Tacoma Rainier's Game with Yelm Dental

A few days ago mom asked us if we wanted to go to a Tacoma Rainier's game.  I haven't been to one since the last time I went with Yelm Dental back in 2008.  Mom wasn't sure how many tickets she would be able to get, where we were sitting or who was going to go exactly.  She said we would know basically the day before.  I told Erika and Ben to keep that day open so they could go too.

I had some extra time for work so I took off two hours, grabbed some Maconis Subs for everyone and went home to get ready to leave for the game.  I knew traffic through Tacoma would suck unless you were lucky.  I had everyone meet at mom's office and I told them I would drive because no one wanted to and I had the bigger vehicle.  We didn't leave until almost 4:30.  I just wanted to get on the freeway before it got too horrible.

Surprisingly the freeway wasn't that bad.  I was shocked and so was everyone else.  Right around the Tacoma Mall area some lady tried to merge into us without looking so I laid on the horn and probably scared her.  That's what you get when you don't know how to drive.  We got off at the Hwy 16 exit towards the Narrows Bridge but took the Cheney Stadium exit and navigated our way to the parking entrance.  I do not remember having to pay to park here.  Luckily someone had some cash on them.

We found a place to park and I finished my sub sandwich before we went in.  I didn't like buying outrageously overpriced food at games unless it's Ivar's at Mariner games.  We got in and they gave us booklets with the starting line up and some information in it.  Just a few feet away, one of the players were signing autographs. Sam Gaviglio #22, who was from Ashland, Oregon, played 12 games for the Mariners before he returned to the Rainiers.  I gave him my book, he signed it and told him thank you.  Dad, surprisingly, gave him his book for an autograph too.  I laughed.

We checked our tickets and made our way to our seats...or lack thereof seats.  We were on the grass?!  What?  Mom should have told us before leaving our house so we could bring a blanket with us.  Ugh lame!  We sat on the grass on the right field side.  I made sure to bring my mitt just in case we got a foul ball.  We were all so disappointed our seats were on the grass especially since a lot of the seats were empty by game time.

Everyone else started showing up just as the first pitch was thrown.  Carrie brought her slew of grandkids who were visiting for the summer, Amy, Josh and Kaitlin came, Dr. Smith, his wife and all of their kids came, Dr. Blackner, his wife and kids came, Jared and his boy came and one of the new front office people came with her kids.  So a lot of kids running around.

We struck first in the first inning and as a spectator I thought they were going to keep it up because it looked promising.  Around the third inning is when the Utah Bees broke it open and we never saw the lead again.  The pitcher struggled in the 5th and 6th inning when the Bees added to their lead 7-1.  Since it was a work night and I had to get up early the next day, mom decided to stay until about the 7th inning.  There really was no way the Rainier's were going to win.  Our pitching was terrible and got worse when they changed midway through the game.  I was okay with it.  I really doubted that we would come back in the 8th or 9th to win it.  If we did shame on us.

I check the score on the way home.  We lost 8-1 but we made it back to Yelm at somewhat of a decent time.  We dropped everyone off at the office and headed back to Lacey.  It was a fun outing even though we had to sit on the grass without a blanket and we lost.  Oh well.  We got home just before 10:30, I got in a shower really quickly and headed to bed.  This summer has gone by way too fast.  I am not ready for fall or winter or spring.

Next Adventure:  Labor Day:  An Ocean Shores Adventure

The Great American Eclipse

 The Great American Eclipse, dubbed by the media, was the first solar eclipse to span across the contiguous United States since June 8, 1918.  At the time I didn't realize how awesome of an experience this would be and I should have driven to Oregon to see it but I didn't.  Where we were located, we were only able to see 94% of it. The moon will begin to cover the sun at 9:07 a.m. with the maximum coverage happening at 10:19 a.m. The sun will be completely uncovered again at 11:38 a.m.

Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article165752187.html#storylink=cpy

When we were in Bend during July's vacation, we noticed tons of signs, billboards, campsites and stores that were marketing the solar eclipse.  This as really going to be a big deal.  Several campsites already were booked up months ago.  While we were there, I always pick up travel magazines and brochures just because I could and some of them give you really good information about the area you are visiting.  Since I already had my legit eclipse glasses I decided to order some for Ben through Travel Oregon.  They were suppose to be here within 6 weeks of when I ordered it, which was plenty of time before the main event on August 21st.

