Interview, Shopping, Cache Advance and the Trip Back to the West Side

We got up the next morning with enough time for him to shower, put his suit on, gather our stuff and leave.  We would eat food after his interview.  We planned it to where we had exactly enough time to get up the hill to Airway Heights and to the fire station.  When we got there, I told him good luck and that he knows how to answer every single question they shoot at him, and there was another kid from Oregon sitting in his truck waiting for his turn.

In the meantime, I went and found a couple caches.

The first one was literally right down the street from the station.  For some reason I didn't add Airway Heights to my query so I had to use my phone.  I knew I would have enough time for a few but not a ton of them.  Plus, it had started to sprinkle.  I drove the quarter of a mile to the end of the road with a cement block preventing people from driving into the sage brush, dirt and rocks.  Roadside Snag II:  Concrete Blond (GC2CZPJ) was a quick find.  It was hidden underneath some of the rocks on the side of the road.

The next one, TB Executive Hotel (GC53MEN) was on the next street over.  When I got there, the end of the road was a very large cul-de-sac with a homeless guy on a bike.  I sat in the Escape for a bit hoping he would leave soon.  As soon as I decided to get out he pedaled away.  I jumped down a small embankment and near a pile of dirt and rocks.  I looked for the obvious rock pile and there it was.  I signed our names and put it back better than I found it.

I drove across Hwy 2 to a small park.  I thought I knew what I was looking for and where it was.  I didn't find it and the rain was coming down harder.  It may have not been there too.  I decided to move on to another one before Ben called.  As I was getting closer to the next cache, Ben called and wanted me to come pick him up.  I told him it would be a few minutes.  I went back across Hwy 2 and down the road towards the station.  I picked him up and asked how his interview went.  He said on a numeric scale from 1-10 he believed he did an 8.  And now we wait for the results.  I could be a few days to about a month, Ben said it varies.

He wanted pancakes so we drove to Division and found an IHOP.  The place was busy!  Lots of old people wanting pancakes in the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday.  Our waitress was strange but we enjoyed our pancakes, bacon and eggs.  I had blueberry and Ben had pumpkin.

We decided to go do some shopping.  We went to the Mountain Gear Retail to look at climbing shoes.  He wanted to get me my own for Christmas so we can go more often and have the comfort of not wearing rental shoes.  I found some blue ones that would do the trick.  We went across the street to a billiards/furnature store that was being remodeled to ask questions about resurfacing a pool table.  I saw some of the cool Cougar tables, bar stools and lamps.  Go COUGS!

We went across the street and a few blocks south to the White Elephant Store!  This is a must go to when in Spokane.  It is the coolest, most random store you will ever go into.  Anything from sporting goods, to guns to fishing gear to toys.  We looked at some stuff for present ideas.  I found a couple things to give my dad and Ben for Christmas as well as a small Grumpy Cat just to have.  Then I had an idea.  We should go visit the new Cache Advance cache cave!  I looked at the hours of operation and it said closed for Thursdays.  I contacted Lisa and she said she would come open it just for us to come and visit.  We drove up and met her at 3.

A few years back during the Coeur d'Alene cache machine, we went to a brunch at her residence, where she did the business out of her basement. When you get a lot of people downstairs you're basically rubbing elbows with your neighbor.  A few months ago, she had the opportunity to expand the business into a warehouse and I couldn't wait to go see it.  We went in and she showed us the office, the merchandise room and the warehouse.  We talked about random things, mini vacations, caching stories, milestones, etc.  We found the cache, Cave-Inn (GC4RMEP) and signed the log and looked at her FTF Magazines.  I submitted my 10,000th cache milestone a few months back and they said they would try and publish them but no promises.  I thought they would contact you if they chose you.  I just figured that I wasn't chosen because I never heard back.  Turns out I was published in the Sept-Oct issue of FTF Magazine!  I was so stoked!  Lisa said she would have given me the copy but it's her only one for the business.

My photo and description is the second one down on the left.

It was time to say goodbye and start thinking about heading back to the west side.  We thanked Lisa for taking the time out of her day to let us come visit the cache cave.  We drove back to Chaz's to make sure we got everything and to thank him for letting us stay with him. He gave us this blue soda with jalapeno juice in it. We told him we would let him know the next time we are over this way and when Ben found out if he got the job or not.  We left Spokane and got onto I-90 around 5.

I listened to music while Ben did a little bit of sleeping.  I wish it was the summer time so we could have more daylight to stop and see some things.  I really wanted to cache in the gorge area and Vantage.  Maybe next time.  It was reaching 7:30 that evening and we needed to stop and get gas and eat dinner.  We really weren't sure where we wanted to stop for food so we drove around for a few minutes.  The only thing that stood out to us was the Rodeo City BBQ.  Ben's beer came in a boot and we had some delicious bbq'd meat and sides.

We called our moms to tell them were we were.  Mom said the wind was pretty bad and the power went off as I was talking to her.  Great.  Just want I want to come home to, no power.

We went over the pass and the wind was not an issue.  By this time it had died down a lot.  We got onto Hwy 18 and merged onto I-5.  I still had to drop Ben off at the fire station.  That meant I was not going to get home until at least midnight or later.  It was almost midnight when we made it to the station.  A lot of guys were on shift mostly because of the downed trees, power lines and other hazards.  I helped Ben bring in his stuff while we visited with the guys.  He let the guys taste the soda and a lot of them were like what the heck is this?!  We laughed and told them what it was.  I had to start heading home.  I was late and I had to work the next day and the power is out.  When I did get home, I unpacked some stuff, got ready for bed via flashlight and bottled water and went to bed.  Long long day.

Next Adventure:  White Elephant Party