TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Day 2 (#tcgchallenge)

I got up as early as I could after my phone died at 4 a.m. this morning.  I got up around 7 because it was getting hot and I heard people making noise and driving up plus I had to pack up stuff before everyone got there.  I got all of my bedding folded, the sleeping bags rolled up, the sleeping pad rolled up and took the tent down and packed it all in the back of the Escape.  As I was putting the last load into the back, Bob and Bev pulled up and parked.  They helped me put some stuff away and I got out my cereal and ate two bowl fulls while I chatted with people in the parking lot. Brenda, Ray, Jim and our newest member Jen (is a TriCities native and wanted to ride along with our group, she talked to me the night before on Facebook) all showed up and we all went into the event to see what was going on.

Around 8:30 we walked over to the event (GC5FNHE), signed the log, talked to a bunch of people including Peach and Pete, ACFunk and Bearsandme.  I ended up passing out a few pathtags that morning.

We had an introduction around 9 a.m. of the four cities, the visitors center and the tourism lady representing the entire area and Jen, the gal who was in charge of the event said a few words to us.  Then she asked all of us to walk over towards the teepees to take a group picture with a drone.  We stood around talking for a bit until it was in place.  It took a couple of shots.  We received our roll up treasure maps which included the map on one side and the passport on the other.

We walked over to Jim's car where he had the computer ready to upload the caches to the GPS's.  I opted not to load them onto mine just because we would have enough of our devices with the caches on them and it would save us some time.  Plus, once the caches published...we had a difficult time putting them onto our devices, his computer was being lame.  I put my stuff I would need into Bob and Bev's car.  I let Jen ride with Brenda, Ray and Jim even though she knew me.  I figured it was a better arrangement.  When we finally figured out why Jim's computer was being dumb, we had lost about a half hour of our geocaching time.  We all piled into our cars and headed to West Richland and Richland to the furthest away cache.  We were going to work our way back to the park as Team JIGG.  We as a group decided to do all 32 caches.  You were only required to do 28 of them.

Last year they had printed out a map of the cities which really helped in the long run.  You could plan ahead and make a route without too much back tracking.  Between the two cars, walkie talkies and having a person from the TriCities, we were in pretty good shape.  This year they made a few changes.  There were four cities, four multis and without warning there would be at least one paper punch for the "code word". It prevented people from cheating as much.  I'm sure some tried.

Because we started at the furthest cache, R04-WSU (GC5MZR1) and so did majority of the other cachers, we ran into a lot of the same people along our route.  I always love visiting other WSU campus branches.  I think caches have brought us here the past four times we've done these coin challenges.  Even thought it was still before noon, it was a hot walk to this cache and our first of four paper punches.

We tried to get Richland done as quick as we could because of the car parade.  It was rather difficult navigating around roads that were closed but some how we got through it.  We got to West Richland finally and did this really cool one except the lock was broken and we couldn't get inside.  Luckily, someone had shared the code word with us.

A lot of them took us to parks, more baseball fields, a community garden, a hill near Badger Mountain, various businesses who allowed permission for a cache to be on their property and we even to got to go inside the air conditioned visitor's center to grab a cache inside a treasure chest.

Some of the cache spots we've been to before and there were some walks that took a while especially the multi W05-Park at the Lakes (GC5PKNA) wow was that a walk.  I walked out there with Ray, Bob and Jen, everyone else stayed in the cars.  Jen and I talked about hiking.  She had a trip planned for Mount Hood in the next couple days.  We got waypoints from a birdhouse on a tree that would take us to the final location.  Boy was it hot.  We also logged 6 Valentine Park (GC4YEXW) since it was in the parking lot.  I was so glad to see air conditioning when I got back to the cars!

We got back towards town and found a Subway to stop at for lunch and to mostly cool down.  I didn't have a lot of money so I brought my own food.  I assembled a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the car before I came in to cool down and eat with my team.  Bob went and got gas at the nearby gas station.  He joined up with us and ate his sandwich.  When we left, wow, the heat was intense when you walked out from the air conditioned shop.  At this point, we were finished with West Richland and Richland, we moved onto Kennewick.

 There were a few we found near areas we've been to the previous years.  Such as K02-Sports and Events (GC5P0CG).  We found that near the Kennewick Sports and Rec Dept. building.  That's the same complex the 9/11 Memorial is located.

