TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Geocoin Challenge, Azteca and Showers

As it started getting brighter and warmer, we both knew it was almost time to get up.  The high for today was going to be around 85 and it was already starting to heat up.  I had set my alarm for 7 a.m. which would give us enough time to get dressed, eat and ready for our day. 

The alarm finally went off and we started getting ready.  You could hear everyone arriving and assembling their stuff on the grass across the lot from us.  I used the porta potty really quick while Ben got dressed. 

Next, we got out our food and started our little propane tank.  Ben mixed up everything and cooked, while I handed him the things he would need.  Once it was done, I started getting the tubs ready so we could wash our dishes.  I did a few of them while I waited for the food to get done.  We ate our scrambled eggs with turkey kielbasa and some small boxes of cereal.  I didn't have any cereal.

After we were done, we finished doing our dished and continued getting ready for the day.  Brenda, Ray, Bob and Bev came over to our camp and talked to us for a bit while we got ready.  I was able to get cleaned up and used the bathroom before the event started.  We put everything away and was able to get Brenda and Ray's car over by ours so we could load it up for our caching adventure.

We walked across the parking lot to the event, TriCities 2022 Geocoin Challenge (GC9MR2X).  We signed the logbook which this year were plastic lawn chairs, chatted with some people we knew and meandered over to the stage area to listen to Jen tell us about the event and the rules.  Her speech was followed by a representative from Richland Parks and Rec and then a cop from the Richland Police Department. There wasn't a group picture taken again for the second time since 2019.  Covid has sure ruined a lot of things. 

We grabbed our passports and headed to the Kia.  We made sure we had our food, plenty of water, bags, phones, phone chargers and whatever else we needed.  Ben was the navigator, Ray drove, and Brenda and I were the note takers and map readers. We really tried to find the best route so we avoided back tracking as much as we possibly could.  

For the last few years, we all decided to do Pasco first, since it was the only one on the other side of the Columbia River.  Once we got that one done, we could stay on the other side and take care of the other three cities without worrying about it.  We got most of Pasco done, then Kennewick, then a mixture of West Richland and Richland until we were done.  It was hard not to back track because they were spread out so far and some of them overlapped with another city.  There were eight Adventure Lab caches in each city as well as two real caches, so a total of 10 labs and caches to do in each city.  The real caches were geared towards kids, and they had their own passport for them, but you knew everyone was going to find those caches too.  Of course, we were!  

We spent most of the late morning driving from waypoint to waypoint in Pasco.  Our first cache, TC 2022 - P09 Osprey Pointe Park (GC9VXTB) was at a location we all knew too well.  This is where Bob and Bev's car died back in 2015 when it was 115 degrees outside.  We got out of the Kia and walked over to where the cache was hidden.  Easy peasy. 

One of our largest epic fails was on our last one for Pasco.  For some reason Ben thought there was an exit off the bridge in the middle of the Columbia River to the cache, TC 2022 - P10 Timmerman Ferry (GC9VXVK), we needed to get.  We had to make a U-turn and headed back over the bridge to the correct exit and road. No matter how much we try to avoid it there is bound to be back tracking.  

We finished Pasco and got halfway through Kennewick before we decided to eat lunch in Columbia Park along the river.  We picked up the two caches, one at the Humane Society and the other at a community garden.  Both, TC 2022 - K10 Benton/Franklin Humane Society (GC9N79G) and TC 2022 - K09 Hansen Park Community Garden (G9R7VG) were easy to find along with several of the eight Adventure Labs we found. 

Once we got to the park, we searched for an empty picnic table underneath the shade.  A lot of them were taken already but we did get lucky.  Unfortunately, the table looked like it was being used but abandoned at the same time.  The unknown people left their stuff behind such as camping chairs and a couple coolers.  We weren't going to stay that long, so we got our stuff out of the car and wheeled our cooler over to borrow the picnic table.  Ben and I had PBJ, and some chips and Ray and Brenda had wraps and some fruit.  It was a nice, quick and easy picnic.

