Bob and Bev's 60th Anniversary

Bev asked me a few weeks back if I was going to go to their 60th wedding anniversary party at Ken and Shari's.  I told her of course I was.  I had it written on my calendar as soon as she told me.  Within a few days Shari and Christina had made a private Facebook group to invite people through.  It had the rest of the information on it, who, what, when, where, why and how.  I added my will attend to it.

Ten years prior, in 2013, we all gathered in at Rainier Chapel to celebrate their 50th anniversary.  That one was during the TriCities Geocoin Challenge in which we all didn't go to.  It was a nice gathering and that was the year we all got to see Patty, who lives in Tennessee, and we don't get to see that often.

I asked Ben if he was going to come, and he said he would drive over directly after work.  Grandma called me and asked for a ride and Mom said she would try to come as soon as she got off work.  That afternoon, I logged off of work for the day and then got ready.  I headed out to Rainier and picked up Grandma and then drove the short distance to Ken and Shari's house.  We found a place to park and went around the back.  Shari and Christina said we were early, but the event page told us to be there around 5, so we were.  

Bob and Bev met each other in 6th grade and the rest is history.  They got married in June of 1963 and their colors were pink and white.  Bev said that both sides of the family worked really hard to put a wedding together.  They spent their first night as a married couple at a hotel in Winlock off of I-5 because of car trouble.  They were on their way to the ocean.

They put us to work putting food into bowls, on plates and setting them out onto the table to make it pleasing on the eyes.  More people started to arrive as we worked.  We couldn't dilly dally because Bob and Bev were arriving at 5:30 and they wanted everything done before they walked through the door.  We put the final touches on it just before 5:30. Someone told us that Bob and Bev were at the front door so we took our places so we could see their reaction. 

They both made their way to the kitchen and their eyes were huge when they looked at the table!  They both said several times, "that is a lot of food!"  We let them dish up on food first and then everyone else followed.  Since it was a nice day, we all ate outside in the backyard.  For the next half hour to an hour, everyone went in and out of the house talking, eating and hanging out.  There were several little kids in attendance as well so you kinda had to watch where you were stepping.  About 55 people were able to come.  

I got a plate of food and sat down and chatted with Sami, Janet and Bev for a while. Ben finally arrived from work, but Mom wasn't going to make it because she had to stay late at work and traffic wasn't ideal.  I made more of the rounds and ended up visiting with Peggy, Debbie and Carrie.  The cake was brought out and Ken and Mike both shared some stories and memories about their Mom and Dad.  It was a shame that Patty couldn't make it for this anniversary.  There were some toasts and then Bob and Bev shared some insights on how they stayed married for 60 years.  Cake soon followed.   

I stuck around for a little bit longer, made more of the rounds, chatted and then told Ben I would meet him back at home.  I gave Bob and Bev a hug, thanked Ken and Shari for hosting, grabbed Grandma and took her home.  I went home shortly after that.  

I made a post when I got home and shared some of the pictures I took.  I wrote:

"This evening we celebrated Bon and Bev on a huge milestone:  60 years married!  It's very rare these days that anyone stays together that long.  It is a pretty amazing feat!

We all gathered at Ken and Shari's house for a large spread of meats, cheeses, nuts, fruits, veggies and mini desserts, pulled pork sliders and even a wedding cake that donned their wedding colors from back then.

We ate, hung out and visited for a couple hours reminiscing about the good ol' days, shared funny stores and Bob and Beve even gave us some words of wisdom on how they put up with each other all those years, haha! 

Happy 60th Anniversary Bob and Bev!"

Next Adventure: Rainier Vista Fireworks on the 3rd and A Clear Lake 4th of July 

Erika and Zac Move Again...This Time as Homeowners!

Since Zac proposed, Erika, Mom and I have been discussing ideas on a wedding.  You could tell by Erika's body language she wanted one, but she also didn't want one (Zac was a huge influence in this).  It posed an issue, where were we going to have it and when?  As the weeks wore on, Erika had an idea to have it at Zac's mom's house in Vancouver, so we started coming up with a plan to have it there.  We even had a tentative date of July 22nd.  

Then as we got into June the plan changed because Zac's dad Bruce probably wanted to go to the wedding so they couldn't have it at his mom's house.  Then they were getting tired of their landlord and all the problems they were having with the neighbor's dogs getting into their yard and ruining the fence line and the gate.  Their landlord was lazy and fixed everything half assed.  That sparked them into looking into getting their own place.

