I had another 4-day weekend and it was very nice to finally be able to sleep in. Lately this getting up at 5 a.m. to be at work by 6 a.m. was wearing on me. I really needed to sleep in for a few days and not have to be anywhere that early.
Ben didn't get Thanksgiving off because it was on one of his normal work days so he also decided to take the two 24-hour shifts Thursday and Friday for some holiday overtime. He wanted to buy his TV and wall mount which together would cost about $1000 and those two days basically covered it. He has never bought himself anything that fancy before and he said he's always wanted a good TV. He has been doing his shopping over the course of 5-6 months trying to figure out the top of the line 55 inch smart TV. He finally found a Samsung one online and ordered it. It came about a week after Thanksgiving. For Cyber Monday he bought an X-Box One.
For Thanksgiving we've been going over to Karla and Kevin's house for the past few years because they wanted to host at least one thing during the course of the year. Karla made tons of food and because they have food allergies, we had to bring certain things with us if we wanted to eat them. We said grace, dished up food and sat down. Of course Grammie talked the entire time and didn't eat her food. We spent a lot of time that evening getting Tracy and Grammie's smart phones set up and updated so they could use social media. Yeah, it was weird to think that Grammie had a Facebook and could text.
We cleaned up the table and everyone settled in to get ready for our birthday party. Since all of us have been really busy or under the weather this past fall, we just saved them all for Thanksgiving since we knew everyone would all be here. We sang happy birthday to me, grandma, Grammie, mom and dad. We were handed presents. I got a Christmas serving tray from grandma, 2 hats from Tracy and some money from Grammie and Grandpa.
After presents, Doug and Jen had to leave and head back up north. We colored pictures and then played a few rounds of Pictionary. Of course we had an odd number of people so we put Grammie on both teams so she could blurt out the answers and not feel like she was in trouble. We always have some weird cards and people who can't draw very good but we still manage to make out some of it while we guess. There is a lot of laughing and a lot of excuses on why no one guessed the picture. Of course it's obvious to the artist!
Around 6ish we gathered up our stuff and put it in the car. We thanked Kevin and Karla for hosting Thanksgiving and that we had a nice time. Mom, dad and grandma got into dad's car to head back to Rainier and I decided to head to the Walmart for some Black Friday shopping. I didn't really have a plan on what I wanted to get but I went just to go see. After about an hour inside the store, I made out with at least $100 worth of stuff that normally would have cost at least $250. I got a few movies, a bathmat, a tablet, two zippy jackets for Ben and Doug, I got mom a wireless printer and a bathmat for her (she paid me for them) and some Pyrex glass containers because I love them. I am trying to get rid of all of my plastic containers. I got a few grocery items as well and got the heck out of there.
I got home and unloaded the Escape, talked to Ben for a bit and watched some of the Thursday Night football game. I did a few chores and worked on my blog. Once in bed I did some reading with my new book I got two weeks ago, In the Path of Destruction Eyewitness Chronicles of Mount St. Helens. So far it's pretty good. A lot of the information inside I haven't learned about yet.
I slept in as long as I could. I got up around 9:30 and made Ben get out of bed to help me make had cinnamon rolls and eggs. Ben burned the cinnamon rolls and I gave him a bad time about it. We sat at the table and enjoyed our breakfast while we talked about what we were going to do today before we left. We talked about leaving somewhat early and heading to Gig Harbor to Cougwear so I could get my birthday present. I wanted a Cougar flag and they had one for a good price and it was coming from an alum's business.
After breakfast and washing the dishes, we packed up some stuff just to clear out the clutter in the kitchen and packed it into our grocery bags. We set them aside ready to be taken down to the car.
Of course it wasn't raining today. Out of the three days we were here it rained on my birthday. Lame!
We decided to venture off inside the Seabrook community to hit the small trail system that snaked through the sections of beach houses. We wanted to get the two caches along this trail system. We got side tracked and played with the zipline for a while. We took pictures, videos and tried to avoid touching the mud with our shoes or pants.