That day at work everyone was pretty excited for the eclipse.  My work unit actually blocked off a 1.5-hour block to go watch it from 9:15 to 10:45.  A group of us went out there to go start watching.

It was a clear and warm summer day.  It was suppose to be in the 80's.  We sat there on the grass watching the progression of the eclipse.  It's been a long time that I could remember that I've been able to watch a solar eclipse.  The last one I could remember I was at least 9 or 10 and we were in Tenino at a Girl Scout function.  As a kid, when they talked about it, made it sound like the end of the world and I was actually frightened.  It wasn't a total eclipse in our area but we were handed out the special glasses so we could watch it.  They were very serious about wearing the glasses instead of with the naked eye.  When we all didn't die I thought differently of solar eclipses.

About 9:45 we were joined by the rest of our team that wanted to come out and watch. 

We all tried taking pictures through our glasses with our phones but were not that successful.  This was the only decent one we got.

At the time of "totality" I was disappointed I was not down in Oregon watching the main event, instead, I was out on the lawn watching 94% of it covered.  It would have been awesome to see the complete totality and experience night in the middle of the day.  We have another opportunity in Texas in 2024 that we might go down and see.  It depends on where we are in our life at that point.

As it was getting closer, you could feel the temperature drop and the sky turn this orangey color.  It was a really weird experience.  At the moment of "totality" the temperature had to have dropped 20 or so degrees and I was glad I was wearing my vest because I got cold.  It was fun to experience it but again, I wish I would have been down in the path.  I just really didn't want to be there with buttloads of people and traffic.  I hate traffic.

We all went back inside around 10:30 and went back to July enrollment.  On the way back inside, I noticed crescents all over the sidewalks.  The tree leaves acted like a perfect pinhole for the light to shine through.  I thought it was cool.

Meanwhile, mom did not get any eclipse glasses and everyone came over to our house while I was at work to watch the eclipse with Ben's Oregon eclipse glasses.  They all shared one pair in the back yard.  When it was over they all went home.  Ben texted me this and I thought it was random.

Here are some pictures of totality from Oregon:

Next Adventure:  Tacoma Rainiers with Yelm Dental

Mission 9: Tunnel of Light, It's Back and My 11,000 Cache Milestone

The day before Ben and I grabbed the caches that we needed to set myself up for my milestone.  One of the three we picked up was on our way to get on the freeway at the RAC.  We pulled into a parking spot and hustled over to where I knew it was hiding.  Summer Fun #2: Water Pistols...Undercover!!! (GC77M8D) was hidden in an obvious spot if you were a geocacher looking for it, if you were a muggle you would probably overlook it.

When I got to 10,998 I stopped and waited for Saturday's event which would be 10,999, followed by my 11,000th cache at Mission 9.

We got up around 7 so we could leave by 8:30 to give us enough time to get there.  Of course Ben laid in bed until the last possible minute.  I got ready, got my stuff together and ate some eggs in toast, waiting patiently for Ben to get up.  When he finally did he was rushed.  He ate some eggs and toast and put together some snacks for our upcoming hike through the tunnel.  He made a few sandwiches, PB and honey, baby carrots and water.  I brought a Lunchable, apple sauce and water.  I made sure we brought our ape tag.

I kept calling mom to see where they were.  Erika was also going to join us but she got home from the Seahawk game with her friend "Murse" too late last night and had no desire to do anything.  Mom said they should be there soon and neglected to tell me where they were.  I really wanted to leave at 8:30.

Mom and dad finally got there around 9 and now we had to hustle.  I drove with Ben, mom and dad and Trish and Amy followed us because there wasn't enough room for everyone in the Escape.  I chose poorly on what way I decided to get onto 410.  I ended up turning around and going the long way.  At this rate we could make it by 10:30.  Ugh!  I really wanted to be there somewhat early.  Next year, if I go, I am not bringing everyone.

We got to the top of Tiger Summit and had to slam on our brakes.  I have never been stopped here and I drove Hwy 18 a lot while I was in college.  It was slow getting onto I-90 but picked up through North Bend.  Of course dad needed to stop and use the restroom so we stopped in North Bend, the busiest exit on I-90.  Getting in and out of there was a nightmare...especially in the summer time.  Now I was going to be even later, ugh.  I stopped at the McDonald's and everyone used the restroom as quickly as they could.

