Ben has been working on this trip for the past 6 months or so. I told him that he could plan the whole thing and that I would be fine with it. Deep down I knew he had planned to propose but I just didn't know how he was exactly going to do it. I mean come on; we've been dating for almost 9 years--you knew it was bound to happen soon.
He got everything squared away, we set aside a few days on our calendar in July, put in our vacation time for work and just waited until those days approached. The night before, we got all packed up, set Doug up for success while we were gone and went to bed late like we always do.
We set our alarms for 8 a.m. We slowly got up, got ready, dressed, finished packing our last-minute stuff and ate a quick breakfast (Ben cereal and me yogurt and half a blueberry bagel) because we wanted to get on the road as soon as possible. We were so glad to have a few days off from work away from home. I am always a fan of missing work when I can.
We started the dishes, so they were clean, put a few things away, made sure the kitties were fed, gave them treats, scooped the box and gave them a bunch of pets, gathered the rest of the stuff we needed including our childhood stuffed animals, packed up the Edge, Dad came over just as we were about to leave to check on Doug, we chatted for a bit and then left. We left home around 9:30-10 a.m., got onto I-5 north and didn't hit any traffic until we hit Seattle. It was slow around downtown but not too bad. We decided to go this way for a change of scenery, to get some caches along the way and neither of us has been over Stevens Pass in a very long time or have ever.
We scooted on through up to Everett where we merged onto Hwy 2. I was telling Ben how crazy it was up here the last time I was up here. It was last year in June during shop hop with Mom. The traffic was unforgiving, and it was also during the infamous "heat dome" in the Pacific Northwest. As Ben and I drove through, it was a nice, smooth drive with hardly any traffic. He did mention that we needed to stop soon though. I told him Monroe wasn't too far up the road.
We stopped at the Fred Meyer to get Ben some coffee and to use the restroom since we've been in the car for about 2 hours. It was sure nice to stretch out and walk around a little bit. After using the restroom, I was in search of a few candy bars for the road. It's always nice to have some Milky Ways on a road trip. I grabbed Ben some Reece's Cups. We got back onto Hwy 2 and continued our journey east.
A few days before we left, I wrote down some of the caches I wanted to stop at along the way. Some were because of the favorite points, a few were the locations, and the others were because we needed them for the towns and cities challenge, I've been working on for over 12 years now. I am whittling it down slowly but surely.
Our next stop was in Sultan, just because. In the past I've found caches here, but I knew Ben didn't have any in Sultan, so we stopped at a small "park and ride" with a large hunk of tree. Sultan History (GC8K890) was near some landscaping just west of the large hunk of tree that shows the history of it. Ben found the cache, we signed our names and put it back. We spent a few minutes looking at the tree and then got back in the Edge.
I navigated Ben towards the other one I had on the list also in Sultan.
Spirit Quest - The Sultan Cemetery (GC5ZRD4) was off the highway a little bit along the back side of the cemetery in the tree line. We drove the Edge as close as we could and parked it. We got out and the coords jumped all over the place. We knew there was a pretty obvious spot in a tree but for some reason we both missed it the first scan through. We finally found it, added our names to the logbook, got a photo and put it back.
We jumped into the Edge and got back onto Hwy 2. We put a few miles behind us before we stopped in a small blip on the map called Startup. Earlier that week when scanning the map, I saw there was a cache here with a lot of favorite points. I noticed the name of it and assumed it was probably because of the location rather than the container. I added it to my list. I had Ben stop at Old Skis Wanted! (GC28J7H). We parked outside the gate, since it was private property, got out and saw that it was a pill bottle on the edge of the ski fence when Ben pulled it out of its hiding spot. We signed our names, got a picture, put it back and merged back onto the highway.
We traveled maybe a mile before we stopped again. Stat Padding Gold Bar #0! (GC8VVAA) was the one I actually needed for the towns and cities challenge I was working on. Grabbing this one quickly behind the grocery store made my count now down to 21. I still had one more in Western Washington that will require a long weekend trip to complete and several in Eastern Washington to grab. Those will have to be done in several trips.
