We stopped by the bank first to get money out for their trip and to pay their friends for watching their house and then across the street to Fred Meyers for some stuff for Hoopfest. We went to the ghetto Walmart which was on the other side of the freeway to pick up a few more things. We wandered the store and he decided we needed to go to Krispy Kreme over in Union Gap. We went through the drive through and bought two dozen doughnuts.
Shannon called asking us where we were, she had just got done cleaning the house and getting ready to go. She was kind of upset. We didn't realize we were gone for almost two hours.
We got back, Ben was like where did you go, we spent some time eating "breakfast" and then got packed up and ready to head to TriCities and them to Spokane. I wasn't sure when Ben or Kevin actually got up. We played one last game of PIG in the driveway. I didn't win this time. We packed the Escape, thanked them for letting us come visit, gave out hugs and told them good luck at Hoopfest. We left around 1ish, got onto I-82 towards Richland and we got to almost Sunnyside when I realized we forgot the cookies he made on the counter. Ughh!
It really didn't take us very long to get to the TriCities. There wasn't really any traffic so it took us about an hour. Along the way we texted Brenda and Ray that we were almost there and Bob and Bev and they told us they were still at Beacon Rock so they were going to be a while. We got to Columbia Point Marina Park and was upset that we had to be here again. This park was the one we stayed at when we came to the TriCities for the first time and it didn't have showers. I was disappointed that we were having it at this park again this year...again, with no showers. And that we may continue to have it at this park without showers. This sucks for campers.
We found a place to back in the Escape, near the edge of the grass, where the tent campers were suppose to set up. We started taking our stuff out when Brenda and Ray pulled up. We welcomed them and they started to set up their camp as well. We bought new sleeping bags and a new tent this past spring because the one we've been using (I've had it for over 15 years) the zipper broke and it could not be fixed. The new tent took less time to set up but it was also I little smaller than the one we used to have. We got all of our sleeping pads, sleeping bags, pillows and blankets all set up in the tent. This year I forgot to bring the flamingo.
We spent the next hour or so hanging out at our campsites taking to a guy from St. George, Utah, who was in the camp site next to us. We talked about our favorite caching trips, the ET Highway since he really doesn't like too far away from it, we learned that he drove up to this event from Utah by himself and he really likes getting the geoart caches. We noticed the time and that it was getting closer to the meet and greet time.
We walked over to the main area where the Southeast Washington Geocachers had set up TC2 2019 Meet & Greet (GC87HPX), signed the log, got photos and talked to people we knew. We kinda played the bingo game. We weren't there very long. Just long enough to find out some of the rules, which hadn't changed, and hang out with other geocachers. We did manage to come across Bob, Bev, Gabe and his friend Ken for a bit.
We didn't stick around for the raffle because we never win. We walked back to our camp area with Brenda and Ray and they asked if we had any plans for dinner and we said yeah. I told them that Ben and I looked up this brewery that we wanted to try. They asked where and what it was called. I told them it was called the Bombing Range Brewery and it was a couple of miles outside of downtown Richland. They said yeah, sounds like fun...let's go!
We followed the directions and found out we've all been near here before for other geocaches over the years. Plus, the one park we used to have the event at, Horn Rapids, was just down the road from here. We parked and headed inside. It was kinda busy but we didn't have to wait long. We all ordered drinks, I got my Pepsi, and we munched on some popcorn as we waited for our waitress to come back to take our orders. When they came back I ordered a chicken Caesar wrap and it came with chips. It hit the spot.
We paid, thanked the waitress for the good food and we headed out. I looked at my phone to see if there was a cache nearby and there was. It was less than 300 feet away near the entrance of the building we just came out of. I said let's go get it! Everyone was game. We walked the short distance to the cache, Geo HoHoHo 2016 Holiday Songs 1 (GC6XHEQ) signed our names, got a goofy photo and put it back.
We headed back to the park, hung out for a bit...this time I made sure not to get bit by the chiggers that were hiding in the grass like they were last year.
We got comfortable and Brenda and Ray asked us if we wanted to go look for the night cache, Wise Owl II: The Rodents Strike Back (night cache) (GC87RDK) . We said we sure do! We got our flashlights and made our way through the park looking for the reflective tags. It didn't take us very long to find it but we did have a hard time with one of the locations because our coords were off for some reason. We figured it out and ended up at our prize at the end. We all knew we had to get up somewhat early the next day so we said our good nights and got ready for bed. Ben and I walked over to the bathroom to brush our teeth and wash our faces. This was going to be a rough weekend without showers. We will have to figure something out.
We snuggled into our tent and fell asleep.
Next Adventure: The 10th Anniversary of the TriCities Geocoin Challenge
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