Old European, Aliens Among us and Heading Back to the West Side

We all got up around 8, mom and Trish got up earlier to shower and get ready for the day.  I made sure I had everything packed up and we took it all down to the Escape and attempted to restack everything in the back.  We all piled in and I had mom look for the address to the closest Old European while I went in to check out and get my receipt.  This time the front desk person was a lady and it was a quick two minutes of interaction.

We got the address put into the GPS and headed to Old European in Post Falls.  I told everyone that I hadn't been to an Old European since college.  The one in Pullman is very hard to get into therefore I never went except that one time with a few of my friends in the spring when it was less busy.  It was impossible to get into during the fall when we had home football games.  We pulled up, got a great parking spot and saw how many people were going in and out of the place.  We saw the waiting line and got scared.  Ugh, I wonder how long we'd have to wait?

Obviously not too long.  We were sat within 10 minutes of arriving.  They brought us coffee and other breakfast drinks that we ordered as we browsed the menu for our food.  I ordered the full meat goulash, Ben ordered the omelet stew and they gave us "ables" their form of hush puppies...kind of like pancake balls.  Mom ordered some eggs and sausage and Trish ordered an omelet as well but not hard core as Ben's man omelet.  We ate, visited and enjoyed our time.  Our waitress came by and dumped off our checks.  We paid on the way out.

We grabbed a few letterboxes on the way out of Idaho...mostly to finish the Planetary Pursuit challenge.  However, there is one cache I've had my eye on for years.  For some reason every time I was in Spokane I never had enough time to grab it.  Aliens Among Us (GC1N0B9) was hidden in 2009 and has been found over 400 times since it published.  I was really excited to go find it.  I asked everyone if they were done with Spokane and if we were ready to head home.  I-90 west we go!

Just before the Medical Lake/Cheney exit we got off and followed the coordinates onto a road that paralleled the interstate.  You could see the space ship as we got closer and closer.  We read the signs as we pulled in.  We really weren't sure where we were suppose to go so we parked on the side of the road and walked in.  The guy who lives here had some really cool stuff!  He came out because he saw us wandering around.  We asked him if he was open and he said yeah!  We told him why we were here.  Mostly for the geocache at his alien spaceship but we also wanted to look around because we've noticed his treasures from I-90 for years.  He said that he's had a lot of people stop by and find this cache and admire his stuff.  He even added that someone wrote about the cache and published it in a magazine.

Ben and I walked over and grabbed the cache while mom and Trish walked around the property looking at all of his stuff.  I knew it wasn't going to be in the spaceship but in the cairn of rocks in front of it.  It was an ammo can and I dropped a few trackables inside while Ben signed our names on the logbook.  We took a few pictures with the cache and the spaceship before putting the ammo can back and meeting up with Trish and mom.

The guy who owned the property headed back into his house while we walked around looking at his junk which were mostly statues.  Mom found a piece that she wanted to take home because honestly you will never seen anything like this again unless you made it yourself.  She found a Rat Fink statue and I was floored.  I thought I would never seen anything like this anywhere.  Mom wanted to buy it but only wanted to pay $50 for it instead of $60.  I told her she had to ask the guy if he was willing to sell it for less.  She knocked on the door and he came out.

He drove her in the golf cart over to the statue and then drove it back.  He asked us if Ben was interested in any guns and brought one out.  Ben wasn't in the market for one but enjoyed checking this one out anyway.  Mom paid full price for her statue because he gets his statues from Mexico.  The metal is melted down car parts.   Ben and I decided to walk around and check out the stuff since we missed it when we found the cache.

We thanked him once again for letting us come onto his property to check out the cache and his statues.  He said stop by anytime because he gets stuff shipped to him weekly.  We walked back to the Escape and headed back towards the freeway.  But first, I wanted to get a few more caches as we headed back to the west side.  The next stop was at the gas station just off the on ramp, the cache was called Third O'Fence (GC36BVY) and it was a pretty clever one.  It took Ben and I a bit to figure it out mostly because the coords were off.  Then I had an idea and was very glad the water wasn't higher than it was or we wouldn't have been able to grab it.

We got back onto I-90 and headed west for a while.  We put a few miles behind us and as we got closer to Sprague I asked everyone if they wanted to use the restroom at the upcoming rest area and everyone said yes.  Everyone got out and I headed over to the cache that was less than 500 feet away.  Sprague R&R (GC79DNM) was inside of a stump.  I walked right up to it, signed it and put it back the way I found it.  I walked back to the Escape and we got back onto I-90.

