I woke up several times through out the morning because I could hear people in the hallway and living room. I know Willmarth gets up early to take the dogs out to use the restroom and Kevin had to go to school so they were busy trying to get him ready. Willmarth took him to school which takes about twenty minutes each way since he goes to a new school this year. He is a Highland Scottie! I remember the first time I ever heard of that high school. It was in Tacoma back in 2000 when we went to state in basketball. I thought their cheerleading uniforms were cool because they were tartan plaid material.
I got up around 8:30 to use the restroom and I saw Shannon was still in bed reading her Kindle. I hopped back in bed for another hour. I got up officially around 9:30 and hung out with Willmarth in the living room. Ben was still sleeping in the chair. We chatted or a bit and then went outside for a while as he tended his small garden. We talked about a bunch of stuff, he told me how Kevin's been doing at his new school compared to his old one and Zoey pooped a lot.
We went back inside and everyone else started stirring. Shannon was cleaning the house, Ben was up on his phone and I was getting hungry. Willmarth got on the Ipad and tried to figure out the ferry system to and from Vashon Island. He needed a ferry reservation for Vashon on Saturday because Kevin has a football game there. We thought that was odd because it's so far away from Highland High School. We played with the dogs for a little bit and then I made some scrambled eggs with cheese and bacon bits. Ben and Shannon ate some with me and Willmarth decided on leftover pizza and huckleberries. Ben must have not gotten enough scrambled eggs and he decided to eat some leftover pizza as well. We hung out for the next couple hours visiting.
We got our stuff ready and put it in the Escape because I knew they had to do some stuff before Kevin got home. Shannon had to go to her classroom at some point to do errands and Willmarth had to go to Costco to get a new carpet cleaner because theirs died. We thanked them for having us over and they told us anytime but to just let them know so they are home. We started our drive to the TriCities. I set the Nuvi to the Bofer Road series starting with the first one in the series (GC7K6TH).
The ride over was pretty uneventful. I did decide to get gas at the Love's in Prosser because it was way cheaper than the other gas stations plus it's easier to get in and out of there. We cleaned the windshield while we waited for the gas to pump. We got back on the road and it was another half hour or so until we got to Bofer Road, just north of Kennewick.
Upon arrival, I asked Ben if we wanted to do them like we did during the Ellensburg trip and he said yeah, that way seemed to work pretty good. We made a couple extra logs and put our names on them so we could do the rolling log. I asked him if he wanted to go first and he said sure. Since there were about 40ish of them we could do twenty or so each. He said sounds good. He jumped first. There were a couple of them we had a hard time finding and we both had to get out to find them. If you are going to create a power trail in the middle of nowhere, you have to put them close to the road and they have to be easy to find. If not, no one is going to come do your power trail because they will get frustrated and tell other cachers to not even bother doing it.
When we were about halfway done, Mom called me to tell me that we didn't have to go to SeaMar after all to do our Covid test but we had to at the airport. That changed the whole weekend...again. We were suppose to stay through Sunday originally then Mom said we had to get tested at SeaMar on Sunday morning so that meant we had to come home Saturday night after the event. We were going to get home very late and then I would have to get up early to stand in line for the Covid test at SeaMar with Mom and Rhonda. But now, we didn't have to do that and we could stay through Sunday. That also meant that we would have to alter our hotel reservation...again, but we would have to make sure once Mom got back to us. We would have to see if it was a possibility when we checked into the hotel.
We finished up the Bofer Road series with a few caches in between such as Oh Crud!! A Bofer Wannabe! (GC3P17C), Lewis, Clark and Bofer? (GC3K466) and Snow White and the Seven Bofers (GC3K5WP). We cleaned up with 44 caches. I wanted to do the H-series going west to east but then Bev said there was an even in Richland and that we needed to go. We finished up and headed into Richland. Ben was in the midst of figuring out a motorcycle trip with Josh and Walter to Bend, Oregon sometime at the end of the month.
We navigated our way to the parking coords in Richland and for a moment were confused but did eventually figure it out. We walked to where the coords were taking us and it was a walkway in between two buildings where people would sit on benches and at the tables and hang out while shopping. We said hi to the people who were there at the time and signed the log book for End of Summer Get Together! (GC9EVQ9) while we waited for Bob and Bev to arrive. More people soon began to arrive and Bob and Bev got there eventually. We decided to do the Uptown Murals-Adventure Lab together.