About 15 minutes later we were back on I-90 trying to get to Hyak as fast as we could.  From North Bend to past Denny Creek it slowed down and traffic was condensed to only two lanes.  Since people have no idea how to actually merge and use their blinkers or wait too long and cut everyone off when their lane ends.  I was so irritated on how everyone was driving and it was terrible.  We were now going to be super late.

When we finally got to Hyak it was 11:00; an hour after the event started.  We had to use the overflow parking lot and of course the overflow lot was being manned by that moron Derek on a bike.  He only volunteered to make himself look important.  We grabbed the stuff we would need and walked to the event site.  I saw many people I knew.  I talked to Annette and her husband, saw Ben and Jayme, talked to JCar, visited with McMorrow and his wife, saw the FugeFinders, Sproutter and walked over to get our Ape coin from finding a tag.  That was being manned by Blue Canoe, so we talked to her for a little while.  Everyone else used the restroom while I talked to people I knew.  I felt like I missed a lot by getting there really late.  We signed the ape to make sure we were there and logged the event.  I was obnoxious and wrote our names really big in the middle of the poser board.

Everyone was getting restless so we started walking to the entrance of the tunnel.

We talked to Lisa and her husband KidVegas, took a picture and started our hike in.  Like I have mentioned previously, I've been through the tunnel at least four times throughout the years.  I was dressed pretty warm since the tunnel year-round is pretty chilly.  Just a few steps in, mom found a passport someone had dropped and gave it to me as a souvenir. It had a lot of information about the ape cache, the history, the hunt, a map, you name it.  

Amy, up until the Fen Dweller, was attached the Trish, pulling her along pretty quickly.  That morning we told Amy about the ape in the tunnel.  We tried our hardest to convince her that he lived there and would pop out when you're least expecting it.  She was trying to ignore us but deep down she wondered.  Throughout the first 2.5 miles in the tunnel we talked about an array of stuff.  Amy definitely was surprised by the ape but she wouldn't openly admit it.

When we got to the other side, I was so stoked that the ape cache, Mission 9: Tunnel of Light (GC1169), was finally ready to be found again.  The cache is a Project APE cache, hidden with permission for the Planet of the Apes Promotion in 2001.  Moun10Bike and Jeremy were the original covert placers, the cache is now maintained by WSGA.  When the cache was placed, it contained a torch from the movie.  The description below was the original description for the cache:

"This mission is not going to be an easy one.  The hike will not be as scenic as some of the other missions, but you'll be on a great adventure.  You'll need to wear a good pair of waterproof boots or an old pair of sneakers.  A flashlight is necessary, even if you go during the day.

This is a creepy, historical and very cool spot.  Be ready for a unique hike, but beware because in parts you'll be sitting ducks for the authorities.  So move fast and keep a good eye on your back to make sure you're not tailed.  Good luck!"

Alas, our beloved APE cache (and unique icon) was stolen and archived in 2011.  In November 2016, a small band of cachers took up the challenge to located the stolen container.  The original container (and subsequent lost ones) was found about 300 feet down the hill and abandoned in the bushes, with some of the original swag still inside.  With Groundspeak's blessing and the input of the community, the last APE cache in North America will be unarchived and reinstated in its place of honor in time for our even and allow you to once again find the unique icon...

...without having to go to Brazil.

This was posted to the November 11, 2016 Geocaching Blog:

In April of this year, cachers Winos_Seattle and rambudo met up with Geocaching HQ co-founder Bryan Roth.  As they chatted, the subject of the lost Project APE cache came up.  Winos_Seattle wondered if the container could possibly be found.  Over the years, some have speculated  that it's unlikely that whoever muggled the heavy container would have carried it nearly two miles back to the nearest parking area.  Perhaps they simply removed it from its location and discarded it nearby?

(I originally thought this was the case and talked about it with several people over the course of the six years and nothing was done about it until 2016).

