The Dirty Dash

I haven't ran a 5k in a very long time.  I started running again (after having a huge hiatus) last October and have kept up with it pretty well.  I noticed some subtle differences and I was feeling better than I had the past two years.  Mom was also getting into better shape so she could keep up with us on our adventures.  Plus, she really wanted to do a dirty dash we've been seeing over the past 5 or 6 years.

Some how she convinced some of her co-workers at the dentist office to participate.  Mom signed Erika, Red and I up and Ben couldn't participate this time because he was on a 24-hour shift at the fire station in Tenino that day.  It was a huge bummer because he really wanted to do a race like that.  Maybe next year.

I prepared myself by running but since there really aren't any hills in our area I didn't get practice running up hills and whatnot.  At least I could keep running though and was in somewhat shape to be doing a race like this.

I was really hoping it was going to be warmish that day but sadly it wasn't.  It was the end of June so it could be warm and it could be really cold.  It just depended on the year and the weather patterns.  Last weekend I was in 80 degree weather and this weekend we were in 50ish degree weather with some wind.  I knew once we got wet we were going to be cold.

Mom drove out to my house and picked me up so we could only have one vehicle we were responsible for, plus we had to pay $10.  We had called Erika so we could go pick her and Red up in Littlerock so again, we would only have one vehicle and one fee to deal with.  I had never been to the house she shared with Red so I relied on mom's directions.  This was really out here.  Their fence was locked so we had to call Erika to come let us in.  I needed to use the restroom so I took a few minutes to do that as they finished getting ready.

They decided they would drive themselves because they didn't want to stick around for too long after our race and the $10 didn't matter to them.  We also asked if we wanted to do lunch with them and they said they were interested but didn't commit. We left and thought they were going to follow us but we never saw them.  We even turned around to see where they went.  Erika wouldn't answer the phone so we just went to McCleary without them following us.  They must have went another way we weren't aware of.

We arrived at the ORV Sport Park, just off of Hwy 8, a few minutes before Erika and Red did.  We almost arrived too early.  Kim had the day off the previous day so she went and picked up all of our packets so we all had our stuff so we didn't have to wait in the line.  Mom handed out our registration "goodie" bags last night.  We followed the parking instructions and found a place out in one of the many fields that will be filled up by tons of vehicles by this afternoon.

We changed into what we would be wearing for the race.  We changed our shoes and I put my under armor (which I am glad I put on) before my ugly purple tank top.  The office wanted everyone to match and they chose the disgusting purple as our "team shirt."  If we do this next year I hope we wear a different color.

Mom convinced one of her co-workers daughters (who was not participating in the race) to take pictures of us running the course.  We really weren't sure what kind of access they would have so this was a learning experience.  We found out they could be on the course in certain areas.  She only got the start and the finish pictures.

Anyway, we walked around, used the restroom, looked for the rest of our group before our 9 a.m. start time.  Around 8:30 is when most of our team arrived.  Mom really wanted a group picture before we ran so we rallied up everyone and got one.

I remembered that my former supervisor was also going to be here for the race with one of her friends.  I thought it would be cool to meet up if I could find her but I had no idea which "wave" she was running in and if she was even here yet.

As it approached 9, we were all ready to go.  I was getting antsy because I just wanted to start.  I was getting bored waiting around.  We all walked out to the starting line and they counted down through the mega phone.

….and we were OFF!

We ran up and down some short hills, climbed over a wall (I had to help mom so I decided to stay with her for further help along the race) waded through several mud pits and had several stretches of trail where we just ran.  I told mom to just keep jogging.  At one point during our trail run, a pair of guys ran by us and I watched one of them roll their ankle on a loose rock.  Ugh, glad it wasn't me.  He kept on and I think he received some medical attention at one of the water stations.

We hit some more mud pits, a couple of other walls, over and under pipes and made it to our first water station.

After that, were several really long hills and because we were under trees the trails were still damp from the last time we had rain and some left over of the morning dew.  It made it really hard to run up the hills without sliding down.

Then we hit the surprise mud pit.  It was so thick you literally got stuck.  I had to be really careful because my shoes almost came off.  I struggled and it exhausted me.  To top it off you had mud cannons shooting mud at your face, head and ears.  I immediately got shot in the side of the head and I could feel the mud in my ear and the corner of my eye.  I figured out how to eventually get out of it without being shot in the face again.  By the time I got to the end of it I was wiped out.

