Interview, Shopping, Cache Advance and the Trip Back to the West Side

We got up the next morning with enough time for him to shower, put his suit on, gather our stuff and leave.  We would eat food after his interview.  We planned it to where we had exactly enough time to get up the hill to Airway Heights and to the fire station.  When we got there, I told him good luck and that he knows how to answer every single question they shoot at him, and there was another kid from Oregon sitting in his truck waiting for his turn.

In the meantime, I went and found a couple caches.

The first one was literally right down the street from the station.  For some reason I didn't add Airway Heights to my query so I had to use my phone.  I knew I would have enough time for a few but not a ton of them.  Plus, it had started to sprinkle.  I drove the quarter of a mile to the end of the road with a cement block preventing people from driving into the sage brush, dirt and rocks.  Roadside Snag II:  Concrete Blond (GC2CZPJ) was a quick find.  It was hidden underneath some of the rocks on the side of the road.

The next one, TB Executive Hotel (GC53MEN) was on the next street over.  When I got there, the end of the road was a very large cul-de-sac with a homeless guy on a bike.  I sat in the Escape for a bit hoping he would leave soon.  As soon as I decided to get out he pedaled away.  I jumped down a small embankment and near a pile of dirt and rocks.  I looked for the obvious rock pile and there it was.  I signed our names and put it back better than I found it.

I drove across Hwy 2 to a small park.  I thought I knew what I was looking for and where it was.  I didn't find it and the rain was coming down harder.  It may have not been there too.  I decided to move on to another one before Ben called.  As I was getting closer to the next cache, Ben called and wanted me to come pick him up.  I told him it would be a few minutes.  I went back across Hwy 2 and down the road towards the station.  I picked him up and asked how his interview went.  He said on a numeric scale from 1-10 he believed he did an 8.  And now we wait for the results.  I could be a few days to about a month, Ben said it varies.

He wanted pancakes so we drove to Division and found an IHOP.  The place was busy!  Lots of old people wanting pancakes in the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday.  Our waitress was strange but we enjoyed our pancakes, bacon and eggs.  I had blueberry and Ben had pumpkin.

We decided to go do some shopping.  We went to the Mountain Gear Retail to look at climbing shoes.  He wanted to get me my own for Christmas so we can go more often and have the comfort of not wearing rental shoes.  I found some blue ones that would do the trick.  We went across the street to a billiards/furnature store that was being remodeled to ask questions about resurfacing a pool table.  I saw some of the cool Cougar tables, bar stools and lamps.  Go COUGS!

We went across the street and a few blocks south to the White Elephant Store!  This is a must go to when in Spokane.  It is the coolest, most random store you will ever go into.  Anything from sporting goods, to guns to fishing gear to toys.  We looked at some stuff for present ideas.  I found a couple things to give my dad and Ben for Christmas as well as a small Grumpy Cat just to have.  Then I had an idea.  We should go visit the new Cache Advance cache cave!  I looked at the hours of operation and it said closed for Thursdays.  I contacted Lisa and she said she would come open it just for us to come and visit.  We drove up and met her at 3.

A few years back during the Coeur d'Alene cache machine, we went to a brunch at her residence, where she did the business out of her basement. When you get a lot of people downstairs you're basically rubbing elbows with your neighbor.  A few months ago, she had the opportunity to expand the business into a warehouse and I couldn't wait to go see it.  We went in and she showed us the office, the merchandise room and the warehouse.  We talked about random things, mini vacations, caching stories, milestones, etc.  We found the cache, Cave-Inn (GC4RMEP) and signed the log and looked at her FTF Magazines.  I submitted my 10,000th cache milestone a few months back and they said they would try and publish them but no promises.  I thought they would contact you if they chose you.  I just figured that I wasn't chosen because I never heard back.  Turns out I was published in the Sept-Oct issue of FTF Magazine!  I was so stoked!  Lisa said she would have given me the copy but it's her only one for the business.

My photo and description is the second one down on the left.

It was time to say goodbye and start thinking about heading back to the west side.  We thanked Lisa for taking the time out of her day to let us come visit the cache cave.  We drove back to Chaz's to make sure we got everything and to thank him for letting us stay with him. He gave us this blue soda with jalapeno juice in it. We told him we would let him know the next time we are over this way and when Ben found out if he got the job or not.  We left Spokane and got onto I-90 around 5.

