Dad's Birthday

A few weeks ago, I asked Dad what he wanted to do for his birthday.  He said because everyone has been so busy, we will just meet up for some food.  I asked him what kind of food he wanted, and he said lasagna, garlic bread and salad.  I asked when he wanted to do it and he said Sunday at noon because it should give people enough time to get up and get ready to come over.   I told him I would let everyone know.

The day before was very busy.  Ben was on shift, and I finally had time to get some new beauty bark for the front yard.  I made sure to purchase the bark from my hometown community, Old Town Bark.  I drove the truck into Rainier and stopped by the senior center for a bit to say hi to Mom and Grandma who were at Saturday sew.  I stayed for about 40 minutes or so.  I got the bark and drove it home.  I spend time scraping off the old bark and fir needles into the street, unloaded the new bark and threw the old bark and needles, along with some tree branches, into the bed of the truck to take into Rainier.

I drove it over to Grandma's house with the intention of unloading it onto her debris cliff and got the truck stuck because the hill was so dry.  Doug and Dad stopped by (Doug was helping Dad with a project) and helped me get the truck unstuck.  I was frustrated because I wasted a good hour doing this.  I picked up Mom from her house so we could go into Yelm to get gas, pick up a few things at the store and drive the truck through the car wash...but sadly, it was closed by the time we got there.  Bummer. I will have to do it another day.

I dropped Mom off, stopped by Grammie and Grandpa's house to drop off some bricks I borrowed, chatted with Dad for a few minutes and went home.  I unloaded stuff I bought at the store, ate some dinner, put the lasagna together (so we can just cook it the next day), made the dirt cups and got in a shower.  I was disappointed to hear the Cougs could have won today but lost because of dumb mistakes they made in the 4th quarter.  I finally went to bed because I knew the next day was going to be busy as well.

Ben came home the next day and took a short morning nap.  I got up around 9:30ish and started getting the house ready for everyone to come over.  I took a couple tables and chairs outside and got them set up and by 11 a.m. I threw the lasagna into the oven so it would be ready the same time everyone showed up.  I got the Texas toast on the sheet pans to heat up once the lasagna was done, and Ben helped me cut up the salad once he got up. 

It approached noon and the lasagna was done, and some people started to arrive.  I put foil over the food that was done and took it out to one of the tables outside.  We hung out and chatted while we waited for the bread to get done.  I had everyone go outside to the back yard and place their presents on the other table. We took advantage of the patio furniture Rhonda gave us last spring.  I brought out the bread, the plates and silverware and the dressings for the salad.  I told everyone to dig in.

We ate, shared stories and hung out before I brought out the dirt cups and presents.  I did dirt cups this time because I was getting tired of cake or pie all the time.  I wanted to change it up.  I tried to make it less bad for you by making it with sugar free chocolate pudding instead.  I soon found out that I put too many ingredients into each cup, so eating it was difficult.  It was good but I got full quickly.

Dad opened his presents; we took pictures, and he smiled a lot.  It was nice to make someone happy on or near their birthday.  His, this year, was on a Thursday so we celebrated it on Sunday when everyone could.  The only one who couldn't make it was Zach because he was down in Vancouver with Shane and Linda. Dad thanked us for his gifts and some good food.

Everyone helped me bring in everything from the backyard, I packed up some leftovers for those who wanted some and everyone went home so they could continue their weekend before the work week started. It was a nice afternoon.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Next Adventure:  A Day in Westport:  Geocaching and my 13,000th Cache Milestone

Tacoma Rainier's Game with Tammy

At the beginning of September, Tammy asked me if I wanted to do a minor leave baseball game before the season ends.  I told her that would be fun and added that I haven't been to a Tacoma Rainiers game since 2019, when my Mom's office went.  It's always a good time.  She mentioned that she remembered me talking about it when we "went" to work.  I even told her back then that the next time they plan it, I was going to invite her to go with us. But then, 2020 and Covid happened, and we never did it again.

