Heading Home: Potholes State Park, Ellensburg, Iron Horse Brewery and Traffic

We got up around 7:30 and made breakfast, sausage, eggs and cereal.  Cleaned up, signed us in for the CITO and a Snack (GC6JYXB), saw they had doughnuts, juice and bananas.  Our event director, Jen, approached me about my “toilet” picture from yesterday’s events on Instagram.  She thought it was awesome and hilarious.  I was glad that I could amuse and entertain people.  Haha!

Ben and I cleaned up our campsite area and started packing and putting it back into the Escape and his car.  We did one last sweep, used the restroom and came up with an afternoon plan on the way home.  Ben had talked to a few fishermen who were coming in on their boat and mentioned that we visit Potholes.  I haven’t been there in years.  I did remember seeing the sign every time I drove past Othello on the way to school.  It’s about time I visited this area again.

We stopped and got gas at a shell station and used their air for a dollar.  I brought quarters with me for the state park shower and just happened to need them here as well.  I bought ice while ben filled up our inner tubes with air.

We headed up Hwy 395 towards the Hwy 17 junction.  I saw we were close to Mesa and I needed a cache in that small town for the Towns and Cities Challenge.  I am more than halfway done at this point.  We stopped and grabbed Raven and Crow in Poe (GC6K2PJ) inside of a small park off the main road.  It was pretty hot outside and I went and retrieved it and ben stayed behind looking at his phone.  He told me to be careful for rattlesnakes.  I told him I would be.  I found the cache quickly, signed our names, put it back and made our way back to the cars. 

We stayed on Hwy 17, up to Hwy 26 and on the east side of Othello towards Moses Lake.  We got off at the junction and went west to Potholes State Park on the 262.  I made sure to bring my passport just in case we drove past one we didn’t have yet.  This would probably be our last state park cache since we were now approved for the house that we applied for.  We would have to cut back on day and weekend trips so we could save some money or at least until I found a full time job.  We drove over the O’Sullivan  Dam and I couldn’t believe how vast this lake was.  It took up most of the area as far as the eye could see.  We wrapped back around and drove past a small resort, store and gas station.  I pulled into the gas station and Ben followed.  His car did not have the discover pass but mine did so we were going to leave his at the store and drive mine into the park.  We got his inner tube, sunscreen and everything else he wanted to bring and shoved it into the Escape.  We drove the short distance to the park entrance and went over towards the day use area. 

I changed into my swimming suit, we got our inner tubes and we went over to the boat launch.  We sat on our inner tubes and floated out away from the boat launch.  The weather was awesome and it was just nice to float and not worry about anything for an hour or so.

It was approaching time to go and we got out of our wet clothes and into some dry ones.  We almost left the park without getting the geocache!  We turned around and parked as close as we could.  I remembered that Potholes was another one of Mr. Gadget’s cool bird house caches.  I followed the trail and it led me to the bird house with Signal on it.  I fiddled with it for a while until Ben showed up and then he started fiddling with it.  We figured out how it came apart put we couldn’t turn the piece that dropped the bottom out of it.  I had to go get a tool from the Escape to be able to turn it.  You just couldn’t turn it with your fingers but it easily turned with the pliers.  We tried really hard not to break any piece of it.  After 15 minutes of tinkering with it the bottom finally fell out and we had the cache in hand.  We signed the log book, stamped our passport and put the bird house back together for the next cacher. 

We got back into the Escape and went back to the store to drop Ben off at his car.  We went inside and got smoothies from the ice cream portion of the store.  We took the same road to Frenchman Hills Road, then onto Dodson Road, then onto Hwy 26 where we got on I-90 at Vantage. 

The Escape struggles up hills especially long ones.  Ben passed me with ease and got a few miles ahead of me.  We got off at what I call “The Strip” of Ellensburg and followed the road down to the Iron Horse Pub Brewery, a place we finally made it to before it closed for the day.  We always showed up when it was closed.  It was a small place, the waitress took our drink orders, I ordered the Heff and Ben ordered the Irish Death, straight from the source.  It was definitely more zippy out of the tap rather than the bottles we drink from often.  We also decided to get some food since we had about three more hours until home.  Ben ordered the sandwich and I got the bratwurst.  They were both tasty but really could tone down on the saltiness of it.  The bitter beer didn’t help the situation either.  We finished our food, paid and I grabbed some free popcorn for the road.  We tried to get a geocache down the road but it was in the entry way of a building that you could only access during business hours.  Poo.  We got back in our vehicles and drove to the fairgrounds to pick up another heritage cache, WSHS 125 – Kittitas County Fairgrounds (GC6JE8F).  I led us to the wrong parking lot and could not access it.  Ben showed me where to go since he apparently has been here and didn’t tell me.  When he was doing wildland firefighting, a large group stayed here at the fairgrounds inside the smaller buildings.  He shared some of the stories with me while we were here.