Then we had to climb another long hill.  I was out of breath and dying.  Mom and I trudged slowly up the hill, around and down to the water slide.  For some reason we picked the lane that the hose broke in so we had to wait a few minutes for the workers to fix it.  We slid down into a pit of mud and it was awesome!

We did a little bit more running and then to some climbing walls with ropes and cargo nets.  I helped mom as much as I could with those.  We did a couple more dirt mounds with mud pits down below, ran through a bubble tunnel, a tire swing maze and finally to the last obstacle, a giant cargo net with water squirting at us.

Once we got off of that and down a slide, we made our way to the finish line where a volunteer gave us our metals for finishing.  We got our picture professionally done and then waited for the rest of our team.  I knew now that I've stopped I was going to get cold.  Within the next half hour everyone who were behind us started making their way to the end.

Erika and Red really wanted to go so they didn't wait around and left.  Mom and I stayed behind a while with the rest of our group.  When everyone finally was done, we got some group photos.  We got cleaned up and made our way back to our vehicles to change.  After I changed I went back up to the event to see if I could find my former supervisor.  I didn't have any luck so I used the restroom and headed back to see if mom was ready to go.

We left just before noon and headed into Tumwater after making a quick stop at the BBQ place off of Hwy 8.  We really didn't have a lot of time today to eat lunch there but I eventually want to try their food.  We got a picture of the pig before moving on.  We tried calling Erika to see if she wanted to meet us in Tumwater to eat burgers at Eagan's but she never got back to us.  Doug was in town this weekend helping dad and we got a hold of them and they met us there for some lunch.

The food hit the spot.  Mom and I went to the store afterwards for a few things since we were in town.

I could not wait to get home and shower.  I had so much dirt in places I didn't want dirt anymore.  I got home, stripped my clothes off and left them on the back porch.  I took an extra long shower just so I could wash my hair and body twice.  I cleaned out my ears and it seemed like the dirt was never ending.  There was dirt in the bottom of the tub that I had to clean out.  I went outside after getting some fresh clothes on and used the hose to spray everything down before putting it in the washer.

I relaxed a bit before starting some weekend chores.  I am excited to run the race next year and I hope I don't have to wear purple again.  Ew.

Next Adventure:  Leaving L&I Just to Come Back to L&I: A Journey

Heading Home: Geocaching, Miner's and Nerf Wars

I got up around 4:30 a.m. because I had to pee so bad.  I got out of the tent as quietly as I could and snuck over Ben without stepping on him, unzipped the tent and tip toed to the restroom.  I saw a magnificent sight just beyond the river at the horizon.  It was beautiful I decided to go back to the tent and grab my phone so I could get a picture of it.  The early morning was peaceful and warm.

I went back to the tent and slept for a few more hours.

It started to get warm so we got up, got ready and headed over to the CITO and History (GC7JQZC) event.  The usual doughnuts, coffee, OJ and fruit were available to those who were going to grab a plastic garbage bag and pick up some trash for the morning event.

We ate the assortment of pastries and fruit and then walked around the southside of the park.  We actually found a lot of trash (that wasn't from our event) hidden in the brush along the river.  We did this for about 45 or so minutes.

We threw our garbage bags into the giant dumpster and went back to our camp site and started taken our pillows, blankets, sleeping bags and blow up mattresses out.  We folded and rolled all of those up and then took down the tent.  I made sure all of our food, kitchen and miscellaneous stuff got put back into their places before loading them into the Escape and Ben's car.  Brenda and Ray did the same thing.

Yesterday we heard that there was going to be a special event cache for a cacher, Mrs. Guy, from the area and a part of this chapter of the WSGA, passed away last year.  Well, we missed those instructions and decided to grab it on our way out of town today.

We made sure we had everything before we headed out. We left Sacajawea State Park and followed Nuvi's directions to Richland and to a familiar park we've been to several times, Leslie Groves.