Then we saw the basketball court and played a few rounds of HORSE and then just shot the ball around for fun. You know trying to make those impossible trick shots.
We walked down the trail near the zipline for A Seabreeze at Seabrook (GC5GDZP). The trail location was pretty epic. There were small foot bridges and some gnarly tree roots and stumps. It was fun to see how these trees grew and were preserved among the community. I am glad none of them were destroyed during construction.
We walked across the community to the other set of trails. When we got to Gnome Trail (GC5GDYM) we soon found out how it got its name. There were hundreds of little houses and structures made out of pine cones, wood, rocks, feathers and other debris you would find in the forest. It was kinda creepy. We looked everywhere for the cache and did not come up with it. We had to have been there for at least an hour. We gave up and walked back to the Crow's Nest.
We wanted to go swimming before we had to check out and leave. We grabbed our suits and walked over to the pool. I am so glad we waited to go today rather than yesterday...no one was there! We had the entire pool and Jacuzzi to ourselves!! We changed into our suits and immediately got into to the pool. It has been a while since I went swimming in a pool. Neither of us really like to swim laps so we found a kick board and threw it around like a Frisbee for a while. Yes, we are THOSE kids.
After about an hour it was time to change into clothes and pack the rest of the car. We were really going to try and make it to Gig Harbor before 5. We finished packing everything and put the clean dishes away before we checked one more time for anything we could have left behind. We were good to go. We stopped by the rental place and dropped our keys off. It was now 3ish. I really didn't think we had time to get to Gig Harbor...especially since it was the start of rush hour on the freeway once we got onto I-5. I made the decision to wait until Wednesday to go over before we got our oil changed in our vehicles. He said that would be fine.
We ended up stopping for a few geocaches on the way home but managed to actually find the one out of the 3. The one we found was called The End is Near (GC5MWGX) and at first it didn't make sense. After about a min or two it finally clicked. You had to stand on the guardrail to make you tall enough to get it off the sign.
When we got back into Aberdeen it was time for dinner. He asked if there were any good places to eat and I remembered that the last time I was here around dinner time it was with grandma and mom and we stopped at Billy's. Ben ordered a burger and I got a French dip. The food was delicious. We stayed for about an hour while we watched part of the MNF game with the Giants and the Bengals. We paid for our food, thanked our waitress and headed back to Lacey.
We unpacked the car, washed clothes, took a shower and watched the rest of the game on our comfy couch. It was nice to get away for the weekend and have an extra day off from work. I had a great birthday this year. We will finish it off with Buffalo Wild Wings on Tuesday with friends and then a family gathering during Thanksgiving.
We got up around 10ish and Ben made me some pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Of course he always makes way too many pancakes because he thinks I can eat like him. He made enough food to feed at least 4 or 5 people. We ate our food and sorta listened to the football game in the bedroom. There wasn't a TV in the living room, which sucked actually. We were more likely going to watch TV out in the living room instead of the bedroom. Oh well. We made it work.
Of course the full day we were there it rained, the ENTIRE day. I really wanted to go geocaching for majority of the day because I have not cached in this area yet except for the state park to the north of us. I wrote down 11 of them, grabbed our rain gear and headed out. I was really upset it was raining. Ugh.
We started with the most northern one in Moclips and made our way south down 101 towards Copalis Beach. We didn't go into Ocean Shores because there were tons of them and it was best saved for another day when we come back again.
We drove down toward the beach and we needed a Seahawks picture at the beach.
Our first one we came to was Athena's Booty (GC5R8V8) which was on the beach tucked into a rock wall. We drove down the hill towards the beach access road and drove to the poles, parked and walked the rest of the way to the cache. The side with the poles was closed from Labor Day to Memorial Day. My GPS went all over the place but luckily there was a high defined geotrail that led right to the ammo box. I opened it up and saw a plastic poncho and took it to keep me dry the rest of the day. It really came in handy. We signed the log and put it back where we found it.
We walked back to the car and I put on my poncho for some photos to show how rainy and windy it was.