We made it ground zero near the covered wagon and started searching for it.  It was a large so we were bound to find it quickly.  I spotted it first and pulled it out so we could sign the log book and get our passports stamped.  This was our third one of this particular geotour.  We got a few pictures before we put it back.  We walked back to the cars and took a picture of Ben riding one of the statues.  In similar fashion to the one he took the last time he was here. 

We got onto I-90 and didn’t expect horrible traffic.  We thought it was late enough for some smooth sailing over the Cascades.  We were wrong.  Just after Thorpe, it was stop and go and we moved a few feet here and there.  I was getting frustrated!  Ben was a few cars ahead of me and it was really hard to get a hold of him.  For some reason my phone wouldn’t work in that specific area.  Somehow I did finally get a hold of him and told him to get off at the next exit because we were going to go I-82 to Yakima and over White Pass.  At that point I would rather back track then sit in stop and go traffic…at least we were moving.  Again, the Escape struggled up the hill so I got way behind Ben who flew up the hills.  I haven’t been this way to or from Yakima since at least 2013 with my mom. 

We arrived in Selah and I was only a couple miles behind Ben.  I told him we should get some gas before going over the pass.  He agreed and I told him there were a couple of gas stations in Naches.  After getting gas and sharing some snacks, we were on our way towards the pass.  At this point my GPS said we would be getting home around 11.  I had no idea how long we would have been in traffic if we decided to stay on I-90, but like I said, at least we were moving and probably would have gotten home around the same time or later if we would have stayed. 

There really wasn’t any traffic so we breezed right through.  We had to be cautious around Packwood because there are always giant elk standing in the middle of the road.  We turned onto Hwy 7 in Morton so we could say good night to each other since we weren’t going to the same place yet.  I would go the back way to Rainier and he would continue on Hwy 12 to I-5.  We visited for about 10 minutes and we were on the road again.  Just as the GPS said, I got home around 11 and Ben got home at about 10:45.  I pulled some stuff out of the Escape that wouldn’t survive the night, showered really quickly, got my stuff ready for work the next day and passed out hard.  4:30 a.m. comes awfully fast.

Next Adventure: 4th of July on the 3rd

TriCities Geocoin Challenge: West Richland, Richland, Kennewick and Pasco

I was so comfortable and we went to bed so late I really didn’t want to get up but we had to, especially if we wanted to get everything done before it was time to start the challenge.  We finally got up around 7:30 and I got everything out of the car that involved breakfast making.  I set up our burner, got the sausage cut up and just waited for Ben to get out of the tent dressed. 

While we cooked food, Bob, Bev, Brenda and Ray all came over to see how we were doing and what the plan was.  We ate our eggs, sausage and cereal and went over the plan.  Basically, Ben, Ray, Brenda and I were in a car, Bob, Bev, Gabe and Jones were in the other car.  We had walkie talkies to communicate and I would be the navigator.  We would start in West Richland and work our way towards Pasco to get our coin at the end.

Ben and I cleaned up our campsite, did the dishes and put everything we used back in the Escape.  We didn’t want to attract animals even though there were squirrels dropping from trees.  So far that morning we saw two just fall from the trees and land on the ground unhurt.  It’s like they were cats and they also had nine lives.  It was pretty weird to watch.  I gathered everything we might need during the day and set it aside to take to Ray and Brenda’s red hamster car while we listened to Jen’s rules on the event in the background.  We followed everyone over to the event shortly after.  We signed the logbook, which was a wine barrel (so appropriate for the region we were in), looked at the various booths including Cache Advance and WSGA, we talked to a few people we knew and hadn’t see in a while.  It was going to be a good day.  The weather was warm but not as hot as it was last year (111°) but around 85° or so.

We all walked over to the other side of the boat launch with everyone and situated ourselves while we waited for the guy who brought the drone to get it ready to take our picture.  We took a few of them looking into the sun.  If we did it the other way we all would have been shadowy. 