The park was filled with people so we found the closest parking spot and walked the rest of the way to the cache, Mrs. Guy Tribute Cache (GC7R4K2).  We thought we knew what we were looking for and turns out we were right.  A homemade giant Oreo cookie container hidden away from the public.  We signed our names, took a picture and made sure it was hidden back in its spot for the next cacher.

On the way back to our vehicles we stopped at a cache neither of us had yet but came up short because it was hidden that well.  We even tried calling the cache owner but they didn't answer.  Maybe next time.  We said our goodbyes to Brenda and Ray because we weren't sure when we would see them again because they moved to Spokane and we weren't sure when we would get that way again. 

It was getting hot.  Ben and I backtracked to Kennewick because he wanted to play disc golf at the 9-hole course in Findley at Two Rivers Park.  This park was literally right across the river from Sacajawea.  We followed the directions on how to get there.  We drove past it accidently but figured out what we did wrong.  We found parking spots and I decided I wanted to pee before we started.  Those bathrooms have seen better days and that's all I'm going to say about that.

We got warmed up and it was nice being able to play at a course that's more wide open that what we were used to at home in Western Washington...all the trees to hit!  I haven't played in a while so I didn't play very well but it was still fun anyway.  Ben got frustrated because his throws and putts were not going how he wanted them too.  I'm glad the place had some shade because it was getting hot.

We hit most of our Pars and some of the holes were above and some of them were below.  I looked around to see if there were any nearby caches but most of them were away from the parking lot so we got ready to go.

I found a way we could just go through the town of Findley and up the hill to I-82.  As we were driving I saw so many caches I just wanted to stop for but we didn't have time today.  I would have to make a separate trip over here just to power trail cache.  Between the TriCities and Walla Walla there were thousands.

For a while we followed the freeway west towards Yakima.  I wanted to stop for a few caches in Granger and Zillah just to eat up some time while we waited for Willmarth to get back to us.  On Friday, before I left their house, I mentioned that he could meet us at Miner's on Sunday and he thought that was a great idea.  Now it was hard to get a hold of him.

We moved onto Granger.  I miscalculated the exit and Ben had to cut off someone to get to the exit.  I told him I was sorry.  We had gotten all the caches a year ago and saw there was a new one.  We pulled over at the informational sign and grabbed Yellowstone Trail - Baily Ave (GC7DQRE) which was a key hider.  I signed our names and hid it back in its spot for the next person.

The caches in Zillah were a bust but I wanted to stop at the teapot just for fun.  While we were there I noticed the additions to the area.  They now had a firefighters memorial and Ben took a look at that while I used the much needed restroom.  From there we headed into Union Gap.

Every time we come to Miner's it is super busy.  We found the first available parking spots and walked into the restaurant.  I told Ben to figure out what he wanted so we didn't have to wait a long time for food plus the line wasn't super long.  We ordered basically what we usually get except we only got one fry basket because it could feed an army and we didn't need that many French fries.  I wrote down some notes about the weekend while we waited for our food.

Our food came and it was delicious.  It hit the spot after not having any food since 9 a.m. this morning and it was now 3:30.

I tried texting Willmarth again and no response.  Ben asked if he could try so I gave him his phone number.  He called him when we were getting on the freeway and he actually answered Ben.  Moments later Ben called me saying that he got a hold of him and that they were home if we wanted to stop in.  I followed the Nuvi's directions from Selah (I hadn't been this way to his house yet) and got there within 15 minutes of Ben talking to him.  We parked the cars out of the way and got out.  Kevin was so excited to see Ben.

Apparently we interrupted a huge Nerf gun war and Kevin wanted us to play.  He told us who was on whos team (Kevin and Ben against Shannon and I) and Willmarth kept the dogs in the room so they wouldn't too rambunctious with all of the nerf bullets flying around.  Kevin kept trying to cheat so I found a way to make a shield so I could get close to them and shoot them.  This went on for at least an hour and a half.  Then sadly we had to get going because we had a three hour drive ahead of us.

They thanked us for coming over and hanging out one last time, some hugs were given and we told them we would try and come over again this fall if we could make it work.  We got into the vehicles and drove down to the Hwy 12 junction and headed into Naches.  I wanted to get home at a decent time so we didn't stop and grab caches on the way home.

