going to do this one? Well, Bob and I figured today would be a great day to go out and grab it. I didn't have any hip waders so I went with clothes and shoes I didn't mind getting muddy.  We grabbed a puzzle we had solved a while ago before embarking on our muddy journey through the swamp.

This cache is definitely a one you do not want to do alone.

We headed to the parking spot, found the trail head and went in, with Bob's stick and all. I grabbed the others as we headed to the spot to get in. The first few steps were deep.  Both of us gasped a little bit.  It was cold at first but we got used to the water.

We hoped the rest of the way wouldn't be this bad. We went from swampy soup like mud to thick mud, to dry land, to thick mud and to watery soup mud again.  There was a distinct trail that others have used in the past.  There were some trees down from the storm so we had to make our own trail around them. We reached the head, took some pictures and headed back in the muck.

We were glad we got back without dying. We did see some bones along the way, they must have not read the hint...muhahaha!

We got back to the truck and I started peeling off my shoes, socks and pants.  They were caked with mud.  My pants probably weighed 10 pounds heavier than when I left the truck.  Bob got his chest waders off without any problems.  Earlier he said I may have to pull them off of him.

We threw our dirty clothes and shoes in the back of the truck and headed home.  

Next outing: TBA

The GEOregon Picnic

I had spoken to Steve a few weeks ago about getting his walkie back to him after the Tri Cities Geocoin challenge a month ago.  He said that GEOregon was having a picnic in July if we wanted to go down and attend.  I told Bev about it and she told Bob.  He just wants the caches.  He agreed to go and set our time for 7:15 Saturday morning.

The night before I slept hard and when my alarm went off I did not want to get out of bed.  I did anyway.  I had everything laid out the night before.  All I had do to was use the bathroom and put clothes on.  I saw they were out in the drive way so I grabbed my stuff and once out the door I was obnoxiously greeted by RAIN!!  Ugh!  I ran back inside and grabbed pants and different shoes...just in case.  I hopped in the car and we were off towards Tenino.  We had breakfast at Scotty B's, a place Bob and Bev love to go often.  We were on our way south to Oregon.  A little less than half way down we stopped at the Toutle Lake rest area to use the bathroom.

We continued down I-5.  I'm not sure when I closed my eyes but I was out for a good half hour or so.  I woke up as we passed Hazel Dell and we were less than a mile from our exit to 205.  We got onto 205 and headed to where we mapped out our query.  We started in the Clakamas area and worked our way down.  We got frustrated because a few of them weren't there!  I hate wasting time on those ones.  We grabbed about 7 before we headed over to the event, which was 3 miles from where we were caching.

We got to Mary S. Young Park and it was huge!  It hugged the edge of the Willamette River and Oregon Hwy 43.  We drove in and parked near the picnic area.  We took our stuff out of the car and headed to the sign in table.  We got a free gift!

We grabbed our stuff and found a table to park ourselves at.  We saw Steve, he was cooking burgers, and Melanie was helping him.  Tammy couldn't come because she was with her mom in the hospital.  I guess she was doing pretty bad but perked up and is almost ready to come home.  We chatted with Steve for a bit and gave him his walkie back.  We got in line for the food.  There was tons of food.

Lots and lots of desserts.  You could get diabetes just by looking at it.  We sat down in the sun and enjoyed our food.  It got a little toasty and people started peeling off their coats, sweaters and sweatshirts.  We moved into the shade.  I went and discovered trackables for a bit and then came back over to the table to chat with Brian and Steve about caches.  We hung out for a while and Bob was itching to go grab the ones in the park.

We headed off.  The walk was about 3 miles, we did eight caches, all were ammo cans.  We met some new people along the way.  Katsurian, (James) walked around with us.  He was a new cacher, within four months, and he worked in Portland at Franz, the people who make bread.  He loved to read and was somewhat of a nerd.  My feet were tired when we headed back to the car.  I had figured with the ones we found this morning and the ones in the park, I needed 10 more to hit 3500.  We had a plan.

We drove out of the park and turned right and headed north.  We found a few near the McDonald's, called McYummy, I laughed.  We drove east towards the Willamette River and found a trail that followed it.  Caches were easy to grab, however the parking spots were hard to find.  We grabbed 8 of them really quickly.