After hiking to the tribute cache, the recovery group split into three teams assigned to one of the three plausible zones and spread out down the hill.  Equipped with tow-way radios, one team quickly located what turned out to be muggled tribute cache containers.  The other teams found a variety of swag and logbooks, including ones with signatures from 2011 and 2014 (likely from the tribute cache.)

Following an extensive and courageous effort, a joyous call eventually came over the radio, "We think we found the original container!" Down hill in the woods below the original cache location, behind a tree with the open end of the container facing down, was the Mission 9:  Tunnel of Light cache.  Distinguished by stickers affixed to the inside, as well as some Planet of the Apes trading cards, the cache had fared remarkably over the years.  Thank you to both the recovery team and Groundspeak for making the unique project Ape cache icon possible in North America again!

The day before it was released for the rest of the geocaching world to know, Winos_Seattle messaged me on Facebook and basically told me what the teaser was about.  He told me not to tell anyone that they found the original Ape cache container.  I knew he probably told others and could not help himself.  I told him this was a big deal and I was looking forward to log it when they figured out what they were going to do with it.

I've waited six years to finally find this cache and I could not wait to get there.

We continued the half a mile to the container I have been waiting to find.  When we rounded the corner I noticed a gigantic line!  We had to wait in a line to find this cache?!  What?!  This was the first time I waited in line for a cache, ever.  Ben, Amy and I waited in line while Trish, mom and dad sat on a long nearby and ate their lunch.  We probably stood in line for at least a half hour.  A group of guys in front of us were from North Carolina and talked about all kinds of stuff.  Antoine (Winos_Seattle) chatted with a bunch of people, when we got to him, we visited with him as well.  He probably told his search and rescue story at least 200+ times today.

They sent the logbook down the line so people could just sign it to avoid a bigger hold up at the actual cache site.  I signed my name and added "this is my 11,000th cache!"  I can't believe I've only found 1,000 caches since the same weekend back in 2015.  I've definitely slowed down since my life got busy with work and other stuff.  It frustrated me because I didn't have the time like I used to but on the other hand, I was making money and getting rid of my student loan debt.

When it was our turn with the cache I had Ben take a few pictures with my phone.  Mom was suppose to take some pictures with her camera but she didn't get over there in time.  I gave her a bad time about it.

After our turn at the cache, we walked back to where mom, dad and Trish set up camp.  We all thought we should use the restroom before walking the 2.5 miles back to the event.  We had to stand in another line to use the restroom.  I was in and out quickly, followed by Trish, Amy and mom.  Ben went and found the other caches in the area that I found back in 2011.  We all gathered at the tunnel entrance and headed in.

It took us less time walking back than it did walking there.  Amy still was on edge waiting for Fen Dweller to sneak up and scare her.  We just laughed.  I walked with Trish most of the time through the tunnel.  She talked about how she was happy she decided to come with us.  Of course when we got back to the other side I found people to talk with.  While I talked to Nikki, dad went and found the bathroom...on the way there he found a diaper in the parking lot and decided to tell the park ranger about it.  We just laughed.

I told everyone we were going to stop in Issaquah so we could go to the Triple XXX Rootbeer Drive-In.  I've heard great things about the rootbeer.  I had Trish follow me.  I followed the Nuvi because I did remember that it was off of I-90 but couldn't remember exactly where it was.  It was off the main drag.  We were lucky to find two parking places because the place was packed!  This place also hosts vintage car shows.

The place also takes just cash so I had to get some out of the cash machine.  I paid for mine and Ben's.  We found a place to sit and there we hung out and looked at the menus.  I ordered their 56 F-100 which was the basic cheese burger and fries.  I ordered one of their rootbeers as well.  We surprisingly didn't wait that long.  Trish and Amy ordered chicken burgers, Ben got a bacon burger and mom and dad split the same burger and fries I got.  Several of us had water and rootbeer.  The food wasn't as good as Harold's and Eagan's but their rootbeer was pretty tasty.  We paid and headed the back way onto Hwy 18 so we could get to Bonney Lake.

We got back to Bonney Lake around 5ish.  Mom and dad took a quick tour of Trish's house and used the restroom before heading back to Rainier.  We got cleaned up, had a late dinner and passed out after watching a movie. 