This time we didn't have any surprises on the way home unlike last year's CPR incident.  We ended up getting home just after 9 p.m.  We unpacked the vehicles while we got a little lightening show off in the distace, got a little organized, I got myself a shower and headed to bed.  This was my last week at DOT and I had to have some energy so I could teach my replacement everything I had learned so far.

This summer has been really challenging both good and bad.  I really wanted the bad to go away but unfortunately it's a part of life that I am struggling with at the moment and can't seem to shake it.  I've never really been depressed in my life but I was really feeling it the past few weeks.

Next year's Geocoin Challenge will be the last weekend in June and will be at where it all started 10 years ago, in Richland at the park in the Columbia Point Marina.  The theme will be "STEAM" - Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.

Next Adventure:  The Dirty Dash

TriCities Geocoin Event: Taste of the TriCities

My phone alarm went of at around 7 a.m. that morning.  You could also feel the tent starting to get warm from the sun.  I knew we had to get our butts in gear because we only had about an hour and a half to get ready, eat, clean up and orient the Escape for us, Brenda and Ray.  Bob and Bev were going with Gabe and Ken this year and we weren't going to follow each other.  I asked Bev if they were going to meet up with us for dinner later and she said she didn't know.  I told her I would text her later.

Before we got out of the tent, we changed our clothes, I told Ben to dress for warm weather and he got started on breakfast.  We brought eggs, milk, sausage and cereal.  We were going to mix the eggs and sausage together.  We needed the protein for the long day we were about to have.  I've done this quite a few times so I knew the drill.

While he was making breakfast, I took all of the stuff out of the Escape, put the seats back up and put some of the stuff we wouldn't need into the tent.  I helped him with the last bit of the breakfast and went and got some water for the clean up afterwards.

We ate our eggs, sausage and cereal when Brenda and Ray walked up to us.  They left Spokane earlier this morning (they recently moved back to Spokane) and got here about an hour before the event started.  We talked to Ray about who was driving, what car was driving etc.  He asked if we could drive the Escape and I said sure, Ben needed a job anyway.  They went and wandered around the event area while we finished up at our campsite.  We got the final clean-up done and all the stuff we would need into the Escape including our cooler.  Ben and I wandered over to the event, Tri-Cities 2018 Geocoin Challenge (GC7FTKR) .

This year we signed a picnic table...which was the logbook.  To date, besides the Block Parties in Seattle, this was the biggest logbook I've ever signed.  We guessed how much swag was in one of the containers and tried throwing micro caches into an ammo can.  I was a few inches off or I would have won.

Just before 9 a.m. Jen got on to the microphone and set forth the rules and expectations.  Of course there was some heckling from the peanut gallery...Mike.  Then we all walked over towards the boat launch/teepees for a group photo with the drone.  That took us about 15 minutes and then we received our maps and passports and they came with a spork.

Ray got the caches downloaded onto his Nuvi and his GPS and I took the Escape and parked it next to their car in the parking lot.  I helped Brenda put their stuff they needed into the back.  We all got oriented and our jobs were set.  Ben was our driver, Ray was the GPS coordinator, I was the navigator/note taker and Brenda was our comic relief/conversationalist.  We all were going to get out and grab caches.

Since we were in Pasco, and it made sense, to grab the furthest away caches and work our way back towards Pasco.  We would hit up Richland and West Richland since they were intertwined, then Kennewick and finally Pasco on our way back to Sacajawea.  The map was handy because we could set a course and try our hardest not to back track.

We started our adventure around 9:50 that morning.

Our first cache of the day was TC 2018 - R03 Gouda Macaroni & Cheese (GC7JTFQ).  It was at a small park.  We parked along the side of the road and all of us got out to grab it.  It was a peanut butter jar zip tied to a tree.  I was glad we got to find one without a horde of geocachers standing next to it waiting around to grab the code word and log the cache.  I knew we would be running into that very soon.  We got the code word, which all of them were prices this year, instead of the normal word or phrase.  Ray provided the stamp with the letters G&G which are for Geek&Gopher but we were using it today as Guys&Gals.

Epic Fail #1 was Ben.  On our way to our second cache, Nuvi lied about where we were going and Ben drove up on a curb.  We all instantly made fun of him and then we all laughed and carried on.  When we got to the second cache, TC 2018 - R05 Garlic Parmesan Fries (GC7KGYC) was located at the Richland City Hall.  Ben parked the Escape and we all got out to get a bird house hidden in the corner.  We signed the logbook and was on our way to the next few in Richland and West Richland.

