A Visit to Eatonville for Some Cache Maintenance and Tearin' Apart the Back Porch

I kept getting DNF messages in my email and in my messages on the geocaching app and I was getting tired of seeing them.  I didn't want to go by myself, but Mom was at Saturday sew in Rainier and Ben was on a 24-hour shift at the fire station, so I asked Bev on the Friday before if she wanted to go on an adventure to Eatonville.  I needed to go check on some of my caches and grab some of the new ones in the area including the Adventure Lab.  She said she had to ask Bob and then she got back to me stating that she could go.

I told her I would come and get her around 10:30 the next day.  That afternoon I got a table with newspapers set up in the driveway.  I got some of my containers I have been meaning to spray paint with camo paint up on the table since it was a decent day.  I managed to get a bunch of them painted because I would need some of them for our short trip to Eatonville the next day.  

I got up, ate a quick breakfast, got all of my stuff in the Escape and headed out to Rainier just before 10 a.m.  We had a quick bout of thunder and lightning with a little bit of rain.  I thought it was supposed to be nice.  Where is this weather coming from?  I hope it goes away.

I got into Rainier and down to their house.  Bob was in the garden and Bev was ready to go after she went to the bathroom one more time.  We said bye to Bob and drove out to Eatonville. It didn't take us long to get out there since the roads weren't that busy.  We got onto Hwy 7 and went the long way around to Eatonville.

Our first stop was to pick up a geocache.  Just outside of Ohop, we stopped near Silver Lake on a side road to pick up Freddy the Frog (GC9Y575).  The 3D printed frog head was hidden between two trees on the ground.  It was an easy search.  We got our names on it, I got a picture and put it back.  We got back on the highway and headed to the first one of mine I had to do maintenance on.  

Rainier100 3: Ohop Pioneers (GC6KEW0) is a cache I have been out to fix a lot in the recent years.  I am not sure how this goes missing so often.  I know it's by the Ohop Pioneer Farm but still.  There is also a letterbox nearby not associated with geocaching, but people seem to not care and log that one anyway.  Indeed, after a brief search, the cache was gone.  I got out one of my freshly painted containers from the day before, got a logbook, a baggie and a couple pieces of swag and hit it back behind the sign.  Maybe this will stay put for a while.

We got back onto Hwy 7 and drove a few miles to the Pack Forest.  We followed the road to the parking area and to our surprise, the parking area was kinda full.  That was a first for me while doing maintenance on Rainier100 2: Pack Forest (GC63GN3).  We found a place to park, grabbed an extra container and we headed the short distance to where I hit it along the small dirt trail.  There were some places along the way that were still wet and muddy.  We got to the area and the "spire" that I hid it near had finally fallen over and the cache was nowhere to be seen (if someone had moved it somewhere else, I could not find it) so I had to find a new place to hide it.  I hid it next to a large tree right off the trail.  I gathered some new coordinates and back to the Escape we went. 

From there we got back onto Hwy 7 and drove the "swirly" way towards Alder.  We stopped in a pullout and searched for Gruncle Sees Red (GC9Z3KC).  We had a heck of a time searching for it because it was hidden very well.  We did find it, got our names on it and put it back exactly how we found it.  We got back onto Hwy 7 and further down the highway. 

We saw there was another one along the highway we didn't have so we found the nearest pullout, got out and found Watch the Railing (GC9Z090) right away due to it being the same hide as the previous one.

We drove into Eatonville from the south while having the Eatonville Adventure Lab open to see where we needed to go, without too much backtracking.  We grabbed the one at the Bud Blancher Trailhead because of the way we entered town.  When we got back onto the road to go to our next stop, I saw an Eatonville Police SUV sitting on the side of the road and it looked just like Shauna.  I texted her to see if it was her.  She wrote me back a couple minutes later saying it was her and that I should stop by the police station when we weren't busy.  

Then we saw a cluster of three waypoints at Mill Pond Park, so that is where we went next.  My cache, Rainier100 4: Eaton of the Ville (GC6R8PV) was also located in this area, so I brought an extra cache with me to replace it after we did the three waypoints.

So, I came here back in February 2022 to replace the cache that was missing.  I was not sure where it went to, so I had to hide it in a different spot that may get compromised in the near future.  I asked cachers if they found the original container to message me.  No one ever did.  While doing maintenance with Bev we looked everywhere for it and could not find anything.  Someone had mentioned something about the wash tub on the deck, so I looked.  A cacher had placed the original cache container in the wash tub.  Why do people do that?  Why do they move them?  It was a wet logbook, in bits, hidden inside a large Ziplock bag.  I spent some time getting it into a new container with a logbook and baggie and hid it where it was supposed to go, under the deck near the cabin on the SW corner of the building. I hope it stayed there but we will see.

Our last stop for the Adventure Lab was at the old Roxy Theater in town. People have been watching movies in that theater for over 100 years. That is a crazy statistic.  I told Shauna we would stop by, so we found some parking on the side of the building and wasn't sure where to go.  I texted her again asking where we needed to enter from, and she said the back.  We walked to the back, and she let us in.  She was on lunch and the only one on shift that day.  We hung out with her for about a half hour while she waited for her food to heat up in the oven.  We told her what we were doing in Eatonville, and she got to meet Bev and Bev got to meet her.  I haven't seen Shauna in a while because we've been so busy with life and stuff.  Before we left, she gave us Eatonville Police Junior Officer stickers. I thanked her and told her I would see her around.