She replied back to me with cool, it's on me.  She said that she would check the schedule and get back to me.  I added that pretty much any day works except for a few weekends because they already have plans attached to them.  She went on to tell me that she had a great time with her other friends when she went earlier that summer, but they chat and drink a lot and didn't pay too much attention to the game at all.  She wanted to watch a game with someone who wasn't going to do that and actually pay attention. She said when we do go, she was going to buy herself a hat or shirt because she wanted to support the team. 

I told her that when I spend money to go to a game, a concert or other event that I pay attention and stay to the end.  I told her the story of the last time we went to a Rainier's game back in May 2019.  Doug's unhinged girlfriend, Jenn, drank way too much (she should not have been drinking in the first place) and was embarrassing us so Mom asked Doug to take her home.  You could tell by Doug's face, he was mortified.

Tammy said she was excited to go and have a beer and a hotdog. I told her it was definitely going to be a good time.  She texted me her address again (even though I already had it from sending her a Christmas card) just so there weren't any unknowns, or I got lost or something driving to her house.  I never looked to see where her house actually was and it was literally a street down from Gonyea Park, where my brother used to play baseball when he was in middle school. 

About a week or so after she invited me, she said that she found a day that would work and bought tickets.  The day she picked was September 21st.  I found this hilarious because that was the only day during the week, I had something scheduled to go to.  I didn't have to go to the Geocaching Community Event but still, I found it funny.  I told her as long as the weather was nice.  

**Update: Our summer lasted until mid-October-ish.**

The day of, I made sure I had everything at lunch time so I could just log off when 4:00 hit. I was lucky it was a pretty easy going Wednesday so my afternoon wasn't hurried. I logged off exactly at 4 p.m. and left with my wallet, phone, mitt and a couple of warm clothes just in case it got cool outside.  You never know in the Pacific Northwest next to the Puget Sound.  I wanted to leave as soon as possible because I had no idea what traffic would be like on I-5 northbound.  I was hoping it wasn't that bad because it was the middle of the week.  I plugged her address into Nuvi and headed out. 

I got onto I-5 north bound and I did not have any trouble getting to the exit I needed.  It was a little slow merging onto 512 but I didn't have to do anything because I was getting off at Steele St.  The exit was congested, and I had to wait a few lights to turn left on to Steel St.  I then turned left again on the Spanaway Loop Road and followed Nuvi to her house.  I saw the yellow house with the green Subaru parked in the front. 

She had me come in, I met her dogs and cats, she gave me a tour of the house and we got ready to head to Cheney Stadium to watch Rainiers take on the Round Rock Express out of Texas at 6:05.  I know I have never seen this team out of Texas play before. I've only been here a handful of times since 2007 and have seen the Reno Aces. Alburquerque Isotopes, the Sacramento River Cats and the Salt Lake City Bees.  We hopped into the Subaru, and she wanted to drive down the side streets to avoid Hwy 16.  I didn't blame her.  I navigated her down to the stadium and into the main parking lot.  We did have to pay to park, which wasn't that much.

We found a place to park, made sure we had everything and walked to the front of the stadium.  Tammy had our tickets scanned, we grabbed a free DIRT program, and she immediately went into the gift shop to find a hat or a shirt.  I really didn't need anything since the last time we were here, we got free Rainier hats.  She ended up choosing a hat.  After that, we hit up the concession stand, she got her hotdog, kettle corn and beer, and I got a hotdog and a Coke Zero.  We went up to our seats, which weren't that bad.

We ate, chatted and waited for it to start.  We stood for the National Anthem and watched the ball game.  It was warm evening and a great night for some minor league baseball.  We finished our food before the first pitch was thrown.  We got on the board first at the bottom of the 1st inning.  I was hoping that would set the tone for the rest of the game.  Sadly, it didn't.

At the top of the 3rd inning, the Express rocked our pitcher...base hit after base hit.  They found the holes in our outfield. They ran up the score 4-1.  It was still early in the game, and we could come back easily if our bats woke up.

Debbie saw that I posted that we were at the game and asked how we were doing since the minor league games aren't televised. I told her we were not winning but the game was still young.  It's baseball and it can change at an instant. They brought in another in the top of the 5th and we drove in another one at the bottom of the 7th, just after we sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game. 