We went back up the hill for Fire Me 20 Pacific Beach (GC42MJ3) which was at another fire station. We got out, read the hint and looked for it. As we searched, we assumed the Captain of the fire station came out and talked to us for a bit. He knew we were geocaching and told him a little bit about ourselves. He added that his birthday was a few days ago. Ben told him that he worked for West Thurston, a fire station east of here. He thought that was pretty cool. We thanked him and moved on.
We went back down to the access road and Ben had an idea about the Tsunami sign. Apparently, there is a dub step/techno song and he had an idea for a fun little video. I went along with it.
We tried looking for The Bungle in the Jungle Coast Cache (GC95D3), this cache was literally unreachable in the rain and Pacific Beach, Washington's Best Kept Secret (GC4FEQF), was missing and very disappointed it was missing because it should have been there.
We drove to the state park, a place I have been a few years back to get the WaStPks100 cache but this time we were there to get the earthcache Tsunami (GC6MQ2A). Ben grabbed the state park cache as well since we were literally 10 feet from it. We read the signs, took pictures of the signs and took our picture to prove we were really there. I would use my information and the internet later to log the cache.
We continued to follow Hwy 101 south and stopped to get Cache Across America (GCX7TR). It was literally a wide spot in the road with the view of the ocean. There really wasn't anything special about this cache except that there were 49 more of them one in every state with the final in Washington DC. Other than that, the cache was lame because it was a guardrail cache and the cache was a plastic bag with a tattered old log book inside. I wasn't sure if we had to get a code, a number or a phrase off of the container for the final. I really don't foresee us finishing this series.
When we arrived at The Surf, The Wind, The Cache (GC5M9XC) I was not expecting a hide like this one. We parked on the beach and had to walk across a small creek, luckily our shoes were waterproof, and try to pinpoint where to look without a hint because my GPS was everywhere. After it had settled down, we were able to figure out we were no where near the cache. We didn't even have to cross the small creek. In fact, we didn't have to go that far from the car. There was a log and for the life of my I could not figure out why I couldn't find the cache. It was pouring down rain and now I started just feeling with my hands just in case something moved. Oh my god! Here it is! Part of the log came off and they had stuck a bison tube inside one of the holes. Cleaver.
We got back into the car and drove the half a mile down the beach to A Cache for Payton (GC5HR4H). Again our GPS led us astray and the cache was inside of a sign literally a couple of feet from the car. Lame. We signed the log book in the pouring rain and ran back to the car as fast as we could.
I wanted to get one more before we went back to Seabrook. We had enough time to grab this one and head back to get cleaned up and start our nachos for the game at 5:30. We stopped at the small grocery store by the small community of Iron Springs Resort, sat there for a few minutes to decide where we really needed to go. I guess there was a small pullout off of Hwy 101 and the cache,
Iron Springs (GCXZC1), was a short walk down to the rocks near the small river. In a few short seconds we found the container, signed our names and we were ready to be out of the weather. It was around 3:00 that afternoon.
Went on a short drive around Seabrook just to see where all the roads went. There were two caches along the trail system inside and just because of the weather we decided to get the two caches in town tomorrow.
The Crow's Nest could not come any sooner. I was so ready to get back to the house and took off our soaking wet clothes, took a shower to get clean and warm, started some laundry and started our nachos. I forgot the chicken at home so Ben had to go get some expensive ground beef and laundry sheets...because I didn't know we would have or need access to a washer and a dryer.
We prepared and cooked our nachos and got the bedroom ready to watch the game...we had to move some furniture so we could eat at a table and sit on some chair-like seats while we watched the game.
The game came down to the wire and we won 31-24 with a 4th down goal line stance. Another high anxiety football game that came down to the last literally 10 seconds. I was dying with anxiety. I actually got up a few times to do the dishes and the laundry just because I could not stand it! We ended up winning on the last play because Brady could not get the ball to Gronkowski. Gronkowski held Chancellor in the end zone for offensive pass interference. The ball was also uncatchable so it didn't matter. Seahawks win 31-24.