We stopped at TC 2018 - R07 Tomato Basil Soup (GC7N7Z1) was the first cache after a few we encountered our first horde of geocachers.  You sorta knew where it was when you got out of the Escape and saw the group of people circled around the container.  At least this one was cool.  I featured my dinosaur in with the cache.

We drove into Richland, near the WSU-TriCities campus, and made our way to TC 2018 - R02 Lemongrass Salad with Clover Spouts (GC7JQZN) and didn't realize we were in the wrong parking lot (Epic Fail #2) so we had to turn around and find the correct driveway to go get one of the raddest caches we've found so far today.  A full sized BBQ with plastic meat on it.  It was amazing!

At TC 2018 - W01 Strawberry Shortcake (GC7KX4F) we stopped and got the cache and used the restroom while we were here.  It was a Altoid tin crammed behind the water gutter along the wall of the outside of the restroom.  There was a muggle nearby who knew what we were doing and offered help to those who couldn't find it.  As far as I know he left it alone.

We plugged in the coordinates for TC 2018 - W04 Cherries Jubilee (GC7KX4R) we followed Nuvi's directions and ended up at the wrong side of the fence.  That took us to epic fail #3 because we were on the wrong side of the fence and we had to ask the kid to hand us the log to sign.  I know...we're lame.

We continued on our route and our next stop was TC 2018 - W07 Hot Fudge Sundae (GC7KX4C) which was one of my favorites of the day.  We parked the Escape and walked the short distance to some sage brush.  I saw the microwave, pushed the button and found the cache container.  It was a pizza!!  So creative!

We wrapped up Richland and West Richland with a stop at TC 2018 - R06 Strawberry Lemonade (GC7KGYE) and low and behold we found a geocaching cookbook!  Brenda was all sorts of excited for this one so we let her find it and stamp it.

As we were driving out of Richland and heading into our next section, we found a Albertson's to get ice, cold drinks and some extra stuff for lunch.  Afterwards, we found the nearest park, which was at a place called Sunset Elementary/Sunset Park and found a picnic table.  Ben and I brought PBJ, bread, chips and fruit while Brenda and Ray brought salad and some fruit to eat.  We chatted about random things as we ate our lunch.  We were glad that this set of picnic tables were under some trees.  The shade felt nice.

We plugged in the next set of coordinates and that took us near some of the restaurants off one of the main roads in Kennewick.  This cache, TC 2018 - K04 Yakisoba (GC7MT09) was an ammo can hidden inside of a shrub near a Sushiya restaurant.  I let Ray find this one while I stood nearby with all of the passports just in case it was a hole punch cache.  We went to the next one.

The next one took us to the athletic complex up the road.  I think every year they put a cache here.  TC 2018 - K05 Hot Dogs and Cracker Jack (GC7M2QQ) was on the north side of the fields near the parking lot.  Every year there is a softball tournament but this year there wasn't.  Lots for parking sports were available.  Ray and I got out and walked the short distance to another ammo can.  We signed it and I got a quick picture of it before walking back to the Escape.

We actually left town for the next two caches TC 2018 - K01 BBQ (GC7NV71) and TC 2018 - K08 Rabbit Stew (GC7MT17). These were out by Bofer Road near the many power trails that have been archived and added over the years.  I need to come back again and grab a trail or two.  Since we were getting to the end of the caching day there were lots of people at each cache.

We went back into Kennewick and headed to the river for our next one, TC 2018 - K03 Wine Pairings (GC7M2QH).  We had to find a place to park because we had to walk to this one along the trail.  We passed several geocachers on the way there.  It was hidden in a box that was mounted on the fence.  I posed my dinosaur with the river and the bridge in the background.

We were almost done with Kennewick so we could move onto our last city, Pasco.  We were down next to the river just outside of the park.  We found a place to park the Escape and we all got out to grab TC 2018 - K02 Fish and Chips (GC7NV92) which was a plastic tube hidden in a metal tube.  Ben was the signer and the keeper of the code.

