Planetary Pursuit: Around Thurston County Geocaching, Recycling and Taxes

I had a whole day to do whatever and I didn't want to sit at home.  The weather wasn't that bad but it did sprinkle off and on most of the day but I had to start the Planetary Pursuit if I wanted to get all of the badges by the time it was done.

I started in town and worked on that group of them before I made the loop towards Tenino and into Rainier where I dropped off the recycle and did my taxes at my parent's house.

I drove into Hawks Prairie and grabbed Tweet, Tweet by I-5 (GC7KC41) at Cabela's.  A few weeks ago I heard that we were doing an outreach event at Cabela's so I stopped by and visited Annette, Pete, Deb and Chris for a bit.  Before leaving Chris placed the cache just outside the retail store on the freeway side.  I pulled up and knew it was going to be in one of the three trees...but which one and how far down the slope?  It took me a few times to get at the right angle to see the bird house but I got it!

The next available close one was further up Marvin near the housing developments.  Trail Mix Cache (GC6B79G) was along one of the many trails that snake through those houses.  Luckily this one was not far from where I parked.  I just had to run across the street and find a stump.  I signed my name and put it back better than I found it.  The last person left it pretty exposed.

I drove further up Marvin and pulled into one of the many housing developments near the golf course.  I could see how you could get lost out here if you didn't have a GPS.  I found a place to pull out on so I could go find the cache, Ballard Fire Chief Travel Bug Hotel (GC5MK9J) in the small grouping of trees.  I was glad this area wasn't that busy.  I saw where it was hidden and hoped that there were trackables inside because that also earned me points for the challenge I was doing.  There were three TB's inside and took them to move on.

On the way back towards Hawks Prairie I stopped by the industrial part of area and grabbed The Aurora Borealis NOT the Aurora Borealis (GC6HDN9) as it started to rain.  I couldn't find a parking spot close enough so because it wasn't all that busy I just pulled over, turned my hazards on and ran the 200 feet to the cache.  Signed it and ran back to the Escape.

There was one more in the area I hadn't gotten yet, Can You See the Light? (GC5YRNJ) was near a power station off Orion Drive.  There was plenty of parking but you could tell a lot of people drop off their garbage here so you had to be careful where you parked and where you walked.  The coords jumped a lot in this area so I couldn't tell which tree to look at.  I checked all of them and with the power of deduction I finally found the hanging flashlight.

I drove back past my house and got onto Yelm Highway, took the shortcut through Balustrade and onto Rainier Road.  I turned onto Fir Tree Road and followed it to where the Chehalis Western almost crosses the road.  Instead, I had to pull into someone's driveway to grab the nano off of a sign.  Signs of the Times Series: 1 (GC77JZF) was pretty easy to spot.  I had to watch for cars driving down the road returning to the Escape.

I got back onto Rainier Road and turned onto Steadman and then onto Waldrick Road, where I parked the Escape, and walked along the Chehalis Western Trail towards Jello's Happy Trails (GC703ND).  I had to hustle to get this one just because I didn't trust my vehicle sitting for too long at this spot, especially with a bunch of stuff inside visible for people driving by.  For some reason it took me a while to pinpoint it and it was covered by a lot of moss.  I prevailed with an ammo can!

I continued down Waldrick Road and decided to get the recycle taken care of before I went into Tenino for the last couple caches for the day.  I didn't want to come all this way and have it close.  I made it with time to spare.  I dumped off the recycle and then took the back way down Military Road to Tenino.

Shine's Happy Trails (GC70Q31) had a great view from where it was hidden.  Unfortunately, I had to park off of Military Road, near the trailhead, and walk almost a half a mile to the cache.  I didn't realize it was going to be that far up the hill.  I kept going until I got to a really obvious place where it could be.  I dropped off the trackables I got today so I could get the maximum points for the pursuit.  I signed my name, put it back and walked back to the Escape.  It sprinkled the entire time.

I had one more cache on my list to grab this afternoon before I went and did my taxes.  Onyx's Happy Trails (GC70Q2K) was on the Yelm-Tenino Trail just after the Deschutes River on Hwy 507.  I parked as close as I could to it off of a driveway and noticed part of the trail was closed due to storm damage.  It was hidden in the stump fairly well.  I signed my name and then put it back where I found it  I headed to mom and dad's house.

I brought in the cans so I could smash them because dad was getting them ready to take in and get our money that we've been saving since 2013.  I set up my computer and I had mom read me my documents.  It took about a half hour and found out because I have a health savings account and now I have to pay for my taxes to be processed.  Lame.

I asked mom if anyone wanted to go to Dairy Queen and get Blizzards.  Somehow she talked dad into coming with us.  He paid.  We sat there and enjoyed our ice cream and talked about weird stuff.  I spent some time trying to figure out where the cache, Thirst Knows No Season (GC6KHVE) was near the Dairy Queen.  I came here about a year ago and attempted to look for it for maybe 10 minutes before I had to move on.  I hadn't been there since until today.  I got a few hints from Bev which led me to the rock wall where I started looking after I was done with my ice cream.  Meanwhile mom and dad drove over to the Dollar Tree and Sunbirds.  After some extensive searching I finally found it!

I joined mom and dad at the Dollar Tree and then we all walked over to Sun Birds.  Mom and I also walked over to the Goodwill just for fun.  Mom and dad headed home and on my way to Grammie and Grandpa's house I stopped and grabbed one more because I was driving past it.  Sleepy Hallow (GC7KWJ2) was just off the Yelm-Tenino Trail near a pull out off of Hwy 507.

From there I went the back roads to Grammie and Grandpa's house to pick up the stolen bird house and decoy ducks.  I went in and visited for a while.  Grandpa had put them in the front yard for easy access to my trunk.  I was there for a good hour or so talking about random things like work, geocaching, upcoming holidays and the stuff Ben, Doug and Erika were doing.  It was a good visit.

I headed home, unloaded all the stuff in the Escape, took a shower and watched some Netflix and worked on my blogs since I was still way behind and had to catch up.  I also logged the caches I found today and made a dent in the challenge.

Next Adventure:  Lewis County Caching and Dairy Dan