We got our passports which were also our maps and headed back towards the event area.  They had a GPS station all set up but none of us wanted to stand in the huge line.  Ray talked to Mike and he said we could do it faster because he had all of them on a bookmark that wasn’t available to everyone else yet.

When the caches published, all 32 of them, we went to Mike and attempted to “technology hump” them to everyone who had an Oregon Garmin.  It wasn’t working too well so we just put them on one GPS and went from there.  It took us a while but oh well.  We got into our designated cars (I rode with Brenda, Ray and Ben in the lead car and Jones, Gabe rode with Bob and Bev in the follow car.)
At 10:30, we set off to West Richland to start there and work our way towards Pasco.  We went off the map because in the years past it was a great visual to see where the caches were so we did less backtracking.  This year there were some hiccups.  The caches were miss numbered and it confused us in Richland and Kennewick.  We used walkie-talkies to communicate and it was still hard to hear Bev on the other end.  We had to tell her to press the button then talk rather than doing both at the same time.  We always heard the tail end of what she was saying.  We had a couple of epic fails and some snort laughing during the trip and even a few times where Ben fell asleep in the back seat.

After five years of doing this coin challenge it was hard to come up with some new places to hide caches.  We went to some of the same places as we did in the past years.  A bunch of parks, parking lots, the trail along the Columbia River, the WSU TriCities campus, view points, wineries, a humane society, a few businesses (one with an inappropriate hotdog sign, which was awesome) and a few exact locations we’ve been to before.  TC 2016 K07 - Spirits That Stay (GC67FWW) was at the winery, TC 2016 K08 - Halloween Shootout (GC6FN3D) was at the Benton County Humane Society and apparently I petted the dog too hard and made him sick.

When we got to the Richland portion we stopped at Leslie Grove Park and had lunch after we found the cache.  TC 2016 R02 - Radioactive Heron (GC6BKVP) was a stump that they carved the inside out of and put a hinge on it for a door.  It looked like a toilet so I sat on it like one.

We ate sandwiches, had chips, drinks, fruit and Brenda and Ray made a pasta salad that was really tasty.  We were there for about 45 minutes, used the restroom and headed to get the rest of Richland so we could move onto Kennewick. 

According to the map it would be beneficial to get the lone cache in west Pasco before we started Kennewick so we didn’t have to horribly back track.  We jumped across the bridge, grabbed it really quickly and then headed back over the bridge to get Kennewick done as quickly as we could.

We ran into a few people here and there but when we got into Pasco, we ran into Ben and Jayme and got to see their little one Lucy, who was asleep in the back of the car.  We found the cache and then spend a few minutes talking to them for a while.  Brenda and Ray gave them one of their coins.  A security officer stopped by to see what we were doing, since we were so close to the airport, Ben talked to him for about ten minutes.  Bob and Bev’s car headed out to the next one, we assumed, and we followed them shortly after.  We did not see them at the next cache.  Where were they?  The next few were very close to each other and you would have seen them.  They were not in sight.  Could they have gotten these that quickly?  We went on without them and hoped that we ran into them at the state park to get our coins.

We got the last cache and were relieved that it was over.  We were so tired.  It wasn’t really hot like last year but it was still hot out.  I was really excited to take a shower.  When we got to the park I was really stoked to see the coin in person.  I thought they did a great job on the design last year but this year they definitely went above and beyond.  The design of this year’s coin if you orient it correctly will show you where the bonus cache was.  They had a spot marked with a cone where you stood and looked through the holes in the individual coins.  It defeated the purpose at the event because you knew where the cache was because there were a bunch of people swarming the cache site.

We went over to the booth and had the volunteers check our passports.  We each received five pieces, the base and the four coins that fit into the base.  We sat at the nearby picnic table and assembled them.  Some of the pieces fit perfectly and the others were quite snug.

We stood at the marked off spot and used our coins as a compass to triangulate where it was, trying to ignore the flock of people in the foreground.  Ben, Ray, Brenda and I walked over to the cache.  It was one of Mr. Gadget’s puzzles…tricky, yet simple.  We signed our names and put it back before the next group of people made their way over.