I listened to music while Ben did a little bit of sleeping.  I wish it was the summer time so we could have more daylight to stop and see some things.  I really wanted to cache in the gorge area and Vantage.  Maybe next time.  It was reaching 7:30 that evening and we needed to stop and get gas and eat dinner.  We really weren't sure where we wanted to stop for food so we drove around for a few minutes.  The only thing that stood out to us was the Rodeo City BBQ.  Ben's beer came in a boot and we had some delicious bbq'd meat and sides.

We called our moms to tell them were we were.  Mom said the wind was pretty bad and the power went off as I was talking to her.  Great.  Just want I want to come home to, no power.

We went over the pass and the wind was not an issue.  By this time it had died down a lot.  We got onto Hwy 18 and merged onto I-5.  I still had to drop Ben off at the fire station.  That meant I was not going to get home until at least midnight or later.  It was almost midnight when we made it to the station.  A lot of guys were on shift mostly because of the downed trees, power lines and other hazards.  I helped Ben bring in his stuff while we visited with the guys.  He let the guys taste the soda and a lot of them were like what the heck is this?!  We laughed and told them what it was.  I had to start heading home.  I was late and I had to work the next day and the power is out.  When I did get home, I unpacked some stuff, got ready for bed via flashlight and bottled water and went to bed.  Long long day.

Next Adventure:  White Elephant Party

Trip to Spokane for Interview

Ben got himself an interview.  It was in Airway Heights, just west of Spokane and it worked out that it was on our days off.  A few weeks ago he drove over to Spokane for a physical exam in which he passed pretty easily.  Unfortunately, he had to do this drive over and back in one day and he had to miss a day of work.  He said it was a long day and hopefully worth it.  He took the Escape.

We heard back a few weeks later for an interview scheduled on December 11.  That week, we both had Wednesday and Thursday off so we planned to head on over Wednesday.  Ben got a hold of his cousin Chaz, who has lived in Spokane for over a decade with his girlfriend Karen.  We asked if they had room for us for a night and they were excited to have us.  We prepared for those two days as best as we could with the amount of time we had between work and other responsibilities.

I tried to get as much stuff together as I could and packed in the Escape.  I knew this day would show up really fast.

On Wednesday I got up around 10, ate something really quick and packed up the rest of the stuff.  I made sure I had both sleds, my warm clothes and the Go Pro because we were going to stop on Snoqualmie Pass and go sledding for about an hour.  I told Ben he needed to get up around 11:30 to get his shower and to start getting ready so we could get on the road as soon as possible.  Mostly because it would start getting dark around 4:30.

I called Ben on the way to Rainier and he did not answer.  One of two things could be happening:  he is in the shower or he was still asleep.  I was hoping in the shower.  I got onto 507 and headed towards Tenino.  Just after the equestrian center and the bridge, I saw the ROAD CLOSED sign up ahead and the giant tree over the highway.  Ugh.  I turned around and headed back to Rainier.  I wish they would have told us in Rainier so we could have taken the back road the first time.  I got to Rainier and went up the hill to Military...the back road to Tenino.  I was so glad we were leaving town for the biggest windstorm this year.  I just can't stand hearing and watching the trees try to kill me.

I got to the station around noon and one of his co-workers saw me and let me in.  We woke him up when they knocked on his door and told him that he had a visitor.  I walked in. You're not up yet!?  He rolled over and looked at his phone.  I didn't hear my alarm or when you called.  You need to get up and start getting ready.  It's going to be a long trip and it will get dark soon.  He got motivated, clean and got the rest of his stuff together.  We left around 1:15 and topped off at the local Arco before we got onto I-5 north.

On the way to Federal Way and the Hwy 18 junction, we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, corn nuts and vitamin water.  We listened to music and talked about various subjects.  We got onto Hwy 18 and merged onto I-90.  There were a lot of trucks out today...must be a truck day.  It was great to be in a vehicle that could actually make the grade up to the pass without over heating, having to pull over and waste time.

Just before we got to the pass, Ben got out the Go Pro and we filmed part of the drive and took some pictures.

We got closer to the pass and we saw absolutely NO snow.  There was NO snow on the pass in December.  There wasn't even any compacted snow from previous storms.  We couldn't go sledding.  We were so disappointed.  We drove on towards Ellensburg.

I wanted to stop at the Rye Grass rest stop to get a cache that wasn't there the last time I drove on through.  We got through Ellensburg, waved to Willmarth over the hill in Yakima and made our way to Vantage. The rest area was up on the hill just before you got to Vantage.  This area was known for their windmill farm.  I turned the GPS on and we pulled off the freeway into the rest area.  We used the bathroom and took pictures of the windmills with the really cool fog.