Our next stop was another cache I found on the map while looking for cool ones on the map. This one had a lot of favorite points, and it was a wooden bridge over the South Fork Skykomish River. It was just outside of Index near Baring. The Index Wood Bridge (GC7KZ4H) was a one lane bridge over a fairly wide river and takes you to a small community of rural people. We crossed the bridge to the other side and parked in the first wide spot to turn around. Ben and I got out and checked the tree and finally found it after a few minutes. Meanwhile, we had to wait for an Amazon truck to cross the bridge before we could get our picture.
We put the cache back and I had Ben drive back over the bridge as I took pictures of him driving across it and some pictures of the river down below. I hopped in and we got back onto Hwy 2.
We started up the grade towards Stevens Pass. It has been a while since I've been out this way. The traffic was minimal, so we made some pretty good time. There were small pockets of vehicles parked on the side of the highway. A lot of them probably on various hikes throughout the area. There was one, Iron Goat Trail (GCK0H9) I still have on my list left to do. That will definitely be another trip for another day.
We started on the down slop of the pass, and I checked my phone to see if we had service and it was spotty. Some of the caches loaded and I saw that we could make a quick stop along the Wenatchee River. Plus, we've been in the Edge for a while and needed to stretch out. I saw there was a cache, a bathroom and a picnic area. I told Ben to stop so we could use the restroom and grab the cache. The coords didn't load very well and we couldn't see the hint because of very poor cell service so I just basically guessed at where it might be. We found Druid Training, Exercise 5: Calm Before the Swift (GCQGX7) within minutes, got our names on it, took a picture and walked down to the river.
We enjoyed the ambiance of being in north central Washington next to the Wenatchee River before using the restroom. Then Ben climbed a large rock for fun.
We decided we were good, got back onto Hwy 2 and continued onto Leavenworth. Once we reached the town limits, I reminded Ben that we had to stop at the sign so we could avenge a DNF from January 2021, when there was too much snow to retrieve the cache. Ben parked in the wide spot along the road, I got out and found Welcome to Der Place (GC47TG7) instantly.
We drove to our Air BnB after finding out we could check in early. We got onto Icicle Road and followed the directions to our cabin for the weekend. We found it tucked right off the road, we parked and went inside to explore. We called our moms to let them know we arrived safely.
We spent the next half hour bringing in our belongings and checking out the place. It was a quaint little cabin with tons of charm and a hot tub. We decided that we needed some dinner but then I saw someone walking around the front of the house and Ben went to go see who it was. It was a guy to came to service the hot tub and Ben called the homeowner to make sure he was supposed to be there, and he was. He did what he needed to do and then we got ready to go into town for some food and walking around.
We got onto the road and followed it into town. We had to wait in a line of cars near the one lane bridge because they were working on it. Meanwhile, we looked to see what we wanted for dinner. We chose Andreas Keller Bavarian Restaurant because we wanted some German food. Once we did get into town, we had a heck of a time finding a place to park but we eventually did and had to pay $6.
We walked to the restaurant we chose and went inside. We were seated, Ben ordered an Oktoberfest beer, and I got the cider. She came back around and got our orders. Ben had the schnitzel, and I had the bratwurst, both came with German potato salad and mine with sauerkraut. The dipping sauce was mustard. For dessert we splurged on the apple strudel, and it was delicious!
After dinner, we wanted to avenge another DNF we had in January 2021 while we were nearby. We should have found Blackbird Blvd (GC76WM1) the first time, but it was missing. We walked down to the cache area and saw there was a lady there who was on vacation from Kelowna, BC. It was fun getting to know her while we searched for it. Turns out it was missing again. Bummer. Some day we are determined to make it an actual find.
We walked back up the hill into town, walked around a little bit more and did the virtual cache, Leavenworth Maibaum (GC9P4ZQ) before we went back to the Edge.
Ben suggested we go to the Safeway and pick up some groceries while we were in town for the next couple days. We bought bread for French toast, sausage, eggs, chicken, corn, mashed potatoes and ice cream. We went back to the chalet, unloaded our groceries, settled in and watched the rest of our Obi Wan Kenobi series, the Dr. Strange movie and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, ate our ice cream and enjoyed the snacks we brought with us.
We went to bed after midnight and set our alarms for 9 a.m. As we got settled in, I said that the blankets and sheets are like clouds, I feel like they are hugging me to sleep!
Next Adventure: Leavenworth Trip: A Proposal, Beer, Geocaching and Adventure Labs
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