There were five points of interest to complete this Adventure Lab. We found all the murals, answered all the questions and even had go.warcat, from Puyallup, join us with a couple of them. One of the stops took us few minutes to figure out but once we did all of them were pretty easy but it was time consuming from all the walking. We even gave Bob a job of recording all the bonus cache coords so when we were done, we could go get the Uptown Murals Bonus Cache.
We put the coords into our phones and noticed it was almost a mile away. Was that right? Did we do it correct? We asked someone if those coords were right and they said, yep they sure are. Alright, we needed to drive to the final because I am not walking that far for one geocache. Everyone agreed. We went back to the parking lot and we each got into our cars and Bob and Bev followed us to the pool area of Richland High School. We found a parking lot and then walked down to where the coords took us. It was a fake rock hidden in the brush next to the curb. We signed our names and walked back up to our vehicles. We told Bob and Bev we were heading to the hotel to check in and we would see them later.
We drove back to Kennewick and checked in at the Super 8 across the road from Texas Roadhouse, Dutch Brothers and Red Robin. Our hotel was pretty much down the main drag in Kennewick near a lot of places. No wonder Bob and Bev have stayed here over the years. This was our first time staying in a hotel during this event. We are usually camping out at the event site but not this year because of Covid. We went inside and Ben took care of the check in process. He asked about possibly adding another night and she said our room was available but we would have to let her know as soon as we could. At that point, Mom hadn't gotten back to us.
We took our stuff upstairs with the cart and got settled in. We were hungry at this point so I suggested Buffalo Wild Wings since we didn't get any on the Tuesday before. The one in Olympia were out of traditional wings because of a shortage and I was upset so we left. Now, we were at the one in Kennewick and it wasn't super busy which was nice. We ordered our food and it felt great to finally be eating traditional wings. Yes, we drove 250 miles to eat wings. Haha.
Mom called in the middle of when we were eating and told us to go ahead and stay one more night since we didn't need to get tested for Covid at SeaMar on Sunday morning. We finished up and I asked Ben if we could find some more caches for an even fifty for the day on the way back to the hotel. He said sure.
E-I-E-I-O Baa (GC2368H) was in the parking lot of the Buffalo Wild Wings. We walked over to the lamp skirt and made the find pretty easily. I checked out the app to see what other ones were nearby and the next one was across the road. As we arrived, we probably freaked out a girl who was walking through the parking lot but we sat in the Escape and waited until she walked away so we didn't freak her out anymore. Geo HoHoHo 2014 The First Day of Christmas (GC5H743) was another lamp skirt so that one was also an easy park and grab.
The next one, Euell Gibbons Picnic (GC1F0J4) took us to a mall where there was an active security guard. We had to time it just right so we didn't have to be questioned about what we were doing. We parked and wandered up the hill but didn't find it right away. I looked up in the tree and it was a fake pine cone. I signed our names and tried to put it back as quick as I could but the security guard was closing in on the area. I walked away and Ben walked to the Escape. I really didn't want to explain what we were doing there in the dark. Turns out the security guy ignored us and continued on his way. Ben picked me up near the sidewalk. We needed two more for our fifty caches!
Geo Hohoho 2017 Holiday Poems 2017 (GC7G33K) was next to a Home Depot parking lot at a lone guard rail. Ben stayed in the Escape and provided light from the headlights. It was an easy find. The last one was off the main road past our hotel near a gas station. Of course, Welcome to America, via and LPC! (GC7AD4M) was a lamp skirt cache. We should have known better since this area is practically covered in lamp skirts. It's the only way to hide them somewhat safely. We parked right next to it and I made the grab from my door. It was a very large lamp skirt cache which was a surprise.
We drove back to the hotel, found a place to park, went inside and got our second night, relaxed a bit, got cleaned up and went to bed after some internetting. We had to get up around 7 a.m. the next day so we were ready for the challenge bright and early.
Next Adventure: TriCities Geocoin Challenge: John Dam Plaza, Adventure Lab Caches, Texas Road House, Triple-H and Sunday Heading Home
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