Erika started search and the paperwork process.  They even got themselves a relator, the same one Celeste and Issac used when they moved into their Tumwater house in early May.  They got themselves all set up with the bank, Erika's GI Bill and even went to go see some of the houses that were available within their budget. They finally found an old house, in pretty good shape, in a questionable part of Olympia.  They closed on the house on June 27th.  I met Erika over there the next day after work so she could give me the tour of it.  It reeked of pee because of the previous homeowners kept the dogs in the basement and trapped inside of some of the bedrooms.  At first look, the house was filthy and needed a good scrub down before we moved their stuff in.  

I went over there after work on Friday to help her clean.  She had spent most of the day before and Friday power washing the basement to get the pee smell out.  She did a lot of work.  We wiped down walls, cupboards, baseboards, the kitchen stove, range and other areas of the house.  I vacuumed underneath the fridge (it was disgusting underneath it), and sadly, the fridge's wheels wrecked the linoleum on the floor.  Erika said she really didn't care because they planned on getting rid of it someday.  Before we called it a day, she briefly told me how she would like the weekend to go.  We were going to start moving stuff over the next day with everyone's help.

The following day, we all met up at her current place and started stuffing boxes and random things into our vehicles.  As I arrived, Erika said Zac had already taken a few carloads over and I asked where we should start.  She said just start grabbing boxes and putting things inside of them.  I worked on their computer room and the kitchen mostly.  Doug, Ben, Zac and Dad disassembled and moved some of the bigger items into the trailer.  Mom and Grandma packed up boxes and started cleaning as we got rooms emptied. 

We loaded up all of our vehicles with what we had in the first trip and drove the back way to their house off of Martin Way.  Erika wanted to do a little more cleaning to the upstairs, so we unloaded most of the boxes into the basement until it was gone through.  Some of the stuff went into the kitchen since that area was clean. As it was nearing lunch, we had Mom go out and get us some sandwiches from Walmart.  We wanted to keep it as cheap as possible.  Erika had chips and drinks.  We took a break in the front yard once Mom got back so we could eat.

Over the past few days, Zac has been coming home from work and cutting down a lot of the overground brush in the back yard.  Erika sometime joined in.  They found all sorts of garbage from pieces of scorched wood to a broken wheelbarrow, aluminum cans, pieces of clothing, old, rusted tools to a lot of unknown items.  They had quite the collection piled up. 

We finished off the afternoon with one more visit to the old rental in Hawks Prairie and grabbed as much stuff as we could.  We put most of it into Mom's Expedition, the Escape and Erika's car.  We knew we would have to do a few things the next day.  Our goal was to get as much stuff done as possible while we had Dad's trailer and guys around to move the heavy stuff like the washer and dryer.  Once we completed the back rooms, we wiped down everything and vacuumed the carpet.  There was so much dog hair!  

We wrapped everything up and we all headed back to the new house to unload everything into the basement.  Once all the vehicles were unloaded, we took a short rest and then helped Erika move some of the stuff into the appropriate rooms, bathroom stuff in the bathroom, clothes into the bedroom, etc.  We wiped down the walls in the bedroom and Erika's office so she could start putting stuff up against the walls and into the closets. 

As it reached the end of the day towards dinner time, it was time to go and let Erika and Zac relax and go through their belongings at their leisure.  We asked her when and where we should meet to finish up moving the next day.  She said they would be up early trying to figure out where to put everything.  She said to meet over at the other house to get the rest of the stuff around 10 or 11.  

The next day, we drove over to the house, grabbed the rest of the stuff, put it into the random assortment of vehicles and cleaned up the rest of the rooms.  Erika said that they would take care of the rest since they had to mow the front and back lawn before they were out of the house for good.  That included cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen.  She thanked us for helping and was not expecting the move to be so quick.  They thought they would have to do it over a couple weekends. Many hands make light work.  

Erika was so happy to finally have a place they didn't have to pay rent or deal with inept landlords.  I could not wait to have that as well.  Ben and I have been talking about possibly moving my parent's Woodbrook Lane property in Rainier.  We would have to live in the trailer for a while and pay Dad rent (a rent to own situation) as we come up with plans for building a house.  I am not sure how long it will take or when we will start the process.  