 

 We found a park, George Rogers City Park and it had a really cool earthcache in it.  It was called Oswego Iron and it was about the production of Oregon's iron production.  We had to answer a bunch of questions about iron, etc.  There was a free medieval play going on right in front of the pillars.  We went over there anyway and took our pictures.

We walked back into the car and desperately tried to find 2 more.  It took us about a half hour but we managed.  YAY!  3500!

We stopped by Round Table Pizza, the same place we went to back in the February GEOregon event.  We ordered salad, which was a big mistake, it came out as soon as it went in, and we had a triple pepperoni pizza.  We headed out as soon as everyone was done with whatever they were doing.  We got back on the 205 and headed north on I-5 to home.  We got home around 9 p.m.  It was a fun eventful day.

Next outing:  The Festering Head of My Last Victim (Dupont, Wa) on Friday.

Social Media Explained

Twitter:  I'm eating a donut.
Facebook:  I like donuts.
Foursquare:  This is where I am eating a donut.
Instagram:  Here's a vintage photo of my donut.
YouTube:  Here I am eating a donut.
Linked In:  My skills include donut eating.
Pinterest:  Here's a donut recipe.
Last FM:  Now listening to "donut".
G+:  I'm a Google employee who eats donuts.

LOL!

Friday the 13th Thunderstorm

Last night we had a thunderstorm.  I really don’t remember the last time we had one that large.  It has been a while.  I’ve been running about 2 miles every other day, sometimes everyday if I feel like it, and I noticed the huge cloud behind me.  This was one of those times I should have brought my cell phone for pictures.  I ran as fast as I could the last leg of my run.  I did not want it to get too dark to see.  I got home, grabbed the cell and headed out the door.  I took mom’s car because mine needs new brake pads.  I drove out to the end of the road and took a picture of the cloud that was over our house.  

I saw lightening to the northwest.  I drove into Rainier because there were less trees to try and look over.  I saw that it had rained in town.  Weird, it didn’t rain at home.  I parked in the lot and watched the lightening show.  I was there for about 15 minutes.  I went home shortly after taking video for 3 minutes.  

Link to video:

Later I found out there was a funnel cloud that almost touched down in the Yelm area.  I didn’t hear for sure though.  I did see some pictures on the internet.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/07/13/2214296/thunderstorms-are-forecast-for.html

Mount Rainier

The night before I had planned on fixing my 24 mini power trail just outside of my hometown, other than that, I had no other plans.  The next morning I got an 8 am wake up call from Bev stating that they would be going to Mount Rainier and if I wanted to go.  She talked me into it.  They gave me until 9 to get ready.  I ran a query for the area, put clothes on and got some food ready.  They got here around 9:10.  We headed out towards Eatonville and had to go through Eatonville because of the Hwy 7 detour.  The road is still under construction.  I’d like to know when it will be done.  I am getting tired of the detour though town, it takes up too much time.

 We got to the gate and I found out Bev bought a senior pass for $10.  It gets you into any National Park in the US for free forever.  It’s a great deal.  We arrived at Longmire, parked the car and did the first earthcache.  Bob and Bev have done this one already so they knew what to do.  We had to go to the visitor’s center and borrow a thermometer.  We would be taking various temperatures of water throughout our walk.  It was a fun unique cache.  I have not done one that required a thermometer.  We finished, took the thermometer back and headed up the mountain towards Paradise.   

 We stopped at Christine Falls for some photos.  There were quite a few people at this spot.  Next was another earchcache Bob and Bev have done already.  Narada Falls, a horsetail falls, that comes from the Paradise River which eventually flows into the Nisqually River.  We continued up the mountain.  We saw some really breathtaking views of the mountain, the valleys and other small peaks and hills as we ascended.

We got to Paradise and had lunch out in the parking lot with the mountain in front of us.  It was quite a view.  We walked to the visitor’s center and found the gift shop.  The guy who helped us is also a geocacher.  We talked for a bit while we discussed benchmarks.  We went out to the lobby and I recognized someone behind the desk.  I knew Ashley worked at Mt. Rainier but I never thought I would see her.  We chatted for a while.  She said Kelsey worked there too and was going home for the weekend.  When we left the center, I heard my name, “VAL!”  Kelsey found me on her way over to the cars to go home.  I couldn’t believe she found me.  We talked for a while before she had to go.  Small world.