The game got over around 9:30 and we just chilled on the bed working on geocaching logs, Ben's tsunami video and watching whatever was on the TV, the news, Friends and How I Met Your Mother. We got tired around 12:30 and passed out.
Happy birthday to me!!
Next Adventure: Returning From the Ocean and Dinner in Aberdeen
I had a 4 day weekend ahead of me for my birthday. Last year I didn't take it off just because it would look poor since I was a new employee. This year it was on a Sunday but I wanted to take the Monday off so Ben and I could do something fun. I've really never done anything other than dinners or movies on my birthday so this year it would be fun to do something different. I wanted to drive down to the redwoods in Northern California but it didn't work out because Ben had training on Saturday morning at work. Instead he suggested a place called Seabrook, just north of Ocean Shores, for the weekend. I said sure. Having an autumn birthday sucks most of the time in the Pacific Northwest because it is always raining...majority of the time. The only time it didn't rain is when I lived in Pullman.
He got all of his stuff packed up the night before. I got up around 10ish, got my stuff together and he went and got his haircut, got home around noon and we packed, got gas and left in his car towards the ocean.
Since it wasn't raining, I decided to grab some caches along the way. I had a few mapped out along a route. We drove up the 101 towards Shelton, got off on Hwy 8 and drove towards McCleary with a pit stop in Squaxin Island to get one of the heritage caches.
WSHS 125 - Squaxin Island (GC6JV81) was located in a pretty neat area. The museum was insane and so was the koi pond. The koi were very curious at what we were doing and demanded that we feed them. Unfortunately there wasn't any food to give them. Ben and I looked for the cache that was hidden among roots down a small walking trail near a picnic area. It was pretty easy to locate. We opened it up, grabbed the log book, signed our names and put it back where we found it. We enjoyed the pond a little while longer and walked carefully back to the car...the boardwalk was very slippery.
We got back into the car and drove Hwy 8 into McCleary to find Fire Me 24 McCleary (GC4Y32H). I haven't been through this little town since at least spring of 2011, when we got the only two in town...which are now archived. We drove up to the fire station and started searching. We were fooled by the toy in the front of the bay doors. We expanded our search and found it inside a fire pipe with a screw thread cap. I let Ben find it because I wanted to find some of the Fire Me series and I knew he would enjoy them.
We got onto the highway and got off in Elma to follow the Monte-Elma Road to the only other letterbox, Little Tomato (GC2B93V) I haven't gotten in this area. I am still trying to get 50 letterboxes to finish the challenge so I can get the only one in Rainier I don't have yet. It's been a long journey because there just isn't that many letterboxes close by. I am now at 38 and have 12 more to find. Ugh. We stopped at the coords and realized that it was a veggie and fruit stand. I could see where the cache was from the car. I got it, logged our names, got my photo and was back in the car within 5 minutes.
We continued to follow the Monte-Elma road into the tiny town of Brady. We pulled over at the fire station there and started looking for the Fire Me 13 Brady (GC4119Z) . It was actually near the fence line near some bushes. The last few we found were actually near the building. It was hanging from the only bush in the area.
We headed into Montesano to grab the last Fire Me cache in the series for the day. This one was at the Montesano Fire Department, where one of Ben's friends worked. She was on shift for the day but in class for training. She knew we were coming but we didn't know if she could come out and see us or not. We found Fire Me 16 Montesano (GC4118N) in front of the station underneath a rock.
We sat out in the parking lot for about 15 minutes waiting to hear back from her. We never did unfortunately. It would have been nice to meet her.
We drove down the road a little ways, parked the car and walked to a cache called Triangular (GC2G60T). It was similar to my Triangle series back home. It was located inside of a triangle of land. We knew it was at the tree but according to the clue we would have to look at it from the right angle. We spent some time looking and came up with nothing. Then I had an idea. The only place it could be is on the tree. I squatted down and looked up. There it was crammed inside a hole in the limb.
