We heard back a few weeks later for an interview scheduled on December 11. That week, we both had Wednesday and Thursday off so we planned to head on over Wednesday. Ben got a hold of his cousin Chaz, who has lived in Spokane for over a decade with his girlfriend Karen. We asked if they had room for us for a night and they were excited to have us. We prepared for those two days as best as we could with the amount of time we had between work and other responsibilities.
I tried to get as much stuff together as I could and packed in the Escape. I knew this day would show up really fast.
On Wednesday I got up around 10, ate something really quick and packed up the rest of the stuff. I made sure I had both sleds, my warm clothes and the Go Pro because we were going to stop on Snoqualmie Pass and go sledding for about an hour. I told Ben he needed to get up around 11:30 to get his shower and to start getting ready so we could get on the road as soon as possible. Mostly because it would start getting dark around 4:30.
I called Ben on the way to Rainier and he did not answer. One of two things could be happening: he is in the shower or he was still asleep. I was hoping in the shower. I got onto 507 and headed towards Tenino. Just after the equestrian center and the bridge, I saw the ROAD CLOSED sign up ahead and the giant tree over the highway. Ugh. I turned around and headed back to Rainier. I wish they would have told us in Rainier so we could have taken the back road the first time. I got to Rainier and went up the hill to Military...the back road to Tenino. I was so glad we were leaving town for the biggest windstorm this year. I just can't stand hearing and watching the trees try to kill me.
I got to the station around noon and one of his co-workers saw me and let me in. We woke him up when they knocked on his door and told him that he had a visitor. I walked in. You're not up yet!? He rolled over and looked at his phone. I didn't hear my alarm or when you called. You need to get up and start getting ready. It's going to be a long trip and it will get dark soon. He got motivated, clean and got the rest of his stuff together. We left around 1:15 and topped off at the local Arco before we got onto I-5 north.
On the way to Federal Way and the Hwy 18 junction, we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, corn nuts and vitamin water. We listened to music and talked about various subjects. We got onto Hwy 18 and merged onto I-90. There were a lot of trucks out today...must be a truck day. It was great to be in a vehicle that could actually make the grade up to the pass without over heating, having to pull over and waste time.
Just before we got to the pass, Ben got out the Go Pro and we filmed part of the drive and took some pictures.
We got closer to the pass and we saw absolutely NO snow. There was NO snow on the pass in December. There wasn't even any compacted snow from previous storms. We couldn't go sledding. We were so disappointed. We drove on towards Ellensburg.
I wanted to stop at the Rye Grass rest stop to get a cache that wasn't there the last time I drove on through. We got through Ellensburg, waved to Willmarth over the hill in Yakima and made our way to Vantage. The rest area was up on the hill just before you got to Vantage. This area was known for their windmill farm. I turned the GPS on and we pulled off the freeway into the rest area. We used the bathroom and took pictures of the windmills with the really cool fog.
I could almost walk to the cache off pure memory but decided to put it in the GPS...apparently my query didn't load all of them, but we managed. Ben wore the Go Pro and I navigated. We both walked towards Ryegrass East (GCXW6B) and found Mr. Gadget's cache and this time it was there and he made sure by locking it to a nearby sage bush. It was not going anywhere. I added some swag, we took the TB and we signed our names.
When we got back to the Escape, it was getting dark and it was time to switch drivers. We put the Go Pro away and got back onto I-90. I told him we had one more stop in George, Washington. The entire time he thought that place was called Gorge, Washington. I told him it is part of the gorge but the town in called George. He laughed. I also said we had to stop and pick George Washington's nose.
I got the GPS set to AgFarmation Travel Bug Motel (GC3RQAB) and led him right to it. If we had more daylight I would have gotten the others to the north of us. We got out, circled around the coffee shop and found the cute little bird house the cache was hidden inside of.
After the cache, we drove the short distance to the statue of George Washington. I picked his nose and Ben posed with him and a dollar bill. We tried to hurry because we didn't want to look weird to the lady walking her dog...and we needed to put some miles behind us.
From there, it was smooth sailing to Ritzville, where we topped off the gas and almost ate Ritz crackers because they were in the back just for fun. The one thing about the Escape is that it won't make it from my house to Spokane on one tank of gas. You have to be strategic on where you stop and how much gas you have. If this turns out to be a real lifestyle change, we will need to be prepared for when we drive back and forth across the state.
It was about 7:45 when we came down the hill to the sparkling lights of Spokane. Many memories came back from when I lived in Pullman, about 90 miles south of here, when we would come up for the weekends to enjoy a bigger atmosphere. Ben put his cousin's address into his GPS and off we went to a part of Spokane I've never been to but recognized some of the street names. We found his road and then the front of the house.
Chaz got home about the same time we pulled up. He hadn't eaten and neither did we so we all piled into his car and we drove to a diner up the road. He took us to Ferguson's Cafe. While we ate, I got to know his cousin a little bit. He was a pretty cool guy. After dinner we went back to his house and played some Ninja Dice for a while. We got ready for bed, set up the futon and passed out. Tomorrow will be a long day.
Next Adventure: Interview, Shopping, Cache Advance and the Trip Back to the West Side
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