We walked back out to the Escape and went to go grab the Bonus Cache:  Eatonville Adventure Lab (GCA6Q8V).  And this is where we had to backtrack. We had to go back to the Bud Blancher Trailhead to get the bonus cache.  We parked and actually had to walk down the trail, over the bridge and the Mashal River and to a large stump, where we had found a cache in the past that has since been archived.  I went down to retrieve it since Bev didn't want to walk down the hill and then would have to try and get back up the hill.  I got our names on it, put it back and we walked back up to the Escape. 

We went home on Hwy 161 and then turned onto the Eatonville Cutoff Road to Hwy 7.  We got onto 702 and into McKenna.  I went home the back way through Vail and took Bev home.  I went inside and had a piece of her banana bread fail and gave her a puzzle I've had in the car for them for a couple weeks.  She thanked me for a fun day, and I left and went over to Mom and Dad's house to help take the back porch apart with Doug since it is a huge safety hazard.  I am not sure what Dad wants to do with the space now that the old boards are pulled up. Time will tell.

  

When we were done, we drove over to Grandma's house to drop off cans in the shed since Doug has been driving the truck around since November. We both went back home afterwards but I decided to get some grocery shopping done while I had some extra time.  I had to scan my groceries twice because the register wasn't working.  I came home, Doug helped me unload the groceries, I put them away, got in a shower, ate some popcorn and watched TV shows, logged caches and got caught up on my blog.  It was nice to get those caches replaced.

Next Adventure:  Bonney Lake Birthdays and Lawn Mowing's at Grandma's House

Spokane Trip: Spokane to Home

The alarm went off but I didn't get out of bed until about 7:15 again.  I went out to use the restroom but had to step over Seamus to do so.  I got dressed for the day and packed up my stuff, so it was ready to go.  The night before Fitzy had gotten her sourdough proof made up so it was ready for the next morning.  She started on the cinnamon sourdough waffles.  I was kinda intrigued with how that was going to taste. 

Once they were done, I put some butter, syrup and threw some fruit on top.  I am not a huge fan of sourdough, but you couldn't really taste it, which was good...the cinnamon came through though.  

We chatted for a bit while we ate.  She asked what my plan was as I headed home.  I told her I was going to drive up to Chewelah and Springdale to grab two caches I need to finish a challenge I've been working on (at times not actively) for the past 13 years. She told me that there was a marathon going on in Spokane Valley and it may reroute me. She added that she was going to do some yard and housework and then take it easy before the beginning of the new work week.  I helped her with the dishes really quick, gathered up the rest of my stuff, took it out to the Escape, used the restroom one more time and said our goodbyes out in the driveway and thanked her for letting me hang out and stay with them.  She told me I was welcomed anytime as long as she was home.   

I set the GPS to the cache in Chewelah and left her house around 9:30 a.m.  I got onto Montgomery and stopped by the Coca-Cola distribution center, a place Fitzy and I went to the previous year and got soda from the machines for a quarter, to get the cache, Life is Like a Box of...Soda? (GC8AAX4).  I parked and checked the vending machines to see if they had any soda.  All four of them were sold out.  Bummer.  I walked over to the nano cache and was disappointed.  I felt like this cache was a huge, missed opportunity.  Oh well.

I followed Nuvi's directions and wished I would have gone up E Bigelow Gulch Road to avoid the marathon road closures.  I was diverted all the way to Division and up through Mead to get onto Hwy 395 up through Deer Park, Loon Lake and up to Chewelah.  I talked to Mom for a little bit, but the service was very spotty.  It was smooth sailing until we got behind a truck going really slow about a mile from the cache.

I finally got to my turn off, parked off to the side of the coffee stand (I wanted to make sure the people in the drive thru couldn't see me), grabbed the cache, Chewelah or Bust! (GC8FHFW) from underneath the coal cart, it was a glass jar (not a fan of people using glass jars, they break too easily), signed my name, snapped a picture and got back in the Escape.  I really didn't want to bring too much attention to myself since people are addicted to coffee.

I set the GPS for Springdale, a small town just southwest of Chewelah, and followed its directions to Fishin the Duck Pond (GC89YD6).  I called Erika back (she had called me earlier that weekend to tell me a story) and she proceeded to tell me about her funny former work story.  We talked about wedding stuff, our brother's problems, the Kevin and Tracy bickering with Dad until the phone dropped a few calls due to the service.  I ended up talking to her while I found the cache I needed from Springdale and the service stayed connected almost all the way to Davenport, where I got expensive gas at the Exxon.  Gas should not be this stupid expensive!! 

I decided to drive through Harrington this time around instead of the way I went last time.  This area was literally the middle of nowhere.  I maybe drove past two other vehicles while on this stretch of highway.  