We were going to go see Ben's grandma in Auburn for a bit the next day followed by some disc golf at Game Farm.  The weekend goes by so fast especially in the summer time.  It was an eventful weekend and I am glad I finally found that ape cache and I was lucky enough to make it a milestone.  Until the next time!

Next Adventure:  The Great American Eclipse

A Day Trip Towards My 11000th Cache Milestone

I had 10954 and needed 44 caches before the Going Ape event this next weekend.  I was trying to set myself up for my 11000th cache having the Mission 4:  Tunnel of Light cache as the milestone.  Several years ago I went to my first Ape event in 2011 and found out that cache that we wanted went missing so we had to find the "replacement" that didn't give you the highly sought after icon.  We kept going every August in hope that they found the cache or made a new one so people could get the icon.

This year was finally the year I could get the cache that has been on my list since I started geocaching.  I read about it in my first geocaching book I got for Christmas in 2010.  I will talk about the Ape cache more in my next post.

I took Monday off because I needed to recover from my relay for life weekend and set aside a day to get a bunch of caches somewhere.  I did some looking and the best area we could do that in was along I-5 in Cowlitz county.  Our friend Frida, who passed away last spring, put a series of caches together along the roads that paralleled I-5.  I've done some here and there with Bob and Bev over the years but waited to get the rest of them.

I told Ben what the plan was and I wanted to leave somewhat early so we would have enough time to get the ones we needed.  I got out a yellow legal note pad and it was Ben's job to jot down the ones we found so we can keep a visual count since I don't log them on my phone as I go (it would take too long.)  I looked at the map and we were going to start at the Winlock/Toledo exit and drive as far south as we could until we got the amount we needed.

I got up around 7:30 so I could go to Kaiser for my first round of travel vaccinations.  My appointment was at 8:30.  I left around 8 and got there early.  I filled my prescriptions while I waited.  I probably sat for less than 5 minutes and picked them up.  I walked back to the injection room and they got me back immediately.  I got a tetanus and Hep A & B all in less than a minute.  I was done with my appointment before my appointment even started.  I got home and told Ben to get out of bed.  I made eggs, toast and bacon and we left around 9:30.  We brought snacks and drinks with us and depending on where we stopped we would eat dinner somewhere on the way back home.  We arrived at our first cache around 10:50.  Camoed along I-5 just for your Fun, #66 in Series (GC5JQD2) was a pretty easy first find right off of Knowles Road.

I-5 "Hockey Puck" (GC1HFBM) was a cache that I should have found years ago.  It's been around since 2008 and I think I tried to get Bob and Bev to stop one time but since they had it they didn't want to stop so I could get it so it just waited for me to finally find it.  Ben and I got out of the Escape and knew it was going to be on the guardrail somewhere.  The coords were off so we just started checking every inch of that guardrail.  I eventually found it and it was a gross rusty Altoid can.  I was hoping the container was a hockey puck and was very disappointed when it wasn't.

We followed the road and found a few more of Freda's caches.  She was always known for her cute caches.  Most of them had a theme and/or a toy of some sort attached to it.  Mama Bear, read me a story~ #37 in I-5 series (GC41EZ3) was one of those adorable caches that just make you smile when you find it.

We followed State Route 506 all the way to Vader and picked up a few more and had a sad DNF in a place where it shouldn't have been missing.  I haven't been to Vader since I came with Bob and Bev back in 2012 when we did the Barnes Drive caches with Barwright/Hoofprints and their dog.  That really seems like forever ago.  A lot more have been added to the area since then.  When we got to Vader, we picked up Little Crane (GC4AFV6) and History of Vader (GC4AFNE).  The history of Vader was located near a really cool building that has been here since the town was built.  We found the cache and then drove to the town's mural, which was also pretty cool, to get a picture of it.

Ben and I ended up heading south towards Castle Rock for the next few.  One of them, placed by Freda, was missing and it was a really cool spot so we replaced it for her.  I didn't know if her daughters replaced her caches or not.  We made sure to add a note to the cache page so future cachers knew that it wasn't the original or replaced by the cache owner.

AMERICANA:Rural Unfurled (GC4AGQE) was a quick pull off on a side road.  It was near a pond but the coordinates were really off and had me doing some bush whacking.  I did some reading and found out it was suppose to be a park and grab.  I checked closer to the road and found it instantly.  There was a cool view of a barn with an American flag square on it from the cache site.

