We got to talking to Wendy about a month earlier and she said to mark our calendars for the 29th because that's when they would be celebrating Walter's 60th birthday and she would like us to come. I told her that I would write it on the calendar and let Ben know. I asked if we needed to bring anything and she said no, since it was being catered by one of Walter's favorite places. I asked her what time we needed to be there, and she said around 3:30. I told her we would see her then. She said looking forward to it!
I was at the store a few days before his party and asked Ben if we wanted to get Walter a gift. He said, that would be nice and what I had in mind. I said, would he like one of these? I sent him a picture of one of those oversized bottles you would put money or something else in. It was green and had a Seahawks logo on it. We knew Walter loved the Seahawks and would go perfectly with his collectibles. Ben said sure and wondered what we were going to put in it. He asked Wendy and she said an assortment of sugar free candy. That was totally doable. When I went to go look for some sugar free candy, it had been wiped out everywhere. With the snow, Covid and truck strikes, the store really needed to go to the store. I did find a couple bags to dump into the bottle. Ben imagined filling the bottle to go differently but I told him this was the best I could do. I wrapped it up and we wrote in his card.
That day, I got up by 10, ate a quick breakfast and got my stuff ready. It was really hard to get Ben out of bed but he promised he would so we could leave early. I wanted to fix a few of my geocaches and find a few since the day was going to be nice. I had to constantly get after Ben because he would find ways to stall getting ready.
We finally left by 11:30. We went the back way through Spanaway so we could fix a couple caches along Hwy 507. Our first stop was in McKenna, just to check on The 507 Series: McKenna, Wash. (GC8MCGV). The place I hid it at originally disappeared, so I had to move it and create a new cache back in 2020. I got out of the Escape and noticed my cache was on the ground out in the open. The post, its former hidey hole, has been compromised. I will have to move it. I changed out everything and hid the new container near the power pole hidden amongst the rocks. At least there, it could be covered up out of sight.
Next, we drove to Roy.
The 507 Series: Roy, Wash. (GC3AMVP) has been a difficult one to keep around. For the longest time no one bothered it, it was never missing, and it was just one I didn't have to worry about. The rock I hid near it moved to another location so two years ago I had to move the cache to where the rock moved to. Then it was fine until the container went missing. I had to disable it for about a week or so. I parked at the nearby gas station and brought an entire new cache with its code and hid it better near the rock. I sure hope it stays put for a while.
We got back on 507 and headed for Spanaway but I pulled over so Ben could get Pacific Harbors (Glacier View) Cache to Eagle #5 (GC256PW) before we left Roy for good that afternoon. He was tall enough to reach it. I found this one with Mom many many years ago when I was still considered a newbie.
We pulled off at the park and ride at the intersection of where Hwy 507 and Hwy 7 meet. I really didn't need to check The 507 Series: Spanaway, Wash. (GC3V7QF) but I did since we were here. I needed to see the condition it was in. First off, I found it not in its original hiding spot...it wasn't even in the tree, so I changed out the container and stuck it where I had hidden it back when I put this series out in 2012.
Before we left the park and ride, I checked my app to see where we needed to go next. I wanted to at least get a couple caches before we went over to Walt and Wendy's house. I saw one that was nearby called (Not) Ocean Front Property at Granny's (GC8JXGQ) and made our way to it. We drove through Elk Plain and got on a side road towards Graham and I noticed that this was the way I went when I picked up Wade two Novembers ago. We continued following the roads and pulled into a housing development and as we got closer to the ground zero, I noticed that I've been to this house before. Did I forget to log this when I found it ten years ago? Then I looked at the cache and when it was placed...it was definitely a replacement cache and I have been here before for the prior one that used to be here. I went out and grabbed it, brought it to the Escape, we signed it and put it back.
We got back on the main road and followed it to Frederickson. I knew there was a Safeway over here so we could pick up our veggie tray. Ben said it was great timing because he had to use the restroom and I needed to find a snack soon because I was getting hungry. We picked up the veggie tray, I got a lunchable and Ben went and used the restroom. I sat in the Escape and ate my lunchable while I listened to one of my podcasts. I got done and decided that I should pee before we left. I ended up crossing paths with Ben and told him I was gonna go pee and handed him the keys.
I hopped back in the Escape and told Ben we were headed to Reflect and Rail 2 (GC85GK1) and it was going to be a tricky one because we had to find a place to park and then we had to walk across the busy highway to the guardrail, opposite of where we parked. Fun times. We tried parking on the same side of the street as the cache, but it was private property. We did a U-turn and had to park at Ricky J's Restaurant and Bar. Ben and I got out and saw there was a break in the traffic so we ran across the street to the guardrail. We found it quickly, got our names on it and then had to find another break in the traffic to run back across.