I got into Harrington and like all the other small towns in Eastern Washington, this one looked just like the others.  I saw where the closest cache was and made my way to the middle of town to grab it.  I parked along the side street and grabbed The Phantom of the Opera (GC2FX5F).  It was a fake rock on the side of what used to be an opera house during the turn of the century.  I got my name on it and took a quick picture before putting it back.

I got back into the Escape and headed out of town towards Ritzville.  I saw there was a public restroom near one of the parks before I left.  I stopped and peed really quick.  I got back on the road and headed south to Ritzville.  

Along the way, I looked at the geocaching app to see if there were any good caches to grab while driving through.  I saw there was one at the library but wasn't sure if it was inside or outside the library and since it was a Sunday the library wouldn't be open anyway.  Then the longest train in the world puttered through town.  Ritzville is divided in half by the railroad tracks, and I decided I didn't want to wait for the train, so I moved on. 

I saw another one I could get near the onramp to I-90 but when I got there, there was no place to park so, I scrapped that idea too. I got onto I-90 and drove west towards home.  Traffic wasn't that bad, and I almost decided to stop to use the restroom at Rye Grass but went on further to Ellensburg to eat some food.

I quickly found the address for the Red Horse Diner; a place Ben and I ate at back in May 2021 during our Memorial Day trip and put it into the GPS.  It was an easy drive to the exit.  I followed the directions, found the diner, parked and went inside.  It had cooled down significantly since Spokane and it got super windy, so I sat inside by the bare area near the register so I would be seen by the waitresses and be served quickly.     

I looked at my menu and was approached immediately by one of the waitresses and she asked what I wanted to drink, and I said a Coke Zero followed with if I decided on some food yet.  I told her the chicken sandwich, fries and tartar sauce sounded good.  She said she would be back in a few minutes with my drink and a little bit for my food.  I thanked her and handed her my menu. 

I did a couple posts on Facebook while I waited for my food to arrive.  Once I did, I took a few bites and didn't realize how hungry I actually was.  

I ate my food and continued my posts and text messages.  I ate every single bite, paid, thanked them and headed out to the Escape to get back onto I-90.  I was hoping there wasn't any bad traffic up ahead of me.  I spoke too soon.  There was a three-mile slow spot between Cle Elum and Easton, but why?  I was so annoyed because there was NO REASON for it!  Why is it always this spot?  There was no accident, no construction, just why?

Once we got beyond the stupid, it was a quick drive through the pass and into North Bend. I stopped to top off with gas again at the Safeway gas station.  It was a quick in and out and I was back on I-90.  I didn't hit traffic again until I got off of I-90 to Hwy 18.  It looked like they were going to start doing construction to widen Hwy 18 and possibly create more lanes.  The traffic thinned out as I got closer to Covington and Auburn.

I merged onto Hwy 167 onto 512 and eventually onto I-5.  I was on the home stretch.  I called Ben to check in and to see if he needed anything while I was driving home, and he said a few things.  I stopped at the Walmart near our house to pick up those few things.  I got home, unloaded the Escape, showed Ben the things Brend and Ray gave us (I told him why), took a shower and was sad I had to get ready for the work week after having a three-and half-day weekend.  Seriously, it goes by way too fast! 

Next Adventure:  A Visit to Eatonville for Some Cache Maintenance and Tearin' Apart the Back Porch

Spokane Trip: Farmer's Market, Centennial Trail, Geocaching, Uprise Brewing, Dishman Hills and Pizza

I tossed and turned all night long for some reason.  I just couldn't get comfortable and had no idea why.  I set my alarm for 7:15 because I know Megan wakes up early because she has dogs.  I used the restroom, got dressed and went into the living room.  We hung out for a little bit and then she asked me if I wanted to do yoga with her on the back porch for about a half hour.  I said sure. 

She brought out two yoga mats, situated them on the back porch and got her phone situated so we could watch and follow the half hour program she had picked for us.  I was doing alright until my feet and hands got sweaty and slowly tried slipping off the mat while I was in certain positions.  I was definitely not as bendy as Megan was but was in better shape than I had been over the past few years.  After we were done, I rolled up my mat and handed it to her so she could put them away.  

She asked if scrambled eggs and toast were fine for breakfast, and I said they sure were!  I ate one of my oranges I brought with me once the scrambled eggs and toast were done.  Megan's food is always good no matter what it is.  We finished up, did the dishes and grabbed what we needed for the rest of our morning.  We drove the Escape just in case Chaise wanted to leave for any reason.  Megan said that the Farmer's Market moved to another part of town, Browne's Addition, so that's where we headed, to the western part of downtown, the more historical section of Spokane.  The last time I spent time over that way was in 2018 with Trish, Ben and Mom when we went to the Titanic Exhibit. 

We parked on Chestnut and walked into Coeur d'Alene Park.  There were plenty of booths and people selling their wares but because it was May, there wasn't a lot of produce available.  I recognized some of the sellers from the last time I came.  I didn't purchase anything, but Megan bought some potatoes and meat for one of their dinners in the upcoming week.  We were probably there for about a half hour or so and decided to leave.  Megan asked if my cooler had room in it and it did, but we needed to get some more ice to keep the meat cold. 