Bob, Bev and their passengers made it to the park.  We asked where they went and they said they went and got gas.  I did not hear them say they went to get gas.  They received their coins and headed over to do the bonus.  We told them we were going to head to Cousin’s to get a table and if they would meet us there when they were done.  They said okay and looked forward to dinner.  We drove the nine miles to the main part of Pasco.  Last year we were shown this place by Jen and we enjoyed it so much we came back this year.

We sat at the same table and decided what we wanted to have.  Our waitress was an airhead, we ordered drinks, I had a Drop Top and Ben had an Irish Death, both Brenda and Ray had some sort of a drink.  We waited a while and the waitress came back and took our orders, Bob and Bev were on their way to the restaurant.  I was so hungry.  Once everyone arrived, they ordered and our food came.  Ben and I got water and ice all over the table and threw some at each other…we made a mess.  We talked about the day and some of the caches we did.  We even talked about what we were going to do on Sunday.  Our plans were still up in the air.  All I know is that it involved some sort of floating in a body of water.

We paid, then afterwards we grabbed the cache that was outside underneath a lamp skirt (Kissin’ Cousins, GC1M7DY) and then we said goodbye to everyone.   Ben and I headed back to the state park to shower and get ready for bed.  We watched Pixels until the computer died.  We were so tired we just passed out afterwards.  I had planned on being up and going before 8ish.

Next Adventure:  Heading Home:  Potholes State Park, Ellensburg, Iron Horse Brewery and Traffic

The Drive to the TriCities, Caching and the Meet and Greet

I set my alarm for 9:30 because I wanted to get an early start to my day so I could get to Sacajawea at a decent time and get my camping spot.  I got ready, started packing my stuff up and took it to the Escape.  I helped them clean the house for a while and visited some more before it was time to go.

I knew they had to get ready to go to Spokane so I left around 11ish.  I thanked them for letting me stay with them and to visit.  This time it has been too long.  I think the last time I came over was last June when I went to coin challenge.  I would have come in October but he had knee surgery and we weren’t able to do the Pirate Plunder this past fall.  We hugged it out and I headed down the hill to top off with gas and to get some more ice for the cooler.

I got onto I-82 and drove east towards the TriCities.  I ate my “breakfast” of a pizza lunchable and got some all over the front of me and my seat belt.  Luckily I had wipies within arm’s reach to clean myself off.  Along the way I talked to Grammie and she told me that grandma’s house was broken into on Wednesday while she was doing her errands.  They kicked the door open and looked for drugs.  Grandma doesn’t have drugs except for her diabetes medications and the standard over the counter aspirin and cold medicines.  They looked through her bathroom, the kitchen, stole some jewelry that wasn’t worth anything except for the personal attachments, they took a check out of her checkbook but left the computer, laptop, the TV’s and the quilting stuff.  Clearly it was about drugs and not goods.  We suspected it to be a teenager, a relative or a female because they tried stealing one of her locked boxes with personal information on it but it got too heavy so they left it on the floor in the living room.  They freaked grandma’s cat, Whiskers, out to where she was weird for a while afterwards.  Now came the annoying part, calling the bank, the credit report, social security and the police report.  I asked her why no one called me.  She said that no one wanted to worry me.  I told her about my trip so far and that I was getting close to my destination.  She told me to be safe and to have fun.

I called grandma soon after and we talked about her break in for about a half hour.  She said she was getting a lock for the gate and deadbolts for her doors.  I got to Sacajawea around 1, checked in and continued talking to grandma until I needed two hands to set up the tent.  I told her I would call her back on Sunday sometime.  After I got the tent set up I called mom and talked to her for about 45 minutes.  I got the bedding all set up and now I just had to wait until the meet and greet later on this evening.  Bob and Bev were already in town doing caches and wanted me to go eat with them but I wasn’t ready to leave the park yet.

Around 2:30 I left the park and cached around the TriCities myself.  It was warm and I had to do it by my phone because I didn’t have enough time to put together a query on the GPS before I left.  I found about 13 caches between Pasco, Kennewick and Richland.  I talked to Ben and he got off work around 3:30, got his stuff ready and headed over White Pass because I-5 north was a mess and I told him to avoid it.  He got a late start anyway and was in Mossyrock/Morton around 6:30 after getting gas and dinner.  He wasn’t going to be here for a while.  Plus, a large chunk of the trip there was no cell phone service.  There was a small window on top of the pass where it worked.