Next Adventure:  Bob and Bev's 60th Anniversary

TriCities Geocoin Challenge: TriCities to Lacey

We definitely went to bed too late.  We had a hard time getting up at 7, when the alarm went off.  I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get everything we needed to do in the TriCities done before we left to head home.  We got dressed, used the restroom, packed up all of our stuff into our bags and Ben went downstairs to grab the cart.  We were so disappointed in the breakfast selection, we just went downstairs and grabbed two bananas and ate the stuff we brought with us.  We packed up the Escape and checked out.

We got onto the highway and went over the bridge into Pasco.  We followed Hwy 12 to Hood Park, just across the river, and followed the road to the parking area.  The reason why we came to the event, Zoom on in to say goodbye to the TriCities (GCA8RHW) was because Nikki and Antoine were staying at the park, and we wanted to chat with them in person about inviting them to our wedding.  We needed their address. We were hoping to see them at the event.  We ended up staying for about 20 minutes, signed the log card, chatted with a few people and discovered some of the trackables sitting on the picnic table.  Sadly, we never saw Nikki and Antoine.  Bummer.

We left the park, drove back into Pasco, across the bridge and headed east on the highway from Kennewick to Finley.  I wanted to finish up the power trails I've been working on since the first time I came over in 2012.  Ben has been working on them for a few years and does not have them all, but it was fun to do it together.  We worked on the Meals Road (GC50Z95), where the hill was struck by lightning and burned or burned on purpose, and there were only about 15 of them.  There were probably more at one point, but they were archived for some reason.  Ben drove while I got out to find them.  We both got out to find some of the more difficult ones and some of those ones we didn't find but I brought a bunch of containers to replace them with. 

Once we were done with the Meals Road power trail, we turned left onto a maintained dirt road for the Yellepit mini power trail. There were also about 15 of them starting at Yellepit Trail - 01 (GC51TGK).  I also got out for these ones while Ben drove.  This road had a weird berm between the road and the fence covered in tumbleweeds and poky plants.  I had to be careful with shorts and low socks on, so I wasn't torn up and bloody.

There were a few caches I had to replace along the way because they were either missing, broken or I literally could not find them if they were actually there.  At the end, we were actually running low on extra caches, I was lucky enough to find a recreational pot tube container on the side of the road...yes, we repurposed it into a cache container because we needed it. 

We got to the end of the road and to the last cache, Yellepit Station (GC7Q9VP), and noticed this area was frequently used for target practice.  

There was trash, bullet casings and metal pieces everywhere.  I did notice there was a ton of brass.  As a kid, my Dad would take us up to the Vail hills ("up on the hill") to go pick up free brass from people who came up there to dump and shoot things.  He would collect it, clean it and reload it.  I picked up a lot of brass as a kid.  Since 2013, you can no longer go up there without a permit.  We had an extra bag in the Escape, so I decided to bring some brass home for Dad as a souvenir from the TriCities.  Ben helped me pick up some of it. 

We finished up and drove back to Finley and back into the TriCities.  We drove back to John Dam Plaza, chatted with a couple of the volunteers who were there waiting for the cachers to finish that didn't finish the day before while Ben used the restroom.  When he was done, we said goodbye to the volunteers and walked over to the bonus cache we didn't get to before we went to dinner the night before, TC2023 - Bonus Cache (GCA9622).  It was over by the police station mounted on one of the trees away from the road. I got our coin out and read the instructions.

For the first bird house we were supposed to find a three-digit code with the hints from the cache page that corresponded with our coin.  I mentioned before, our coin read like a book.  Each page featured the coins we've earned since 2010.  I do not have an actual 2010 or 2011 coin because this was before I was a geocacher or wasn't aware of the coin challenge back then.  Ben worked the locks while I looked through the coin book to match each sentence with the year digit on the past coins. 

Once we got through the first lock, the bird house contained a laminated slip of paper that told us how to open the lock for the second bird house.  Another cacher showed up as we worked on the next two bird houses and just stood there watching us. We went through the coin book and found the three digits we needed for the second lock. Ben got the bird house open and there was a final laminated slip of paper telling us how to get into the third and final bird house.  We got in, grabbed the lock n lock and signed our names.  We handed it to the guy and once he was done with it, he left. We put everything back and locked them back up for the next cacher.  