We stopped at the nearby Rosauers and grabbed a bag of ice.  We browsed the aisles to see what kinds of things they carried.  I haven't been in a Rosauers in quite some time.  We paid for our ice, dumped it in the cooler and arranged the meat inside to keep it cold.  We drove north, across the Spokane River, and into the Kendall Yards area to park near Uprise Brewing Company.

We got out, grabbed my backpack, put my walking shoes on and made sure I had my water.  We were going to leave the Escape there and walk the few blocks to one of the trailheads to the Centennial Trail.  We had to walk a couple blocks through the Kendall Yards neighborhood to get to the trailhead.  It was starting to get warm, but we brought enough water to keep us hydrated on our walk.  

Right away, there was a cache to grab, Emily's Cache (GC5TCE6).  It was a nano stuck to the metal part of a display along the trail that gave information about the Spokane River and the Centennial Trail.  I showed it to Fitzy, and she was like, they are that tiny?  Some of them, yep.  I got my name on it, got a photo and put it back without being seen since there were people on the trail with us. 

We continued down the trail chatting about various things that have been going on in our life.  About halfway down the trail, Doug called to let me know what he was doing over the weekend and to check in with me about his plans while both Ben and I were gone.  I told him as long as he feeds, waters, picks up after the pets, leaves the lights off when not in use and doors locked, that I didn't care.  Obviously, no drinking and driving better occur.  We were on the phone for about ten minutes while we walked.  We hung up and Fitzy and I continued walking.

Up the trail a bit was another cache, WSGA - IE - 10 - Downstream Yard (GC9ZMMD) and didn't realize it was one of the WSGA Anniversary caches that I had not made time for.  This would be my first find of the GeoTour besides the two that I own back at home.  I stepped off the trail and grabbed the container that was hidden underneath some sticks and pinecones.  I signed the log out of view of muggles while Fitzy waited for me to finish.  I got a picture and put it back without being seen.  We walked up the trail further.

I saw another cache up ahead but decided not to go for it because I would have to walk up the steep hill to the road and I really didn't want to do that, so I left it alone.  Fitzy said this was a good turn around spot since we had walked a mile and a half already and it was approaching the high of 90 degrees for the day. I told her it was a good idea and turned around.  

It didn't take us long to get back to where we got onto the trail.  We meandered through the neighborhood and back to Uprise Brewing.  I changed my shoes into flip flops, threw in my backpack, grabbed my wallet, phone and keys and followed her into the brewery.  

We stood at the counter and decided which beer to get.  She and I got the Vienna Lager, and she ordered jerk cauliflower and the jackfruit Bahn Mi sandwich.  She treated me to my beer and shared her food with me.  We did a lot of chatting while we drank and ate food.  It was nice to spend that time with her talking about things we didn't like, things we put up with and what was funny about those conversations is that they mirrored what we were both experiencing at home.  We also talked about what we were going to do over the summer and stuff about the upcoming wedding.  We sat there for almost two hours so we thought we should head back to her house.

On the way back, we stopped by the courthouse because we were literally driving past it, so I could get the virtual cache, Historic Spokane County Courthouse Virtual (GC9P4RP).  There was plenty of parking on the opposite side, so I just told Fitzy to stay in the Escape while I ran across the road and got my selfie.  It was an easy virtual cache.

She had me drive out towards Dishman Hills so we could walk off our beer and food and grab a couple more geocaches.  We parked in the large lot off of Appleway Blvd and found the trail that produced the most caches that weren't puzzles.  I set the phone to MKM Camp Caro Cache (GC36474) and off we walked.  I didn't realize there was a day camp going on when we got close to the cache.  The coords kept bouncing all over the place but it finally managed to settle down and I found the baggie and logbook without its container.  I told Fitzy sometimes the container is missing but there is a bag and or baggie left behind. I signed the log and put it back where I found it.

We moved onto the next one, Renegade #200 (GC298B8).  We followed the trail out towards a rocky area.  Fitzy said that she had ran this area a few weeks ago when her truck was in the shop and there had been some standing water.  Again, the coords were really wonky in this area so it had us searching all over the place for this one.  Fitzy did eventually find it first and I told her, look at you finding geocaches!  We got it signed and put back where she found it.

We walked back to the Escape and then tried to find the cache at the entrance when we left.  I looked and looked for Dishman Hills Natural Area (GC7HCBQ) but all I could find was a dollar hidden under a rock.  The cache was probably missing.  Oh well.  We drove back to her house and relaxed for a bit.  I got my laptop out, logged my caches, did some journaling and ate my salad while Fitzy and the dogs took a short nap.

Later on, that evening, Chaise wanted some pizza for dinner, so Fitzy and I hopped into the truck and headed out to Otis Orchards to get pizzas from Versalia.  She told me they've ordered pizza from them before and enjoyed the choices so far.  We parked along the street and went inside.  Fitzy ordered two pizzas and they told us it would be about a half hour.  I checked to see if there was a cache in the park across the street and there was, A Peachy Blue Switch Day (GCA848Q).  We walked over but all the people being in the park made it difficult to look for it.  The coords were bad and I couldn't really look for it without all the people looking at us.  I gave up after a few passes because our pizzas were probably done.