We moved on to other sections of Kennewick where we found bird houses and plastic water meter holes and went to a  wooded park with a creek that ran through it to do a short multi called K01-Zintel Greenway Treasure (GC5P0CA).  We were to count the planks on the tiny footpaths, add them to the north and west coords to find our treasure!  A team from Canada were right behind us and they did not do any of the counting.  I heard them pretend to and then follow us to the final location.

We moved onto Clover Island, another place in Kennewick we've been to a few times over the years.  From here you can see my favorite TriCities bridge in the distance.  We grabbed K05-It's An Island Thing (GC5P0EM).  There were quite a few people at this location looking for the cache.  It really was near the porta potties.

On our way over the bridge into our last city, Bob and Bev's car started to overheat, and it didn't smell too good.  This is way too familiar.  Last year it happened to Ben and I on the same trip.  It was unfortunate but I was glad it wasn't happening to my car again.  It was 111 degrees by the time we drove over the bridge into Pasco.  I have never been so hot in my life geocaching.  I was so sweaty and the dust from the area stuck to me.  I went through so much water.  I must have had between 4-6 full Nalgene bottles worth of water plus whatever water someone handed me from the cooler.  I was glad I brought a handkerchief with me to dip in the water and tie around my head.  It kept me cool until it dried out.

Our first cache in Pasco was a short multi called P04-Port (GC5PHVD) and it was another stop that we've been to several times in the past.  As a group we went and found the cache as Bob tinkered with the car.  When we got the hood open you could see and sell antifreeze spraying out of a tiny hole in the hose.  We were there for at lease a half hour trying to decide what to do.  Eventually two guys drive up a a small SUV truck-like vehicle and asked what was happening.  We told them our situation and they said they were cachers too.  His son was here from Colorado and the guy was from Richland and he said he had plenty room for us if we wanted to go with them.  I can not remember their caching names or their real names but they they were very generous to have complete strangers ride along with them.  We left Bob and Bev's car there until we were done with the challenge.  We would pick it up after we received our coins.

The next one we all went to was P06-Mansion (GC5PHWT) and that one was a long walk along the trail that paralleled the Columbia River.  While we walked I really wanted to jump in.  A few hung behind like before to stay cool in the air conditioned car.  I was dripping by the time I got to the back of the SUV truck.  I guzzled as much water as I could.

We finished up the last six caches in about 40 minutes, they took us to a few parks, the industrial area of Pasco, some small dunes off the road and an area where a local flea market takes place on the weekends.  Since we were behind, we did these last few pretty quickly and moved onto the last cache, inside the state park, P01-Sacajawea Trail and State Park (GC5PHWF).  We were so stoked to finally be done.  It took us roughly 9 hours in the 111 degree heat!  We definitely earned that geocoin!

We noticed some eerie clouds off in the distance.  Apparently the hills across the river in Finley were on fire and with the change in the weather brewed up some interesting looking clouds.

We all piled into our cars one more time and headed back to the event.  We thanked the father-son duo for the ride and being so generous to us.  They said they were happy to do it.  We ran over to the coin table and gave them our passports to check.  I was so excited!  She handed me my coin and we walked around a little while to see what kind of stuff were at the booths.  Team JIGG had some time to pose as a team.

Here is the coin in all of its glory!

Team JIGG decided to have diner as a group and Jen suggested a place called Cousin's in Pasco, which is a separate franchise off of The Country Cousin in Centralia. We visited, laughed, shared stories and ate our food.  It was delicious.  I had a burger and fries.   We said our goodbyes and I took Bob and Bev back to their car.  They were going to drive to their hotel and then check out car places the next day.  I told them good luck and gave them another one of my water jugs just in case.

 I left Pasco around 9 p.m. and it was still over 100 degrees outside.  Ben was suppose to come with me this weekend and he works on Sundays so I planned to have Father's Day a week later so everyone could attend.  I could have stayed until Sunday but I didn't.  I called mom and talked to her for a while, I called Grammie and I called Ben.  I made pretty good time and got into Yakima about 11.  I stopped at the Arco down the hill from Willmarth's house to fill up on gas.  I grabbed my snacks and started out towards the pass.  From the top of the pass down to Packwood I encountered three elk, thank goodness they were not in the road, when I drove by.  When I got to Morton I called Ben again.

I arrived at home just before 1:30 a.m.  I got out of the Escape and I was cold standing there in the 68 degree weather after being in the 111 degree weather all day.  I unpacked some of my stuff, took a shower to get all of the sweat, sticky and dust off of me, got ready for bed and passed out.  It was hot so I had my fan humming me to sleep.  I can't wait to see what they have planned for next year!