The 8th inning was scoreless and then they scored one more at the top of the 9th to make it 6-2.  It was getting pretty hopeless.  I told Tammy we would need a bunch of base hits, or some doubles or even a few home runs with people on to make this happen in our favor.  We hit a solo home run to make it 6-3.  I went through the scenarios in my head on how we could win it.  It literally came down to the perfect storybook ending. The visitor's loaded the bases with 2 outs.  I could not believe it was actually unfolding.  All we needed was a walk off grand slam.  Would it happen?

They changed pitchers, he warmed up with a few pitches and a right-handed batter stood in the box ready to go.  I told Tammy, if the first pitch was down the middle, I would take it.  With one out and three on, the batter launched it over the left field fence.  IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!!  WE WON ON A WALK OFF GRAND SLAM!  WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!

I stood there stunned.  I told Tammy, we went to one heck of a game, didn't we?  She said, we sure did!  We stayed for a couple minutes while the fireworks exploded in the distance. We gathered our stuff and headed back out to the car.  We took the same roads back to her house.  It didn't take very long to get back.  She gave me a tour of her backyard while she let her dogs out, we chatted with the neighbor for a few minutes and then it was time to go home because we still had to go to work the next day.  I told her thank you, that it was fun and we should do something like it again soon. She agreed.

I headed home and arrived around 10ish.  I got in a quick shower and quickly got ready for bed. 

Go Rainiers!

Next Adventure:  Dad's Birthday

Kitsap County Caching, Adventure Labs, The Boat Shed and 9/11 Memorial

I have been trying to finish my Fizzy grid for years now.  I finally got to fill in a couple without knowing I needed them.  Some of them will require special trips and others weren't that far away from home.  One of them was a 4.5/1 and it was between Gig Harbor and Port Orchard.  I've also been eyeballing the 9/11 Memorial virtual cache in Bremerton for a while as well.  I figured since we needed to go up to the Bremerton area let's go to Cougwear too!

I saw I wasn't doing anything that weekend, so I asked Bev and Mom if they wanted to go with me up to Gig Harbor, Port Orchard and Bremerton.  They said sure, sounds like a good time.  The night before I put together some caches that I wanted to get in the area and told them to be at my house by 9 a.m.  I got gas on the way home from visiting a wedding venue with Ben.

The next day, I got up around 8:30, got ready really quickly and they showed up around 9.  We all made sure to use the restroom one more time, I ate a bagel, we got into the Escape and left.  We merged onto I-5 north and hoped that we did not run into any traffic.  We got off at the Hwy 16 exit towards the Narrows Bridge.  I mentioned that's it's been a while since I've been over this way and was having a hard time remembering when that was exactly. 

We get into Gig Harbor, and we had Nuvi direct us to where we needed to go.  It had been several years since we came to Cougwear, our first stop of the day, and I really couldn't remember exactly where it was, even after the three times since 2016. We found the address, pulled in, parked and went inside and were glad it was open because Mom thought she saw something that said otherwise.  We went upstairs and was greeted by a young girl running the shop, she said that they added three new rooms of gear to look at.  It was a lot of stuff to look at.  Holy cow!

We spent the next half hour-forty minutes looking through stuff, I found a decal for my Escape and some Christmas stuff for my Cougar tree I plan to have during Christmas time this year.  I was super stoked to put the decal on my Escape and decorate my small tree with Cougar stuff.  I thanked the girl who was running the shop.

We walked back down to the Escape and left.  We headed to our first cache up near the Burley area of Kitsap County, There Are No Females...(GC6FKQA) which would fulfil my 4.5/1 on my fizzy grid.  We pulled up, parked out of the way, got out and started looking.  We knew it would be a tricky one.  We all started looking while enjoying the fun-loving minions.  We looked and looked and looked and looked.  Mom found a weird piece that didn't look like it belonged, and we read some of the logs stating that they found the log on the ground.  Upon further searching, we found a piece of the log and thought it might have been part of the snap bracelet found on one of the minions. I messaged her for a hint, she didn't respond, and then we sent her the pieces that we found through the messenger through pictures.  We all were going to claim it as a find.  We got in the Escape and left to Port Orchard.