The Westside Highway paralleled the Cowlitz River and there were several caches I didn't have so if they were quick and have been found in the last few months we stopped and attempted to find it.  We found a hilly side road that led up to some logging roads.  I thought these ones would be pretty easy to get to.  After the first two, we sort of gave up on the rest since no one has found them over the past few months.  We were short on time and had a quota to fill.  We drove back down to the main road and continued south.

When we arrived outside of Castle Rock I noticed I didn't have a few of them.  I was here last with Bob in late 2013 when we came to get some puzzle caches we solved and a few in the area he hadn't gotten yet.  I noticed one that was an easy park and grab off of a side road.  Texas Memory (GC4P5R0) was a tricky one if you hadn't seen these types before.  I've been around a while and have seen these types of hides so it was an easy quick find for us.

We drove through town and missed our turn to get a cache up on the walking trail along the river so we had to turn around.  I noticed someone had made the yellow blockade poles into Minions.  We found a place to flip a U and made our way back to the small park.  We found a parking spot and I had to go take a picture with the Minions.  The Spot the Ape tags had started at the end of June and this spot was featured with a tag.  Ben and I ended up getting a tag of our own in Dupont a few weeks ago.

Back to the middle of town we went because I was interested to find out about Jailhouse Rock (GC47D0G).  We parked near the small park and walked towards the tiny cement jail.  I found out it was built in 1907 and was used up until the 1940's.  Next to the building is a souvenir of a dredge they used to scoop up ash from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.  Both were really cool!  I found out where the cache was and cringed because a muggle was sitting basically in front of it.  We loitered around for a bit and the guy didn't move.  Dang it!  We were going to have to tell him about it.  We spent a good half hour explaining it as we found the container.  Apparently the guy is a wanderlust and travels around the Pacific Northwest.  He's got a brother who lives in Castle Rock.  To me he seemed like one of those pot head who mooched off of people but he was nice nonetheless.  He talked to us about Pokémon Go.  We signed the cache and put it back and wished him luck on his travels.

We found a stretch of road, Bond Road, south of Castle Rock that paralleled the east side of I-5.  We grabbed at least 12 of Freda's series.  Majority of them were pretty easy but we did come across a few of them we couldn't find, which got frustrating, because we were out for numbers instead of views or cool caches.  It got really hard getting a bunch of caches in a row because they were either missing or we really could not find them.  There were several really hard ones that we had to give up on because of how much time we had.

One of those caches, Ship Ahoy Mate-27 in the I-5 series (GC40YPX) just made me smile.  I miss Freda so much.  It was really hard finding her caches knowing she wasn't here anymore to enjoy putting more cute caches out, going to events and hanging out.

We stopped just before we got to Kelso and moved on to the west side of the freeway and found some caches along Pleasant Hill Road back up towards Castle Rock.  We stopped at Gnome Home @ the Grange (GC5XT0P).  I knew it involved a gnome of some sort.  My phone was dying quickly and I had to pinpoint where the cache was before it died.  Unfortunately, there was a car in the parking lot and I knew someone was going to come out and ask us what we were doing.  I found it, signed it and put it back and walked back towards the grange.  Indeed, some lady came out and introduced herself.  We introduced ourselves and she thought we left something behind at the grange and that's why we were there.  We explained that we were geocachers and we were here to find the cache near the trees out back.  She told us that she said some nice people came to ask for permission to place it years ago.  I told her I might know who those people were.  She thanked us for talking to her and explaining what we were doing.  We told her to have a nice day.

We found a few more to make our total 41 for the day.  I wanted 44 but we settled for 41.  We would have to pick up the rest on Friday on the way to Trish's house.  I asked Ben if he wanted dinner at Papa Pete's in Castle Rock.  He said sure.  We stopped there because that was the place we first met Freda and we thought it was appropriate after finding a bunch of her caches.

We went inside and we looked at the menu and ordered a large meat pizza with olives and some drinks.  I immediately found a plug in because my phone had it for the day.  It was on like 3%.  It wasn't that busy so we got our food pretty quickly.  We ate most of the pizza and brought some of it home for leftovers for lunch the next day.

