Washington State Parks 100 Anniversary GeoTour Kick Off Celebration

Like I said, luck was on my side this weekend.  I really should have bought a lottery ticket.

Backstory:

WSGA (Washington State Geocaching Association) teamed up with Washington State Parks so...
1.) we can have caches in state parks...
2.) more people will frequent the state parks (camp, picnic, party, etc)...
3.) due to budget cuts, state parks will get money from people purchasing campsites and Discovery Passes.  (www.discoverpass.wa.gov)...
4.) everyone wins!

There are probably more reasons but these are the main ones said to me by the park ranger.  Oh yeah, I volunteered to have one of the caches.  Mine is in Millersylvania State Park, roughly 15 miles from my house.  I was asked by Abby (hydnsek), WSGA President, if I would take over one since the guy who originally volunteered went MIA.  I met her at the park, completed the paperwork with the ranger and went and hid it.  All 104 of them published on Friday, June 7 at 9 a.m.  Throughout Washington each region had their own kick off celebration and I attended the South Sound one at Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, north of Enumclaw.

After my 5K and hurrying home to change and gather our stuff, Bob and Bev rolled up in the driveway.  We put our stuff in the trunk since it was going to be a tight squeeze in the back between my mom and Grandma Karen.  We chose to go the back way to Enumclaw, out past Lake Kapowsin, past Orting and through South Prairie.  Then through Buckley and out to Enumclaw and then the state park. According to Nuvi, we would get there just before one.  Bob took a wrong turn so we toured the camping area before getting onto the right road and to the picnic area.  We found a parking spot and made our way over to the commotion. We said hi to a few people and Bob started doing the antsy caching dance.

The food wasn't quite ready yet so our group, plus another guy, Adammack75, from the Spanaway area, walked to the closest one that wasn't on the other side of the river.  It was put out during the 2004 WSGA Campout.  At first we took the wrong trail but managed to figure it out. It took us along a trail next to the Green River.  We found it quickly and hustled back because the food was probably done.

It was.  We grabbed our plates and whatever food we wanted.  There was definitely plenty to go around.  I ended up talking to another cacher for 15 min about the ET Highway.  Then they started the GSAK presentation.  I went and grabbed some food, went to the grill and got a hamburger and then sat at the picnic tables and talked more about the ET Highway with some other cachers.  We finished our food and waited patiently for the raffle.  There was another presentation going on about how to efficiently cammo your containers so we had to wait until that was over.  I went over and talked to Chris, who was running the GeoTours booth.

After my chat with Chris, we all decided to use the bathroom before the raffle.  Everyone congregated around the booth and they got the box of tickets ready.  He called the kids over to pick the numbers.  About 5 or 6 tickets in, he called my number.  YES!  I walked over to the table and grabbed my prize.  It was a pink pony tag.  I thought it would go well with my sister's My Little Pony she gave me to use with my Travel Bug.  Bob also won a swag item.

Then we did the Discovery Pass raffle.  This was only for people who didn't have one or for people who have one and will expire in the next month.   There were about twenty tickets inside the box so I had a pretty good chance of winning it.  Plus grandma and mom put their names in.  The box had gotten worn out so Chris ended up putting it inside a WSGA hat.  Psykokiwi, the host, picked a number.  I held my ticket out in front of me hoping they would call out my numbers.  In my head I knew it was really far fetched that she would actually call my numbers.  She read them and I could not believe it, they were MY numbers!  I threw my hands up and yelled, I WON!  Everyone turned around and grumbled.  I went to the table and picked up my pass.  Now I didn't have to spend $30 on one.

We grabbed our stuff and headed to the car.  We were going to grab a few of the state park caches on the way home.  We drove down the park road to our first one.  It was a short walk down a dirt trail.  We just kinda followed everyone else since everyone from the event was going to be here at some point.  We found the cache zone, I climbed up the small hill and grabbed the cache from the other cacher who pulled it out of its hiding spot.  She told me where it went back to so she could leave.  We stamped our passports, signed our names and wrote down some of the TB codes.  I told the next group of cachers where it went back to.  We walked back to the car and realized we lost Grandma.  I went back and found her.  She started walking back the wrong way.  Haha.