 We went back to the car and drove towards Reflection Lake.  Once again, Bob and Bev had already done the earthcache at the lake but they stopped for me and they wanted to see the view.  I got everything I needed and we were off again, this time to Box Canyon.  We got there and did the necessary calculations to claim a find.  The view was pretty awesome too.

 The next one took us to the Ohanapecosh Campground.  There were two earthcaches inside the park.  We went for the first one, which had to do with the 2006 storm that destroyed all the trees, river banks and displaced animal habitats.  We answered the questions and took the necessary pictures.  The river was so blue!  We walked over to the visitor’s center to get the thermometer we would need to finish the cache.  Another thermometer cache!  Woot!  We read what we had to do and took the mini loop around the camp ground.  It surprised me the range of temperatures we recorded.  The stream was about 46 degrees and one of the hot springs was 110 degrees!  Woah!  We took the thermometer back to the visitor’s center, logged our findings in the book and headed back to the car.

 We followed the road and it eventually took us to Hwy 12.  We spent too much time at a cache that wasn’t there.  However, I did find a five dollar bill on the ground as we walked towards the car.  Score!  We continued on to the next one.  We grabbed a few more along Hwy 12, one included a really cool cave. 

We stopped in Packwood to get gas and to decide of we wanted dinner or not.  I didn’t have cell service so we used the pay phone.  Something I haven’t done since high school.  It cost 75 cents to make a call!  I remember when it only cost a dime.  Oh well, I called my mom to tell her where I was and she knew because of my post earlier on Facebook.  I love Facebook just for that reason.  We ended up not getting anything at the store so we settled for bananas and the rest of our snacks. 

We headed back to Ashford via Skate Creek Rd, another thing I have not come across since high school.  I believe it was with Willmarth the last time we went to Zillah before my senior year for basketball; that was in 2001.  We grabbed a few as we got closer to Ashford.  We did encounter this one near a river that hadn’t been found in almost a year.  We thought we would give it a good looking before we went on.  About 5 minutes into the search, Bob found it.  I was stunned!  One more for us!

We headed to Elbe, through Eatonville and they dropped me off at home about 8:45 that evening.  We had a great time at the mountain and would love to go again another time.

Pullman Visit

I planned to come to Pullman this weekend.  It should have been different but I will not go into that.  Long stupid story. 

We left work early today, which is very unusual.  We actually left before noon, did our chores (store, recycle and mail) and got home at a fairly decent time.  I already packed a few things the night before into my car so I didn’t have to do it after work.  I changed out of my scrubs and into hot weather clothes—my favorite, and packed the rest of the stuff into the car.  I had to get gas on my way out.  I stopped at the Arco in Yelm because gas was $3.39.  The lowest it’s been in a long long time.  I went the Spanaway, 512, 167, I-90, Hwy 26 route to Pullman.  The pass was not that bad, only when we merged onto the freeway, you’re suppose to speed up when you are on the on ramp, not go 30 into traffic going 70.

There was still construction going on over Snoqualmie.  I can’t remember what they said on the news but they are either going to improve the tunnel for the west bound lanes or get rid of it all together.  We will see in the next few months.

I got to Ellensburg in no time and it was 85 degrees outside.  I thought about getting the cache at the Rye Grass East rest stop but no one has found it in a few months so I didn’t bother stopping.  I continued on to Vantage.  There were tons of people using the Columbia River today.  Last weekend there were no boats or people for that matter using the lake because of the severe thunderstorm we drove through on our way back from Hoopfest.  When I turned off the exit to go towards Pullman, I started to reminisce about all the times I’ve done this particular drive.  It was interesting to see what parts have changed and which parts stayed the same.  Most of it had stayed the same. 

I got to Othello and it was time to top off the gas and go potty.   I cleaned the windshield because of all the bugs.  It was also time to turn the GPS on to grab the Go Coug series just up the road.  The first one was 20 miles away from Othello.   

 

 All of them were on the right hand side of the road going east, on roads that take you south.  All but I believe two were near the stop signs.  Stopping for them made the drive seem not as long.  The last one was located on 195 in between Colfax and Pullman. 