On the way home we called Trish and talked to her for a bit.  She told us about her day since we just saw her that weekend at relay and we told her about our day geocaching down by Castle Rock and why we were finding a bunch of them.  She was thinking about joining us at Snoqualmie for the Ape event this next weekend.  I told her it would be fun and she should.

We got home around 8, logged some of my caches, got cleaned up and put my stuff out for work the next day.  I am glad we got a large chunk done so I could set myself up nicely for my 11,000th milestone at the ape cache on Saturday.  Bring it on!

Next Adventure:  Mission 9:  Tunnel of Light, It's Back and My 11,000 Cache Milestone

SE Thurston County Relay for Life and Blitz!

This year was extremely busy when it came to fundraising and being involved in relay for life.  Last September I joined the leadership team as the social media coordinator and it was my responsibility to post events, pictures and information to our Facebook and Instagram account.  It sounded harder than you think especially when you really had no idea what kinds of stuff your lead wanted you to post.  Obviously she knew more than I did and she had to be patient as I learned more and more of it and what stuff was relevant.

Mom's Yelm Dental team combined with the Blue Brigade team which consisted of about five more people so it made it easier to fundraise.  This year we did our 5k and did really well, we tried to have a dart night but couldn't line it up with a date at the bar, we sold baked goods, sold food at the actual relay event and had a basket at the bowling fundraiser in March.  This year we did pretty well but we also had more people on our team helping out.

As a member of leadership, I learned a lot about what happened behind the scenes and where the ideas came from.  We met once a month at the bowling alley.  We discussed all kinds of things.  I can't believe it all came together at the end.  Running something like that takes an awful amount of work and dedication.

A few months beforehand, everyone decided that a cardboard car competition would be a great idea.  There were only a few rules and they seemed easy enough.  Mom wanted Ben and I to make a car for her.  We started about two weeks before it needed to be done.  We decided on a Seahawk themed stock car type cardboard car.  I borrowed a wagon from Grammie as the base.  Ben's idea was better than it started out as.  He got frustrated and I got frustrated.  Mom and dad made fun of us.  After a few days we got the basic shape down but we were having a hard time keeping it from being saggy.  I didn't think it was going to be that big either.

Since Erika was home now, she came home halfway into the car's production, she thought it sucked and took matters into her own hands.  She basically reshaped the entire car with zip ties and scissors.  It actually looked more like a stock car instead of a hydroplane.  We put some blue and green spray paint on it, along with the relay for life pink ribbons, our team's name and some Seahawk stickers.  We took it a step further by putting some head and tail lights and a real license plate on it.  It was LEGIT!  We were so going to win.

I took Friday and the Monday off because I knew I would be very tired getting ready for this weekend long event and staying up for 24 hours.  That Friday we took all of our stuff and our cardboard car to our spot on the football field.  We set up the tents and our pop up just so we didn't have to do it the next day when it was really busy.

The next day I got there around 10 and helped mom with the rest of the set up.

The weather was really nice but I heard that it was suppose to rain and I hoped it waited until after we were done the next day.  We sold ice cream, did Plinko and the other half of our team was selling ribs, potato salad, beans  Grandma, Trish, Erika and Ben joined in around noonish.  Everyone unloaded their stuff, set up their chairs and started walking. 

They had a DJ for the entire time, activities each hour, plenty of food and activities to keep you busy.  They had Rita Hutchinson, a long time resident of SE Thurston county and the fire chief, share her story as a guest speaker.  She is a cancer survivor. 

Anything from water balloon toss to goofy hat laps around the track to the Seahawk's mascot Blitz coming and visiting for an hour.

Yes, Blitz the Seahawk came to Rainier.

A few hours before he was suppose to come one of the leadership crew came up to me and told me that she has gotten the Seahawks to agree to donate his time.  He was suppose to be here at 5 but I wasn't suppose to post anything to bring people to the track until we knew he was in transit.  That was around 2ish and she had me post a blip about it on the relay for life Facebook page.  We were hoping it would bring more people.

When Blitz arrived Ben and I were in a rousing game of enormous Jenga.  Blitz came around the track with a herd of people.  When he got to us there were only a few more moves left of the game.  Blitz stood there with his hand on his chin trying to decide which one he wanted to pull.  He stood there contemplating for a good while.  I didn't think he had a move.  Out of nowhere, he grabs one of the blocks, pulls it out very quickly, sets it on top and walks away.  Ben and I, with our mouths open, look at each other like, what just happened?