While in Port Orchard, we did the Adventure Lab, but the Farmer's Market was going on. It made parking difficult but luckily, we found a place to park right away.  We did two waypoints to the Adventure Lab near the waterfront and then did the next two in downtown.  The coords were bad so we had a hard time finding them but we did eventually!  We walked back to the Escape and drove up the hill to get the last two, it was a six waypoint Adventure Lab and there wasn't a bonus cache afterwards.

We got back onto the highway and stopped at Torpedo Park (GC7YMF9) because of beach chairs and a cache.  We sat in the chairs and found the cache.  We were there for maybe 10 minutes.  We all hopped back into the Escape and made our way around the Sinclair Inlet and around to Bremerton.  Then I remembered that I haven't been up here since Lindsay and Justin's wedding back in July of 2018.  I just don't come up to Kitsap County very much.

We followed the highway through town and then drove over the Manette Bridge to the community of Manette in east Bremerton.  I had two caches on my list in this area because I enjoy graffiti walls.  However, we had a heck of a time trying to find a place to park.  After three attempts, we finally just parked at the apartment complex up the hill and walked down.  I really didn't want a ticket or have my car towed if we parked near the wall.  We got to the wall, Manette Graffiti Wall (GC9P5FT) and admired the weird artwork.  The virtual cache had us pick one we liked and take a picture with it.  I chose the Japanimation character because Ben likes this kind of stuff. 

We looked for the traditional nearby, Manette Graffiti Wall Up-Close (GC9QYWD) and Bev and I both overlooked it while Mom found it like a mic drop.  It was hidden pretty well, and we both missed it. We signed our names, put it back took a few more pictures of the wall and then walked back up the hill to the Escape.  From there, I asked Mom to find a place to eat and she chose the Boat Shed.

It was on the same side of the bridge as we were, so it made it easier.  However, the restaurant was located down by the water and parking was interesting.  We had to drive down the small one-way road to park down below since the upper parking lot was full.  We parked, got out and went inside.  We were seated out on the dock with a great view of the Sound and the bridge.  She got our drink orders and food since we knew what we wanted. We all got strawberry lemonades because Bev didn't love her tea.  Mom and I got fish and chips, and Bev got a Caesar salad. We enjoyed our food and our view.  We shared a blackberry cobbler for dessert.  Bev accidentally threw her pen in the water down below us and we laughed at her.

We paid, the waitress almost lost my card when it almost fell through the deck and into the Sound but luckily it didn't.  I looked at the app and saw there was a cache nearby, Whitey (GC6Y1FE) and we went to look for it for about 20 minutes and didn't find it.  We think it was supposed to be in the nearby guardrail and it was missing.  We left the area, went back over the bridge, turned right onto Washington Ave, followed that road until we saw the Evergreen Rotary Park.

We parked, grabbed Zinc-Element 30 (GC9P0EE) really quick while we waited for our turn at the 9/11 Memorial--the reason why we came to this park. 

But we had to go do the others because this lady was hogging the memorial and got irritated when we were trying to answer the questions.  So, to avoid confrontation, we walked over to the boat launch/park area to try the letterbox, The Sleeping Giant (GC9Z1CQ) and obviously did it wrong because we couldn't find the cache after searching for at least 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, I found another cache container that wasn't supposed to be in this park.  It wasn't even supposed to be in this city after we looked up its GC code.  We signed it and put it back.  I told Bev I would message the cache owner when we got home.  It was from Poulsbo, called Muriel Iverson Williams Waterfront Park (GC9GWR9) which was about 11 miles line of sight from the park we were in.  We wondered how the heck it got there.  I suggested aliens. 