There were a few caches that were park and grabs, one guardrail, a bunch in the industrial part of Pasco and I wrapped it up by finishing my evening up in Kennewick along the Columbia River at the park.  I found one called Kennewick Man (GC15463), Arno Doria (GC5KZNX) which I had to climb up in a tree for and another called Columbia Park Adventure #2 (GC5KZV4) which snaked me around the trees next to the freeway.  I saw a deer wandering around while I signed the log.

I made my way over to Richland and met up with Bob and Bev at the meet and greet site around 5:30.  We got there early so we decided to walk over to A Wicked Manicure (GC1VMJF) in the park next to the building.  I followed Bob since he manned the GPS.  We found it quickly next to a building with a metal box.  It was a face plate cover.

We walked back over to the parks and rec building, walked into the large meeting room, signed in, got our raffle ticket and found a place to sit down until more people arrived.  We got our bingo card and people came to us to fill them out.  We just passed ours around for fun.  I didn’t plan on finishing mine.  Brenda and Ray got there shortly after and sat with us.  They shared their geocoin they minted for their 10,000^th geocache which would be at the event tomorrow morning. 

We ate cookies, popcorn and watermelon while we waited for the actual event to start.  We saw a bunch of people we knew, met some new people and I was sad I forgot my pathtags at home.  I could have handed some of them out.  None of us won anything for the raffle.  We left around 8 and I chatted with Brenda, Ray and Richland lady outside the building for about a half hour.

I went back to the campsite around 9ish, made a sandwich, used my computer for a while and chatted with a few people.  Brad and his kids arrived in the fancy red Camero and came over and visited with me for a while.  We got caught up, he told us about what he’s been up to and my new changes in my life.  We talked about the Cougs, football and geocaching.  It was nice to catch up with him.

Ben got to the state park around 11:30.  I had already gotten ready for bed.  I helped him unpack his car, he got ready for bed and he was just wired up from the late trip over.  I was glad he came.  He hoped that driving all this way was worth it and I told him it was.  He got settled down and we went inside the tent and went to bed.  We knew we had a long, busy day ahead of us tomorrow morning.

Next Adventure:  TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  West Richland, Richland, Kennewick and Pasco

The Itty Bitty Series on Rollerblades, The Dump and MOD Pizza

I got up around 8:30 that morning.  I usually hear them get up with the dogs really early but didn’t this time.  I must have been tired.  It was so nice to not get up at 4:30.  I went and did my bathroom things and got ready for my day.  I had planned on doing some geocaching between Naches and Gleed.  There was a series called Itty Bitty and they were mostly bug containers.  At least there was a variety instead of the same old boring film canisters.   Willmarth went to work and Shannon was out in the backyard mowing and cleaning up tree debris.  She asked me what I had planned for the day and I said probably geocaching and rollerblading.  I should be done before noon.  She mentioned going to the dump when he got off work.  I told them I would be back to help them.  She said to be safe and to have fun.

I gathered all my stuff together but my query didn’t load for some reason.  I relied on my phone instead.  I went down the hill and got a few things at Fred Meyer.  I bought some cheap batteries, some soda, goldfish crackers and some lunchables for lunch today and tomorrow.  It was easy traveling food.  I looked to see where the best place to park was and it was off Hwy 12 near the fruit stand on blah blah avenue.  There was an actual parking lot and bathroom for the trail goers.  I parked, strapped my rollerblades on and had a great work out as well as found over 30 caches.  There were some that were missing and bummed me out.  Oh well.  Maybe I can pick them up next time I am here.

I got done just before noon and covered about just over 7 miles on the rollerblades there and back.  I was hot and sweaty when I got back to the Escape.  I took the rollerblades off and put my shoes back on and went and got two more caches along the Yakima River near the small dam.  River Rush (GC1CYFM) was on a guardrail on a small pull out and the other one was along the road just below the Indian Painted Hills State Park, hence Indian Painted Hills (GC2PZ4F).  I was here a few years ago and tried to find it but I think it was missing.  According to the logs it was back and in a new container.  I found it with ease.

Since I was in Yakima and I didn’t know when I would be here again I went and got the heritage cache just down a few blocks from their house.  This place was huge!  I was a massive building that shared property with a water park, a well known park and places for people to hang out and have picnics or birthday parties.  The cache, WHSH 125:  Yakima History Museum (GC6JE3A), was up by the wheelchair ramp and thus we had to be very sneaky when we retrieved it.  Of course when I went to find it, there were a few kids with their grandma who just got out of the museum, watching me look for it.   I had to wait until they went to their car before I pulled it up.  This one wasn’t a bend over and grab…I had to jump and lean onto the structure with my waist and reach down to pull it up.  If I was a few inches shorter I wouldn’t have been able to get it and would have to hoist myself over and stand in their landscaping to get it.