Next Adventure:  4th of July

TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Day 1 (#tcgchallenge)

I fell asleep hard until my alarm went off at 8 the next day.  I got up and got ready for my day and then packed up all of my stuff.  We went to the ghetto Albertson's again to pick up some stuff for breakfast.  We had pancakes, bacon and hash browns around 9:30.

I grabbed the cans he had saved for me and I put my stuff in the Escape and got ready to go.  I wanted to get to the park before all of the good camping places were gone.  I told Wilmarth I appreciated him letting me stay and visit with them even though it was a quick trip. He said come on over anytime, he'll be there.

I got in the Escape and started my drive east on I-84 towards Pasco.  I received updates from Bev as I drove.  They had just gotten into Naches as I was in Sunnyside.  They are about 40 miles behind me.  I was so thankful not to have any car trouble on this trip...unlike last year.  I went up the hill and got off at the junction I needed and into the hub of the TriCities I went.  I followed my Nuvi right to the entrance to Sacajawea State Park.  I got there around 12:30.

I parked the Escape and wandered over to a group of people who looked like they knew what was going on.  I asked a gentleman, Mike, what I was suppose to do. He guided me over to the structure to pay my one night stay with a very nice lady who volunteered at the park.  When I was done I found Mike again and asked where I needed to put my tent.  That turned into a big thing because no one knew.  Eventually the park ranger came and gave us some guidance.  It took me about a half hour to put up my tent and my bedding.  By then Bob and Bev arrived.

Before I left for the TriCities, I looked at the map for something that we could do that Friday while we waited for the event to start.  I found a series of 50ish caches along the Snake River 01 (GC5JQ8Z) that we could do.  I asked Bev if she was interested in doing that.  She said yeah, Bob always enjoys finding a million caches in an outing.  We were invited to dinner by Mike once Ray and Brenda got there.  I texted them and they said they would be here around 4ish.  Dinner was going to be at 5. 

We piled into the Escape just because I knew the terrain was going to be rough along a river bank.  Which was a great choice in the end.  We put in the coords and Nuvi tried to take us to the caches.  She ended up taking us to the wrong side of the river and she assumed there was a crossing to the other side.  Dang it!  We followed the directions on the cache page and we finally got there. Of course the segment of caches were divided up into two pieces.  We started with the left side and worked our way towards McNary Dam.  I drove and Bob and Bev got out.  I got out a few times too.  It was hot. The road bumped, dipped and was very craggy at some parts.  It was very dusty and gritty.  When we got to the end of the first part, we ended  meeting up with three different cars and all were getting the same caches we had just done.

We started back to where we came in to do the other side of the trail.  There were less on this side but still was going to take an hour or so to do.  I don't think we were going to make the 5:00 dinner time.  It was 4:15 and we still had to get the rest, drive out of here and head over to Richland...not going to happen unfortunately.  We all felt bad.

We drove back to Sacajawea Sate Park and I dropped them off at their car so they could check into their hotel in Kennewick.  I told them I would see them at the event.  They drove off.  I had about an hour to kill so I went and looked for the state park cache (GC4BC14) since I haven't been here before.  This turned out to be so far the most eastern state park cache I have gotten.  I saw a group of people wander off in the same direction so I followed them.  Turned out to to be Winos_Seattle and BB00941(a boy-girl combo from Georgia).

We got back and I chatted with them for a while.  I traded pathtags and by that time we needed to think about heading to Richland for the event.  I ran over to my Escape and headed out to Richland.  I found out my query did not reach all the way to Richland so I had to find the coordinates from the phone.  It took a few tries but I managed to get them and put them on the Nuvi.  I got almost to my turn off of George Washington Way and I got stuck in traffic.  I didn't realize they were having a car parade right in the middle of town.  I found a turn off and the back street took me right to the building I needed.  I parked and ran into the building because it was so hot outside.  I signed in and found Brenda and Ray at a table near the snacks.  I was hungry so I was a fan of the snacks.  I got some popcorn, oatmeal cookies and a fruit leather and something to drink and sat down.  I said hi to several people they said hi to me, we visited and listened to some of the updates to the coin challenge.  I discovered some of the trackables that were being passed around including an old walking stick.  None of us won any of the raffle items.  We didn't stay the entire time because we needed some actual food. 