I thought this cache was thoughtfully put together. It showcased all the coins in a clever way, we were able to relive some of the past events we did attend and coins we did earn, and it wrapped up perfectly with the news we got that weekend about our beloved geocoin challenge.  In a nutshell, it summarized 13 years of hard work.  Hopefully it is a temporary hiatus, and we will see it again someday down the road.  We walked back to the Escape and we to go grab some of the WSGA caches before we left town.  The first one was just north of Richland, WSGA - SC - 10 - North Richland Riverfront Trail (GC9YTEA).

Doug was gone on Saturday and Sunday, so he watched and fed the animals until he left that evening.  I had Erika go over there Sunday morning-ish to check on everyone and to feed the cats.  When she came through the front door, she said Charlie was out wandering around the house (she said not sure how long he's been out), and she told me Wade was locked in Doug's room.  I was so angry that he didn't pay attention and didn't do what he was supposed to do before he left.  This was my theory; he wasted most of the afternoon playing video games on his computer, time caught up with him, he frantically got ready to go and his brain shut off as he was leaving the house for the night.  Wade was in his room for over 12 hours and amazingly he did not pee or poop in his room.  

We texted him, letting him know his mistakes and that we were not too happy with him.  He complained to Mom and Mom called me to let me know that I was stressing him out.  I did not care.  He was in the wrong.  He was supposed to take care of stuff while we were gone, and he didn't do it.  This is why I have a hard time going on vacation and leaving him in charge of the house.  She said she understood but I should have handled it better.  I told her that I was allowed to be mad.  I was not going to be candy and rainbows when it came to Doug being responsible.  He needed to know he screwed up and I really wished he would learn and stop doing it.  But here we were...again.  Ughh.  

We found the cache, signed our names and walked back to the Escape.  We grabbed the other one in town, WSGA20 - SC - 20 -Yakima Delta, that was a quick park and grab.  We found a pullout on the side of the road.  Ben stayed in the Escape while I got out and found it among some large boulders hidden away from view.  I signed our names and got a photo before jumping back into the Escape.  From there we left the TriCities, not sure of the next time we will be through again.  We followed that side road and got onto 182 to I-82.

We got off the freeway in Benton City and got onto the wrong road, we had to turn around to get onto the Old Inland Empire Highway.  There were two of the WSGA Anniversary caches we wanted to grab as we drove west.  I looked closer and saw that there was also an earthcache near one of the caches.  I told Ben we were also going to do an earthcache, he said okay. 

We arrived at the first one, WSGA20 - SC - 03 - Old Inland Empire Highway (GC9YTDW) and pulled over on the side of the road.  Ben stayed in the Escape while I got out quickly and found the container. I got our names on it and a quick photo.  I put it back where I found it and jumped back in the car.  It was probably around 90 degrees outside at this point...definitely sweaty butthole weather. 

WSGA20 - SC - 04 - Chandler Power Plant (GC9YTDY) was just up the road.  When we got there, there was a more defined pullout.  Again, Ben stayed in the Escape while I got out and grabbed the cache.  I ran back, got in the Escape and Ben and I did the earthcache, Yakima River Badlands: Rock Benches (GC8A36P).  It was pretty straightforward if you knew about the basic geology of Eastern Washington, the Missoula Floods, erosion and the lava flows. 

We got back onto the highway and grabbed District Line (GCA2EX8) before getting back onto I-82.  It took us a while to get back to the freeway because there weren't any on ramps until almost Prosser because of the Yakima River.  When we finally got back on, we scooted our way west towards Granger.  I wanted to stop to get the newest dinosaur cache, Dino Mite! (GC9WKMW).

We got off at the Granger exit and followed one of the main roads into town.  I was really hoping it was going to be at one of the dinosaurs.  We approached ground zero, parked at the library and made our way to the set of dinosaurs.  Then a van full of kids and two adults showed up to play on the dinosaurs that we thought the cache might be at.  Bummer.  I checked my phone again and it wasn't showing near the dinosaurs.  Hmmm. So, we searched around ground zero and there was only one place it could have been, the end cap on the corner of the fence.  Ben reached up and grabbed it.  We took it over to the other dinosaur (away from the people) signed our names and took a few pictures. 

