Clay4 and Whtwolfden's Meet and Greet

A few weeks ago I was browsing through the WSGA website and I saw that Clay and Gus from the E.T. Highway were going to be in town for the Block Party and APE Event.  They were going to have a meet and greet at a hotel in Issaquah.  I thought to myself...I NEED to go to this event.  I asked Doug, my brother, if I could stay with him in Seattle for the weekend.  I just thought it was pointless to drive back and forth from home, which is 60+ miles from each event.  He said sure.

I had just finished the E.T. Highway in April with Geek&Gopher.  I logged all 2000+ caches almost a month after we were done, I finished our movie and put it on youtube and in July I finally finished my scrapbook I put together.  I brought it with me to the WSGA Campout for people to look at.  I thought, what would make this book even cooler is if I could get them to sign their caching names on it with a silver sharpie.

Work was longer than it needed to be.  It started at 5:30 a.m. It always happens especially when I gotta be somewhere.  Never fails to amaze me.  We grabbed some food, did our chores and headed home.  I had to unload and load my car.  That took longer than I wanted it to.  Finally I had everything I needed for the weekend.  I got gas in Yelm, the price went down ten cents, and stopped at Big 5 for my Northwest Forest Pass for the hike to GCD at 6:30 Sunday morning before the APE event.  It only cost me $5 for a day pass.

I got onto I-5 and traffic was slow all the way through Fort Lewis.  I hope I allowed myself enough time to get to Issaquah before 8.  I gained some ground until we hit Tacoma just south of the Tacoma Dome.  It was stop and go almost all the way to Fife and then it picked up again.  I took the Hwy 18 junction and we slowed down again when we got to Auburn.  After passing Auburn, it was smooth drive all the way to the Issaquah-Hobert exit.

I've always wondered what was over here.  I've been up and down Hwy 18 so many times over the years.  It was a small two laned highway that cut through a lot of rural properties.  There were a few Christmas tree lots, many farm land properties and I even drove past a parking lot full of cars and people who were paragliding off Tiger Mountain above.  (www.seatttleparagliding.com)

I got to Issaquah sooner than I thought I would.  You just never know with traffic. I pulled into the hotel an hour early before the event.  I grabbed everything I would need out of the car, I should have brought my coins in...d'oh, and made my way into the lobby.  I really didn't see anyone I knew so I asked one of the hotel employees and she said there was a geocaching event in the restaurant/bar.  I sat down and watched some of the Mariner game until I recognized a few people.

We introduced ourselves while they set up the logbook and laid out their coins for people to see and purchase.  I sat there for a while listening to their stories.  Then people started showing up.  I was given a button with their logo on it and a smiley.

 
Throughout the night I talked to a cachers from Alaska, Colorado, BC, Texas, Norway, California, Arizona, Virginia, Nevada, and Missouri.  I also talked to a bunch of locals I knew already.  It started to thin out around 9:30.  I went and grabbed my scrapbook to show to some out of towners what the ET Highway really looked like.  They all were excited.  After, I walked over to Clay and Gus and asked them if they would sign my scrapbook.  I gave them a silver Sharpie.  They were really excited I asked them and couldn't wait to open and look at it.  They looked through it for a few minutes and we chatted for about fifteen more.

It was almost time to head on over to Doug's in Seattle.

I got in the car and plugged in Doug's address into Nuvi, 19 miles to destination.  There were lots of people still on the roads but it didn't take me more than 20 minutes to get to his house.  My Nuvi took me to the end of his road.  I got out and tried looking for a white house and the address he gave me.  I didn't see it.  I called him and he said he was further down the road.  I found a parking spot and noticed his house was blue.  Why did he tell me white?  Weird.

I grabbed some of my stuff and brought it in with me.  I visited with him for a while and then we decided food sounded really good.  We stopped by the ATM and then headed to Dick's down the street.  I haven't had their food in a few months.  I got 2 burgers and a fry.  It cost me less than 5 bucks.

I ate my french fries on the way back to his house.  We parked and went and talked to his roommates in the basement next to their make-shift bar.  I visited for a bit and then started getting ready for bed.  I was exhausted.  I did a little internetting and fell asleep around 2 a.m.

Next Adventure:  Block Party