We all decided since we were up here to grab the Nolte State Park cache and the Flaming Geyser State Park caches.  The Nolte cache took us along the east side of the lake and the cache was next to one of the trees.  We ran into a cacher named Tubatad who lived in Des Moines.  He talked to us for a while.  He has been using his phone as a GPS and realized it was time to get a real GPS.  He was a nice guy caching with his kid.  We moved onto Flaming Geyser State Park, a place I've always wanted to stop and see.

We plugged it into the GPS and away we went.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_Geyser_State_Park)  

We saw the state park sign and made our way to the parking area.  We stopped and did the virtual first, Flaming Gas.  We took pictures, found out what info we needed to log it and then moved onto the state park cache across the river and up the hill.  The creek had a really poor make-shift bridge across it, we had to help Grandma over it and Bev decided to stay behind.  Mom, Bob, Grandma and I went up the hill to the cache.  Bob found the cache while mom and Grandma checked out the bubbling geyser just down the hill.  We stamped our passports and signed the cache and then joined them.  It was kinda disappointing.  No bubbling but very smelly gray water.  We walked back down to the water, crossed it and went back to the car.

Bev was hungry so on the way back we stopped in Bonney Lake at the Taco Time because there is always time for tacos.  We got home and relaxed.  I logged my caches and looked at the next bunch we needed to go get.

Next Adventure:  Olympic Penninsula State Parks GeoTour

Kyle's Special Heart 5K

I should have bought lottery tickets today.  I was sure lucky.

Two people I went to high school with had a baby with a heart defect.  The surgeries are going to be expensive so a bunch of us in the community collectively put together a few events.  The first one was a 5K/10K run/walk.  The other event, to be named later, in the summer/fall.

I've been somewhat preparing for this so I didn't die afterwards.  I started back up running again late January, mostly because I love food.  I work out because I love food.  I was just going to run for the cause.

We all gathered at Wilkowksi Park, in Rainier, shared stories, visited and registered.  There were games and face painting for the kids as well as food and goods being sold as fundraisers.  As it approached 9, we all gathered near the starting line, listened to the rules and then, we were off.

I tried to keep a steady pace.  I actually passed a few people.  As long as I stayed in front of Josh Frunz I was happy.  I ran with Megan for a while and then I kicked into "I wanna be done with this race" so I ran faster.  Doug was about a minute ahead of me, Jody and Amy were running the 10K and Fitzy and her mom were walking the 5K.  Lindsay decided not to run because she had to go to work so she was one of the timers.   Mom spent the time, while we were running, sewing the binding in the quilt she made for them to raffle off.

There was a water station near Tipsoo Loop that was being manned by Wendy Larson and Marleah Dilley.  In between the beats of my music, I heard Wendy say, ...and there's Val.

I got to the turn around point for the 5K and Paul Kimble was there with the camera, refreshments and some words of encouragement.  I smiled for my picture, said hi to Paul and made the turn.  I tried to increase the speed in my pace.  I really wanted to get done.  Also, I really wanted to beat my previous 5K time, which was 30:04 from the end of March.  I saw that Doug was not too far ahead of me.  I may catch up to him.  Along the way back, people cheered each other on.  I offered some woo's and applause's and almost there's.  When I got to the trestle I so wanted to be done.  I started running faster.  I really wanted to be under 30 minutes.  I rounded the last corner and I saw the finish line.  My mind said sprint but my body said no.  I pushed through it and crossed with a time of 28:15.

YES!  Under 30 minutes!

I was given some water and I took a rest nearby where mom was still sewing binding on the quilt.  I talked to Lindsay, Morgan and a few other people near the finish line.  Megan crossed the finish line a few minutes later and wanted me to walk with her down the trail to grab her pull over.  She took it off during the first part of the race.  It was a nice cool down.  We chatted about random things on our small walk there and back.  When we did get back, I talked to Fitzy, Lindsay and Sylvia.  A while later, I talked to Doug and Luke came by to say hi.

It was almost 11.  I told mom to wrap the binding up because we really had to go soon.  I was intercepted by Emily and Tara after they figured out the prizes for each race and gender, and they told me I was the top female runner for the 5K.  I was like, are you sure?  Because there was a girl a head of Doug who finished before I did.  They looked back through the results and saw according to the registration forms and the numbers and times I was the winner.  I said okay and accepted an award that was made by Paul Kimble.

A while later I learned that the girl who was a head of me, wasn't actually registered with her name but was running under Jonathan Sprouffske's name and number.  I told Emily and Tara thank you, we visited with Sylvia a little bit longer and then I got a phone call from Bev asking when they were suppose to pick us up for the geocaching event.  I told her 11:15 at my house.  I had grandma meet us there as well.  I grabbed mom, we drove home, got ready quickly and headed to Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, north of Enumclaw.