We walked back to the pizza place, paid and grabbed our pizzas.  We drove back to the house but stopped at a NomNom so I could pick up a few more Pepsi zeros.  We got back home, ate pizza on the back porch while we watched the dogs wander around the back yard and beg for pizza.  We chatted a bit more, she told me about some of the projects they hoped to get to this summer like cutting down some of the trees and putting on a new roof and cutters.  They eventually want to tear down the porch and build a new one with a different arrangement.  She also expressed having a garden at some point, but she will have to figure out how to keep the dogs out of it.

We went inside, visited, hung out with the dogs, we showered and got ready for bed.  I went into my room and journaled for a little bit before falling asleep.  I set my alarm for 7 a.m.

Next Adventure:  Spokane Trip:  Spokane to Home

Spokane Trip: Loose on the Palouse, the Grain Train and Go Cougs!

It was so warm inside their house over the course of the night I didn't sleep all that well.  I got some sleep, but it wasn't great.  I got up around 7 a.m., put my clothes on, went into the guest bathroom, washed my face, brushed my hair and joined Brenda and Ray in the kitchen.  Brenda was getting the rest of her morning squared away before she had to leave for work.  She told us to have fun in Pullman while Ray and I ate the rest of the cereal in the plastic container.  I had never had chocolate Chex before, so it was interesting.  We told her to have a good day at work and we would see her when we came back. 

We grabbed what we needed for the day and hopped into the Escape.  Ray wanted to do a couple of Adventure Labs and I had a couple caches I wanted to get while we drove south towards Pullman.  It was going to be a nice day and I haven't been to Pullman in at least a decade.  I was excited to visit again.

We got onto I-90 and to US 195 that took us straight down to Pullman.  I've driven that road so many times it would be interesting to see how much it had changed, if it had at all.  Our first stop was Spangle and the first of the five waypoint Adventure Lab Loose on the Palouse.  This is one Ray wanted to do and I was all game for Adventure Labs and caches.  We got off of the highway and into the very small town of Spangle.  We had to turn around because we missed the spot we needed.  Once to the correct spot, we answered the question it asked and off we went, back to the highway.

We saw a couple geocaches along our route and they looked like they were quick park and grabs and easy to get to.  We stopped at Christmas Cache (GC67YT6), and it was butted up next to a large tree.  The container was definitely wet inside and it looked like the tree had globbed some tree sap onto the lid of the container.  I had to be careful where I grabbed so I didn't have it all over me for the rest of the day.  We did take both of the travel bugs so I could move them along. 

We got back on the highway and drove a little further south.  We saw two caches on either side of the highway and planned on getting both before our next Loose on the Palouse waypoint in Plaza.  We grabbed Not as Lame as Yours (GC2W75H) and Even Lamer (GC8VTM5), that one, unfortunately, was missing so we replaced it for the cache owner.  

We were off to our second waypoint for Loose on the Palouse, the small unincorporated community of Plaza. We got back onto the highway and headed south.  We took the Plaza exit and I told Ray, I've been past this little community so many times over the years, driving to Spokane and back from Pullman, I never really had a reason to stop until now.  He agreed.  There are thousands of places I've been to over the years because of geocaching. 

We followed our phones to the waypoint, and it took us to some grain silos.  We had to grab a word off of the grain silos.  I saw a train car that I had to get a picture of.  On the side it said Grain Train and reminded me of Brad's Insane Train nickname he and his friends gave themselves many years ago.  Ray and I got a selfie before driving to the other side of the highway to grab Mom's Big Brain Cache (GC8MM5M).  We stopped there because it had a bunch of favorite points.  

We parked on the side of the road and walked to a bunch of rocks and started looking.  We didn't find the original container but a container that people were signing so we signed it.  I am not sure if it is a replacement cache because the original went missing? A find is a find, I guess.  We got back into the Escape and headed into Rosalia.  

We started the Rosalia Driving Tour Adventure Lab and grabbed a cache, Evergreen Cemetery Cache (GC8R1JH) at the same place, two birds with one stone.  As we pulled up to the cemetery, I got a Facebook message from Debbie.  Ugh, what does Debbie want?  I briefly read it.  She ruined my vacation by telling me the reviews didn't arrive and that we will have a double Monday when I get back.  Seriously?!  The whole point of me taking days off from work is so I don't have to do the work! So lame!  We grabbed the waypoint, the cache and then headed into Rosalia. 

We grabbed two more waypoints for the Adventure Lab and then spent way too much time looking for BRStar Cache (GC6D4E9).  The coordinates were very bad.  It had us searching all over the old, abandoned Texaco Station until I had an idea after reading through some of the logs.  I told Ray the coords were off and it was on the back of the metal star on the bar.  We walked over and there it was, a magnetic nano on the back of the metal star.  Win!  We also saw a car parked on the street that had a travel bug trackable on their window.  I wonder if the cache owner was nearby.

We got back into the Escape and headed over to the park where Founder's Rock (GC1BEXR), a multicache, and another waypoint to the Adventure Lab.  We parked near the run-down bathroom, got out and walked to ground zero, got our Adventure Lab waypoint and the numbers to the final stage of the multicache.  We walked by the playground infested with little kids, through the field and out to the tree line, where we searched for the bison tube we needed. 

