The night before I got the query loaded and reread the rules which were the same from last year. I had two passports printed out, the address of the chamber of commerce and their phone number and coords just in case. I also heard there were less than 20 coins left so I was hoping there were some left by the time we finished. This year’s harvest “theme” was fairy tales. We had to write the item that corresponded with each of the fairy tales on our passport.
I got up at 8, packed everything in the car and left by 8:30. I was at the Rochester Fire Department by 9, picking up Ben. I was so excited to spend the day with him geocaching and exploring Battle Ground in the sunshine. We got on I-5 and headed down towards Battle Ground. We were just north of Kalama when my car's thermometer started to rise. I sure hoped it stayed put until we were actually in Battle Ground. I really didn’t want to pull over while I was on I-5. We drove past the last rest stop and finally to the Battle Ground exit. My thermometer gauge stayed put and didn’t rise anymore.
When we got into town, the gauge went down and my worries disappeared, it might cooperate with us today. I did have some anti-freeze in the car just in case. I put the first cache onto the GPS and off we went! When we arrived at Snow White (GC592AX) it was near the Walmart parking lot, so we just used the lot and walked the rest of the way to the cache. I saw a guy walk into the trees. He had to have been a geocacher. I ran over there just as he had the cache in hand. I asked him who he was and where he was from. He was from Aloha, Oregon and his caching name was SpockProf. I told him where we were from and our caching names. He said maybe we will run into each other again throughout the day. He was also here for the coin challenge.
We drove to the next one, which was just up the road in the downtown area, it was nestled behind some stores and office buildings in a batch of trees. I was sure hoping it wasn’t a micro hanging in the tree. This one was Jack and the Beanstalk (GC592FA) and I didn’t find it right away. I had to read the hint. Then I saw the asphalt chunk near the tree. It had to be it. I lifted the piece of road and found a tin buried underneath a bunch of tree debris. The container had magic beans on it. We signed our names and put it back how we found it.
The Frog Prince (GC58NTM ) was the next one on the GPS. We parked off the road and walked the 100 feet to a well used geotrail through the tall grass. Ben spotted the frog container.
The next one was clear out of the way and you actually had to drive around the golf course. There weren’t any through roads. It took you about six miles out of the way. We would get The Gnome (GC592DC) and then two others on the way back. We had to grab five extra caches along with the ten coin challenge caches. When we got there it was a greenbelt tucked away behind some houses. We saw another car parked there with Oregon plates on it. It had to be SpockProf wandering around in the forest. We followed the GPS and there he was, he already had his hands on the gnome. We chatted for a few minutes and he went to grab the others in the greenbelt while we drove back towards town. We picked up Friend of the Devil (GC2210E) and Princess Peach (GC2254G) both were quick finds.
Cinderella (GC592VX) took us to a DNR office just outside of town. We were lucky enough for the gate to be open. We drove right in and parked less than 50 feet away from the cache. It was an ammo can with a glass slipper glued to the bottom.
I’ve always wanted to go inside Lewisville Park but we never had the time when we were down here. This time we got to. Alice and Wonderland (GC592VG) was inside the park. We figured it out once we were in there. We actually had to drive down to the parking lot instead of park and walk from the entrance. I liked that there was a bathroom nearby too. We found the cache, drove to the bathroom and Ben went and got the extra one at the bridge nearby, Dirty Diggler and the Treasure of the Troll (GC3TYPN).
I know I’ve been to Daybreak Park at least three times with Bob and Bev. Here we are once again, grabbing Aladdin (GC5926W). We thought the container would be a genie lamp…I guess it used to be until it was muggled. Now it was just a nano cache. We ran into Chirpz and his wife. We chatted a little bit and then they went on their way. We went and got the cache and then decided this would be a perfect place to sit and eat lunch. I made sandwiches, brought chips, granola bars, watermelon and drinks. We enjoyed our picnic in the sunshine. Ben found the cache underneath his butt, Time for a Picnic (GC2EEVG).
Sleeping Beauty (GC592WE) was the next cache on the list. It was at a food co-op and it was a plastic rose with a bison tube hanging off of it. It had to do with her name which is Briar Rose. We signed it and moved on to another extra cache, New Cache #2 (GC2FBPT). It was another micro in a tree.
Our last coin challenge cache was Beauty and the Beast (GC58XJJ), that was tucked away in a tree crotch and the cache had a mirror inside, for when the beast didn’t want to look at himself and broke all the mirrors. We decided not to go get Three Billy Goats Gruff (GC5915Z) because no one could find it and we didn’t want to drive seven to eight miles out of the way for a DNF. We decided not to go get that one which was a good decision because that day it was gone and was replaced soon after. We only needed five of the ten caches to get the coin anyway. We were happy with our nine caches and five extras. We grabbed our fifth extra cache as we drove towards town. It was on the trail along the 503 called Red Hot Pepper Flake (GC26KY9). We found it after walking past it three times.
We drove to the Chamber of Commerce in town and presented them with our passports and chatted for a bit with the ladies. They really liked the coin challenge and wanted to do more in the future but realized they needed more coins because these challenges are very popular. We thanked them and went on our way. We stopped at the paintball store and looked around for a bit. I had to stop at three quilt stores, one in Battle Ground and two in Vancouver before we left. I had to pick up some quilt row directions for some sort of a thing happening this summer.
When we were done in Vancouver we stopped by Brenda and Ray’s house to visit for a bit. We drove down the road to Red Robin’s for dinner. I was starving. I ended up getting a chicken burger and a beer. We chatted about caching, the block party, WSGA, summer, work, future trips and other random things that came up. It was getting late and we still had to drive back to Bonney Lake, which was an hour further than my house. I really wanted to get Freda’s ammo can cache on the way home when we drove past Longview. We told them bye and that I would see them at the block party in a few weeks. We left Vancouver at 8:30.
We tried our hardest to get to Freda’s house while it was still daylight. My car overheated going up her hill. We did make it to the giant ammo can but in the dark unfortunately. After we logged "Smile Ammo Can in the Woods, (GC4RPG8). Ben fixed the car and fell asleep while I went inside to let her know that we were in her yard. She told me it was fine because she knew us. We visited for another hour and a half. I thanked her and told her I would see her at the block party.
Ben and I made the trek back to the freeway, got gas at the nearby Arco and were on our way to Bonney Lake. My car over heated again less than two miles from his house…we had to waste another half hour. We finally walked through the door at 1 a.m. I was exhausted. I got ready for bed and fell asleep as soon as I could. It was a fun day but very long and tiring.
Next Adventure: Relay for Life
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