 Now, on to Alex’s apartment to go see Starrla and eat pizza.

I arrived to the Pine Ridge Apartment complex and Starrla and Alex were outside ready to greet me in.  I decided to leave my stuff in the car for the time being and get it later.  We went upstairs and ate some pizza and talked for a little while.  It came time for Starrla to go home.  I went downstairs and grabbed my stuff from the car and hauled it upstairs.  For the next hour and a half I got to know Alex.  We told stories, talked about our hometowns, families etc.  It reached midnight and I had to go to bed.  It was a long day.  I got ready for bed and passed out on the futon.

The next morning I got up and showered because I didn’t know when the next time this weekend I will get to since I will be in a tent.  Alex got up shortly after.  He needed to pack because his family was taking a trip to the Oregon Coast and I didn’t want to be in his way.  I texted Starrla to see when she would be ready to hang out and she had just put Zoey down for a nap.  I went and did some errands and drove into Moscow to pass the time away.  I went to the Pullman Walmart first.  I had to get ice.  I then went to the Moscow Walmart and did not find what I was looking for.  However, they finally made that one into a super one.  It was kind of weird to see how they rearranged everything.  I didn’t find what I was looking for.  I went back into Pullman and browsed Crimson and Gray.  By that time Starrla called me and told me to meet her at Cougar Country for lunch.

I ordered the same thing I always do--cheeseburger deluxe, small fries and a small drink.  I found out Cougar Country was also a new geocaching challenge created about two weeks ago and no one had done it yet!  I was the first and it was my 100^th challenge.  We sat, ate our food and chatted a bit.  There weren’t that many people wanting food quite yet so it wasn’t crazy. 

From there, we headed up towards campus.  I knew of an excellent place to park and because it was summer, most spots will be open.  We parked on D Street, near where I used to live.  Best place I ever lived.  It was literally a block from campus.  We walked up, went into the library, the CUB and went down to Martin Stadium and spent some time on the field.   

 We had to get out of the heat because Zoey shouldn’t be in it.  We walked back down to the cars and headed towards the Palouse Mall, where it’s air conditioned.  We went and browsed various stores.  I found 5 pairs of shorts for under $40.  I’d say I am a pretty good shopper.  We headed over to Hastings to check out the latest books and movies for a while.

It was almost that time for her and Zoey to go.  Zoey was getting to be a crabby baby and needed to go cool off at home.  We planned on meeting at Sunnyside Park for disc golf at nine tomorrow morning.  It was around four, I headed back to Pullman and set my tent up and then grabbed a few caches in an area I really wasn’t that familiar with.  

 I’ve been to a few of those places but some of them I had no idea existed.  I noticed while we were up at the CUB, that there was a free movie being showed at the CUB Auditorium, Starrla couldn’t make it, so I went alone.  They gave me free popcorn and a free showing of American Reunion, another America Pie movie.  When I walked outside, the sky was a creepy yellow-green-gray with low clouds and a rainbow.  It kinda sprinkled and screamed thunder storm.  It didn’t thunder storm unfortunately.  The wind blew fiercely though.

I got hungry so I dug through my change holder and found some money for a quick burger from Jack n the Box.  I headed to my campsite and situated myself for the night.  I saw there was an open RV spot so I took my computer and my other plug in devices and plugged them in while I browsed the internet.  The RV place had wireless.  My tent finally cooled down so it was comfortable to sleep in.  This was the first time since I could remember that I didn’t need a sweatshirt, socks and sweatpants inside a sleeping bag while I slept.  The whole night the temp remained near 70 degrees.  I went to bed around midnight.

The next morning I got up way too early because my tent heated up way too fast.  I tried to sleep until 8.  I got up, got ready, packed the car and headed up to Sunnyside Park.  I got their about 10 minutes early and got worried as 9:00 passed.  I called her and left a message.  As I was hanging up, she pulled into the parking lot.  We started near the pond because the course was not clearly marked.  We just made it up as we went along.  It was an 18 hole course and we finished most of it within two hours.  That was Starrla’s first time with disc golf and she had fun.  She said she would most likely do it again.  We had fun.  League was about to start up and we didn’t want to be in the way.  We’ll have to print out the course map next time.