We cleaned up, wheeled everything back to the car and attempted to use the public restroom that seemed to be locked with no one inside.  Oh well, I guess I will have to go somewhere else...luckily, it wasn't an emergency.  We finished the rest of the Adventure Labs in Kennewick and started working on West Richland and Richland since they were kinda mixed together.  

We sent Ray, which seemed like all over the place, to get the Adventure Labs in West Richland and a few in the southern part of Richland to avoid the back tracking.  We picked up two caches, TC 2022 - WR09 Community Garden (GC9VJ9Z) and TC 2022 - WR10 Bridges View (GC9VJA1).  Both caches were pretty quick finds and definitely geared towards children. 

We finished up West Richland and moved our way to getting the rest of Richland along with those two caches.  We made quick work of it, grabbed TC 2022 - R09 Little Library (GC9RA0G) and our last cache after finishing up the Adventure Lab portion of it was TC 2022 - R10 Treasure Chest (GC9R7RE).  That one was at the event where we picked up our coins.

We had our passports ready and stood in the appropriate line to get them checked so we could receive our coins.  It was one per household and Ben and I did ours right and our coin was handed to us.  These coins get fancier and fancier every year.  This year's theme was Land of the Three Rivers. Of course, like every year, there is a bonus cache, TriCities Geocoin Challenge - Bonus (GC9W1RJ) and you could tell where it was because there was a group of 20 people by the cache trying to log it.  We walked over to it and signed the log with everyone else. 

Earlier that week, we had talked to Ray on Facebook messenger of how the day was going to go.  He said that he and Brenda were going to make it a long day trip so after the coin challenge they were going to eat dinner and bounce back up to Spokane.  He and Brenda decided on Mexican food this time and he found Azteca in Kennewick over by the mall.  We walked to our vehicles and headed over to Kennewick.

They got there a little bit before we did so we joined them at the table and the server took our drink order.  I just had water, Ben, Brenda and Ray all had margaritas. We had the standard chips, salsa and bean dip while we waited for our drinks to show up.  The server came back and got our food orders.  Ben and I shared a chicken burrito, beans and rice because I really didn't need my own meal, plus we had no way to keep leftovers.  Ray and Brenda had chicken fajitas. We chatted about various things while we ate and of course, laughed a bunch.

Brenda gave me her raffle ticket before we left the restaurant.  We thanked them for a good time, Ben gave Ray the gas money and some hugs were exchanged. We speculated the next time we would see them would be in August for GeoWoodstock in Abbotsford, BC.  We told them to have a safe drive home.  Ben and I drove back down to the event just in time for the raffle drawing. It was almost coming to a conclusion when my number was called.  I jumped up very excited because this was the first time, I won anything at the TriCities Geocoin Challenge.  It was a Colorado coin, and I was super stoked!

I texted Bev if we could use her shower since the park, we were at doesn't have one and the river was too dangerous this year to rinse off in.  She said that was fine but she, Bob and Gabe were out to dinner at that moment.  She said she would let us know when they were back at the Super 8 and had showered themselves.  She also added that I could use theirs while Ben used Gabe's.  I told her that was a good plan and to see her in a bit.

We loitered around for a little while at the event, walked along the river, did a couple waypoints to an Adventure Lab we didn't finish and went back to our tent to hang out until Bev said it was okay to drive to their hotel in Kennewick. 

We gathered all of the stuff we would need for a shower and drove over.  We stayed in this hotel back in September, so we knew where it was.  We showed up and I used Bob and Bev's shower as Ben used Gabe's.  Afterwards, we hung out for a bit chatting and watching the rest of the Mariner game Bob had up on the TV.  We talked briefly about going to the event the next morning followed by doing a power trail before heading home.  Bev said she wasn't sure what they were going to do but they would see us at the morning event.  I thanked them again for letting us use the showers and went back down to the Escape. 