"We just played Jenga with Blitz!!  Who can actually say that?!"

We continued our game until he came back.  This time with an audience he ran into the table on purpose to make it fall then pretended to act like he was very defeated and ashamed he let all the blocks fall on the ground.  It was definitely entertaining.

We even got a chance to show him our Seahawks cardboard box stock car and he took a picture with us. He continued walking around, giving people high fives and eventually everyone got organized and who ever wanted to got to take a picture with him. 

After pictures we had a tug of war competition with him.  Ben and I decided to join in against Blitz just for fun.  Our team ended up winning.  We all thanked him for coming out to hang out with us for an hour and he was gone just as quickly as he arrived.

I walked laps with Trish and Ben while we waited to show off our cardboard car and race it.  We saw there were only four participants and we were going to wipe the floor with them.  They announced they needed everyone participating in the car show lap to be at the starting line. 

Ben and I got our car and headed to the starting line with Trish and Erika and we walked around the track showing off our cardboard cars.  When we got back to the inflatable arch we were to get our cardboard cars ready to race.  Ben was our racecar driver and I was at the finish line getting ready to take some pictures.  He pretty much smoked them all and the three girls under 12 were pretty sore losers.

Dad came and walked with us for a little while.  Erika went home after a while.  Grandma went home before dark because she doesn't like driving at night.

We pretty much ate dinner, walked around the track and tried to finish my luminaria bags before the ceremony at 10 p.m.  By around 8 p.m. I was almost to 10 miles and my feet were definitely hurting and you could feel the blisters starting to form but I wanted to get to at least 15 miles.  I usually did my best uninterrupted walking after midnight.

Just before 10 it started lightly sprinkling and everyone was trying to keep all the bags around the track lit.  This year relay was changed to the next weekend because of the flat track races.  Last year the noise interrupted the ceremony and leadership didn't want that to happen again.  Also this year the ceremony featured a slide show of everyone who is currently fighting, survived or passed away due to cancer.  I totally forgot about the submission deadline but mom got all the people in we wanted to.  We stood out in the field and listened to the speakers while trying to will the rain away (even though our region needed it due to all the fires).  The bagpipes started and we all followed a lap around and attempted to keep our candles lit.  Mine didn't make it.

It started raining harder so our group retired to our covered sitting area trying to avoid getting wet and cold.  Mom's co-worker Amy came for a few hours in the middle of the night and stayed to hang out with us.  We talked about various things especially our upcoming trip to Ecuador in a very few short weeks.  Trish fell asleep in her chair. The rain continued for about four hours.  None of us got any walking time in during that part of the night.  I got tired around 4ish so I joined Ben inside our tent.  He laid down about an hour and a half before me.  I climbed in trying not to wake him up.

We got up just before 8 the next morning.  I heard people getting ready for food.  A group travels around each year volunteering their time and food to relay events.  This year they chose SE Thurston to make pancakes, eggs and sausage too.  It was very nice of them.  Ben, Trish and I ate at the closest table with empty chairs and enjoyed our food.  Shortly after I had about three more miles until I got to my goal of 15.  My feet were very angry but I had to get it done.

Those were very slow miles but on my last lap I was very excited to finish.  It was cold, wet but not raining.  I knew we had a lot of clean up after we were done and mom was going to be busy counting money in the trailer with Josh and Bri.  It was up to us to get it done.  We started with the pile of wet cardboard on the field.  We brought it just in case other people wanted to make a cardboard cars.  We had help putting it in the back of the truck to take to the recycle up the street.  When we came back, we took down the tents, the Plinko board, the awning and loaded it in to mom's truck.  We loaded our stuff into the Escape and told mom that we gave Ashley her truck keys because we were going to go home.

I could not wait to get home.  I was going to eat some food, shower and take a nap.  That nap sounded better than the rest of the stuff.  When we got home, we unloaded most of the stuff that needed to come in and left the rest for another day.  I literally did not want to do anything and I was glad I took Monday off.  I was going to need it.

Next year's relay begins now!

Next Adventure:  A Day Trip Towards My 11000th Cache Milestone