 I followed her the 15 miles to Palouse for the ice cream social sponsored by the local lions club.  I saw where they were staying until August.  I met Vince’s parents again and we had some lunch before we headed down to the park.  It was about 100 degrees outside.  They served ice cream, pie and coffee.  I had strawberry ice cream and then I saw there was a cache nearby so I grabbed it as Starrla and Vince walked around the park.  I met up with them a few minutes later and dipped our feet in the river nearby.  We walked around the town before heading back to the car.  We headed back to the house, visited for a little while longer and it was time for me to head down to the Snake River for some floatie time.  

It was about 20 miles from Pullman and I passed quite a few cars heading down to the river.  I got there just before 4 that afternoon.  I found a nice spot along the river with not very many people.  I blew up my floatie, changed into my swimming suit and was instantly in the nice cool water.  There were quite a few people jumping off the cliffs just east of where I was.  The area is known as “the cliffs” when you talk about it.   I stayed down there for about an hour before heading back for some food and a little bit of geocaching.  I headed into Moscow for a little while just to burn some time while I waited for my tent to cool off.  I did a few virtuals while I talked to my grandmother.  It was getting dark so I headed back to Pullman.

 I grabbed my computer and phone and sat in the RV area with them plugged in as I surfed the internet for a while.  My tent was still too warm to sleep in.  Just before midnight my tent cooled off enough to pass out in.  I woke up around 7:45 the next morning because my tent got way too hot.  I started packing up my stuff and loading it in the car.  I tried to do this before it got hot.  I took apart the tent, put it in the car and headed out around 9.  I had to grab two caches before heading to Walmart for ice and other things for the trip home.  I grabbed gas on my way out of town.

I saw some lightening just west of Colfax heading out of the Palouse.  I got through all the boring parts.  I headed towards the junction of Hwy 26 and Hwy 395 and I hit this wicked dust storm.  I actually had to pull over for a few seconds.  I saw several cars on the side of the road waiting it out.  I didn’t have time to wait it out so I headed straight out of it.  About a minute later, no more dust and I was on my way to Othello to top off my gas.  It was a bit cooler until I got into Ellensburg, it was about 98 degrees according to my phone.

I got to Snoqualmie Pass and they were doing construction on the west bound lane.  There shouldn’t have been any problems but for some reason people have to plug up the lanes with stop and go.  They actually weren’t doing construction on the road but beside it, apparently people need to mess up traffic to see what they were doing.  I was annoyed.  We got going again.  I wanted to get through Hwy18, 167 and 512 before everyone got off work.  I was not going to be stuck in traffic.  I was very excited for a shower.  I have not had one since I left Alex’s house on Saturday morning.  I just drove down Tiger Summit and was almost to Covington when we stopped again.  Why are we stopping?  I guess someone threw a cigarette butt out the window and it caught the side of the road on fire.  There were a few cop cars and a fire engine.  By the time I got there they had distinguished the fire.  Yay, I am so ready to be home.

I got home around 3:30 and unpacked the car, started some much needed laundry and took a shower!  The shower was awesome.  I’m not sure when my next trip will be.  I hope it’s soon. 

Hoopfest Weekend

Willmarth got a hold of me on Tuesday night letting me know that I will replace one of his team members for Hoopfest.  We were in the 40, family recreation bracket.  His brother and sister in law bailed on him and now he was trying to scramble to find people to fill the roster.  He got a hold of one of the officials for player changes and she had him fill out a form.  He scanned it in and emailed them the changes.  When the team and players posted he checked online to see if it was right and it wasn’t.  He, the captain and the one who filled out the entry forms and paid the money wasn’t on the roster.  He filled out the other necessary forms and sent them in.  They should have received them and made the necessary changes.  That’s what we knew at that point.

I left my house around 1:30.  It would have been sooner if people learned to communicate efficiently.  I had to get gas, thank god the gas prices went down $0.60 cents since the last time I went to Yakima, which was two weeks ago.  I headed out towards Eatonville since I had to go through town again.  I did find out what happened to the rest of Hwy 7.  I guess there was an avalanche or mudslide that took out part of the road.  So until it gets fixed, we have to drive through Eatonville.  There weren’t that many semi trucks on Hwy 12 today but there were a few motor homes that ate some of my driving time away.  Most of the way up to the pass and down into Naches was a breeze. 