I went into the museum just to see what was in there.  I guess you had to pay to get in and I wasn’t about to shell out $12 just to wander around for a few minutes.  I talked to the desk lady and told her about the cache in the front and she had no clue what I was talking about.  It’s weird to be that we have this series and the people in charge of the places these are hidden at don’t tell their staff about the cache.  I would but then again, I would have one hidden at my work place anyway and everyone would know about it.  I got back in the Escape and went to the house.

When I got there, they were loading up all kinds of debris and garbage cans.  Shannon wanted all of it gone but it all just wasn’t going to fit in the truck.  I helped them load the giant garbage can just so no one got hurt or strained themselves.

I found out the dump was in Moxee, just northeast-ish of Yakima.  I’ve been through Moxee a handful of times to and from Pullman.  When we got to the dump I expected it to look a lot like the one in Rainier or Hawks Prairie.  It wasn’t even close.  It was a warehouse that you backed up into and just threw everything on the cement and a bulldozer would come and push it to the edge of the building.  I was appalled.  It seemed like no one recycled.  So much of that “garbage” could be recycled.  Also we saw several pairs of brand new expensive hiking boots that were thrown in there.  The store throws their inventory away rather than donating them to homeless people because it’s cheaper and can report it as a loss.  We tried to gather some but we got caught and had to put them back.  I was so disappointed. 

We got back to the house to hang out until the new couch came.  I did some internetting..logged my caches, looked up some in the TriCities, Facebooked a few people and just some general browsing.  The couch finally came around 2ish and they installed it quickly.  He used some of the extra money he’s been saving, because like my family we’ve always got hand me down furniture, this time he wanted something brand new and customized.  The couch was a sectional, light brown color with cup holders that light up, recliners and USB connections so you can charge your electronic devices.  I’ve never seen a couch like that before.  It was awesome! 

Willmarth and Shannon were going to Hoopfest that weekend so they needed a dog/house sitter while they were gone for a few days.  Some of Shannon’s friends came over to go over some of the things they would be doing.  They stayed for about an hour.

Then we went to the “white” Walmart just down the road to pick up a few things and to get some camping chairs so Shannon had somewhere to sit while WIllmarth and her nephews played basketball.  They needed to be lightweight so she could carry them around Spokane.  Between looking at the chairs and walking down the aisle, we lost him within the store.  We did not venture too far from the chairs.  We knew he was a wanderer but how could he disappear that fast?  After sorting it out, we paid for the chairs and other random things he found and left the store.  It was dinner time so he took us to MOD Pizza.  I’ve heard a lot about this place but have never been yet.  The place was busy and it took us a long time to decide what we wanted.  Of course Shannon could not make up her mind until we were almost at the counter to order.  It was basically like Subway except it was pizza.  You could also get a salad and drinks to add on to your order as well.  Shannon insisted that I get the huckleberry lemonade with my pizza.  I would definitely come again.  It’s pretty good.

We went back home and just chilled on the couch while we were on our computers, Kindles reading or sleeping like the dogs were.  We watched Battle Bots on TV, a show I used to watch in high school, they resurrected it.  Around midnight I got cleaned up and went to bed around 1.

Next Adventure:  The Drive to the TriCities, Caching and the Meet and Greet

Heading to Yakima

The night before I tried to have everything possible packed and ready to go except for the things I was using and staged them out in the living room.  My alarm went off way to early; I got ready and went to work.  The day was pretty easy and I got done at 11:30 and headed home.  I made a sandwich really quick, talked to Ben about the house we might get in Lacey, packed up the car and got gas all in less than an hour.  I was on my way via Hwy 7 to Hwy 12 towards Yakima.  I had several stops I wanted to make along the highway but it all depended on traffic, construction and how much time I spent at each place.  I told Willmarth I would be there around 5:30/6:00.

