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.