I did stop ten miles outside of Naches to grab a cache for the day.  It was an easy park and grab.  I tried to hurry so they weren’t waiting for me to get there so we can get on the road.  I got into Yakima, went up the hill and arrived at their house around 4:40.  They were still packing.  We packed the car.

We left around 6 and went Hwy 24 to Othello and then Hwy 17 to Moses Lake and I-90 to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where our hotel was.  We stopped a few times on the way over.  We got to CDA and went to the store for a few things before going to our hotel.  I had been to CDA recently, back in March for the cache machine, so I was still familiar with the area.  We got to the hotel, checked in and headed to our room.  We were in room 414 and we had to walk up four flights of stairs with a lot of heavy things.  We got our exercise for the day.  We unpacked the stuff we needed, set up our beds and passed out.  It’s been a long week.

We got up the next morning around 6 so we could be dressed and ready to head into Spokane to find a parking spot.  We got down there around 7 and were very lucky to have found a spot that close to the action.   25 bucks gave us 10 hours of parking.  Pretty good considering usually for 25 bucks you get maybe 3 or 4 hours on a good day.  We grabbed our stuff and headed over to the player change tent like we were told to do.  He stood there talking to the people for at least 20 minutes about what had happened.  Apparently, they did not get his paperwork.  They were not going to let us play on their mistake.  We were devastated.  I really wanted to play in Hoopfest this year.  We called several people and told them what happened.  We have proof that they received our stuff because he had it in his sent emails.  Someone was not doing their job.  We spent the entry fee ($150), hotel, gas and emotions on this thing to show up and not be able to play.  All because someone didn’t do the correct paperwork!!  I swore I was cursed or something.  I’ve had three chances to do Hoopfest and every chance has been destroyed by one thing or another. 

We watched Shannon’s nephews for a while.  I wandered the park because there were tons of things to look at.  I found the red wagon cache and did a few of the picture challenges in the park while we waited for the next thing to happen.  I eventually found Shannon and Willmarth and we made the decision to go back to the hotel and go home.  We stopped at Krispy Kreme for some doughnuts before heading back to CDA.  We got to the hotel and relaxed for a bit. We got up so early it was time for a nap.  We all took a couple hour nap.  We packed up our room, put it in the car and headed to Tomato Street for some Italian food.   From there, we headed to the Valley Mall just to walk around for a bit.  I bought some new Adidas because I needed some more casual shoes and they were in clearance.  We went into a game store and Shannon and Willmarth bought a few games.  She got a few for her students at the elementary school she teaches at.  Just before heading out, we got an Orange Julius and relaxed at the food court.

We were on the road again.  We drove by downtown Spokane in disgust.  Maybe next year?

Shannon got out one of her games she purchased at the mall.  It was called Guesstimation.  There were 6 questions on each card and what ever you roll on the dice you read that question.  Who ever guessed closest would get those points on the dice.  First one to the finish line won.  That was the game in a nutshell.  I think we played it three times and I think I won twice. 

When we got to Moses Lake, really eerie clouds were in the distance.  If we were in the mid west we would be searching for a tornado shelter.  It was creepy.  We saw lightening and it rained really hard.  One part of I-90 was submerged under water.  It was kind of fun driving through it.  I wonder if that smart car made it?

We got to Yakima roughly around 8:30.  We ordered pizza and watched the Mariners beat the Red Sox and a few movies while we watched the puppies beat up each other.  We stayed up until 3 watching Se7en.  Creepy movie, but my kind of movies.  I made my bed and passed out.

I got up the next morning at 10.  I couldn’t waste the 80 degree weather.  Throughout the day I sat out in it, shot some hoops, played with the dogs, ate lunch from Major’s, ran a few errands with Willmarth and played on the computer.  When 5:00 came, I decided I should get on the road and head home.  I packed up all my stuff, said my goodbyes and thank yous and off I went.  I had to grab 4 caches in the area so I could go home with 3400 finds.  I stopped mostly in Gleed and Naches.   

On the pass, I stopped on Hwy 12 at the Mount Rainier viewpoint and I didn’t want to follow a semi truck down a 6% grade for 15 miles.

I got home about 8:30, unpacked, showered and went to bed.  I hope we get to play Hoopfest next year.