We attempted to look for the final to that letterbox and finally gave up.  There were lots of people in the park playing on the playground equipment and a birthday party featuring Ariel from the Little Mermaid and Elsa from Frozen.  Mom and Bev used the facilities while I walked to the corner of the park to pick up Gallium - Element 31 (GC9P0FY), the magnetic key holder was hidden underneath a picnic table/bench. I met back up with Mom and Bev and told them about the cache.  I still kept my eyes open for the clues for that darn letterbox.  Lame.

We walked back to the 9/11 memorial and finished exploring it without anyone scowling at us or being in the way of us completing the requirements and taking photos.  We probably hung out there for about 10 minutes to make sure we had all the info we needed.  We saw this memorial has parts from all three locations from that day:  the steel from the Twin Towers in NYC, a piece of the facade of the Pentagon in DC and soil from the crash site in Shanksville, PA.  This memorial was thoughtfully put together.   

We went back to the Escape and drove into downtown Bremerton to do one of the Adventure Labs.  There were several of them, but we didn't have a lot of time to do a bunch of them at the same time.  

The Zombies in Your Neighborhood Adventure Lab, was a sequential lab that took us to five various locations in downtown Bremerton to gather "supplies" such as we stopped at a clinic to gather medical supplies for the zombie apocalypse.  It didn't take us long to finish it. 

We decided we were done and made our way back towards Olympia through Shelton because then, we didn't have to pay the toll to go over the Narrows Bridge.  It was probably longer but we didn't care.  We did end up stopping in Shelton to do Frisbee'rs Shelton Logging History Adventure Lab and the bonus cache (GC9HD44).  That one was also pretty quick.

We headed back to my house, and everyone got out, grabbed their stuff and Mom and Bev got into the Expedition and headed back into Rainier.  I got in a shower, I logged our caches and relaxed for a bit until it was time for bed. 

I only need nine more caches for my 13,000th cache milestone!

Next Adventure:  Tacoma Rainier's Game with Tammy

Going Ape XI

I decided about a week ago that I was going to go to the Ape Event at Hyak this year.  I haven't been since 2017 when I took Ben, Mom, Dad, Trish and Amy through the tunnel for my 12,000th cache milestone at the Ape cache.  I thought about all the stuff that had happened since then and it was a lot.  2017 was the last year my life was somewhat normal. I love seeing what the future holds but I definitely miss what life was like back in 2017. 

This would be my 7th time at this annual event that the WSGA sponsors (except for 2020 and 2021).  This time it is being held in September when it's usually held in mid-August.  This year we were still catching up on event's that had been postponed so August would have been too busy to hold it then.  Ben had a race shift South Sound Speedway and Mom had a CPR training at the office, so I guess I was going by myself with my bike.  I prepared the Escape the night before by putting the bike in and other various things I thought I would need like the bike pump and the helmet.  I put in some extra shoes and a bag of snacks.  I also made sure I had a full tank of gas, so I didn't have to stop anywhere in the morning.

I set the alarm for 6:30, got up, got ready, put on the appropriate clothes for the day, grabbed some drinks for the cooler, fed the kitties and told Ben to be safe at the racetrack.  I added that I wasn't sure what time I would be home but would update him throughout the day.  It was very smokey outside because of the bad wildfires and I was really hoping the pass would be less smoky.  I left the house by 7:10.

I got onto I-5 north, merged onto 512, then to 167, Hwy 18 and finally onto I-90.  I didn't hit one lick of traffic and it was awesome because I was making great time.  This is how the drive should be, but I know it will never be like this every time, besides it's early in the morning on a Saturday.  The drive up I-90 was really easy going.  I think I drove past a couple of geocachers that had visible trackables on their vehicles. 

I arrived in Hyak around 8:30, parked, used the restroom and then got my bike out.  I made sure my bike had adequate tire pressure, I threw on my tennis shoes and wheeled over to the event.  I said hi to a couple people I knew but didn't want to impose because I knew they were busy getting the event ready for the 10 a.m. start time. I went over to the refreshment tent with Annette and Dick to chat for a little bit.  I hadn't gotten to talk to them that much since Covid.  We had a great time chatting as we waited for the event to start.  I also did a bunch of the Adventure Labs while we hung out because some of them didn't have a geofence.  I signed the WSGA's Going Ape XI (GC9N8PG) logbook and talked to Brian and Vickie for a little bit.

