The last event we were able to go to before Covid shut the world, country and state down was the Leap Day event that was held at Woodland Creek Park in Lacey. Since then, nothing. All of our planned caching trips such as TriCities, GeowoodStock in Canada and the 20th Anniversary Party in Seattle and all of the little events here and there were postponed or canceled. I had to cancel my 10 Year "Cachiversary" event because the governor banned gatherings a week before my event. It wouldn't have mattered because it was going to be outside and social distancing is easy. I even had hand sanitizer available! I will never get that moment back even if I do it next year. It just won't be the same.
A few weeks ago I noticed that there was an event down in Astoria. Bev messaged me asking if I was going to go because she would need a ride. I told her to let me think about it. I really wanted to go but what if it pours down rain? Will going down there be worth it? I ended up telling her probably unless the weather was gross. Apparently that county in Oregon was allowed to have outdoor gatherings.
As the event approached I put in my "will attend" log on the cache page and waited until the weekend of to really decide to go or not. I was keeping an eye on the weather.
The weather was going to be cold but favorable so we planned on what time we were going to go and such. Mom decided she didn't want to go with us and neither did Bob, which was surprising. I guess if he wasn't going to go get like 50 of them he didn't want to go. Well, he and Bev had most of them because they've been down there several times in the past. I had lots to get still. The night before I solved some of the puzzle that were in the area we were going to be in. Some were pretty easy and some required some thought. I put a preliminary list together. I got my stuff together and headed to bed.
I also found out that we were going to miss the Seahawks/Cardinals game since it was a 1:30 start time. We would have to listen to it on the radio. However, it was a big game so it was changed to the Sunday night slot at 5:20 on NBC so we might be able to watch it if we got home on time. We would have to see.
I got up around 8:45, got ready, put my warm clothes on in layers, since it was going to be cold and said goodbye to Ben. He had just gotten home from a 24-hour shift at the fire station and wanted to take a nap. I told him that I wasn't sure when we'd be back from Astoria. He told us to have fun. I grabbed my lunch and banana and headed out the door with my coat, hiking shoes and poles...just in case we needed them. I drove out to Rainier and picked up Bev around 9:40, only to find out that I still need to do my front driver's side bearings now. Ugh.
We drove towards I-5 through Tenino and Grand Mound. Since Bob and Bev have most of the caches, we didn't stop and get any on the way there. Traffic wasn't that bad which was nice since we had about a two hour drive ahead of us. We got to Longview and went over the Lewis and Clark Bridge onto Hwy 30 west to Astoria. Because we didn't stop for caches, it didn't take us very long to get to Astoria even though it's a pretty long drive.
We rolled into town around noon and had to pull off the highway into a parking lot to find out which cache was closest to us and where it was. We put the coords into Bev's phone and she directed me to where I needed to go.
Our first one, Skip A Bit Brother (GC83F4R) took us up the hill and onto a pull out. When we got there I recognized where we were. Not too far from where we parked the Escape, was a trail head that I remembered. When we came here for the Long Beach Cache Machine, January 2012, we had gone up to the Astoria Column for some caches and were talked into walking down the Cathedral Tree Trail to pick up more caches and do the Goonies themed series around town. That trail head a few yards away is where we ended up and we were taken back up to the column to our cars. The cache we came here for was hidden amongst the logs. I signed our names and we got back into the Escape.
We drove down the hill and decided we should hit up the Safeway and use the restroom while we were here. I wasn't sure where else there would be a public restroom available because of Covid.
I asked her what cache we should go to next and she said let's go to the Columbia River Maritime Museum because that's where the next couple of them are. We parked, grabbed a snack and had to choose between Astoria Riverwalk East or West and we chose East (GC7HWA3). We grabbed our hats, gloves and coats and started on our walk and wow what a walk it was.
It took us to six different places along the trail, which we had to answer questions about to gather coord numbers, we did the math and then walked to the final. It wasn't too far from where we turned around to head back to the Escape. There were quite a few people using the trail including walkers, joggers, people on bikes and people walking their dogs.
At one point, a creepy homeless guy snuck out of the bushes carrying around a Starbucks cup. We weren't sure if anything was in it but the guy sounded pretty sick since he kept hacking and coughing. We steered away from him just in case he had Covid or something. At the final, we ran into a pair of other cachers who were probably here for the event, MrWalkie and snosrfpolo, who were both from the Oregon area. We found the cache together.
We walked back to the Escape and I just about wore Bev out. We did a lot of walking. We had to have walked at least two miles. I noticed my Discover Pass was on my windshield underneath one of my wipers. It must have blown out of the Escape when we were leaving. Who ever saved it for me thank you! We pulled up the coords for the event and Bev led the way. We turned into some baseball fields and parked the car. I recognized this area. The fields were below the school that Kindergarten Cop movie was filmed at. We grabbed our masks and headed to the WSGA booth. The Superknots gave us both tickets for the raffle and we weren't able to sign the log to Hey You Guys WSGA Meet and Greet (GC906DE) so they signed the logbook for us...because you know, Covid.
We went the same way home and the traffic wasn't bad getting back into Washington. We got onto I-5 north and stopped in Kelso at the Taco Time because Bev wanted some dinner and that there is always time for tacos. This was the first "fast food" restaurant that we actually got to go into instead of having to use the drive through. We both ordered the burrito meals, used the restroom to wash our hands and enjoyed our food while we chatted about random things.
We used the restroom one more time and I asked Bev if she was up for finding two more caches just down the road. She said of course.
We grabbed Welcome to the Corner of My Road (GC4KE2H) and Happy Anniversary Geocaching! 15 Years of Fun! (GC5TRMX) and both caches were hidden by our friend Freda (bearsandme) who we miss dearly. We are glad her daughter checks up on her caches and keeps them alive.
We got back on I-5 and drove the rest of the way home listening to the Seahawks on the radio.
When we got to her house she invited me in for some carrot cake. We got wrapped up in the game and eventually stayed the duration of the game working on the current puzzle she and Bob were working on. Sadly, we gave the game away with a field goal in OT to the Cardinals after leading the entire game. It was stupid. I thanked them for inviting me over and headed back to Lacey to get a shower, log my caches and headed to bed. Ben asked how the event went and I told him it was different but it was an event. It was also fun being able to see some of the cachers we haven't seen in person in a while. Hopefully we get to go to events again soon like normal.
Next Adventure: How It Started, How It's Going
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