I could almost walk to the cache off pure memory but decided to put it in the GPS...apparently my query didn't load all of them, but we managed.  Ben wore the Go Pro and I navigated.  We both walked towards Ryegrass East (GCXW6B) and found Mr. Gadget's cache and this time it was there and he made sure by locking it to a nearby sage bush.  It was not going anywhere.  I added some swag, we took the TB and we signed our names.

When we got back to the Escape, it was getting dark and it was time to switch drivers.  We put the Go Pro away and got back onto I-90.  I told him we had one more stop in George, Washington.  The entire time he thought that place was called Gorge, Washington.  I told him it is part of the gorge but the town in called George.  He laughed.  I also said we had to stop and pick George Washington's nose.

I got the GPS set to AgFarmation Travel Bug Motel (GC3RQAB) and led him right to it.  If we had more daylight I would have gotten the others to the north of us.  We got out, circled around the coffee shop and found the cute little bird house the cache was hidden inside of.

After the cache, we drove the short distance to the statue of George Washington.  I picked his nose and Ben posed with him and a dollar bill.  We tried to hurry because we didn't want to look weird to the lady walking her dog...and we needed to put some miles behind us.

From there, it was smooth sailing to Ritzville, where we topped off the gas and almost ate Ritz crackers because they were in the back just for fun.  The one thing about the Escape is that it won't make it from my house to Spokane on one tank of gas.  You have to be strategic on where you stop and how much gas you have.  If this turns out to be a real lifestyle change, we will need to be prepared for when we drive back and forth across the state.

It was about 7:45 when we came down the hill to the sparkling lights of Spokane.  Many memories came back from when I lived in Pullman, about 90 miles south of here, when we would come up for the weekends to enjoy a bigger atmosphere.  Ben put his cousin's address into his GPS and off we went to a part of Spokane I've never been to but recognized some of the street names.  We found his road and then the front of the house.

Chaz got home about the same time we pulled up.  He hadn't eaten and neither did we so we all piled into his car and we drove to a diner up the road.  He took us to Ferguson's Cafe.  While we ate, I got to know his cousin a little bit.  He was a pretty cool guy.  After dinner we went back to his house and played some Ninja Dice for a while.  We got ready for bed, set up the futon and passed out.  Tomorrow will be a long day.

Next Adventure:  Interview, Shopping, Cache Advance and the Trip Back to the West Side

South Hill, Orting and the Puyallup River

I wanted another adventure in the frozen tundra before the rain started up again.  It's a lot easier to geocache when it's not pouring down rain and everything you walk through is wet.  Plus it's a lot more fun when you're caching with others instead of by yourself.  Ben didn't have the day off so I asked Bob and Bev if they wanted to go somewhere.  I had to be somewhere at 4:30 and Bob had bowling so it had to be local.

Bev and I came up with a plan to cover Sunrise Blvd in South Hill, some in Orting and along the Puyallup River.  All together if we got to all of them would be about 20 caches.  I made a list and did a little research on them...mostly for parking coords and to find out which caches were on what side of the river.  That half hour of looking turned out to save us a lot of time and confusion.

I got all my stuff ready the night before, queries and warm clothing and some food and set it aside.  They wanted to leave around 8 so I set my alarm for 7:30.

My alarm went off and really had a hard time getting out of bed.  Bev texted me saying they were going to be a little late...so look for them at about 8:15.  I slept in for about 20 more minutes.  It was glorious.  I got my layers on, grabbed my food, ate some waffles, found my back pack and made sure I had everything.  I locked the door and hopped in their car.  We were on our way to South Hill via Hwy 7 towards Hwy 161/Meridian.

The first one both GPS's agreed on was Rock Wall 4 You (GC5ATGA) and it was inside a rock wall near the pharmacy drive through of the Walgreens.  Bev found it quickly while I wandered up and down the wall.

From there, we found a parking lot and a trail that lead us into the woods.  It was a 1.12 mile wooded trail called Silver Creek.  Bev had gotten some coords for By the Numbers (GC1XHBK) from another cacher and we failed to find it.  The last time it was visited was back in August and three different cachers could not find it...and that was during the summer!  We gave up after about 10 minutes or so.  We would have to come back another time when we actually know it's there.  Kepton Woods (GC5BKEX) was the next closest one.  We parked so close to it we could have reached out the window to find it.

Next we drove over to Sunrise Blvd to a cache we both didn't have, This One's For Noodles (GC4KK9).  We found a place to pull over, ran over to where the coords pointed and found the cache behind a cement structure. The entire time a truck's horn was blaring. Not sure why.  We ran back over to the car as quick as we could because it was chilly.

