My alarm went off around 8:30 and we slowly got out of bed to get ready. We used the restroom, got dressed, packed up some of our stuff and went downstairs to grab our free breakfast around 9. I grabbed some of the potatoes, sausage, eggs a blueberry muffin, a banana and some orange juice. Ben made a hotel waffle, he also grabbed some potatoes, sausage and eggs. He got syrup everywhere including on the front of his adventure pants. He got some napkins and wiped down the mess he made before eating his food.
After breakfast, we went back upstairs with the cart, finished packing up and took it downstairs and loaded it into the Escape. We drove up to the front, I let Ben out and he checked us out, gave back our key cards and jumped back into the Escape.
I texted Willmarth that we were headed to the house and immediately he called us to explain the situation. We asked if we could just stop by for a few minutes because we had some questions for him and to drop off some gifts. He said that was fine, but it would have to be outside. We told him that would be great.
We got to the house, and he was outside waiting for us. I pulled up, we parked, got out and gave out some hugs. He apologized for the timing of everything. We just said that we try to come see them whenever we were over there hoping that they were home and not busy. We chatted with him for a little bit outside in the sunshine.
About 20 minutes later, Shannon came out and told us that it was okay to come inside. Kevin had gotten his meds that morning and his behavior was better. We followed her inside. We said hi to Kevin, but he was scarce and spent most the time in his room. Willmarth had texted me back in the middle of June to let me know that they had to put Zoey down because she had cancer and was struggling very badly. We asked how Fletcher was doing without his sister. They said that Fletcher wasn't doing too well either (he was getting older) and he had to be taken to the vet that afternoon at 2 for some blood in his stool.
We chatted about various things while we sat and visited. We talked about our jobs--Shannon shared the pains of her job that school year and how bad it's gotten at that school district, we told them about some of our vacations, upcoming trips, and about Doug and Kevin's behavior over the course of the year. We even reminisced a little bit about sports and the past when we went outside so he could water his veggies and flowers. It was fun visiting with them and I wished we were able to see them more often. Just before it was time to go, I asked him if he would be our wedding officiant and he said yes. I gave him the necessary information and details that he needed for the paperwork in Lewis County. I was excited because I know he will do a great job!
He had baked some cookies and sent some with us before we left. Shannon took Fletcher to the vet, and we thanked them for having us over, we gave out some more hugs and the gifts that we brought with us. We drove off and got onto I-82 towards the TriCities.
I called Erika to see how she was doing, and we talked to her until we got to Prosser for gas. It was a long conversation, but it ate away her afternoon workday which she was thankful for. It was mostly chatting about Doug, the house and making sure things got done. She said she would check up on him to make sure he was doing what he needed to do while we were gone. We got to the Love's, got gas, ice and used the restroom. Ben even cleaned the bugs off of my windshield.
We put in the first cache we needed into the Nuvi, got back onto I-82 and drove to the northside of the TriCities. At the junction, we continued towards Umatilla and got off at the exit we needed for the Over the Hills power trail out north of Finley. Albert Over the Hills (GC3NX4F) was the first one we stopped at. Ben jumped while I drove. I did get out a few times to help because the caches were hidden very well for it being a power trail. We only had to replace one cache. We finished up around 6:45 at A Hill Too Far (GC50VKA) and agreed that we didn't want to drive into Richland for the event.
Instead, we drove to our hotel in Kennewick to check in. We brought out the cart and wheeled our stuff up to the third floor. We unloaded our stuff, got organized and decided where we wanted to have dinner. We took the cart back and got back into the Escape and headed the few blocks to Buffalo Wild Wings. Plus, we haven't had our June date night yet, so this counts as it.
We ordered a "light" meal because it was Friday (no bogo) and because we had no way to store it properly (hotel fridges suck). We pretty much ordered our same meal just a smaller version of it. I sure do love my honey BBQ wings!
We watched the rest of the Mariner game and worked on some wedding stuff because we had some down time and could chat about it. We paid and headed out.
We decided to look for one more cache, Don't Subscribe, It Reduces Cache Time! (GC2ZM5J) because it had a bunch of favorite points so it must be a cool cache. It took us a few minutes to pinpoint because the coords were slightly off and there was evidence of a homeless camp nearby. We kept our eyes peeled. Ben was the one who found it and he thought it was a cool hide. I told him that it was similar to a cache I found in East Olympia many years ago. We got our names on it as it got darker and darker.
We went into Rite Aid because it was nearby to get more sunscreen, ice for the cooler and Ben got some more ice cream, The Tonight Dough. We paid and went back to the hotel. Of course, there was no parking available in the front, so we had to drive to the back. We brought the rest of our stuff in. We texted Bev to see if we could go hang out with her for a bit and she said yes, Bob and Gabe were downstairs in the hot tub. Her room was just doors away from ours.
We sat down and chatted with her about the last two days and what we did. She brought up the coin challenge and the rumors that were swirling around. I told her I heard some as well about a month ago. We will see what happens. She asked if we were going to do it with Brenda and Ray again and we said yes, it would be the last one we would do with them, so we had to make it fun and memorable. Bob came back in the room and got cleaned up and then Gabe came in a little later on. We talked for a little bit longer and decided it was getting late. We told them we would see them the next day.
We got back to our room, got cleaned up and ready for bed. I briefly spoke to Ray about some random things before hitting the pillow. They were going to leave really early in the morning, and he said he would see us bright and early the next day.
We grabbed 35 traditionals and got one more power trail off of our list.
Next Adventure: TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Tales of the TriCities
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