We said goodbye to everyone and I followed Bob and Bev to the Applebee's by their hotel.  I didn't really want something really heavy but wanted something other than the snacks I had earlier.  We all ordered salads and drinks.  The salad hit the spot.  We went over to their hotel room and got ice for my cooler from the ice machine.  I told them bye and headed back to the state park.  I talked to the winos again for about a half hour and decided  I really needed a shower before I got into my warm tent.  I am so glad I had that container full of quarters because it cost basically a quarter a min.  I put 7 quarters in for 7 minutes.  That seemed like enough time and it was.  It felt soooo good to be clean!

I crawled into my tent and laid on my sleeping area, which consisted of a sleeping pad, three unzipped sleeping bags and a blanket to put over the top of me.  It was very comfy.  It was warm but not awful.  My only problem was keeping my phone charged over night.  I brought my power pack stick but it died around 4 a.m. so my alarm didn't go off at 6 when I wanted it to.  I managed to get up by myself around 7 when I started hearing people drive up and people getting up out of their tents.

Next Adventure:  TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  Day 2 (#tcgchallenge)

Driving To Yakima

Got up early to go see Ben because his captain ruined his day off on Saturday.  He was suppose to come with me to the TriCities but instead had to be on shift that day.  I wanted to see him before I didn't get to for almost four days.  Plus, I needed to get a battery operated fan for the tent.  It was suppose to be over 110 degrees this weekend.  I did not want to die in my tent.

He was at the Littlerock Fire Station so I took the back road behind Tenino.  For some reason my stomach was feeling a bit yucky and I thought I could make but instead I had to pull over and run to the trees before I regretted it.  I was back on the road in minutes and made it to the fire station at a decent time.  I just wished his captain wouldn't have screwed up his day off.  I hopped into his car and we drove to Tumwater.  He told me that he would buy a battery operated fan for us to go camping with.  We checked Walmart, found one then went over to Fred Meyer to see if the price was cheaper, it wasn't.  We went back over to Walmart and bought that one.  It was time to head back to Littlerock and for him to get ready for work again.  We didn't get to spend that much time together but I was glad I got to see him before I drove over to Yakima.

We said our goodbyes and I headed home.  I immediately started packing and eating breakfast as I went.  I made sure the chickens and ducks were alright, packed the car with everything, locked the doors and off to Yelm to get gas.  I left home around 12:30.  I texted and called a few people to let them know I was on my way and talked to Ben until my phone lost reception.  I decided to drive thru Eatonville instead of going the long way around on Hwy 7.  I texted Ben one more time and told him I wouldn't have service until Morton.

When I got to Morton I turned the GPS on.  I thought since I wasn't in a hurry I could stop a few times to grab caches along the way.  I've been up and down Hwy 12 so many times I've almost gotten all of them along the road.  More so closer to home than closer to Naches.  My first stop I made was for Redneck Cache: MGC (GC120TE) and it was located outside of Morton at the gun range.  The CO did get permission to place this one.  This one had me going for a while.  It was hot and I kept getting text messages and phone calls so I was really distracted for the first half of my search.  I knew it couldn't be that hard and over looked it twice.  I knew what the hint was because me and my dad used to go trap shooting.  The hiding place looked legit so that's why I was so hesitant.  I pulled on the lock and the lid opened up and BAM, there was the cache in all its glory!

I got back in the Escape and made my way down Hwy 12 towards Glenoma.  That would be my next stop.  I figured since I was coming this way to grab the four Mount Rainier GeoTour caches.  I followed so many slow people.  It was nice to take a break from all of the cars heading east.  I stopped at Rainier100:  Protecting Glenoma (GC5V7T2) and an old guy, probably a volunteer, was working on the old brick facade at the driveway entrance to the fire station.  I parked and walked to where the cache was located.  It was definitely getting warm outside.  I put it back better than I found it.

I got back on Hwy 12 and made my way to Packwood home of the elk in the middle of the road.  You really had to watch out when you drive through here.  They come out more at night but you still never know.  I made a stop in the middle of town to get Rainier100:  "Visit" Packwood (GC5V6DA).  Finding a place to park was easy and navigating to the cache was even easier.  It was an interesting hide though, a cache tucked away inside a cinder block with a flat brink on top of it.  I took one of the stickers to make a scrapbook out of once I complete the whole geotour.