I had put in the next cache on my radar, Power Surge (GC11VF8) because it had a lot of favorite points and it was a good place to stop, get out and stretch our legs.  I was imagining something really cool so I had hoped it was since it did have like 40 favorite points.  We got to the off ramp, just west of Moses Lake, and followed the GPS to the location.  Because we were underneath the powerlines it made it difficult to see where we really had to go.  When it settled down we found the dirt road and drove up it until we couldn't go anymore.  There were sooo many tumbleweeds preventing us from going any further.  I parked, got out and walked the rest of the way.  I saw where ground zero was and pulled it out.  I really couldn't see why this cache had that many favorite points.  I was kinda disappointed.

We stopped two more times after we crossed the bridge into Vantage.  They were both park and grabs so I was the only one who got out and grabbed them and everyone else sat in the Escape and watched me.  Columbia Roll On (GC4CZ9D) and Simply Petrified (GC3P6V5) were both guardrail caches.

We got over the mountains really easy this time and got onto Hwy 18 towards Puyallup to drop off Trish at Korum.  When we got there she was totally ready to head home, get cleaned up and rest.  We tired the poop out of her this weekend, plus the bed we slept in probably didn't help either.  We helped her get her stuff into her car, thanked her for coming with us, handed out hugs and told her we had fun.  We headed back towards Rainier, dropped mom off and came home.  I was exhausted.  I had enough energy to unpack the Escape, get stuff ready for work the next day and take a shower.

My head hit the pillow and I was out light a light.

Next Adventure:  Retro:  Moving On

Titanic Artifact Exhibit, White Elephant Store, Stevens and Pend Oreille Counties and some Geocaching

After last night's banging episode, we managed to get up before 8 so we could start getting ready for our long day.  I told Trish and my mom that the check-in guy downstairs said that there was a free continental breakfast.  As Ben and I got the rest of our stuff ready, Trish and mom went down to the lobby to check it out.  They came back as soon as they left and said that there wasn't any food down there.  I was surprised because the guy said there was and it was very believable.  Why would he tell guests that there was food when there really wasn't?  That just adds to the "we will never ever stay here again" list we've compiled.

We ate the stash of bananas, protein bars and whatever else we had just to get us by because we weren't going to have time to sit and eat breakfast.  We had to be at the museum by 9ish so we could get a good spot in line and it was going to take a half hour to get to Spokane from where we were.  I chose the 10 a.m. time so we could get our museum time done in the morning and have the afternoon to just do without a time limit.  We made sure we had everything because we weren't coming back until we were done with out day and hopped into the Escape.  I plugged in the address to the museum because I had no idea where to go.

It took us to the west side of Spokane where the old houses were.  We found a parking spot near the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and discovered that we got there way too early.  Trish and Ben walked to the nearest coffee shop while mom and I stayed behind and walked around the museum's campus, we weren't coffee drinkers.

We saw some really interesting statues that really seemed out of place for a museum like this and some that did belong here.  One of them looked like a Goldfish cracker with legs.

We also walked down the street to see some of the old houses.  Several of them were pretty cool.

About a half hour later, Ben and Trish come walking up finishing the last few sips of their coffee.  They walk around a bit while I stand near the doorway.  I wanted to be the first group in just because I was that excited.  The museum crew told us it would be just a few minutes and then we could go in.  They all had to get into their spots and make sure everything was covered before they let the herd in.  Once the doors were unlocked we went to the check-in counter of people who pre-paid online.  She handed us a booklet and gave us replica boarding passes similar to the ones the actual passengers got when they boarded the Titanic.

I was given the boarding passes and so I handed them out.  We were suppose to check which actual passenger we got to experience their journey while on the Titanic and to see if we survived or not.  We flipped our passes over and I knew exactly who I was and I knew I went down with the ship.  I was Thomas Andrews, the ship's builder.  Trish, my mom and Ben were passengers ranging anywhere between first class and third class.  Out of the four of us, two of us survived and two of us didn't.  The layout was in chronological order.