The ride was pretty uneventful until I got onto Hwy 12 and I really hate following semi trucks.  It just made the trip so much slower.  My first stop along the way was at the Bevin Lake Rest Area and my first cache of the day.  I remember stopping here years ago to find one almost in the exact same spot.  Since then that one was archived and Rainier100 2:  Bevin Lake Pit Stop (GC63X0W) was put in its place.  I pulled in and decided to grab the cache before I used the restroom.  I hustled over to a beat up stump and grabbed the small lock ‘n lock.  I signed the log book and wrote down the code word off the lid.

As I walked towards the building, an older gentleman pulled up in a pickup truck with a kayak in the back.  I thought nothing of it until he yelled, “Go Cougs!” at me.  I had forgotten I was coug’d out in my sweatshirt and shorts.  I yelled it back at him and then went and did my business.  I came back out and he struck up a conversation with me.  He asked me who I was, where I was from and when I went to WSU.  He said he has heard of Rainier because he taught at Central and one of his students was from there.  I asked him who and he said it was years ago and could not remember the name.  He was on his way to Astoria to drink beer and kayak for a few days at Fort Stevens State Park.  We talked about the upcoming football season and I found out he played football at WSU over 40 years ago!  I told him I lived with a football player while I was in school and he asked who it was.  I told him Matt Mullinex and he said that he knew him!  It really is a small world.  I told him it was nice to meet him and I told him I might run into him sometime down the road.  I got back in the Escape and drove further east.

My next stop, I’ve tried to stop many times to go and grab Chain Up and Cache Up (GC2R024) but the weather wasn’t all that great or I was short on time so I bypassed it for another time.  This was that “another time.”  I got as close as I could to it and read that I had to walk up a small hillside next to a waterfall.  I had no idea there was a waterfall back here and this is where they chain up to drive over the mountains.  But then, I’ve never had to stop here to put on chains.  I read the hint and a few of the logs just so I am not looking for a long time.  It seemed pretty straight forward unless someone didn’t put it back right.  I walked up the hill next to the small babbling waterfall.  I found the cache in the second place I looked.  I signed my name and took a few pictures with the waterfall in the background.  I put it back and went back down to the Escape.

Just a few miles up the road, I stopped for MMT HWY 12 WHITE PASS (GC1FVZ2) that I’ve never had time to stop for.  It was in a small stump on a not-so-steep hillside with the view of Hwy 12 and the bridge over Cortright Creek nearby.  The container definitely had some weathering to it.  I dumped out a small bit of water and surprisingly the log book wasn’t soaked!  I got back in the Escape and got back onto the highway.

I stopped again quickly to grab an earthcache I’ve had my eye on for the past few weeks.  Last year I stopped here to get the traditional before Rainier100 3:  Columnar Dacite Cliff (GC65KFG) was even here.  I saw that it was a normal earthcache at first then it became one of the Rainier100 caches for the third series.  I answered the questions and took my selfie with the cliffs.  I would receive the code word on July 1^st when the series is published.

I put some miles behind me and when I got to the top of the pass I stopped to get Rainier100 2:  White Pass Ski Area at the top of the pass.  I parked at the given coords and walked down a dirt road for about a quarter of a mile.  It was a really pretty walk with the mountains with Leech Lake down below.  I talked to Ben as I walked out to the cache site.  The mosquitoes were really bad!  I had to keep moving to keep them from landing on me while I signed the log book.  Another geotour cache down and several others to go!  I walked back to the Escape and told Ben I would call him when I got closer to Naches.

I stopped one more time along the way at the Clear Creek Falls Viewpoint to get the multi cache.  I thought I did the final coords correctly and even double checked them.  It was my math that was my downfall.  I tried looking for the cache based off of the pictures but failed.  I was there for probably an hour or so trying to figure out what I did wrong.  I was so frustrated!  I got a text message from Willmarth asking me where I was.  I barely got service here.  I got in the Escape and got back on the highway.  I had to stop for construction twice so that delayed me at least 45 minutes getting down the pass.  While I sat in construction I found my math error and just couldn’t believe I would make that error!  Lame!!

I got to Willmarth’s house around 6:45 and they were eating dinner.  That was probably why they wondered where I was.  They were eating a Schwann’s sample platter of fries, mini corn dogs and chicken fries.  Shannon threw some in the oven for me.  I was hungry so I ate all of mine and it was pretty good.  We visited and shared what has been happening lately.  I told them about my job and the house that we are in the running for.  They told me about their adventures, their new couch they were getting tomorrow and his job with Aflac.  A few hours later we went and got ice cream cones from the ghetto ice cream shop on the corner.  We all got twisty cones and they were delicious.

