In a nutshell, I went to L&I to talk to the people offering me the job, just to hear about what I'd be doing again, during my lunch on Monday. I asked them to give me a day to think about it and they said sure. The next part is what I dreaded the most...telling my current supervisor that I was going to take another job after they gave me the job at WSDOT. That was the most dreadful work day ever. I waited until after lunch to do it. It was physically making me ill. I got up the courage to tell her and she really surprised me. I thought she was going to be mad because they spent so much time and effort into hiring me. She thanked me for telling her so she could get organized to find my replacement which ended up being the runner-up for the job. I was instantly relieved and found myself being treated by her differently Wednesday and part of Thursday. I mostly just kept to myself and worked on my letters and filing. Before I left on Thursday she said that the entire next week when I get back I would be training my replacement. I was alright with that and hoped that I had an easy person to train. I made sure I had everything done by the time noon came around.
I decided to maximize my time by leaving directly from work and not stop at home. I packed up all the camping gear, the food, my clothes and shoes and put it into the Escape the night before just to be that far ahead come morning. The stuff I used that night would have to be packed up before I left for work. Ben worked until tomorrow morning so he would have to leave with his stuff and drive separately over on Friday.
I got off of work and was relieved that I would be going back to L&I after next week. My life would become somewhat normal again. I stopped by the bank for some money for the campsite and got gas so I didn't have to stop anywhere besides my list of caches I had written down. I was hungry so I ate my lunchable I packed up in the cooler.
I went through Yelm and McKenna to get onto the 702 to Hwy 7. A few weeks back I got an email about my Ohop Pioneer cache (GC6KEW0) stating that it could be missing. I brought a spare to replace it just in case it was missing. When I got there I parked in the pull out and searched the area. I found it immediately right where I said it was in the hint. Those cachers did not know how to look very well. Later on I made a note on the cache page stating that I checked up on it and it was there.
I moved on down the road to Buttons on the Bridge (GC7QBPX) and I had a hard time pinpointing where it was on the guardrail but eventually found it after some careful hand feeling. Apparently some of the logs said there could be bees. Nobody has time to get stung.
I got onto Hwy 7 again and drove through Elbe. There were a lot of people staying in the Hobo train hotel and probably going to enjoy the weekend at Mount Rainier. As I got closer to Morton I briefly thought about stopping at Morton DNR Camp (GC1FJX2) but didn't because I had no idea where the road was or even if I was going to be able to find it. I guess it was a hard one that hasn't been found in three years. About a month ago I emailed the last person who found it and they gave me a couple of hints. I will have to stop at some point since that is the only left on that road I don't have yet.
I got into Morton and texted Ben again to tell him where I was just to check in. I also texted mom. I got onto Hwy 12 and drove east towards Yakima. I had a few stops planned out and didn't know how long they would take hence getting off of work so early. The first one was down the road a bit just before Randle, Reflect and Rail (GC6086P) and that was off of a turn out just before entering the small down. It was a guardrail cache.
I got stuck behind some slow vehicles for a while and it irritated me. However, I knew I would be stopping soon so I didn't bother to try and pass them. I got into Packwood and stopped at Out of My Cold Dead Hands (GC74XDA) and wasn't expecting to see what I saw. It was almost comical when I got there. There was actually a skeleton guarding the cache container. I signed the logbook, took a few pictures and was well on my way though the rest of Packwood.
I put some miles behind me (luckily I wasn't behind a semi truck or a horse trailer) so going over the pass was pretty quick. I texted Ben and Willmarth at the top the pass because that is the only place I got service until I got to the Hwy 12/410 junction. Two years ago I was doing the Rainier100 series and did the multi called Clear Creek Falls and thought I did it right. Turns out I did my math wrong and couldn't find it. I found my error while waiting in construction traffic that day but couldn't get it last year because we left too late to grab it. This time through I knew exactly where it was.