• The ideas, ship's layout, the building of the Titanic, the workers, hardships and the materials
• Getting it fitted, the trials, the changes, the actual launch and the deadlines
• Preparations for the journey across the Atlantic, the passengers, the coal, the ship's crew
• When the Titanic left the Southampton shipyard and the two stops it made, Cherbourg and Queenstown to pick up more passengers and supplies
• The four days it spent at sea towards New York
• The events leading up to the iceberg and the sinking
• The sinking and those events that took place via artifacts and people's eye witness testimonies
• People's actual belongings and pieces of the ship from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean that has been down there for over 80+ years...this was the surreal part for me
• Events that took place after the sinking including the lifeboats, the survivors, New York, gathering evidence and the people who didn't survive
• Trials and figuring out what happened along with the dedications to those who didn't survive
• Quotes from the passengers, pictures and scale models of the Titanic

When I was in the artifact room it literally blew my mind that I was looking at actual pieces of materials that belonged to actual people who were passengers on the Titanic.  Growing up and learning about it, the Titanic just seemed like a story because it happened so long ago which makes it almost one of those urban legends you hear about.  Looking at these items behind these temperature controlled boxes made it absolutely real to me.  It's really hard to explain because it's something that you feel.

I was so happy I finally got to see this exhibit.  When we exited Trish wanted to take the museum's pictures with a few Titanic backgrounds.  We decided on two backgrounds and the lady taking the picture positioned us correctly.  We did a lot of laughing but I thought the pictures turned out great!  They were on Trish since she wanted to contribute to the weekend.  She said she would send us the digital copies through email.

We all decided we needed lunch so I put Ben on top of that to find something in Spokane that was good, people raved about it and that we could sit down and relax while we ate it.   Out of all the possibilities he found this sandwich shop in downtown called Domini Sandwiches.  We found a parking spot literally right in front of the shop and we walked in.  Right from the get-go they were friendly, sat us down and asked what we would like for drinks.  We all got water and I got a Pepsi.  She served us popcorn for snacking.  We all looked at the menus and appreciated how simple they were.  You chose your bread, meat and cheese and that's it and I loved it.  You could also pick a full or a half a sandwich as well.  Everything was local and the bread was made in the restaurant.  Our waitress came back and we all ordered our sandwiches.  I got homemade white bread, turkey and cheddar, it was also served with mayo and a pickle.  I decided to get a whole sandwich so I could eat part of it later and so did Ben.  Mom and Trish got the half sandwiches with their preferred ingredients.

While we waited and ate our food, the waitress and the host came by at different times to ask how the food was and why we were in town.  We told them that we were in town for the Titanic exhibit and to go geocaching.  They both asked what geocaching was and we explained it to them.  They said it sounded like a lot of fun and you get to see a lot.  We thanked them, paid for our meals and headed out to our next adventure.  I gave them a great review on Facebook and recommended the place to people who love simple sandwiches.

Our first stop was the White Elephant store off of Division.  Whenever I am in Spokane I try to make an effort to come here.  It's some weird family tradition we have.  My first time here was many years ago when our family came over here to meet our great uncle Bert, who lived near Loon Lake, just north of Spokane.  Since then every time I am in town I visit.  I took Ben here a few years ago for the first time and this time around we took Trish here for the first time.  She said she had always wanted to stop in but never could find the time or ran out of time while visiting.  We wandered around the store for a while.  Mom found some cap gun caps for dad and I bought dad a White Elephant had for Father's Day and a stuffed animal chicken because I thought it was cool.  I even played on the elephant outside before we left.

We all got back into the Escape and I plugged our first set of coordinates into the Nuvi.  I was two caches from finishing all the counties in Washington.  I needed Pend Oreille and Stevens county and they both were within reach this weekend.  Let's go!

We followed Division all the way up to the junction of Hwy 2 towards Newport.  I haven't been up this was since college when I went with Bri to visit her family in Chewelah for Easter one year.  Luckily, Pend Orielle county wasn't too far from the Spokane county border.  The cache, Pend Oreille County Park Entrance (GC6EAVJ) was just right outside the county park.  When we got there, there was still some snow in places and the gate was closed.

It probably wouldn't open until Memorial Day weekend.  We walked around the gate and I zeroed in on the cache while everyone else walked ahead of me.  It was a container hanging from one of the smaller trees.

I signed everyone's name, put it back and then jogged to catch up with everyone.  I guess everyone wanted to walk around and see at least part of the park.  We enjoyed the area around the small creek for a bit before using the restroom and heading to our next county.  I got me my Pend Oreille county!!