We got into Aberdeen after a short drive from Monte. While we were driving through we thought about stopping at Walmart for some milk and realized we didn't bring cereal for our breakfasts this weekend. Instead we decided to have a late lunch instead. We ate at the Happy Teriyaki. Ben had his General Tso and I had my chicken teriyaki and yummy white sticky rice. We spent less than an hour there. We got going west towards the coast. We took the cut off on the 101 and took the back way to Seabrook.
Seabrook is a new beach town that was built around 2004. They designed it to be self sustainable. You can walk just about everywhere within a few minutes. There is a pool, shops, a store, outdoor activities, a farm, a town hall, a gym and other various amenities. You can rent a house or own one. It is a short walk to and from the beach down below the bluff. I had no idea it was this involved. I thought it was just a place to rent beach houses. It's an actual town!
We found the rental place to check in and get our keys to the Crow's Nest. We followed the map and found our home for the weekend. Originally I thought we had the right place but when I opened the door it was unlocked so I thought we had the wrong place. We looked at the other place, which was the main house, and saw people's stuff inside. We didn't want to walk in on anyone so we called someone to meet us to make sure we had the right place. It turns out the first place we went into was ours. I just found it odd that the door was unlocked. We parked the car in front and started taking stuff upstairs. A neighbor cat helped us bring in stuff.
Ben threw pillows at me at the stop of the stairwell as I was coming up the stairs.
We got settled in and played Trouble and Yahtzee and ate popcorn while we watched some of the college football games. Ben was really a sore loser at Trouble.
We walked to the town hall for the event in town and decided it wasn't very exciting. There was a band playing music really loud for the venue, you had to buy a sample of the Waska Valley Distillery if you wanted to try it and there were just way too many people inside the building to make it worth while. We walked back to the Crow's Nest to hang out some more.
UW lost their first game of the season and WSU won keeping our undefeated Pac-12 streak alive. It was nice to finally be better than the Huskies. I rubbed it into everyone's faces on Facebook. They all freaked out and started talking about the Apple Cup. I told them that doesn't matter. Tonight we were better than you. Then they all made up a bunch more excuses about why they didn't beat USC and compared our game to theirs. Apples and oranges. Every football game is different you can't compare them. Oh and my Penguins won too.
I got a shower in and then Ben gave me a back massage. My lower back had been hurting really bad the last few weeks. Every time I woke up in the morning I felt really old. This actually made me feel better. We watched Train Wreck and fell asleep before the movie was over. I was tired.
Next Adventure: My 33rd Birthday, Geocaching and a Big Seahawks Victory
I had the day off on Friday and I wanted to go somewhere since it wasn't raining. I talked to mom the day before to ask if she had anything planned. She said she didn't so far. I told her to plan to go somewhere. At the time I really wasn't sure but I knew I wanted to get some of the Rainier100 caches before the weather got bad and started snowing. I started planning.
I chose the Mineral and Randle area off of Forest Road 25. That would get me about 7 of them and maybe the virtual cache I didn't have yet in Mineral. This would be my second attempt at it. The first time I had the wrong coordinates. I made a list of all of them and some hints just in case my GPS didn't download all of them. For some reason every time I made a pocket query and put them on the GPS from the computer they all wouldn't be on there. I trusted my phone more even though this trip my phone would not have any service. I made sure I could view them offline.
I told mom I would meet her at 10 to head out. I reminded her the later we left the less time we would have to explore. It would roughly take us 45 minutes to get to Mineral. When I got there she wasn't ready. I was disappointed. She was outside helping dad with a well pump "dog house" project. He couldn't of picked a better time. Ugh. She made me clean and fill the duck pools while I waited for her to finish. I even had enough time to pack some lunches.
We wasted about an hour of daylight. She finally got ready and we left around 11. We headed towards McKenna, got onto the 702 and onto Hwy 7 through Elbe and on to Mineral, which was tucked away off of Hwy 7 on your way towards Morton. The last time I was in Mineral was with grandma just last May, when I was hiding my cache for series 3. Mom said the last time she was here is when she went on the train with dad back last winter when they rode it from Elbe to Mineral and back. She said it was fun even though the small children were loud and obnoxious.