There were a few along Sunrise we needed to get, one was called Pooper Scooper 2 (GC4WGB7) which was a nano hidden on a dog poop bag and waste container, Sunrise Parks #1 (GC4WG74) , #2 (GC4WG8N) and #3 (GC4WG9J) , all were placed by EMC41, the cacher who passed away hiking up to GCD this past August. One of them we couldn't find so we started walking back to the car...then a guy and his dog came out from the house across the street and knew exactly what we were doing...we never got his name, and he said, it should be there, it's really camouflaged.  We followed him and he got on his hands and knees and started digging in the fern bush.  He was right, it was there.  We thanked him and he and his dog continued on their walk.  We went on and found the next two in the series...along with the snow.

I remember reading about one of the caches and a great view of Mount Rainier.  It was behind Emerald Ridge HS at a blocked off road.  We followed our GPS's down a long road past a ton of housing developments and along the high school.  Up ahead we saw the cement blocks obstructing our way.  The view of Mount Rainier was stunning.  Blocked Off View (GC58Z7P) had not been found by the last cacher...so of course we worried about not finding it.  I went one way, Bob went one way and Bev went another.  A few seconds Bev shouted out, "found it!"  That's two today we've found that others could not.

We got back onto Meridan and made our way down towards Taking the Back Roads #6 (GC4R977).  I had gotten the first 5 back in August while I was trying to set myself up for my 10,000th cache for the Block Party.  I didn't realize there was one more I forgot to get.  That one was a magnetic small Altoids can stuck to the back of the fence.  I dropped it trying to put it back.  There was a hole in the fence so I shimmied through and put it back safely.

Then we had our dreaded DNF's of the day.  On the Orting-Kapowsin Highway, we tried looking for Charcoal (GC5EQHG) and Firewood (GC5DQK7) and had a really hard time between the 3 of us looking for it.  We read the logs, the hints, double checked the spots we looked...the snow just made it hard to look for them.  We gave up and decided to come back another time.  Down the hill into Orting we went.

We were all hungry and needed to use the restroom and since we know Bob pretty well, we knew he would stop at the McDonald's.  I am so glad I brought my own food.  We were there for about a half hour...a good enough time for food and potty.  And now onto our Puyallup River walks.

We weren't quite sure where to go on this set of caches along the river.  I am glad I took the time the night before to find out which were on the west side of the river and which were on the east side.  Bob meandered his way through the houses and found a perfect spot to park and walk down to the road/trail.  We made sure to take coords and post them in our log for others.  Bev found the first one, Double Cedars-SFR (GC537X9), it was tucked in the crotch of two cedars.

Further down the trail Bob lead the way.  We found Peek-a-Boo (GC537WM), Round the Cedars-SFR (GC537QP) and Beaver and Duck Pond-SFR (GC537RN).  All were hidden well off the trail.  One was a micro, hanging from a tree, one was a plastic ammo can and the other was a medium sized nut container.  We encountered a giant frozen mud puddle and I used it like a skating rink.

We walked back to the car and put in the next set of parking coords to the other side of the river.  We looked for this gate they talked about in the description.

We did find the gate, parked the car and went to grab the last 5 caches for the day.  Bob had to go bowling and I had to go meet Jen in Tumwater.  Bob decided we were going to go get the caches to the left of the trail and come back to get the other ones.  We were like, okay.  We're going to get them all anyway...doesn't matter the order.  Riverside Stroll (GC53QHF) was a small with a flat brick on top of it.  The ground was frozen so we used our boots to kick it loose.  Strolling the Riverside (GC53QJC) was next and luckily Bob brought gloves because this one was thrown inside some sticker bushes.

We walked closer to the Orting Golf Course and saw a great shot of Mount Rainier in the distance.  We grabbed Be Aware-Flying Objects (GC53QJR) and then got our pictures.  I had to hurry because my phone was dying and I didn't bring my car charger.

We walked back and grabbed the last 2 caches of the day, Commence the Puyallup River (GC53QGK) which was tucked underneath two rocks with leaves on it and Puyallup Brambles (GC4YPGK) which was closer to the river and again stuck to the ground.  I had to use a stick to get it loose.  Bob traded some pennies for marbles and I signed the logbook.

It was a great cold afternoon of caching, hanging out, laughing and talking about random things while we enjoyed the day.  I wished the winter weather was like this all the time, cold and dry.

Next Adventure: Trip to Spokane for Interview