It actually started raining for a bit and stopped as we got lower in elevation into Deer Park.  As the Nuvi navigated us to my last county so I could finish the counties of Washington state.  I was super excited.  Terra Cotta Eagle (GC5V1HE) was out in Clayton, basically the middle of nowhere off of Hwy 395.  We pulled in and noticed a small drive in restaurant, a large gravel parking lot and a tiny military memorial with an eagle.  It's got to be near the eagle.  I didn't even need the coordinates or my phone to know where it was.  I grabbed it and signed our names on it while Ben, Trish and mom waited in the Escape.  I got my Stevens county and I am now down with all 39 counties in Washington state!  I was so excited.  I've been waiting to do this for at least four years but never had the time, money or transportation to get it done.

I had also set aside a lot of virtuals and earthcaches to go grab while we were here.  On the way back down to Spokane we made a few stops.  We headed back towards Hwy 2 via Deer Park.  I told everyone, we had to get a cache in Deer Park since we were here.  My great grandparents lived somewhere near Deer Park so it was a must to find one here.  One with the most favorite points was at a roundabout near the high school.  The bonus part to that was the cache was located off of Crawford Avenue.  We parked at the grocery store kitty corner from where the cache, Dizzy Deer Park (GC25N8F) was suppose to be.  After a few minutes of looking where a "magnetic" cache would be I ran out of spots to look.  Trish walked up to an area I'd checked and she asked what this was.  It was the cache, haha.  I told her good job because both Ben and I overlooked it.  It started sprinkling.

We had to get a picture of them next to the Crawford sign because it's their last name and why not?  We put the cache back and headed back towards Spokane.  I had a few more on my list that I wanted to get before it got dark.  The first one, was a virtual, was way outside of Spokane almost on your way to Mount Spokane, down a dirt road.  I wasn't really sure what or really where we were going to get this one.  When we got there, we had to park the Escape near someone's driveway and walk to the location.  Treaty Tree (GC8D8F) was basically a tree that you took a picture in front of.  We had to post our picture to our log.  Quick and easy.  We got back into the Escape and headed to the next one.

I was trying to rack up as many points as I could for the Planetary Pursuit challenge that Groundspeak had us doing this spring.  I stopped in Mead at a letterbox called, Mead Forest "Get a Smiley"-LBH (GC2C2JC).  For some reason it took me a little bit to zero in on it.  Everyone else stayed inside the Escape.  If the cache is big enough I will use our stamps on the logbook.

As we entered town mom wanted to stop at Frank's Diner because it was a train restaurant and it looked really cool.  We stopped while mom took pictures.  I saw there was a cache nearby so we grabbed it and then came back for mom.  It was one of those dumb lamp skirt caches but it added to my total for the weekend.

I plugged the coordinates to the next earthcache, The Centennial Trail:  The Aquifer (GC6826) which took us along the Spokane River northeast of downtown.  I would love to come back over here with my bike at some point and get a lot of the caches along this trail.  But for now, we were here for a limited amount of time so we did what we could do.  We parked at a small designated parking area for the trail and walked to the earthcache.  There was a sign that we got to pull answers off of so I wrote them down and took a picture of the signs just in case we needed them later.  We took our picture and got back into the Escape.

Our next virtual was Duncan's Delight (GC7B77Y) which took us over to Manito Park.  This was the first time I had ever been here but I've heard a lot about it over the years.  We headed towards south hill and made our way through the neighborhoods to the park.  We found Duncan's Garden, parked and walked around for a bit.  I wish this was later on in the spring when the flowers were out.

In 1904, ninety-five acres of land was donated to the City of Spokane.  On May 19, 1904, Montrose Park had a new owner, the City of Spokane.  At that time, the park was renamed "Manito," a Native American word meaning "a supernatural force that pervades nature."

For many years, Manito's main attractions were its exhibition gardens and small zoo. In 1912, a conservatory was added, followed by a three acre "sunken garden" in 1913.

By its Centennial Celebration in 2004, numerous additions and improvements have been made.  Additional signage was introduced through the park; pergolas in the Rose Garden, changes in the Japanese Garden and the gazebo in Duncan Gardens all enhance the beautiful gardens.

Today the park is one of the few in the nation with such a diverse horticultural display.  Manito Park has a reputation as the primary garden showplace in Spokane and is toured by over 150,000 visitors.

We made sure we got our picture at the fountain before we walked over to the other easy cache in the park by the gazebo.  SHGT:  Down by Duncan Gardens (GCMD96) had us looking all over the place because the coords would not settle down and the hint sucked.  Eventually we found it after just looking in the right place.   We also hung out at the Japanese Garden for a while.  It would have been better once the flowers bloomed but we were here at the wrong time of year to see the flowers.