We went back to the house and spent some time just hanging out and watching TV.  The weather wasn’t as nice as I thought it would be and he had the AC on the entire time and I got cold.  We took the dogs over to one of the elementary schools with a fenced playground to throw the ball for Fletcher and Zoey for an hour or so.  We got back home and I got cleaned up, hung out for another half hour and then went to bed.  I was exhausted.

Next Adventure:  The Itty Bitty Series on Rollerblades, The Dump and MOD Pizza

Father's Day

About a week or so beforehand I called Grammie to find out the information about Father’s Day…you know the usual, who’s hosting, what are we eating, what time and who’s going to bring what.  She didn’t know if Kevin and Karla wanted to host or not.  Usually Grammie and grandpa did the outdoor summer-like gatherings but not much anymore because it is a lot of work and they are getting older.  I told her that grandma was alright with hosting stuff.  We just needed to let her know so we can help her get ready for it.  You could tell she didn’t like the idea but the offer was there if we needed to.

A few days later it was confirmed that Kevin and Karla were going to host on Sunday around 2 and we were going to have BBQ chicken, beans, fruit, veggies, potato salad, etc.  We were to bring the veggies and dip.  I had gotten cards a while back for Father’s Day so we didn’t have to get those while we found a couple of gifts for dad and grandpa.  We called Doug to let him know what was happening and he said he may or may not come; it would just depend on his work week.  Grammie also mentioned that we would be playing croquet because the weather was suppose to be decent and she promised that we would do an Easter egg hunt since we didn’t get to on Easter because it was too cold.  I told her I was going to hold her to it.

I called Trish to see what they were doing on Father’s Day and she said she didn’t have plans so I invited her to our gathering if they wanted to come.  She said that sounded like fun.   Ben and I also wanted to do something for his dad so to remember him we were going to bowl a few games since that was something he liked to do by himself and with his family.  Trish also liked that idea.

Doug and Jenn didn’t end up making it and Ben met us at Kevin and Karla’s house while I carpooled mom, dad and grandma.  Trish and Amy got stuck in traffic but got there at a decent time.  Tracy was late also due to traffic coming up from the south.  Once everyone got there we all situated outside underneath the tent structures Kevin set up.  We helped Karla bring out the food and we all grabbed plates, said grace and dug in.  The food was delicious.  We all sat around and chatted while we ate.

We cleaned up the food and plates and grandpa got the Easter eggs out and Tracy hid them for us while we waited in the house for a few minutes.  There were 32 in total we had to find.  She came in and said they were ready to be found.  We all took a mad dash into the side yard and started looking.  In about five minutes we all had at least three in our hands with two still missing.  We looked everywhere.  Turns out we had counted wrong and only one was missing.  We eventually found it.

I got the croquet field all put together.  The challenge here was that it wasn’t Grammie and grandpa’s yard so setting it up in Kevin’s yard with a slope to it plus a hose in the way I had to get creative.  Then we had people who have never played before so I had to explain the rules before we played and as we were playing.  I said before we started that grandpa was going to win.  I was ahead most of the game and became poison and killed grandma first.  Then I went after Ben, missed and died.  Ben went after everyone else.  Grandpa became poison and then missed Ben by millimeters.  Ben got him soon after.  Then he killed Trish and then Amy.  Our audience had a good time watching us.

We had dessert and gave dad and grandpa their cards and presents.  Dad picked out his own shirt and I was surprised by the Hawaiian print because he would have never worn that years ago.  We got grandpa a Mariners hat because you can never have too many hats.  We visited for a while longer and then started packing up the vehicles.  We called a few bowling alleys to find out if anyone had availability on a Sunday evening.  The Westside in Oly had plenty of space.

No one else wanted to go or had the energy so it was just me, Ben, Trish and Amy.  I had never bowled with Trish and Amy so this should be a great time.  I found out that Ben’s family bowled often growing up (everyone had their own shoes and balls) so I would probably be the one with the worst score.  We bowled two games and I had some good throws and some not-so-good throws.  I had I think five strikes during the two games we played. 

We ate nachos during the second game because I needed a snack and they were actually pretty good for bowling alley nachos.  We wrapped up our last game and decided to head on home.  Trish and Amy had about an hour drive back home and Ben and I had to get ready for work the next day.

Next Adventure:  Heading to Yakima