We walked back to the Escape, used the creepy bathroom and got back up into town.  Our next Adventure Lab stop was up the hill to the Steptoe Battlefield site and there was also a geocache there as well.  I needed my Discover Pass to park up there.  We were the only ones there.  We walked over to the monument and got what we needed off of it to complete the Rosalia Driving Tour Adventure Lab.  Then we went into the trees to grab a micro, Battlefield Cache 2 (GC1BEXR) and got eaten alive by mosquitos.  

We hustled back to the Escape before we were riddled in mosquito bites.  The next one that showed up, Milwaukee Railroad (GC8TPZE) was just south of town on our way back to US 195.  There was a small pull out by the cache and of course there was another car there in the way.  No one was in the car so we pulled over as far as we could, got out and searched for the cache.  Both Ray and I each found a rock hide a key container.  We signed one of them and took the other one with us.  There didn't need to be two there. 

We got back onto the highway and was promptly stopped for a few minutes because of construction.  I was glad we didn't have to wait that long before we were heading down the road again.  I saw there was another cache up ahead called Windmill Cache (GC5GE9P) and it looked like it was going to be a quick park and grab.  When we got there, it was and of course was a guardrail cache.  A quick find.

Our next stop was Steptoe.  A place that holds a special place in my life.  I spent many summers playing in a summer basketball camp/tournament in St. John, a town a few miles west.  They used the Steptoe gym as a secondary location to play some of the games.  I will always remember the smell of that gym and how tiny it was.  So many memories. 

I pointed out the gym and told Ray some stories about those days.  On our way to Steptoe Butte, we stopped by the Bethel Cemetery (GC5FRAE) to grab a quick pill bottle stuff into a hole in a tree.  We got our names on it and got back into the Escape.  I have no idea why I've never been to Steptoe Butte with all the time I spent in this area almost 20 years ago now.  I was here during multiple summers and even went to school at WSU for five years.  Why didn't I explore the Palouse more?

We started up the butte, around and around and around, we followed the road.  There were some sketchy parts of the road while most of the road was fine.  Ray doesn't like heights, so he was uneasy the whole way up.  When we got up to the top, we basically had the place to ourselves.  There was one other vehicle parked away from us and it looked like the person was in the car sleeping.  Because this was a state park, we displayed our Discover Pass, even though no one was around to check if we had one or not.  With that being said, there were also bathrooms to take advantage of, even though they were biffy's (bathroom in the "forest" for you). 

I walked around on the top, taking pictures and trying not to let the smoky landscape bother me.  I can't believe my first time up here and it's smoky.  It definitely ruined the view.  We worked on the earthcache, Steptoe Butte (GC1CZJX).  It was a standard fill in the blanks from the information sign.  I just took a picture of it, and we discussed the answers as we scrolled through the cache page.   We got our last views and hopped back into the Escape to move on to our next cache.

Grandma's Cannonball (GC6E3A9) was on the back of the Steptoe Butte sign down on the highway.  I have stopped there once before for another cache several years ago that has since been archived.  We found it pretty quickly and then moved onto Colfax.

Once in Colfax, a rush of memories flooded back into my head.  I remembered all the times I spent driving through here over the years.  It's been a long time since I have been through Colfax and honestly, it looks the same as it did 15+ years ago.  I asked Ray if he had found the virtual cache and he said he hadn't yet.  I found What's Here (GCAB0A) years ago, so we stopped at the totem pole and let Ray answer the questions. 

In between Colfax and Pullman, I got comfortable following a grain truck, going with the flow of traffic, chatting with Ray, and all of a sudden there was a cop car behind me with its lights on.  I ask Ray, am I getting pulled over?  The grain truck in front of me is going way faster than I am.  I was having a hard time keeping up with him. Maybe the cop wanted me to move so he could pull over the grain truck?  Nope, he was pulling me over.  I pulled over.  I asked Ray to get me my paperwork out of the glove box. 

The cop walked over to Ray's side of the Escape and asked us where we were going.  I said we were headed to Pullman.  He said, what for?  I told him for some geocaching.  He replied, yeah, I've heard of geocaching before.  Then he proceeded to tell me that I was pulled over for speeding and I said yeah, I was just going with the flow of traffic and didn't realize the truck in front of me was going as fast as he was.  He didn't disagree with me because he knew the grain truck was hauling ass. He took my license and registration and took it to his car.  A few minutes later, he came back, gave me a warning, handed us the paperwork back and told us to have fun in Pullman. 

I know the stretch between Colfax and Pullman is notorious for being pulled over, but I can say that was my first time being pulled over in that section of highway after driving through hundreds of times over the years.

We finally got to the turn off to go down the hill in Pullman.  I noticed the changes right away.  There are more houses, more buildings, familiar buildings as different businesses, changes to downtown, it was the same but not.  You could tell things got slightly better for this small college town.  I asked Ray if he was hungry (since it was now lunch time) and he said he could eat.  I knew of a perfect place.  