I decided to get Rainier100 3: Mineral's Micro Post Office first. There, we had to find the small structure which is the smallest Post Office in the United States, and answer questions off of the sign located at that site.
We filled in all of the questions and found the coords to the final. I stopped by a spot that grandma and I found the last time we were there, a really nice view of Mount Rainier and the lake. Mom took several pictures before we moved on into finding the final.
I looked at where the coords were for the final to Rainier100 4: Flying Saucers?!? (GC6HN6M) so we didn't have to do a lot of back and forth in Mineral. Plus, we really didn't have a lot of time to waste.
They both were about a mile from each other. The final for the post office was near the Mineral Cemetery. We parked at the cemetery because the coords were leading us there. Turns out they were on the outside of the cemetery along the tree line. We corrected ourselves and found our prize. There was a guy at the cemetery, we guessed morning for his son who was killed in Iraq, because of what day it was. We could have been wrong too. It just was the likely scenario.
We scooted down the road to the final for Flying Saucers. That one was at the sign for the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad and Museum. We found the cache pretty quickly and put it back. This is also where the virtual was for MSR Silver (GC12B2) but the place was closed while they got ready for the polar express train rides for the winter. I will have to come back to Mineral again once the museum opens.
We left Mineral and drove south on Hwy 7 towards Morton and got onto Hwy 12. We had 25 miles to go so we ate our lunch of sandwiches, chips and apples while we drove to the next cache.
We quickly grabbed Rainier100 4: Blue Star Memorial (GC6NPVC) in Randle before we went into the Gifford Pinchot forest for the others. The hint threw me off. It said large rock so I went to the large rock. No cache. Mom stayed in the Escape and watched me wander around all the rocks looking for the container. I finally found it and it wasn't next to what I would call a "large rock" but nonetheless I found it, got the code word off of the lid, signed our names and got back into the Escape to head into the forest.
We headed up FR25 to get two of the caches on our list. The last time I came out this way was with Bob and Bev Fall of 2012 to grab a few caches. I put the coords into the Nuvi but ended up putting a number in wrong somewhere and ended up going 17 miles the wrong way into the Gifford Pinchot without getting a cache.
I felt dumb because we wasted a good half hour of our daylight but we did take some cool pictures of the river and some of the dense forest plus we were able to use the restroom as well.
Went back down the hill to get Rainier100 4: Iron Creek (GC6NPTX). Since it was a camping area and that the gate closed after Labor Day we had to park on the road and walk in. The trailhead was easy to spot and it was pretty straight forward. We walked right to the cache site and found the container. It was quick and simple but had to run back because I forgot the code on the lid. Doh!
Rainier100 2: Woods Creek Trail (GC63QNQ) was a little further down the hill on the same forest road. I took a picture of a woodpecker and then followed the trail to the small bridge and where the cache was hidden. We were on a time/darkness crunch so we hurried back.
We got to a cut off that would take us to FS23 to get Rainier100 1: Layser Cave (GC5VDWV), we were so stoked to see a cave. We parked up at the top of the trailhead and walked down. We saw two guys and asked where the cave was. They said right around the corner. We found the cache and then headed to the cave, which was like 50 feet from the cache site. Mom slipped down a hill and got her pants dirty. We admired the view of Mount Adams before we went back to the vehicle.
We rushed back down the hill so we could get the last one in the Randle area before it got dark. We had been to this spot once before. They must have archived it to put Rainier100 3: Hopkins Creek Falls (GC6KA2F) out in its spot. Mom stayed in the car while I ran and got it really quick. There was more water coming down the falls this time. I quickly ran back so we could start heading back towards home.
We started our drive back home. I stopped in Morton to get some gas. Mom wanted a hamburger and I told her that there really wasn't anything out this way especially mom and pop burger joints. I suggested Harold's in Chehalis/Centralia. She gave them a call to see how late they were open...til 7. We had some time to get there.
