My Adventures and Places Life Takes Me: Hoopfest Weekend

Sunday, July 1

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.