We got back to the Escape, and I checked my phone to see if there were any more caches around the immediate area. I did see one that I DNF'd with Bob back in 2012 and never went back to avenge it. TJC-1-CANYON-160TH (GC3PDC9) was in an obscure place and I knew I should have parked away from the driveway, but I pulled in and the person who lived there came out. I really don't like talking to people. I just want to get the cache and leave. Ben started talking to the person and I got in the Escape to move it to another location. I turned around and parked it near the driveway but tried to be out of the way of the driveway. Ben didn't like how I parked so he got in and parked it kitty corner on the other road at a gravel pull out. I went and looked for the cache while Ben sat in the Escape on his phone. I tried to hurry because I didn't want to be here very long... just in case the driveway guy came out to see what I was doing. I did eventually find it. Yesss! I can now avenge this DNF. I walked back to the Escape, and I looked at my phone app to see if there was at least one more in the area we could get.
I saw there was one at the South Hill Park that we didn't have yet. I am not sure why we didn't get Mammoth's Soccer Cache (GCP2AQ) the last time we were here (which was a couple month's back) or when Bev and I came out here many years ago. Oh well. We parked and because it was a nice day, there were a lot of people at the park and on the Nathan Champman Memorial Trail. We started our half a mile walk down the trail. It was a nice walk. There were lots of people walking their dogs and their small children.
We made our way to ground zero and of course we chose the wrong side of the bridge to start searching. I figured that this area would be inundated with water during certain parts of the year so the other side of the bridge would most likely be where it was hidden. We got off the trail and crouched down to find the magnetic hide a key on one of the metal plates holding the foot bridge together. We signed our names quickly and put it back. We walked back to the Escape and saw a lot more dogs and children being walked.
I had Ben call Wendy to see if we could come a little earlier and she said to come on over. Since we were a few blocks away it didn't take us very long to get to their house. We parked, grabbed all the stuff we needed and went to the front door. They were very excited to see us. I can't remember the last time we saw them. I think it was in maybe November. We put our stuff down, they gave us our Celebrate Family and Friends board we had ordered from them a couple months ago and Ben and I each gave them $20. I couldn't believe they only wanted $40 for it.
We sat on the couch for a while catching up on all the crazy stuff, we've all done in the last few months. I asked Wendy how many people we were still waiting for and she said Chris, Rosa, the kids and one more of their friends. More were supposed to come but they have Covid and were self-quarantining. Good times!
Chris, Rosa and the kids arrived shortly after, and the kids were getting so big! It is amazing how quickly time flies by. We visited with Chris and Rosa for a bit and then one more of their family friends came by, I think her name was Pam. We chatted with her as well. We got up and all loaded up on BBQ food. We had three different kinds of meat, corn bread, beans...it was so delicious! This was my kind of food! Wendy had catered it from one of Walter's favorite places. Of course, we ate too much. We shared stories as we ate. We had these little Bundt cakes for dessert. I had a white raspberry one. It was very good.
We cleaned up and cleared off our plates and Walter went front and center to open up his gifts. He really liked our present. He opened a couple more from everyone else and then he told us about their large purchase they made during Thanksgiving. Since they've opened their business and go to shows to sell things, they would have to pile everything into two cars and drive to locations. Now, they would only have to drive one vehicle. They purchased a truck that is supposed to be here soon. It was currently on a ship in Mexico on its way to the dealership in Puyallup. It would give them plenty of room to take their stuff to their shows. They showed us a picture of what it was going to look like.
We hung out for about another hour or so and then thanked them for the invite. Hugs were given out and we called Trish to see if she wanted us to stop by for a while. We drove out to Bonney Lake through the back way. When we got there, we hung out, chatted, ate popcorn and played a game of 10,000. I lost. We thanked them for having us over, even though it was a short time this go around, more hugs were given out and we started heading towards home. We went the same way home, the back way.
We didn't get home until after 10:30 that night because we had to stop at my parent's house to grab the truck. We had to go to the dump really bad because our garbage cans were full. That is what we had planned for tomorrow...the dump and football. We texted Trish to let her know we got home safely. We did a few chores, got cleaned up and started getting ready for bed. Today was busier than I thought it was going to be.
Happy Birthday Walter!
Next Adventure: Cache Maintenance and Some Papa Pete's with Bev
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