We pulled into Cougar Country and told Ray about all the times we came here when we had a little bit of extra money to spend.  Cougar Country was my occasional treat.  It was a little different because the original Cougar Country closed a few years ago and it was just recently purchased by new owners, and they kept some of the original menu items and decor.  Ray ordered a burger, fries and a drink, and I got two smaller hamburgers, fries and a drink.  I didn't need a huge burger.  

We sat at one of the booths and waited for our orders.  I told Ray some more WSU stories as we sat there.  Once our food was done, it was so nice to sink my teeth into Cougar Country once again.  It's been probably 10 years since I've been there.  The last time I remember being in Pullman was before I met Ben, so it had been a long time.

After lunch, we drove through town and parked in the free public lot behind Rancho Viejo off of Paradise.  I told Ray about the last time I went to Rancho.  It was my 23rd birthday and I got absolutely hammered that night.  We did the Downtown Mural Walk which consisted of five waypoints within blocks of each other.  It was so strange walking around town seeing how different some of the buildings were.  There were new restaurants, businesses and some of the hotels changed hands.  It's amazing what 20 years will do to a college town. 

We tried making a circle.  It was getting so warm I was glad I brought the rest of my drink with me.  We had to find shade to rest in while touring the murals around downtown Pullman.  A car drove by with several college kids inside and yelled something at it that had to do with Pokémon.  They thought we were playing Pokémon Go.  I just ignored them.  We saw some butterfly wings, a mural on one of the new hotels, a BLM mural, one over by the bridge over the Paradise Creek and one near a giraffe bench.  Street art is interesting.  We made it back to the Escape and blasted the AC as high as it would go.  

I noticed that I probably should get gas and it was not cheap even in Eastern Washington.  I think I had to pay over $5 a gallon and it is always painful seeing the total.  Ray hung out in the Escape while I got gas at the Conaco.  I asked him if he had any garbage to throw away and we found some to toss out.  I paid and headed towards campus.  I wanted to go to the Bookie really quick to get a sweatshirt.

Parking is still a nightmare.  I tried parking near Ferdinand's and you have to pay to park there now, we tried figuring out how to use the paid parking meters in front of the field house, but we could not figure out how to use the app, so I gave up and drove us to my old house on D Street by the soccer fields.  I knew there would be available parking there.  I got us parked, told Ray about my old house for a few minutes (it was looking very run down) and we walked up the hill.  We tried to see if we could do Selfie at Martin Stadium (GC7B7M6), but they have to lock the field during certain times of the week to prevent people from vandalizing the field.  Of course, it was closed on the day we were there.  I knew of a cool place near the CUB we could get our picture. 

I took Ray to Cougar Pride (GC1NRNF) and it was a bugger to get the cache out of its hiding spot, but we prevailed. I had found this cache several years ago.  We each got pictures in front of the Butch statue before we walked up the hill to the CUB.  

Terrell Mall looked about the same, but the CUB has changed so much over the years.  We went inside to use the restroom and to enjoy the AC for a while.  I browsed and couldn't find the sweatshirt I wanted but settled on a different one I could learn to live with.  I bought Ray and I a bottle of water.  I went up to the register to pay and realized I left my wallet in the console of the Escape after we tried paying for parking.  Ughhh, so dumb!  That's a long way back to where we parked. 

Ray relaxed in the lounge while I ran back to the Escape.  It took me a little bit to run down the stairs from the CUB down between the fields and back onto Colorado Street.  Along the way, I checked out that spot for our selfie of the field, but they had built a building that obscured the view.  We would have to figure out another view.  I got to the Escape, grabbed the wallet and decided to move the car closer to the main road.  I made my way back but this time I went to the parking garage and went up the elevator.  

I got back to the CUB, went into the Bookie and paid for my stuff.  I thanked the girl for saving my stuff.  Ray and I walked back down and found one spot along the way to get our selfie.  It wasn't what we wanted but it would have to do because the field was closed. Lame. 

We got back to the Escape and realized there was a geocache across the street we parked on near the soccer field.  What's the Score 2 (GC6RJ3Z) was on the fence separating the soccer field from D Street.  I noticed there was one part of the fence that was different from the rest of it.  We had to use Ray's Letherman to get the cache out of the hiding spot because it was rusted in.  We got a picture of it because we couldn't sign it. 

We picked one more Adventure Lab to do before we left Pullman.  It was the Little Free Library Walk but we were going to drive it to save us a ton of time.  It was also a five waypoint Adventure Lab.  It took us to Pioneer Hill, a place I have spent a little bit of time exploring while I was a student at WSU.  There were a couple parks I visited with friends and took some pictures of Lawson Gardens with Starrla at one point. 

Ray and I started on South Street, got what we needed, then onto the Side Street free library, when we got to Spring Street, we struggled because the item you had to answer the question about was missing.  We should have read the reviews because the answer was in there.  Instead, I tried guessing what animal it could be.  Well, the owner of the house the library sat in front of came over and asked us if she could help us.  We told her what we were doing and why we were there.  She said that her frog yard art got worn out and she threw it away and never replaced it.  We thanked her and moved on to Grant Street.