It was getting to be late in the day and we needed to start thinking about heading back to Coeur d'Alene.  But first I wanted to see if there were any good things at the Goodwill.  I Googled to see where the closest Goodwill was at we hit it up.  There really wasn't anything that great so we moved on to the one closest to downtown.  There was actually a cache nearby, Goodwill to All (GC2M25R) and I decided to grab it on the way out.  I found a Lite Brite and a really cool sugar skull thing for Connie.  We grabbed the cache and headed out back towards Idaho since it was getting dark.

Everyone was getting hungry so I had planned on using April's date night at Buffalo Wild Wings tonight in Idaho.  I made sure to find the closest one to where we were staying and there was one just down the street.  This was my first Idaho Buffalo and the place was set up differently than the ones I've been to in Washington and Oregon.  We went in and sat down.  I ordered my usual, Ben got his usual and mom and Trish ordered burgers.  It was delicious and I always look forward to Buffalo night.

We grabbed one more letterbox cache on the way back to the hotel.  Some of us got cleaned up before getting ready for bed while the Mariners played on the TV.  I got on the computer to figure out what we were going to do tomorrow on our way back to the west side.  Around 10 p.m. we all passed out.  Today was fun but tiring.  I was glad to have finally seen the Titanic artifacts that I've waited a few years to finally see.

Next Adventure:  Old European, Aliens Among us and Heading Back to the West Side

Heading Over to Spokane

I've always wanted to visit a Titanic exhibit and the closest one to me at the time was the permanent one in Las Vegas, Nevada inside the Luxor Hotel.  I didn't have the time or money to go down there to see it.  I was browsing the internet one day and came across this ad from a Spokane radio station about a Titanic exhibit coming to town from the fall to the late spring.  I needed to go.  Since my birthday always falls near Veteran's Day near a weekend I could take four days off to head over there with whomever wanted to go with me.

That birthday weekend was ruined for me so I had to plan for it another time before the exhibit closed in May.  I chose the middle of April because most of the snow would be gone on the mountain pass, it was warmer and less likely for rain.  I didn't realize at the time when we came over to see the exhibit it was literally the same two days the Titanic hit the iceberg and sank over 100 years ago.

We finalized the weekend and asked my mom and Trish if they wanted to go with us.  Ben would have to take some time off and I took half of Friday off so we could get over to Spokane.  It was really hard orchestrating everything so it would work out but I think it just might.  I packed whatever I could the night before.  Ben was responsible for packing his stuff.  I finished what I was doing at work and I left as soon as the clock hit 11:30.  I was really hoping Ben had eaten, gotten cleaned up, packed and was ready to go as soon as I got home.  When I got through the door he was ready to go.  I just had to change my clothes, grab a snack and pack the Escape really quickly.  Mom was also here, dad had dropped her off so we crammed her stuff in the Escape as well.  We left at noon to head towards Puyallup to pick up Trish.

She told us that they were having a company picnic and they were serving hotdogs and burgers and that when we got there we could help ourselves.  I still felt bad coming, eating, leaving and not contributing.  Trish had to finish up what she was doing...in the meantime she gave us her keys to move her stuff into the Escape.  Afterwards we ended up eating a burger because they wouldn't take no thank you for an answer.  We used the bathrooms, left Puyallup around 2 and headed for Hwy 18.

We got onto I-90 and hoped for a quick drive over the pass.  I should have known what we were in for since it was Friday afternoon but I still hoped.  We got past North Bend and was well on our way until I saw the sign of how many minutes it took to get to Ellensburg (316) and I thought it was a typo?  I was very confused because there were no indicators that something had happened.  I got onto the WSDOT app and checked out the chaos.  A few semi trucks got into an accident near Easton and they closed the freeway.  It's backed up for at least 12 miles.  Ugh...…

When we got to the end of the back-up (near the Denny Creek exit) we hunkered down because we were going to be here for a while and I was pissed.  I hated that this back up had to happen today.  This is why we left early to avoid traffic and to get to Coeur d'Alene at a decent time.  Now I wasn't going to be able to stop where I wanted to stop.  I was so annoyed!  I knew complaining about it wouldn't get us there faster but it made me feel better about it.  About a half hour in we watched a guy back up his car into someone else.  So dumb!