I got back in the Escape and continued my way up towards the pass.  I started up the grade and realized that there was a scenic view I had never had the time to stop at, well...now I do!  Crystal Palisades (GCQ399) was a great stop to use the restroom and to check out the awesome geology as well as a view of Mount Rainier.  Between 20,000 and 110,000 years ago, a period of volcanism resulted in a flow of lava which met an obstacle in what is now the valley of the Cowlitz River's Clear Fork. Although the nature of the obstruction is not known, the volcanic extrusion of dacite formed a deep pool and congealed under particular conditions, allowing the lava to 'crystallize' into basaltic columns. Subsequent erosion by wind and water have left the formations exposed to view here at the Palisades.

More people started to arrive so that was my cue to leave.  I got back onto Hwy 12 hoping I didn't have to follow a semi truck, UGHH!  I had to follow a semi truck.  Luckily the Mount Rainier view point was up ahead.  I stopped just to get relief from the semi truck and it was a clear day so Mount Rainier wasn't going to be obstructed by clouds.

I got up to the summit and texted Ben and Willmarth to let them know I made it to the top of the pass. I stopped on the north side of the PCT to grab Rainier100:  Pacific Trail Crest at Leech Lake (GC5VDV4) and it was about 400 feet from the parking spot.  I hustled up to the stump and found the cache.

As I made my way down and past Dog Lake I decided to stop at the Clear Creek Falls overlook pull out.  I've been through here so many times but never had the chance or time to stop.  I'm glad I did.  It was an awesome view of the falls.  I'm sure as a kid me and my family stopped here but it was so long ago I don't remember.  I took a few pictures of the falls from multiple vantage points and then found the cache New Year Outlook (GC4W8WH).  I could see how someone would have trouble with this one if the rock wasn't given away like it was for me.  I put it back to make them have to look for it.

I made up some time coasting down the east side of the pass and the best part I didn't have to follow anyone!  When I got to the Oak Creek area I stopped one more time to get Rainier100:  Feeding the Elk (GC5VAYB).  This was the last one along this stretch of highway.  It took me a few minutes to pinpoint the rock that it was hidden under.  It was hot outside and I wanted to get back into my car as soon as I could.

I made the turn at the 410/Hwy12 junction towards Naches and got about a mile in and had to stop...for chip sealing.  I was pretty upset.  While I waited the first time I texted everyone to let them know I made it over and I Instagrammed a few pictures and got onto Facebook to pass the time.  About a half hour later we got to move about a mile and then we stopped again for another half hour or so.  I was hungry and wanted to be done with traffic.  I called mom and talked to her for awhile until the line of cars moved again.  Once we got past the town of Naches the traffic disappeared and I got to my destination.  I arrived after 6:30.

The dogs were very glad to see me.  The jumped around, licked my legs, barked and tried to wrestle with me.  It was funny.  I haven't seen them since October when I came over for the Pirate Plunder.  We chatted for a while and watched whatever was on TV.  I asked them if they had dinner yet and they said yeah.  He said it wasn't the best dinner to save and heat up so he offered to take me to get a sandwich at Subway.  We went to the ghetto Albertson's to get a few things and some ice cream for later.

We got back, settled in and watched several episodes of The League.  I never thought to watch this show and now I am hooked.  It is hilarious!  We ate ice cream and chatted and then threw the ball for the dogs.  I brought in the rest of my stuff, made a bed in the other room and ended up watching youtube videos of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Robot Chicken episodes.  It reached 1 a.m. and it was time for bed.

Next Adventure:  TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  Day 1 (#tcgchallenge)

Chelan Butte and the Trip Home

We got up around 6 a.m. due to everyone else getting up and starting their day with the news and coffee and since we were in the living room we were forced to get up.  We ate some tasty breakfast of sausage and pancakes made by Josh's mom.  We chatted with everyone for a while and decided to get ready for the day and pack up our stuff and take it out to the car.  We told everyone thank-you and it was nice to meet them.

We made our way down Boyd and stopped and got a cache that I DNF'd the month before, Lakeview (GCMXN4).  This time I found it.  Then we tried finding I Like Big Buttes (GC1EJH4) but couldn't pinpoint it.  There were just too many rocks and piles to look under, besides I was on a hillside and didn't trust the snakes.  We moved on.

We planned to drive up to Chelan Butte before we left town.  I had downloaded the caches a few days prior and hoped that they were all there.  We made our way towards the road that took us up the hill.  Part of it was going to be paved and the rest would be a compacted dirt road.  It was going to be a warm sunny day so we were dressed appropriately.