We returned it to its hiding spot and walked back to the Escape. We got back onto I-82 and drove into Union Gap.  I wanted to stop at Fruit City to pick up some produce.  The place was busier than I thought it would be, but we did manage to find a parking spot.  We both got out and started looking to see what the stand had to offer during this time of year.  I got a couple of produce bags and grabbed some Walla Walla onions, a white peach, some Rainier cherries, about five or six Yukon Gold potatoes, some red and green bell peppers.  We stood in the short line and paid for everything; it was under $20.  I handed him a $20 and he gave me some change.  We thanked him and exchanged some pleasantries to one another. 

We got back in the Escape, and I asked Ben if he was ready for Miner's.  He enthusiastically said yes!  We went to Miner's and it was always busy.  Summer is always busy, but this was the only time we were ever in Yakima.  We waited in line and decided what we wanted for food.  We got our standard cheeseburger; we shared fries, and I got a strawberry shake and Ben got his chocolate peanut butter shake.  We grabbed our table number, found an empty table (it was super busy) and waited for our food to come.  I got up to get some napkins, sauces and ketchup. I always bring in my notebook so I could write notes in it while we waited.  Our food eventually got to us, and we savored every moment of it since we only get to come here about once a year. 

Once we were done, we cleaned up our space, dumped our garbage and got back into the Escape.  I wanted to get gas while we were here since it was cheaper than Western Washington.  We found an Arco near the on ramp to I-82.  We filled up, got back onto the freeway and merged onto Hwy 12 towards home.  Ben slept through most of the drive over the pass while I listened to music.  There wasn't a lot of traffic to slow us down this time around.

We got closer to Morton and grabbed a cache I got several years ago, Redneck Cache: MGC (GC120TE).  I let him get out to start looking since I knew where it was.  He did eventually figure it out.  He got his name on it and we took the TB with us so I could put it into my TB hotel when we got home.  

We turned onto Hwy 7 and drove through Morton and got up to Elbe.  We followed the road and turned into Eatonville and drove through town.  I didn't feel like following slow people on the swirly road.  We got to McKenna, through Yelm and finally on the final stretch to home.  We arrived at 6:30, unloaded the Escape, got in showers and started laundry.  We were able to relax a little bit before getting ready for the work week.  I was not ready to go back to work.  

I will miss the TriCities Geocin Challenge.

Next Adventure:  Erika and Zac Move Again...This Time as Homeowners!

TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Tales of the TriCities

I set the alarm for 7 a.m. thinking we would be able to get ready, eat breakfast downstairs and out the door so we could get to John Dam Plaza at a decent time. But we laid in bed too long, got dressed and organized too slow, went downstairs and ate too slow and just plain old ran out of time.  Then Ben wanted to go across the street to get coffee from Dutch Brothers.  I was super impatient and wanted them to hurry up.  We were a little later getting to the event than I wanted to.  I like to get there early for good parking and wandering around before it got too busy. 

Brenda and Ray texted us asking where we were.  I said we got a little late of a start and we were on our way.  We got to the lot, parked, grabbed the stuff we needed and walked to the plaza.  We got checked in and signed the log.  We looked for people we knew, said hi to everyone and looked for Brenda and Ray.  We found them and they said to follow them over so we could get a picture with Signal.  

Afterwards, it was time to hear Jen's announcements, so we found a spot and listened.  Little did we know, this would be her last time doing this...for at least a while.  She went over the rules, the caches, the passports and if anyone needed help, just to call the number on the passport and one of the volunteers would help them.  Jen also explained that this year we were doing rubbings for the passports, so we each got a golf pencil and a little sharpener.  The crowd ranged anywhere between first time cachers to cachers who have been doing this every single year with cachers in between.  This was my 10th TriCities Geocoin Event but my 11th TriCities Geocoin.  I did not make it over in 2013 but we got the coin in 2014 when we came over early to do the previous year's caches.   

After a few more announcements, Jen's daughter took a group photo of all of us, and the passports were released.  We ended up grabbing the wrong ones and had to go back for the adult passports.  We all used the potty one more time and headed over to the parking lot.  It was our turn to drive so we moved some stuff from their hamster mobile to the Escape.  Then they couldn't find their passport that was attached to a clipboard, and we had to look all over the place for it.  It ended up being on the roof of their car.  Haha!  First epic fail of the day!

Ray got his Nuvi all set up while Brenda and I got a tentative route figured out.  We wanted to make sure to minimize the backtracking as much as possible.  Ben adjusted the driver's seat; mirrors and he was all ready to start the 2023 TriCities Geocoin Challenge (GCA307W)!  Because it started in Richland, we decided to do Pasco first, to get that side of the river done before we moved onto the next city.  We had to do Pasco strategically though, it is divided into two halves because of the railroad tracks and had to go down certain roads to get where we needed to go.

