We decided to sleep in a little bit before getting ready, eating breakfast and packing up our stuff. The alarm went off at 9:00 and we slowly got out of bed. I got my bathroom stuff done and then got dressed for the day as I packed up my duffle with clothes I didn't wear and stuffed my dirty clothes bag with the clothes I did wear. I made sure everything had a place before setting it aside.
I ate our breakfast items while I waited for Ben to finish getting ready and packing up his stuff, then he ate his breakfast food. We took one more sweep of the room and Ben went downstairs to check out and grab one of the carts for our stuff. He came back up, we piled all of our stuff on top and headed to the elevator. We got to the first floor, went outside and packed up the Edge with all of our stuff. Yay knowing how to Tetris stuff!
I set our first stop to the Walla Walla Library. We were not able to grab The Great Northwest (GC322Z5) on Saturday, it was closed on Sunday, so we decided to get it on our way out of town. We found a place to park (it wasn't super busy) and went inside. I read the hint, and it took us to the stacks with the travel books in it. You definitely had to know how to use the Dewey Decimal System to figure it out. I bet there are kids these days that have no idea how to find the books they need. We had to learn how to use the card catalogue when we were kids if we needed a book. There was no internet!
We got onto Hwy 12 and drove west. I wanted to grab a cache in Touchet. At one point, Hwy 12 went through Touchet, they built a bypass around it, and it confused my GPS. We did figure it out and the coordinates took us to the small post office in town. Of course, there was one person in the parking lot in the way. We had to be patient before we could grab Little White Box (GC45D8W). It was a quick park and grab under a lamp skirt, but the cache container was broken. We let the cache owner know in our log.
We got back onto Hwy 12 and made our way to the Wallula Gap. I saw there were a couple caches at the junction we could get before it started raining. The road that we pulled off at used to be a rest area. Now people just use it to hang out and fish. We parked near the closest one, Wallula Jct. (GC936KH). The coordinates jumped all over the place, but I managed to start looking around where I thought it was hidden. It took us a while to find the right place but eventually found it because the cache was on the ground. We put it back where we thought it went based on the hint.
We jumped into the Edge and drove the short distance to Missing Arch (GC95VB1). This was hidden exactly like the other one, so we made quick work of it. We got our names on it, got a photo and put it back. We got back onto Hwy 12 and headed into Pasco. We both were kinda sad when we got to Pasco because the TriCities Geocoin Challenge is no more, and we were going to miss all the fun times we had during the end of our Junes.
Ben needed to get some gas and didn't think we would make it to the Prosser Love's, so we stopped at the Pasco Love's which was relatively new. He pumped gas while I went inside to use the restroom, get some more ice, he wanted some peach rings, so I got those and I grabbed a couple bottles of water, just to have. We traded places, I went back to the Edge, and he went to use the restroom. After the nice weekend we had, rain was unfortunately in the forecast for that day. It started raining in Pasco, just before noon, after we got gas and didn't stop until just outside of Yakima near Zillah.
I asked Ben if he wanted to stop at the fruit stand in Union Gap and he said sure. We found a place to park, it was busy, and went inside. I asked him what he wanted, and he said some potatoes and apples. I grabbed some of those and some Walla Walla onions. We paid, had a good conversation with the owner and headed out. The next stop was Miner's!
We have Miner's maybe once a year when we come over this way. Sadly, this was going to change because we will not be coming over here for the TriCities Geocoin Challenge anymore. However, this year, we got to have it twice! We found a place to park and noticed that it wasn't super busy like it is during the summer. It was so nice! We were in a short line, ordered our food and found a table to sit at. We ended up sharing a burger and fries. I had a strawberry shake, and he had a chocolate coffee mocha shake. Our food arrived after a really short wait. We ate and I texted Willmarth to see if he was available since we were in town again. We waited to hear back.
Meanwhile, I wanted to purchase some Tieton Honey Lavender Cider, it's made in Yakima but the cidery was closed when we drove through, so instead, we found a liquor store in Yakima that sold it. It was in a sketchy place in town, so I had Ben go in with me just in case something weird happened. We were in and out of there in like 5 minutes or less.
Willmarth got back to us and asked if we could wait like a half hour because he was dealing with Kevin's high school attendance due to having his wisdom teeth removed. I guess there were a couple of discrepancies he was trying to figure out. I told him we would, and we found a couple caches to find in Selah while we waited.
We drove over to the ball fields, drove around to the back and parked. The phone was showing it was in the grouping of the trees behind centerfield. We went back there, being careful of snakes and other dangerous bugs, looked around for a bit and made the grab. Take a Penny, Leave a Penny (GC76J4X) was a little beat up, but we were able to sign the log and put it back. We didn't take or leave a penny.
We drove up the road for Idyllic Rural View (GC2E7QP) to grab another quick one. When we got there and parked, we thought we would find it right away, but we didn't. We had to actually look hard for this one. I didn't think it was going to be on the person's fence, but it was. We made the grab, signed our names and put it back before someone came down the driveway and we were in the way.
We figured we killed enough time, so we made our way over to Willmarth's house. We told him we were on our way and when we got there, we sat in the Edge until he came outside. He told us he was sorry for all the crazy stuff that has been happening over the past two years. He said it was odd that it seems to be every time we are coming over or are in town to visit. I found it odd as well. He invited us into the house, and we got to meet their new black lab, Ripley. Shannon was at work and coaching an away middle school volleyball game, so we were not going to be able to see her this time around. We talked about an array of random stuff as it came up in conversation. We asked how Fletcher was doing and Willmarth said that he was slowing down. He hinted that Fletcher might not have very much time left. He and Zoey were good dogs.
We thanked him for the visit and told him to let us know if he needed anything from us as the officiant of our wedding in July. He said he would keep in touch.
We drove out of Selah and onto Hwy 12 to Naches. We got to the Hwy 12 and Hwy 410 junction hoping we didn't have to follow any slow vehicles through the pass. It started raining when we got to the Oak Creek Wildlife Area. We listened to music and about halfway up to the pass Ben wanted his peach rings. I dug those out and I had part of a raisin bagel. We snacked on those as we drove. I was super thankful there wasn't a lot of slow traffic we had to follow.
As we made our way down from the top of White Pass, you could see that Ben was getting sleepy. I had to check to make sure he was still coherent. We got to Packwood and into Glenoma. I continued checking in on him because this drive almost puts you in a trance because it is a long, boring ride at times. It almost hypnotizes you. We got finally got into Morton and Ben pulled over. He felt more comfortable if I drove the rest of the way home. We switched places and we got home around 9:15 that evening. We brought in our stuff, showered, figured out rent and bills, ate popcorn and got ready for the work week and bed.
Notes on the Day:
We found 6 traditional caches.
Went to a new Love's.
Stopped by to see Willmarth and meet their new dog.
A five-day total of 375 caches.
Next Adventure: A "Crabby Momma" Birthday Party
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