We talked about work, Thanksgiving, Christmas, sports and other stuff as we made our way to I-5. Ben called me as he was heading home when we got to Napavine. I talked to him for a little bit and then had to go because we were almost to Harolds. We both ordered the burger and shakes. Ate in the parking lot.
Headed back to Rainier to drop mom off and then I went home afterwards. It was nice to clean up and relax before bedtime.
Next Adventure: Heading out to Seabrook for the Weekend
I went to work and when I was done I saw the weather was awesome for a fall November day. I could have worn shorts. I grabbed a few things at the store before I wandered around the Hawks Prairie area clearing out the newer caches I haven't gotten yet.
The first one, Travelin' Stan's First Can (GC6R0B3), was behind the Walmart. I had no idea there was a small "greenbelt" area between Walmart and the neighborhood. It had a sidewalk and lights and even a rock wall. I'm sure a lot of people bring their dog here to poop. I watched where I stepped. The coords were off a bit and I had to look at the hint before I found it next to a tree with bark over the top of it.
I drove less than a quarter of a mile to the next one. Quick Stop (GC6RWDP) was near the Chinese Buffet and the Big Lots parking lot. I parked where I thought it would be and walked. The coords were off, took me right to the middle of the parking lot, I read the name of it again and knew where to look. It was a small nano cache with a point on the bottom of it and they tucked it into one of the holes in the stop sign. I found some room on the log sheet and signed my initials. I had to wait for a few cars to pass before I could put it back.
I checked the app to see where the next one was. I've had my eye on Marvin Road, Exit 111, Travel Bug Hotel (GC65ZGV) for the past couple months but either didn't have enough time to get it, it was dark or pouring down rain. I knew there was a better day to go get it hoping that it wasn't muggled or archived before I could get it. It was on the side lot next to the Mayan Mexican Restaurant. I parked pretty close to it and noticed all of the garbage people left behind. There were a few TV's, a couch, trash sprinkled all around, glass and car parts. What a great place for a cache right? I found the cache. signed my name and got out of there as quick as I could.
Speedbumps (GC6G2D9) took me over to the Costco. I thought the hide would be harder than it was. The difficulty was a joke because the bakery was nearby and it might be hard finding the cache while smelling fresh bread and or doughnuts. I smelled the bakery as I got out of the Escape. The cache was easy to find and there was a bonus inside, a pathtag from the last people who found the cache. It's been a while since I found a pathtag inside of a cache. It was pretty cool actually. I signed my name and put it back. No muggles were around surprisingly.
I drove over towards River Ridge High School to the small forested area. I've found caches in the past here before. They've all been archived since then. I parked the car across the street at an apartment complex and ran across the street. I didn't think the Presidential Suite: A Travel Bug Hotel (GC6TXP6) cache would take me very long to find. Turns out the coordinates bounced all over the place. I had to read the hint. It was going to be next to a bush...but which one? I scoured as fast as I could because the mushroom farm poop smell was pretty ripe. After about 7ish minutes I finally found the darn thing. I thought it was appropriate since today we find out who our new president was.
I thought I had some time to find two more. Since it gets dark an hour earlier now I had to hurry. Plus I wanted to leave the area before everyone got off of work at 5. There were two more in the direct area that weren't too far apart. I got crappy signal before I could use the hint to find Pam's Silver Bullet (GC5YKRM). So I had to just guess where it could be. I made a pretty good educated guess and found it very quickly. I didn't have to be there that long.
The last one was less than a half a mile away near some houses at the edge of a cul-de-sac. Not For Fire (GC678XT) I originally thought might be a fake sprinkler head or a fire hydrant. Nope, it was a fake log next to a small tree. It was a quick find, sign and place back. I walked back to the Escape and made my way home before traffic got insane.
Then the election stuff was out of control. I really didn't think Trump would get elected but he did. I hope the next four years we don't regress in all of the progress we've made. I would like to see Obamacare disappear though. Four years is so long, ugh.
Next Adventure: Veteran's Day Rainier100 Caching in Lewis County