We drove across the bridge and over to the Pasco side.  We also had to remember about the Adventure Labs that are also sprinkled among the caches and that some of them are at the same locations as the caches were, so we were going to have to multitask between the two apps.  Our first cache and Adventure Lab waypoint were at a park near the TriCities Airport.  We found a place to park, got out and found the answer to the waypoint (P06-Big Cross) easily except that I had to stand there and wait for my phone to restart while Ben, Brenda and Ray walked to the cache, TC 2023 P03 Getting to Pasco (GCA5E2C) with the passports. I had been having trouble with my phone since September 2021.  I was too cheap and stubborn to get another one.  It finally restarted and I tried catching up to them, but they were already on their way back with the passports. 

We did end up making the same huge epic fail as we did last year.  We got into the wrong lane and ended up on I-82 to go over the bridge back into Richland to where we had to turn around, get back onto the freeway and back into Pasco.  Luckily, this was the only other epic driving fail we had during the day.

We looped back around and drove towards the Columbia River and to a road we've been on several times throughout the years for TC 2023 P01 - The Tamed River (GCA5E2D) and TC 2023 P04 - Agricultural Area (GCA5E2D), both were easy finds but one we had to use our pencil to rub the image onto our passports, in which we dubbed, rub parties. The more cachers at the location, the bigger of a rub party it was.  We picked up the rest of the caches and Adventure Lab waypoints and drove across my favorite bridge, Ed Hendler Cable Bridge into Kennewick. 

We were a fourth of the way done and it was barely noon. We drove east out to Two Rivers Park to grab TC 2023 K03 - Headwaters (GCA5MQH).  Last time we were there, Ben and I played a round of really hot disc golf before heading home in 2018.

While in Kennewick, we stopped a few times for the other waypoints and geocaches and decided to save some time, we weren't going to stop at a park and eat our lunch.  We were just going to make sandwiches out of the back of the Escape and eat along the way.  I made Ben and I a PBJ sandwich and a handful of chips, while Brenda and Ray ate their prepared lunch. 

We picked up one of our Kennewick Adventure Lab waypoints (K10-Legs and Tails) over by Clover Island.  We drove up to a mural but quickly discovered it wasn't the mural but down the paved trail a few hundred feet from the parking lot.  From this spot you could see the Columbia River, my favorite bridge and Clover Island.  It was such a nice day, and it was getting hotter. 

We hopped back into the Escape and drove south of Kennewick towards I-82.  We jumped onto some of the north south side roads and made our way up to the Southridge Sports Complex.  Yes, we've found caches just about every year at this giant complex.  This is the site where a large piece from one of the Twin Towers from September 11, 2001, is on display.   The cache, TC 2023 K04 - Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (GCA5MQK), was just up the street hidden among the sagebrush.  When we arrived, there were quite a few cachers we had to wait for to get our names on the logbook and complete our passport rub. 

Our GPS drove us, I think, the longest way possible around to grab one of our Adventure Lab waypoints (K08-Excavated Tails).  At one point, we weren't sure where it was taking us.  Why are we going clear out in the middle of nowhere?  I checked my phone to see if there was actually something there.  There was.  It was called the MCBONES Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site and one of our waypoints was there at the "dig house." This was probably the furthest out away from town we've ever had to go during the geocoin event.

We drove back towards town and stopped for TC 2023 K01 - Head West (GCA5MQD).  When we got out, I was glad to see this one was going to be quick due to no long lines waiting for a passport rub down.  We were out and in and ready to tackle our next set of caches and waypoints, a combination of West Richland and Richland.  We were about halfway through our passports, and it was just after 2:00.

Our first cache in Richland was TC 2023 - R01 Dog Tails (GCA4BVN) to avoid some serious backtracking.  When we got there, it was covered in a bunch of cachers.  We actually had to wait, what seemed like a long time to rub our passports, because some lady had like four kids a head of us, and they all had to rub their passports.  It was really hard to be patient and wait for all of the kids to do their passports.  By the second kid, my patience was wearing thin.  I just wanted to get our passports rubbed so we could move on.  Why do kids get distracted so easily?  Ughhhhh!