We drove back to the park and got situated for bed.  We brushed our teeth, put our stuff away and went to bed just after midnight.  This time I didn't have to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Next Adventure:  TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  Leaving TriCities, Power Trail Caching, Miner's, Yakima Adventure Lab and Home

TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Selah, Power Trails, Event and Dinner at Bombing Range Brewing Company

We set our alarms for 8 a.m. because Ben wanted breakfast before we left.  The hotel stopped serving breakfast around 9.  We didn't actually get up until 8:30. I really didn't want breakfast yet, so Ben went to go get some food while I got ready for a shower.  I figured since we were in this free hotel room and wasn't sure if we were going to get a shower later today that it was worth taking one before we left. 

I went and grabbed a shower first while Ben ate his breakfast. I got dressed and then Ben hopped in to be clean.  As he dressed, I got all of our stuff together and made sure all of it got back to the Escape.  Once he was done, we did a couple more sweeps of the room, put the furniture back that we moved the night before and headed out.  We went back out to the Escape, drove to the front of the hotel and Ben got out to check us out and turn the key cards in.  We left Selah around 11 a.m.

We drove through town and merged onto I-82 towards the TriCities.  We cruised along pretty well since there wasn't a lot of traffic through the area. I had some caches on a list I wrote down a few days ago while looking at ones to get while we drove.  We had a DNF in Zillah that I wanted to avenge.  I told Ben we were going to make a detour in Zillah, and he said that was cool.  I handed him the phone and he navigated me to the cache. 

Three years ago, we DNF'd Thing 1 (GC72P77).  I am not sure why we didn't find it, but I think it was missing when we tried looking for it the first time.  We got out of the Escape, and we immediately found it.  It most likely was missing back in 2019 because we would have found it.

We got back onto I-82 and continued east.  I told Ben we were getting closer to the next one on the list, Yellowstone Trail - Van Belle Rd (GC7DTWF).  Ben tried to take me down roads that didn't exist... it was a canal.  So, this cache took a while to get to when I thought it was going to be a simple on and off the freeway.  Nonetheless, we found the magnetic key holder, signed our names, put it back and made our way back to the freeway. 

We continued driving east on I-92 and were quickly approaching our next stop, the Love's gas station in Prosser. It was easy to get in and out of this gas station off of the freeway.  I pumped the gas and cleaned the thousands of bugs off of the windshield while I sent Ben in for a bag of ice and some snacks.  The gas prices were awful but this one seemed to be one of the cheapest ones in the area.

After filling up and grabbing some ice, we were off to the TriCities once again.  The traffic got a little bit heavier but still not bad.  I had Nuvi programmed to Columbia Point Marina Park and followed her turn-by-turn directions.  I was excited to be in the sunshine all weekend because summer has not quite begun on the west side of the state, and it was disappointing.  I love summer and wish it would stick around longer than it has so far.

We arrived at Columbia Point in Richland and saw we were the first set of campers there.  We were greeted by one of the volunteers that told us where to go.  He didn't have the list of campers yet, but he believed us when we mentioned Jen, our fearless leader.  He said that the RV's and campers would be on the one side and tents would be on the other--right next to the freeway so we'd be hearing vehicles all night long.  Oh well, it was free lodging and no shower.

Ben and I spent the next 45 minutes setting up the tent we borrowed from Doug--because it was bigger than ours and Ben could fit in it comfortably.  We blew up our sleeping pads and arranged our sleeping bags, blankets and pillows.  I love how I have the right items in my backpack when we need them.  I had my suitcase locks from when we went to Peru in September, and I had left them in my backpack, so we used them to lock up our tent through the zipper pulls. 

We rearranged our belongings in the Escape and off to power trail caching we went!  Last September when we held the 2021 geocoin event, Ben and I started whittling down the power trails north of Findley next to I-82.  I knew we didn't have a lot of time to do them all in one weekend so every time we come; we do a section.  After this weekend, we will have a few sections left and then we can move onto another area full of power trails.  I still have to make it to Walla Walla at some point.  That is still on the list but requires a long weekend to make it worthwhile.    

