As it started getting brighter and warmer, we both knew it was almost time to get up. The high for today was going to be around 85 and it was already starting to heat up. I had set my alarm for 7 a.m. which would give us enough time to get dressed, eat and ready for our day.
The alarm finally went off and we started getting ready. You could hear everyone arriving and assembling their stuff on the grass across the lot from us. I used the porta potty really quick while Ben got dressed.
Next, we got out our food and started our little propane tank. Ben mixed up everything and cooked, while I handed him the things he would need. Once it was done, I started getting the tubs ready so we could wash our dishes. I did a few of them while I waited for the food to get done. We ate our scrambled eggs with turkey kielbasa and some small boxes of cereal. I didn't have any cereal.
After we were done, we finished doing our dished and continued getting ready for the day. Brenda, Ray, Bob and Bev came over to our camp and talked to us for a bit while we got ready. I was able to get cleaned up and used the bathroom before the event started. We put everything away and was able to get Brenda and Ray's car over by ours so we could load it up for our caching adventure.
We walked across the parking lot to the event, TriCities 2022 Geocoin Challenge (GC9MR2X). We signed the logbook which this year were plastic lawn chairs, chatted with some people we knew and meandered over to the stage area to listen to Jen tell us about the event and the rules. Her speech was followed by a representative from Richland Parks and Rec and then a cop from the Richland Police Department. There wasn't a group picture taken again for the second time since 2019. Covid has sure ruined a lot of things.
We grabbed our passports and headed to the Kia. We made sure we had our food, plenty of water, bags, phones, phone chargers and whatever else we needed. Ben was the navigator, Ray drove, and Brenda and I were the note takers and map readers. We really tried to find the best route so we avoided back tracking as much as we possibly could.
For the last few years, we all decided to do Pasco first, since it was the only one on the other side of the Columbia River. Once we got that one done, we could stay on the other side and take care of the other three cities without worrying about it. We got most of Pasco done, then Kennewick, then a mixture of West Richland and Richland until we were done. It was hard not to back track because they were spread out so far and some of them overlapped with another city. There were eight Adventure Lab caches in each city as well as two real caches, so a total of 10 labs and caches to do in each city. The real caches were geared towards kids, and they had their own passport for them, but you knew everyone was going to find those caches too. Of course, we were!
We spent most of the late morning driving from waypoint to waypoint in Pasco. Our first cache, TC 2022 - P09 Osprey Pointe Park (GC9VXTB) was at a location we all knew too well. This is where Bob and Bev's car died back in 2015 when it was 115 degrees outside. We got out of the Kia and walked over to where the cache was hidden. Easy peasy.
One of our largest epic fails was on our last one for Pasco. For some reason Ben thought there was an exit off the bridge in the middle of the Columbia River to the cache, TC 2022 - P10 Timmerman Ferry (GC9VXVK), we needed to get. We had to make a U-turn and headed back over the bridge to the correct exit and road. No matter how much we try to avoid it there is bound to be back tracking.
We finished Pasco and got halfway through Kennewick before we decided to eat lunch in Columbia Park along the river. We picked up the two caches, one at the Humane Society and the other at a community garden. Both, TC 2022 - K10 Benton/Franklin Humane Society (GC9N79G) and TC 2022 - K09 Hansen Park Community Garden (G9R7VG) were easy to find along with several of the eight Adventure Labs we found.
Once we got to the park, we searched for an empty picnic table underneath the shade. A lot of them were taken already but we did get lucky. Unfortunately, the table looked like it was being used but abandoned at the same time. The unknown people left their stuff behind such as camping chairs and a couple coolers. We weren't going to stay that long, so we got our stuff out of the car and wheeled our cooler over to borrow the picnic table. Ben and I had PBJ, and some chips and Ray and Brenda had wraps and some fruit. It was a nice, quick and easy picnic.