I parked in the parking area, grabbed my keys, phone and a pen. I followed my phone through the hilly trail and around the mountain brush. While I was trying to hurry I almost fell on a bunch of the brush but I caught myself and kept on going. I looked at the hint to make this find a little easier. I saw where it was being hidden, grabbed it and signed the log. I picked up a trackable to move on as well. I took a few pictures and headed back to the Escape. I changed my shirt into a tank top because it was getting pretty warm outside.
I plugged the next set of coords into Nuvi mostly because I had never been around Rimrock Lake and really wasn't sure where to go. The caches that I had picked out were basically on the other side of the lake. That road seemed to take forever and I was glad I didn't have to follow anyone. When I finally go to the pullout near ground zero, I expected the area to be a little nicer. At first glance it looked like homeless people were living out here. Upon further review it was just lazy ass dirty campers leaving their garbage behind for others to deal with. This is why we can't have nice camping areas and they close off places for people to explore and enjoy.
I walked up the small hill to where both the virtual, Rimrock Silvers Cache (GC652A) and the traditional, Rainier1003: Rimrock Lake (GC6J5GF). I did the virtual first which was basically taking your picture with the stump and then walked a few feet to a tree to retrieve the physical cache.
The geotour was basically over but I wrote the code down anyway just to write it on my passport. I never finished the geotour but because I participated in it as a volunteer I got the pathtags anyway. It was really windy but warm. I spent some time reflecting about the past few months while I took in the view of the reservoir. This summer so far was very painful but I still had hope.
I walked back to the Escape and continued around the loop until it met with Hwy 12 again. Along the way there were some pretty cool spots along the lake. I might have to come back this way again and check it out.
I followed some more slow cars and passed a few of them as I had the opportunity to do so. When I got to the junction I finally had cell phone service so I texted Willmarth that I was almost to Naches. I decided on the spot that I was going to take the back way over Naches to N Wenas Road instead of taking Hwy 12 to Selah because it was going to be rush hour.
I pulled into their driveway around 5 and prepared myself for the "attack" dogs. I went through the gate and knocked on the door. Willmarth greeted me and gave me a quick tour of the house...they were in the middle of playing Clue.
They finished that game and dealt me into the next game. I quickly learned everyone's strategy and figured out the three cards in the secret envelop. However, with my last guess I feel like I figured it out but because Kevin was before me he seemed to get it right after my guess. What a little turd. I did manage to win one of those games we played. While we played we talked about the various things that were happening lately. I told them about my job, Grammie and the upcoming stuff later on this year.
We all got ready to head to Kevin's flag football game in Wixon Park in Selah. Willmarth coached a group of about 12 kids and it was through the NFL Flag Football program. He coached the Saints and Kevin was basically their all-star. Unfortunately the game started really late because the other game ran super late before ours.
In the meantime, I grabbed the Wixon Park Cache (GC7BCRP) which was just outside of the playing area near a small wall below the hillside. I sat down to make it look like I was on the phone and started searching because there were a bunch of kids playing on the playground, parents watching their kids and several high school athletes running around the park in groups. When I did find it I signed it as quickly as I could and put it back before anyone knew what I was doing.
As soon as I walked back to the field, the game had finally started. The Saints were clearly the better team but Kevin needed to learn to share the ball and see others down the field. They did win but they could have played a little better and made some of their catches.
Because the game started so late, we got home really late at around 9:30. None of us have had dinner yet so Willmarth made us some burgers, beans and chips for dinner. We played more clue until about 11:30ish. Kevin and Shannon conked out while Willmarth and I stayed up until about two talking about random things. The TV played Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the background.
I decided it was time to go to bed so I excused myself to Kevin's room, where Shannon changed the sheets for me, and was greeted by Fletcher in the process.
I washed my face and brushed my teeth and told Fletcher that it was my bed and he had to move. I got Willmarth to call him so I could finally go to bed. It was a long day and I was beat.
Next Adventure: Pasco and the Geocaching Meet and Greet
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