The first cache we encountered on the butte, Movin' On Up (GC176T9) should have been easy to find but alas, there had been a bulldozer in the area recently and most likely buried it underneath all of the rubble we saw.  Crap.  We continued onto Farther Along (GC1QACW).  It was an ammo can with a bullet hole in it.  Never have seen one of those.

I let Ben find the next one, Keith Ross Cache-Chelan Butte of Course (GC4BANA).  It was nestled in a hole of a rock outcrop.  It was a great view from here.  We could see Lake Chelan in all its glory!

Sunrise-Sunset Chelan Butte (GC3A2W7) was hidden in the Discover Pass parking lot.  I was very glad they had a porta potty up here.  We found the cache, it was hidden in a gnarly tree that had fallen at one point in an Altoid can and then we went potty before grabbing the last cache up here.

The view was stunning!  An entire 360 degree view from this location.  We got back in the car and drove to the last cache, Chelan Butte Lookout Site (GCM4PZ) and it has been here since 11/25/2004, another old cache still around.  Our elevation was roughly 3835.  Chelan Butte is the site where once stood a fire lookout tower at 3835’ elevation. Here is an archived photo of the original Lookout. The first tower built was a 40' pole L-4 in 1936. It burned down, replaced in 1939 by a 28' treated timber tower with L-4 cab. Staffed sporadically into the 1990's, the tower was moved to the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center one mile north of Entiat, Washington, alongside Highway 97, in 1995. That tower can be seen at Trail of Fire cache. We didn't have time to stop and get that cache on the way home.  Maybe next visit.

We spent a good hour or so exploring the top of the butte.  Some motorcycles drove up and admired the site for a while.  This area is also great for hang gliding and paragliding.  We saw some people the other day jumping off and floating down towards the Columbia.   We got the GoPro out and took some pictures and videos.  We got back in the car and sailed down the butte.  We encountered a Jeep about half way down.  When we got to the bottom the car smelled hot and I thought something was leaking or messed up with it.  we couldn't see any visible damage or leaks.  We left Chelan and went up the hill.  Until next time Chelan!

We stopped one more time along the way at Almost There (GC1PC9F) it is intended to get it on your way to Chelan but we didn't have enough time or day light the last few times and we wanted to be different.  It was a pull off on an old part of the highway and the cache kinda weirded us out because it had some sort of webby feeling to it.  We found it, signed it and put it back as we found it.  We put some miles behind us.

I wanted to get one more cache since we were in the area, WaStatePks100:  Wenatchee Confluence (GC4BE6E).  I should have remembered that we could have parked closer to the cache but we went into the park and parked in the lot.  It was going to be almost a mile walk there and a mile back.  As we walked down the trail a guy on a bike had his medium sized dog in his back pack the dog even had on sunglasses.  We laughed and it was worth the walk down here just to see that.  When we approached the bird house we had heard in previous logs that the house was vandalized but put back together the previous day.  Another lucky break.  It took us a while to figure out how it came apart.  We just didn't pull on the one piece hard enough.  We soon had the cache in hand, logged our names and took a few pictures before putting it back and walking back to the car.

We needed gas and some food so we found the nearest Safeway.  We bought gas and decided to get some sandwiches, chips and a pack of Twizzlers Pull and Peel for the way home.  It was hot so being inside the store felt awesome.  Off towards home we go!

There was a lot of traffic up and down Blewett Pass.  We had to follow several cars and semi trucks until we got an opportunity to pass them.  Ben was slowly winding down but I needed him to make it to Cle Elum before we switched spots.  At one point I had to yell at him because he was falling asleep at the wheel.  We got to this area where there was a large pullout and a tiny restaurant so I had him pull over immediately so I could drive.

He slept as I drove through the rest of the pass.  We had to stop a lot for really no reason.  It was irritating me to no end.  When we finally got through the dumb we made up some time after the summit.  We got pass North Bend and up the hill towards our Auburn exit.

I was so excited to go home.  We got onto Hwy 18 and followed it all the way to I-5.  Traffic wasn't bad thankfully.  We drove all the way to Rochester where I had left my car.  I helped him unpack the car and took it inside his room.  I grabbed my stuff and put it in my car.  He was going to resume shift at the fire station after I left.  He put his uniform on and we said our goodbyes and I went home.  When I got home I unpacked the car and did a load of clothes.  I had to make sure I had everything ready for the TriCities on Thursday.

Next Adventure:  Driving to Yakima