I decided it was time to go through the tunnel before it got really busy.  Before I grabbed my bike, two ladies came up to me at the refreshment tent and asked if I was cougarcach24.  I told them I was!  They introduced themselves as Dicentra and Quiltist2.  I told them it was very nice to meet them and told them how that Adventure Lab went in July.  They were the ones who helped Ben with it and both beta tested it.  Before they left for their adventure (this was their first ape event), I told them thank you for helping with the big day.  They said they were happy to help and congratulated me.  I smiled and felt famous for the rest of the day.

I grabbed my bike and headed towards the tunnel. It wasn't that busy yet which is what I was hoping for because nobody likes a crowded tunnel.  I did some of the Adventure Lab waypoints as I went and did an archived cache, Canadian Ape Cache FVCB3 (GC8JQ21).  You pressed a lever and slide the lid and an ape hand tries to grab you.  It was a fun cache.  

I stopped at the entrance, put my winter hat and the headlamp I borrowed from Mom and Dad on.  It is chilly in there even though it was summer like outside.  

I rode through the tunnel trying to avoid the occasional walker, bike rider and small child or dog walker.  As I cruised through, I got dripped on a couple times by the cracks in the ceiling, rode through some muddy spots and was really glad I remembered to bring my hat because I could see my breath in front of me in the middle of the tunnel.

It didn't take me long to get through to the other side.  This is why I love bringing my bike with me.  I've done it several times with the bike and walking throughout the years. 2.25 miles definitely feels longer when you walk it!  I stopped just to the side of the tunnel so I could take off my hat and headlamp.  I overheard some people talking about the Adventure Lab R65 Trifecta and that one of the five waypoints was on this side of the tunnel.  I had gotten the one at the Seattle event a couple weeks ago.  I picked up that one and finished another Adventure Lab I had begun in the parking lot. 

I rode further up the gravel trail to the Misson 9:  Tunnel of Light (GC1169), which is a high sought-after cache since there are only two left in the world. Here and Brazil. I found it for the first time back in August 2017 after it was resurrected.  This time, I was leaving behind and picking up trackables and doing the Adventure Lab.  There was a small group of people near the cache and its guardians, GrnXnham, two local cachers and WSGA members from Graham.  I've chatted with them before in the past, did GCD with them, twice, and they are also Cougar fans. I visited with them for a few minutes and gave them one of my pathtags and they reciprocated by giving me one of their wooden nickels. 

I chatted with a lady from Montana, a girl from Mount Vernon and a guy named Yosemite Sam for a while.  He traded a pathtag with me before pedaling away.  I was there for a good half hour, forty minutes before deciding it was time to go back through the tunnel.  I put my hat and headlamp on again and made my way through the tunnel.  This time it took me a little longer because there were more people, dogs and bikes inside.  I passed quite a few people. 

Once on the other side, I did another Adventure Lab but, I had to go back and forth into cell service because it wouldn't work and soon got super annoying.  I eventually finished it but took me way too long to do it.  I decided, since I had my bike, to pedal east on the trail towards Lake Keechelus.  It's been quite a few years since I've gotten caches out that way.

You could clearly see the smoke getting thicker as the afternoon wore on.  It wasn't nearly as bad as it was down in the valley though.  I was glad to be in the mountains during a really smoky day.  I saw that another Adventure Lab published while I was going through the tunnel, but I decided to do it on the way back to the event when I was done. 

I followed the trail past the event and to another trailhead lot or overflow lot.  I saw I was getting closer to Lake Keechelus Trailhead (GC5B5G0).  I grabbed a couple pictures of the trailhead marker and then ventured over to where the phone was telling me to go. 

The only place it could be was hanging on the metal sign on the edge of the parking lot.  Bam, there it was.  I unscrewed it, signed my name and the date and put it back where I found it. I knew this one was going to be found a bunch of times today.  