We cleaned up, wheeled everything back to the car and attempted to use the public restroom that seemed to be locked with no one inside. Oh well, I guess I will have to go somewhere else...luckily, it wasn't an emergency. We finished the rest of the Adventure Labs in Kennewick and started working on West Richland and Richland since they were kinda mixed together.
We sent Ray, which seemed like all over the place, to get the Adventure Labs in West Richland and a few in the southern part of Richland to avoid the back tracking. We picked up two caches, TC 2022 - WR09 Community Garden (GC9VJ9Z) and TC 2022 - WR10 Bridges View (GC9VJA1). Both caches were pretty quick finds and definitely geared towards children.
We finished up West Richland and moved our way to getting the rest of Richland along with those two caches. We made quick work of it, grabbed TC 2022 - R09 Little Library (GC9RA0G) and our last cache after finishing up the Adventure Lab portion of it was TC 2022 - R10 Treasure Chest (GC9R7RE). That one was at the event where we picked up our coins.
We had our passports ready and stood in the appropriate line to get them checked so we could receive our coins. It was one per household and Ben and I did ours right and our coin was handed to us. These coins get fancier and fancier every year. This year's theme was Land of the Three Rivers. Of course, like every year, there is a bonus cache, TriCities Geocoin Challenge - Bonus (GC9W1RJ) and you could tell where it was because there was a group of 20 people by the cache trying to log it. We walked over to it and signed the log with everyone else.
Earlier that week, we had talked to Ray on Facebook messenger of how the day was going to go. He said that he and Brenda were going to make it a long day trip so after the coin challenge they were going to eat dinner and bounce back up to Spokane. He and Brenda decided on Mexican food this time and he found Azteca in Kennewick over by the mall. We walked to our vehicles and headed over to Kennewick.
They got there a little bit before we did so we joined them at the table and the server took our drink order. I just had water, Ben, Brenda and Ray all had margaritas. We had the standard chips, salsa and bean dip while we waited for our drinks to show up. The server came back and got our food orders. Ben and I shared a chicken burrito, beans and rice because I really didn't need my own meal, plus we had no way to keep leftovers. Ray and Brenda had chicken fajitas. We chatted about various things while we ate and of course, laughed a bunch.
Brenda gave me her raffle ticket before we left the restaurant. We thanked them for a good time, Ben gave Ray the gas money and some hugs were exchanged. We speculated the next time we would see them would be in August for GeoWoodstock in Abbotsford, BC. We told them to have a safe drive home. Ben and I drove back down to the event just in time for the raffle drawing. It was almost coming to a conclusion when my number was called. I jumped up very excited because this was the first time, I won anything at the TriCities Geocoin Challenge. It was a Colorado coin, and I was super stoked!
I texted Bev if we could use her shower since the park, we were at doesn't have one and the river was too dangerous this year to rinse off in. She said that was fine but she, Bob and Gabe were out to dinner at that moment. She said she would let us know when they were back at the Super 8 and had showered themselves. She also added that I could use theirs while Ben used Gabe's. I told her that was a good plan and to see her in a bit.
We loitered around for a little while at the event, walked along the river, did a couple waypoints to an Adventure Lab we didn't finish and went back to our tent to hang out until Bev said it was okay to drive to their hotel in Kennewick.
We gathered all of the stuff we would need for a shower and drove over. We stayed in this hotel back in September, so we knew where it was. We showed up and I used Bob and Bev's shower as Ben used Gabe's. Afterwards, we hung out for a bit chatting and watching the rest of the Mariner game Bob had up on the TV. We talked briefly about going to the event the next morning followed by doing a power trail before heading home. Bev said she wasn't sure what they were going to do but they would see us at the morning event. I thanked them again for letting us use the showers and went back down to the Escape.
We drove back to the park and got situated for bed. We brushed our teeth, put our stuff away and went to bed just after midnight. This time I didn't have to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Next Adventure: TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Leaving TriCities, Power Trail Caching, Miner's, Yakima Adventure Lab and Home
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