Then my Mom called to talk about Doug and to find out how we were doing so far.  So, we talked to her while we did the last two, Grant Street and High Street.  In our review at the end, we let the Adventure Lab owner know that one of the answers was missing and may cause problems for people doing it in the future...especially if they don't read the reviews before starting.  I don't think a whole lot of people really do.  I asked Ray if we were done with Pullman for now and he said yeah.  

We left town on Hwy 27 and drove towards a really small town on the Washington side of the Washington/Idaho border.  I have had my eye on this town for a while.  I've been working on the Towns and Cities Challenge for quite some time and was slowly whittling them down one by one. I figured, why not get these while I was here.  

We drive through the rolling hills of the Palouse and into Farmington.  I had missed the road we needed to turn down, so I had to turn around.  The cache, Safari Animal Cache (GC67TMQ) was located in a tree just off of someone's property, so we had to find a spot to pull over on the side of the road.  I was hoping we would be in and out before anyone drove by or came out to see what we were doing.  We didn't have time to tell someone what we were doing.  We got our name on the log, got a photo and was disappointed there weren't any animal toys inside. 

We drove back to Hwy 27 and headed north to Oakesdale, to get another one of the waypoints for the Loose on the Palouse Adventure Lab.  We arrived at Oakesdale and saw the mural on the side of the building we needed to get the answer to.  I parked, we got out and had some trouble getting our phones to work.  The internet was weak in this town for some reason.  I restarted my phone to see if that worked and it did.  I was able to get the answer, but we had to wait for Ray's phone to figure it out before we could leave.  His took a while to find enough signal to complete the waypoint.  We got back into the Escape and drove to Tekoa, roughly a 12-mile drive.

Tekoa was so empty when we got into town.  I parked on the side of the road; we got what we needed for our Adventure Lab, and I noticed there was a cache right across the street in the tiny rest area.  We got out, walked across the empty street and into the small park/rest area.  Tekoa Rest Area (GCA68AV) was a small hide-a-key container on the side of a metal utility box.  A quick, easy find.  We walked back to the Escape.

We stopped in the tiny town of Latah for our last waypoint to the Loose on the Palouse Adventure Lab and grabbed a cache, Latah Creek Spring Valley Crossing (GCA62TP).  The cache took us a while to find because the coords were a bit off.  Luckily, there wasn't a lot of traffic on that side road since we were technically on a bridge.   There was a bonus cache for this Adventure Lab.  We had been taking notes and when we got back to the Escape, we worked them out and saw where the final was. 

But first, we had to make a quick stop in Fairfield.  It was another Towns and Cities cache I needed.  I picked one that was easy to get to and had a place to park.  Welcome to Fairfield (GC8KY2V) was a magnetic key holder underneath the park metal sign.  Earlier, my phone had a weird malfunction where it restarted itself and when it was done turning back on all of my text messages were assigned to the wrong people.  I had texted Mom and Fitzy, and they did not go to Mom and Fitzy, so Mom called me asking why I texted our east coast girls text thread from last fall.  I told her on my end it looked just like I was texting just her.  It made me wonder who I texted instead of Fitzy earlier.

Our last cache of the day was just north of Fairfield down an old side road.  Loose on the Palouse Adventure Lab Bonus (GC9N2JP) was about a mile in from the highway hidden next to a giant Pine Tree.  I knew we were looking for something clever and we finally spotted it.  A giant Pinecone!  Wooo!   

We got back on the highway and followed Hwy 27 to where it connected with I-90.  Along the way, we called Brenda to let her know we were done and, on our way back.  She said she would rather have gone with us today because work sucked.  She said one of her students cut herself while they were cooking their meal. We got on and headed west back to Airway Heights.   We rolled into their driveway around 7:15 and I texted Fitzy again to let her know that I will be on my way to their place soon.  Brenda and Ray gave me two WSU blankets, some geocaching swag and a gadget cache birdhouse they were going to put in their front yard that Gene (Mr. Gadget 2) made for them, but they will be moving next fall and can't take it with them.  I thanked them for their hospitality, gave out some hugs and they told me they had an event scheduled for some time in September before they leave. 

I got back onto I-90 and headed east towards the Valley.  I got to her house around 8:15 and she was out in the front yard chatting with her neighbor across the street. I grabbed my stuff and took it downstairs to the guest room while Seamus and Radar were outside in the back yard.  We hung out in the living room and chatted for a bit.  She and Chaise had dinner already but saved me some if I wanted to eat.  She made brats on the grill with beans and chips.  I ate on the back porch while she finished mowing the lawn. 

We sat out in the living room for a little while chatting some more.  Chaise was in his office playing Zelda with his family.  We stayed up late, got in some showers and went to bed just before midnight.  I spent some time writing notes in my notebook before finally getting some much-needed shut eye. 

Some notes on the day:

We drove through a dozen small towns.

Picked up 20 Adventure Labs, one multicache, 15 traditionals, one earthcache, one puzzle cache and two virtual caches.  We got over 40 caches in total.

We walked 12,411 steps, which is about 6.20 miles.

I picked up two more Towns and Cities which dwindles my list down to 14.  All but one are in Eastern Washington.

Next Adventure:  Spokane Trip:  Farmer's Market, Centennial Trail, Geocaching, Uprise Brewing, Dishman Hills and Pizza