We steered towards West Richland to knock out those caches and Adventure Labs.  One of the first Adventure Labs we came to was waypoint (W07 - Park at the Lakes: Takes on the Trails).  It was located inside of a housing development and the park was very well maintained.  The grass was so green!  

We drove over to where the West Richland City Hall was because there was a geocache and a waypoint, we could knock out quickly.  Brenda and I got out quickly, found the valve box for TC 2023 - W05 City Hall (GCA4G26) and signed the logbook.  This one wasn't a passport rub so we just grabbed our code word and hopped back into the Escape with Ben and Ray.  The waypoint (W10 - Paul Keith Wetlands: Tales on the Trails) was just up the road from city hall.  We all made sure to log that code word in our app. 

Our next stop, TC 2023 - W04 Mosquito Control (GCA5PYA) was our last cache in West Richland before moving on to Richland.  Brenda and I got out with our passports and ran over to the small tree with a birdhouse attached to it.  We took the few minutes to sign the logbook and rub our passports.  It was roughly 3:15 and we had finished our third city of the day with one more to go.

We drove north up towards the north part of Richland and to where the Manhattan Project Museum was.  We have been to this part of town many times over the years and have even eaten at one of the breweries there.  Our GPS directed us to TC 2023 - R03 Bad Doggie Tails (GCA4BWG), to where, we looked for something in plain sight. Luckily, we were the only ones there, so we didn't have to wait in a passport rub party line.  

We moved on picking up the rest of our caches and waypoints before driving back into "downtown" Richland to finish off our last waypoint (R10 - Library Tales).  We found a place to park and walked to where the posted coords were.  We had to count the window panels of the library, but the question wasn't specific enough, so we were there for a while counting them and trying every possible two-digit number we could think of.  When we finally got the answer, we all had finished our last TriCities Geocoin Challenge.  It was bittersweet but, we all knew by the end of the day, it would come to an end of an era.  We took a group photo.  We have been taking a group photo every year at the last cache and this time it was a waypoint to an Adventure Lab.

I seriously didn't want the day to end but it had to unfortunately.  It was two-fold.  The this was the last year for the TriCities Geocoin Challenge and our friends, Brenda and Ray were moving to Portugal.  We got back into the Escape and headed back to John Dam Plaza for our coins.  We got to the parking lot and immediately walked to the park to get our coin.  The coin this year was to commemorate all of the TriCities Geocoin Challenges starting back when it was just Richland in 2010.  It was shaped like a book and had all the coins and information about each of the events.   We all decided that we would have dinner at Texas Roadhouse and Brenda put in our reservation. 

We walked up to Julie, Jen and the rest of the volunteers and handed them our passports to see if we did our rubs and code words correctly.  They were and we were handed our coins.  

A group of the volunteers overheard our conversation about having the "rub parties with strangers" and one of them said that they were reading the logs and talking about them throughout the day.  They asked us if that was us logging them that way and we said yes.  They absolutely lost it, and we had a short conversation about it.  They had and extra 3D printed out a tile that said "RUB ME" as a joke and handed it to us as a souvenir.  They thanked us for the laugh.   

We chatted with Julie, Jen and a few of the volunteers for a few minutes.  We were asked to fill in one of our geocaching stories into the leather-bound book they had for our "Tales of the TriCities".  Both Brenda and I spent a few minutes adding our stories to the book.  Mine was centered around how Ben and I met...through geocaching.  We wandered around for a few minutes saying hi to people we knew and then it was time to start driving back to Kennewick for dinner.  Jen pulled me aside and told me that the rumors I was hearing were in fact, true.  She was going to make the announcement during the raffle drawing and post event information but wanted to personally tell me before we headed to dinner.  I told her it was perfect timing for us because we were getting married next July and probably wouldn't be able to come.

I told her how I felt and thanked her and her volunteers for all the years of putting a lot of work and time into the event I looked forward to every year.  She thanked me and shared a hug.  She was the first person I met when I first came to the geocoin event back in 2012.  That was so long ago now.  It is amazing how quickly time passes by. 

I met back up with Brenda, Ray and Ben, we moved their stuff back over to their hamster mobile and both of us drove to Kennewick.  We got to Texas Roadhouse (which is literally across the highway from our hotel) and we were seated right away.  We arrived at the perfect time.  They brought us hot rolls with their famous cinnamon butter and took our drink orders.  I got a lemonade.  We talked about their move to Portugal and what all they had to do to get ready.  The waitress took our orders.  I ordered a steak, potato and a side salad.  When our food arrived, I was so ready to eat.  It was soooo good!