I got back on my bike and made my way down the trail to my last one, Alpine Lakes:  Lake Keechelus (GC4JRQ2).  I read the trail map wrong and ended up going off roading to get down to the road.  It was quite a journey, and I am glad I didn't fall and hurt myself.  Looking back, I probably should have but got lucky.  I got onto the road and followed it out to the boat launch.  I didn't need to quite go to the boat launch but the bluffs overlooking the boat launch.  There was a vehicle nearby, they ignored me, and I ignored them.  I put my bike down near some bushes and walked up to the tree at the top of the bluff.  It took me a while to figure out where and what I was looking for, but I did find it.  The view was pretty amazing from up there. 

I got my bike and rode back to the event.  I hung out and caught up with Dick and Annette some more, talked to a lot more cachers from that refreshment tent.  We spoke to a guy from Moldova who was here visiting friends and geocaching.  He said he did a bunch of caches in Seattle and decided to come to the ape event.  I briefly talked to Ben and Jayme. They said they would have been here sooner, but they got rear ended on the 405 trying to get to the event.  He said they're fine, but it was annoying to deal with.  While I was there, I decided to do the other Adventure Lab but couldn't get the phone to cooperate, so I went back to do it later.  I talked to Brian and Vickie again for a bit about my trip to New England and our visit to Salem.  She said it's a pretty amazing place.  I was excited. 

As it approached mid-afternoon, around 2ish, I said my goodbyes, loaded up my bike and got onto I-90 west.  I was regretting not making myself a sandwich before I left that morning.  All I brought was snacks and I needed something with more sustenance to eat.  I saw there was a Jersey Mike's at the North Bend exit, so I pulled off I-90 and managed to find where it was in town.  I found a place to park and went inside.  There were a bunch of 20-somethings in line ordering a bunch of food.  They were all dressed in swimming attire and must have been out on a lake somewhere.  It eventually got to me, and I ordered my usual, turkey and cheese.  

I walked over to the Bartel's in the same lot and got a couple Milky Ways, a small bag of chips and some Pepsi Zero's for the road.  I ate a few bites of my sandwich and got back onto I-90.  I got off at the Hwy 18 exit and had to wait for a bunch of people to figure out how to merge.  It took a while, but we eventually got going.  I went the length of Hwy 18 until it merged into Federal Way on I-5 because my WSDOT told me to so I could avoid backups on 167. 

I saw I was getting low on gas and saw Fife was coming up.  It was easy to get in and out of.  I called Mom to let her know I survived and that I was almost home.  I filled up the tank at the 76 Station and got back onto I-5.  I called Ben to let him know I was almost home.  He said he was at the racetrack getting ready.  I decided to stop by Costco on the way home to pick up a few things.  I got home, unloaded the Escape and decided to get rid of Erika's green beans and other stuff I was storing of hers in the garage.  I talked Doug into going with me over to her house to drop those items off.  He brought Charlie so we could stop at PetSmart on the way home. 

We drove out to Erika's house; she wasn't home but told us to leave it in front of her garage.  I took a picture and sent it to her so she could see the stuff and knew where it was.  I took Doug and Charlie to PetSmart to get a dog toothbrush and paste, some treats, a dog toy (picked out by Charlie--"Octofox") and a large dog water bowl for the bedroom.  We went home after that.  It was super smoky outside. 

I vacuumed out the Escape, washed clothes, showered, did laundry, Doug ordered pizza and didn't realize he did takeout instead of delivery, so our stuff didn't come.  Doug called and changed it to delivery, and we eventually got it and ate cold pizza, but that was his fault, not theirs.  I made dirt cups, folded laundry, watched football, worked on my blog for a while, logged caches, did dishes, cleaned up the kitchen, cleaned the cat fountain, made bird water.  Ben came home just before midnight from the track.

I came home with 4 caches and 23 Adventure Labs.  It made it that much closer to milestone 13,000.  I ended up going to bed around midnight.

Next Adventure:  Kitsap County Caching, Adventure Labs, The Boat Shed and 9/11 Memorial