We found one more in Kennewick before we drove over the bridge to Pasco.  Once we got across the river we stopped at TC 2018 - P03 Caprese Salad Bites (GC7NT4P) which was on the road right under the freeway.  It took us a while to get there because there was no direct route to this road.  We actually thought we were going the wrong way at one point.  We finally made it.

We continued picking off the Pasco caches as we moved east towards the state park.  As we got to the end we made a stop at a small grape vineyard.  TC 2018 - P08 Grape Crostini (GC7NT54) was our second to last cache of this geocoin tour.  We had the place to ourselves so we got out, stamped the log book, wrote the code price down, checked out the swag and put it back before anyone else pulled up.

Our last cache, TC 2018 - P07 Spinach Dip (GC7NT5A), was out in the port/airport area of Pasco.  The event staff received permission to place a cache here but it soon turned into a problem.  When we got there someone from the port came out and asked us what we were doing.  I wasn't really part of the conversation so I heard second hand.  I guess some of the staff had no idea why hundreds of people kept walking out to the specific spot and was just curious.  We stamped our names, grabbed our last price code word and got our finale picture of this years coin challenge.

We were officially done around 4:11 which was the fastest we've ever completed the challenge.  Every year we try to perfect our routines and mapping out our caches.  I thought this year we did pretty well.  Everyone knew their role, where we were going and having a plan for the next place we were headed.

Ben drove us back to Sacajawea State Park for our coins.  We parked in the main lot and hustled to the tables with our passports.  We were all correct and received our coin.  This year was a tray base, a plate, a fork, a spoon and a knife with a steam punk-ish theme to it.  The design was pretty cool.  We thanked the volunteers and made plans to go to Cousin's for dinner.  We've been doing this for four years now.  I texted Bev and she said that they were not going because Bob, Ken and Gabe doesn't know when to quit.  She was basically done and ready for dinner.  They ate somewhere else while Brenda, Ray, Ben and I had Cousin's.

We visited while we ate our food.  Ben ordered the steak and I got a burger and fries.  It hit the spot after running around in the sun all day.  We went back to the park after we paid for our food.

Brenda and Ray decided to stay a night at the park this year.  Ray went and got their hamster car and drove it over and parked it next to our campsite.  They got their stuff out and put their tent up.  Ben and I moved some of the stuff out of our tent back into the Escape so we had room in the tent to sleep later on.  I got cleaned up (it felt so good to be clean) and we then played a few rounds of Zombie Dice until it was time for bed.

Next Adventure:  Heading Home:  Geocaching, Miner's and some Nerf Wars

Pasco and the Geocaching Meet and Greet

I slept hard but was woken up because I had to pee really bad.  I got up, peed and then went back to bed until about 10.  When I actually did get up, I got cleaned up and packed up my stuff just so it was ready when it was time to head to Pasco.  Eventually, everyone else got up and started moving around.

We played some more Clue, got into Tripoli (a game I haven't played in years) while we ate breakfast, for a couple hours.  We threw the ball in the front yard for the dogs and Willmarth made me some cookies and gave me some vacuumed sealed asparagus.  I thanked them for their hospitality and said Ben might stop by later if they were home.  Willmarth said they probably wouldn't be because they had heard back by the court system that Kevin had a "visitation" scheduled with his brother that afternoon.  I told them we will try to stop by on our way home on Sunday.  Kevin really wanted to see Ben.  Willmarth said just to text him when we were on our way to Yakima.

I headed down Wenas and into Selah.  I found the I-82 sign and got into the appropriate lane to go to the TriCities.  This junction was nuts and to top it off there was a fire just to the left of us along the river side of I-82 and a bunch of trucks and firefighters trying to keep it from spreading.  I sped up so I didn't have to be a part of the chaos if it got out of control.

I got to Rattlesnake Ridge and I saw the crack as I passed it.  I'm glad it hasn't fallen yet because it would make a giant mess, would hurt a lot of people and I would have to drive the long way around.  It is still being monitored and figured out by the state, geologists and the emergency management team.  It is a slow moving landslide and very unpredictable.

The 85 mile drive was fairly uneventful.  You had the occasional idiots weaving in and out of traffic.  I was about 10 miles in front of Bob and Bev, who left that morning from Rainier to head over.  They made a few stops for caches just like we always do when we travel over here.

