This year it was on a Monday so I had planned on driving down to Centralia to grab a few caches and then go to the event after work. Unfortunately Ben couldn't come with me to the event because he gets off work around 7:30. I did tell him I would bring him some pizza at the station.
I was really hoping the weather would hold up at least for an hour once I got down there. I planned on getting three caches I didn't have time for a few weekends ago when I hit my 10,500th cache.
I got off of work around 5 and headed down. You could see the giant gray cloud as I drove south on I-5. It was a matter of time when it decided to dump. I was hoping I was not out in it when it did. The first one I had written down was Little Green (GC57YM0) along Harrison Ave north of Centralia. I knew it was a nano and some people have been having trouble with it. I saw the CO had been there and replaced it recently so it should be there. I parked in the veterinarian's parking lot and walked the last 300 feet to the cache. I looked and looked with the hint that was provided. Then it started dumping rain. I gave myself a couple seconds to look one more time and bailed. I ran back to the Escape. I would have to look for this again after the event.
Pushing Pansies (GC5FEBG) was on the other side of I-5 down Blair Road, a residential side street that runs parallel to I-5. I've always wondered what was down this road. A dead end and houses...not that exciting but at least I found the cache! It was a plastic toy that some one had put a magnet in to attach it to the guard rail. Previous logs had said the coords were off to the south by 60 feet but I didn't have that problem. I found it pretty quickly plus the rain had died down a lot.
I got back in the Escape and drove down Reynolds to Hwy 507 to Sixth Ave to snag one called Not in My Yard! (GC511F0). Technically it wasn't in the yard but still on the person's property. I've always hated these kind of caches. If the people are home they are watching you, or come out and talk to you or their dog or the neighbor's dog constantly barks at you while you're there. It's annoying. I just want to find the cache and move on to the next one.
That cache was the last one before the event. I only had about 20 minutes to get to the Say Hi on Pi Day (GC6BKDV), order pizza before it got busy, sit down and relax. I wasn't sure how many people exactly were coming to this thing but I imagine more than what the cache page said. Mom texted me to bring her back some pizza so I just ended up ordering a family size. Some for me now, some for Ben because he eats like a fat kid, some for mom and some for leftovers the next day.
I signed the log and chatted with Wayne and Frisbeer.
Bob and Bev showed up, Wayne and I sat with them at the table while we waited for our pizza. Verano was this year's SW Washington Chapter Rep and she said this was the first time she's hosted anything up this far. Usually they have events more south in Castle Rock, Vancouver and Ridgefield. I'm glad they had one up this far. It's nice seeing other cachers than the same ones over and over again. She said this was probably her last event because she will not run again for the WSGA elections.
Since I am writing this a few weeks after Pi Day, I found out our new SW Washington Chapter Reps are Geek&Gopher again!! Yay Brenda and Ray!
Our pizza's came and they were delicious! I ordered peperoni, sausage and olives because I know everyone would eat it. It was a huge pizza!
We had a raffle and I didn't win. It would have been cool to bring home that pie trackable, No such luck! I saw Freda and her daughter came all the way from Longview to hang out with us. I went over and talked to them for a while. It was nice to catch up with them. I will have to make it to one of her events sometime in the spring.
I packed up all of my stuff and took it to the Escape. I got a hint from Wayne on Little Green and he said to look on the other side of the road. Ooohhh. I was looking on the wrong side of the road but that's where the coords took me. Plus the hint made sense there. I got back on Harrison and headed the back way to Rochester. I stopped at Little Green and found the darn thing on my second try,
I took Ol' Hwy 9 past Maple Lane to Rochester. It rained the entire time to the station. I met up with Ben just as he pulled into the station from work. Perfect timing. I brought the box of pizza in and he took almost half of it. I saved the other half for mom and leftovers. I visited for a little while then he had to get ready for his fire shift at Grand Mound. We said our goodbyes and I headed home. It was around 9 p.m. I did a few things, showered, watched Bones and got ready for my Tuesday.
Next Adventure: Rattling Bridge and The Swinger
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