We ate, chatted about the day, talked about a possible "going away" event that Brenda and Ray would host in Spokane possibly in September and more about our upcoming wedding stuff for the next summer.  It was time to them to head back to Spokane.  We gave out hugs and told them we would see them sometime in September.  They drove off.  I asked Ben what he wanted to do, and he said whatever.  We drove back down to the event to see if there were still people there.  I wanted to purchase a few things from Cache Advance while they were still set up.

We talked to Lisa for a while, I bought some geocaching stencils, chatted with Antoine and Nikki for a few minutes and Lori one of the WSGA board members about my WSGA account.  For some reason I could not log onto it and asked if they could reset it or something.  She said to keep reminding her to do so since she has a ton of things on her plate at the moment. I asked Ben if he was ready to go to the brewery we picked out for the evening, and he said sure.       

It was technically in Richland, but I thought it was closer to Kennewick.  We picked Rattlesnake Mountain Brewing and went for a pint of beer.  We parked and went inside.  My impression of it was more of a dive bar atmosphere rather than a brewery.  I decided to use the bathroom before we ordered and went inside the stall.  I should have checked for toilet paper before I actually went.  There wasn't any.  I called Ben really quick to see if he could get me some from the other stall.  He misunderstood and asked one of the waitresses to get some more.  I really didn't think it was going to take that long, so I sat there waiting.  Meanwhile, some girl, probably in her early 20's, came into the bathroom talking to someone on the phone.  She seemed pretty unhappy.  As she kept talking, the more I could understand her story better.  She apparently was on a date with a guy, and it wasn't going very well.  She wanted the person on the phone to come get her.  She was disappointed with the place he chose; they had nothing in common and she just wanted to leave.  I was like uh oh.  A few more minutes passed and finally after what seemed like fifteen minutes, a waitress brought in a new roll of toilet paper.  At least my wait wasn't boring, lol!

I met up with Ben at one of the tables and was like, that took forever and then told him the story of the girl that came into the bathroom.  Another waitress came up to us and asked what we were drinking. I got an Americans Amber and Ben ordered a Honey Red Ale.  Both were similar but we liked mine a lot better after tasting both.  

We did more wedding planning as we sat there.  Not sure if the girl's friend ever came to get her or not.  We had a great view of the Columbia River and the sunset.  We finished off our beers and went back to the hotel.  We got in some showers, played a few rounds of Yahtzee, ate popcorn and then went to bed.  It was a long day.

Here is my log for the TriCities Geocoin Challenge:

"Wow. Where to begin?     

First off, I would like to thank Jen and everyone who have spent many years collecting ideas, talking to various people, organizing, hiding caches, worrying and putting this event on every year since 2010.  It is a lot of hard work and I very much appreciate everyone who had a hand in it.  This is my favorite event I go to every year.

I've been coming since 2012 (except for the Covid year, booo!) and I have loved every minute of it.  I've seen it evolve into what it is today.  I have met many people, just about seen most of the TriCities, had fun camping out in the parks, made many memories with lifelong friends, lots of laughing, tons of photos and had a great time doing it!  I suspected that this could be the last one for a while and that's okay, our leader and volunteers need a break.  We will miss it tremendously, but we will survive.

Again, a huge thanks to our geocaching family in the TriCities!  We will be back!"  

I posted the coin and a couple other photo posts to Instagram; this is my caption:

"I have been coming to this even since 2012. I missed 2010, 2011 and 2020 (because of Covid, no event was held) so those were bummer years for me.  This event had been my favorite one to attend all of those years traveling over to Eastern Washington.  I've met so many great people, made tons of memories and laughed a lot!  For some reason when we came over last June, we knew this would probably be the last one for a while.  You could just feel it.  It was confirmed that even during the event wrap up.  I will miss it and won't know what to do with the end of my June's now.

This was also our last major geocaching event with our friends, Brenda and Ray (Geek&Gopher) because they are retiring and moving to Portugal in the fall.  We will miss hanging out with them, but we will be able to visit them in Europe at some point. 

The geocoin for this year was off the charts and a great way to wrap up all the memories!

Thank you to everyone who put the TriCities Geocoin Challenge on the map!" 

Next Adventure:  TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  TriCities to Lacey