Around 5ish is when we started moving for real.  Ugh!  So much time wasted!  We stopped at Indian John Hill rest area because after sitting in the Escape for so long everyone had to pee.  We did some walking around and Ben got some cheap coffee.  We all got back in the Escape and hurried to the Vantage Horses.

Just after Ellensburg, we stopped at the other rest stop, Rygrass, because I wanted to get the cache there and we welcomed a few pit stops after the afternoon we just had.  Ryegrass Corner Cache (GC6WPQQ) was hidden near the pet area so we had to watch out for poopies.  Of course it was a magnetic cache on the fence.  It was basically the only place it could be hidden.  I noticed that they added a lot more windmills to the area since we were here last.  We signed the log, put it back and carefully tiptoed to the Escape avoiding the "land mines."

We hustled to Vantage because this was the number one place I wanted to stop at, the Vantage Horses!  Mostly because of the new virtual cache that was published there last August.  It was about 7:30 and I knew we didn't have a whole lot of time before it got dark.  The easiest way is going eastbound rather than westbound to avoid a lot of back tracking.  We got off the freeway and parked the Escape in the lot and prepared to walk up.  I haven't been up here since 2011 when I came through here to get the traditional cache on the way to Bloomsday.  Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies (GC7B68Z) was a pretty cool virtual.  It had us count horses and the shapes that were on them to prove that we were there rather than just showing up and taking pictures.

We were probably up there for at least a half hour to 40 minutes.  It was nice just to sit up there and look at the surroundings.  Unfortunately, it was late and we had to start making out way towards Spokane and Coeur d'Alene.  We were going to get there late as it was.  I was disappointed that we couldn't make some of the other stops because it would have been too late and dark by the time we got to them.

We made a stop in Moses Lake for some food.  Mom, Trish and I had Subway and Ben had Taco Del Mar because he didn't think Subway would be enough food.  We ate our food and then used the restroom before we left Moses Lake.  We got back on the freeway after our food and headed east as far as my gas tank would go.  Ugh, we had to stop again.  I found a quick easy gas station off the freeway in Ritzville.  It was one of those Love's truck stops and the gas was cheaper than the surrounding ones.

I was getting tired and I could not wait until we got to the hotel in Coeur d'Alene.  As we got closer and closer to Spokane, I started sharing stories of the last few times I was here and the time we came up here in college.  We finally go to the state line and crossed over into Idaho.  Of course there were some "ho" jokes.  We got off of I-90 and found our hotel just off the main drag.  I booked this hotel because it was basically the last one.  There weren't any hotels available in Spokane and I wondered why that weekend was so busy.  I still don't know...anyway, I found a Motel 6 for super cheap, like, $55 a night cheap and I couldn't pass that up.  I booked it as soon as I had confirmation that enough people were going to come.  I hope it wasn't a gross hotel but we will see when we got there.

We got to the hotel around 10-10:30ish and I got out of the Escape and went inside to check-in.  There was a guy behind the desk and I told him good evening and I was here to check-in.  I handed him my paper and my license and he started putting stuff into the computer.  He mentioned that I got a great deal on the internet and because I booked on the internet I got two free days of internet.  In my head I was like, why doesn't this hotel have free Wi-Fi?  Seems pretty weird this day and age to not.  He got us checked-in, handed me the Wi-Fi codes, two key cards and my receipt for the two nights.  For some reason he added, oh there is a free continental breakfast in the morning, do you like bacon because I like bacon.  Have a great stay!

I went back to the Escape and we drove closer to our room.  We were going to have to go up a flight of stairs with our stuff.  We took a couple loads up while I made sure there really wasn't anything left in the Escape that someone could steal from us.  We got into the room and this Motel 6 was probably the worst one I've ever stayed at.  The bathroom was shaped weird, there weren't enough towels, no Kleenex and the whole place was just weird.  We all got ready for bed because tomorrow was going to be a very busy day.  I was so glad I brought my earplugs because my mom and Trish snored.

Around 3:30 that morning, I woke up to the light thumping of the wall next to my head.  I pulled out my earplugs and everyone else had been woken up to the same sensation but they also heard the sound.  The neighbors next door were having aggressive adult relations and did not care who heard it.  Come on man!  It's 3:30 in the morning!  We have to be up somewhat early!  I put my earplugs back in, tried to ignore the wall and went back to sleep.

Next Adventure:  Titanic Artifact Exhibit, White Elephant Store, Stevens and Pend Oreille Counties and some Geocaching