When I got into the TriCities I decided to go to Sacajawea State Park first and then go and find a few caches and take care of some errands afterwards.  I got to Pasco pretty quickly and into the state park.  I stopped at the gate and gave the lady my money ($26) for two nights at the park.  She gave me my change and the receipt for my window.  I drove around and found the same spot from last year.  I wanted to be under a tree to provide some shade because it was suppose to be 80 this weekend.  I had to move a couple of picnic tables before I set up the tent.  The tent was put up and had some minor difficulties because the wind was blowing and it moved the tent around.  I finally got it staked in and started putting the mattresses, sleeping bags and pillows inside.

I needed some ice for the cooler so I got back in the Escape and headed to exit 9 (where all the stores and restaurants were) and went to Walmart.  I grabbed some ice and a chicken Caesar wrap from Subway because I was hungry and past lunch time.  I saw there was a cache behind the store so I went and found Geo Ho Ho 2017 Holiday Poems 14 (GC7FYN6) and just down the street found Geo Ho Ho 2014 8th Day of Christmas (GC5H739).  Both were boring film cannisters.

On the way back to the park I decided to get some gas just because I wasn't sure if my Escape was going to be the one driving around or not.  I thought I would be prepared anyway.  I saw there was a cache nearby so I grabbed Tongue Twisers--Figs and Phesants (GC44CH5) before I got gas.  That one for some reason took more time to find than it should have.

I got gas at the Shell Station nearby.  I got 30 cents off for $2.99 a gallon.  Score!

I made it back to the part right around 5:30 and Ben arrived shortly after.  He unpacked is stuff and got settled in.  We walked over to the Meet and Greet (GC7GDK8) which was on the other section of the park and started chatting with some of our geo peeps.  We signed the logbook and looked at some of the lab caches that Bounce Bounce created.  Then we got talked into doing the Geo Survivors and our teammates were two women from Utah.  We got third overall.

We found Bob, Bev, Gabe and Ken and they were looking for last year's bonus cache, Tri-City 2017 Bonus Cache (GC75TKN) over in the corner of the park.  It was swarming with mosquitoes so we hurried.

Jen, the event host, got up on the stage and talked about some of the events that were going on and some of the stuff that was happening tomorrow as far as the event went.  She had some of the lackey's speak and some of the voluteers talked about the event tomorrow.  Ben won something with the raffle but ended up giving it to some kids.  We were all funned out so we decided to go get some food.  Antoine and Nikki didn't come this year so camp wasn't all that busy.

Ben checked some food reviews on his phone and came up with a place called Shooters Bar and Grill in Findley...which was across the river on the Kennewick side.  We put the address into the GPS and we were on our way with a small detour at Big Pasco (GC7FWRR) which was at an informational kiosk.  Ben was tall enough to reach it.

We went over the bridge and made our way to Findley, a small town east of Kennewick, for some dinner.  I wasn't sure what to expect when we got there.  The building looked fairly new or renovated from the parking lot.  We walked in and were greeted by the hostess.  She sat us and wanted to know what we wanted to drink. Ben ordered Irish Death and a water and I got a water.  We looked at the menu and watched a re-air of the Mariner/Red Sox game from earlier that day.

The chicken strips looked good so I ordered those and Ben wanted some of the southwest pasta and garlic bread.  The food was pretty good and the waitress must have had nothing better to do but hover over us.  We practically were the only ones there along with another group of people off to the left of us.  She brought us our check, we paid and headed back to the park.  We passed over my favorite bridge again but this time in the dark with the lights.

We got back to the state park and noticed the gate was closed.  Do they close the gate at a certain time?  I've never really seen the gate closed ever so I wondered.  It was closed but not locked.  Ben found the lever and pulled the gate open for us to drive through.  I parked the Escape right next to the tent.  I got my stuff out to go and shower, which takes a while because the shower area gets really humid, showered and then brushed my teeth.  We settled into our tiny tent (our other one broke and we need to replace it soon) and eventually fell asleep.  I was exhausted and we had to get up somewhat early the next day so we could get breakfast going, the Escape cleaned out just in case we have to drive it and our stuff ready for the day.

Next Adventure:  TriCities Geocoin Event:  Taste of the TriCities