Here are the top 10 results from the race:

For more information about the race, Kyle or the fundraisers visit these sites:

https://www.facebook.com/events/422924574470912/?ref=2

http://kylesspecialheart.wix.com/klsh

https://www.facebook.com/Kylesspecialheart

Next Adventure:  GeoTour Kick Off Celebration at Kanaskat-Palmer State Park.

Seattle Storm Game

I got a text just as I clocked in at work.  This was around 6:30 a.m.  I was like, wow, Shauna's up this early?  Her text said that BJ couldn't go to the Storm game with her and asked if I could go.  I had no plans this evening so why not?  She asked for me to be at her house around 4:30 and we can leave from there.

We finished up our work and Dr. Smith asked us if we wanted to go to lunch with him.  Later I found out it was because we had to come back and do an emergency temporary crown on a patient who lost theirs.  We left the office around 1:30-2:00.  I really needed a nap and I knew I would not get one today.

We did our chores, post office, bought chicken food, went to the recycle and picked up our own mail in Rainier.

We got home, unloaded the chicken food, let the ducks out, changed and got ready to go over to Shauna's house.  She texted me that I could come over whenever.  I left as soon as I could because mom was going to meet dad in town.  I got everything I needed and drove over to Shauna's house.

I got there and found out she got a new dog.  They rescued him from a household that was going to put him down.  Shauna got ready and we drove off towards I-5 north.  Dupont/Ft. Lewis traffic was horrible.  It continued into Tacoma, into Fife and part of Federal Way.  We were suppose to meet her friends at a Greek restaurant near Key Arena.  We texted them that we may not make it in time and to go ahead and order food.  Then I realized that the Yankees were in town to play the Mariners at 7.  It was going to take us a while to get to the Key Arena.

We got to Seattle around 5:40 and didn't get to the parking garage until about 5:50.  We hustled over to Dick's, which was down the road, bought some hamburgers, a shake and coke.  We briskly walked back to Key Arena.  Pemco had a free throw game set up and me and Shauna decided to take a shot at it.  Winner won a shirt.  While waiting in line, I decided to take a picture with their bear carving to get a free picture out of it.  She liked my pose so much, she wanted to put me on their Twitter website.  She asked that I fill out a waiver first.

Here's the link:  https://twitter.com/PEMCO/status/343178980234506240/photo/1

Shortly after, it was our turn to shoot free throws.  I think mine was messed up because it never told me to start and then like 10 seconds later it re-started itself and I knew I had more than 35 points.  Shauna ended up winning but she gave me her shirt because her and BJ had a bunch of them from previous games.  We walked down the stairs and went inside.  We found our seats and chatted with Shauna's friends who have season tickets behind us.  They are hilarious.

I found out that Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird were injured and having surgery so they aren't going to be playing most of the season.  Bird was still in the program but Jackson wasn't.  We were playing the Tulsa Shock and they were one of the teams who had a lower rank in the standings.  We had a good shot even though we didn't have Jackson and Bird in the line up.  Shauna did say don't hold your breath, this is a rebuilding year.

There were good points and bad points of the game.  They let the other team shoot and rebound their own shot without blocking out.  They made several points in the game because of second chance shots.  This was the first time in Storm franchise history where we did not make a three-point shot.  We did tie it up and pull ahead of them several times.  The last quarter got pretty disappointing.

During one of the time outs in the fourth, the crew came out to throw shirts into the audience.  Four of the helpers were the Seahawks, specifically the four guys from the Legion of Boom, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman.  One of those shirts made it near us and fell underneath the seats.  One of Shauna's friends bent down and grabbed it.  The Seahawks signed the tape that was rolled up around the shirts.  On her tape was Brandon Browner's autograph.  A little while later just before the game ended, she threw the shirt on me and stuck the tape on my shoulder.  I turned around, you don't want your shirt?  She said, I can't fit into a medium.  Then I asked, you don't want the autograph?  She said, no...I'm a Steelers fan.  I told her thank-you.

We left seconds before the game got over since we lost by nine, 67-58.  We hustled to the car, got in and headed home...with NO traffic!

Next Adventure:  Kyle's Special Heart 5K and GeoTours WaStatePks100 Celebration.