We started off with TriCities Foreign Coin Exchange (GC92ET4), Quick and Easy (GC6JYV9) and three new additions to the Bofer series we did last September, Bofer Extra - 1 (GC43XVJ), Bofer Extra - 2 (GC4F4XP) and Bofer Extra - 3 (GC4F4XZ).  They were all pretty easy and didn't take long to find. 

We looked at the map prior to our arrival and picked out two of the power trails we thought we would have time for.  One was the Owens Road Series and the other was the Find It Again, Sam Series.  The Find It Again Sam and Zombies Ahead Series we would do on Sunday after the event on our way home.  We did Owens Road 1-30 (GC6J8B8) all the way up to Jump Off Joe.  We found 38 altogether by the time we reached the top of Jump Off Joe. 

We turned off of 397 onto S Owens Road.  It immediately turned into a gravel road.  Ben drove while I got out at the first 15 or so caches.  We did the rolling log to make it go quicker.  Most were on the passenger side of the Escape with a few sprinkled in there on the driver's side.  The dust was pretty bad, and we really hoped no one else came down the road while we had our door open.  We were so remote I really doubted there would be any other cars driving around out here--unless they were geocachers.

Most of the caches were pill bottles hidden behind sage brush or off to the side of the road with little piles of rocks on top. You could almost predict where they were going to be before you even got out of the Escape.  We did get some wrong occasionally and some of the containers were missing so we replaced them when we could. 

We reached the halfway point and I drove, and Ben jumped. He did 15-30 and some of the other ones in between including Hazard Sign (GC4GC39) and Check Your Crack (GC4GC3W).  We saw a scorpion underneath one of the containers that surprised us.  I have never come across a scorpion before while power trail caching in Eastern Washington ever and I have been coming over here for the past 12 years to cache.

We got up to Jump Off Joe and saw the road conditions to the top, so we parked the Escape down below and walked to the rest of them.  Later, we realized there was a nice road that took you to the top.  Oh well, at least we got our exercise in.  We started with Jump Off Joe Panoramic Vista (GC85GNX) and then did the earthcache, Jump Off Joe: Three Things to Know (GC89JB4).  There, a man walked towards us holding a GPS, we knew it was a geocacher.  He (wesser26) was from the Portland, Oregon area and was here for the TriCities Geocoin Challenge.  He told us his brother lived in the TriCities and thought he would get in a power trail or two before he met up with him.   We answered some of the questions with him and then he walked back to his car.  We, moved on to the next cache after admiring the view from up there.

Gone With the Windmills (GC2G1QK), Jump Off Joe Viewpoint (GC6K47G), Adondo's Antennacache Revisited (GC4B1HJ) and Joe, Don't Jump! (GC31BNQ) were the last few we walked to.  There was no clear path to one of them, so we got a bunch of barbs in our shoes and socks.  No matter how much we tried to avoid it, more and more got on us.  I was not looking forward to picking them out.  We walked back to the Escape to head back to Richland.  The Escape was filthy.

We drove back to Columbia Point and more campers were set up near us and there were more people at the park getting ready for TC2022 - Meet and Greet/Poker Run (GC9WW3J) and the 10 waypoint Adventure Lab caches set up in the event area.  This was the first time I've participated in the Poker Run.  Chris (Mc3cats) gave me a coin and a card for a drawing for GeoWoodstock in August and congratulated me on the engagement that hadn't happened yet.  I knew what he was talking about, but I didn't want to ruin it for Ben, so I played dumb. 

We got our packet and worked on the puzzles to figure out the code words we needed. Ben grabbed some of the answers from people who were giving them out and some we did on our own. We sat at the table and finished the green, red and white puzzle.  The red one took us the longest to complete.  Once we were done, we took it to the table and picked out our poker hand.  We did not win but Ben got a pair of face cards.

We were going to try out some new breweries but several of them didn't serve food and that's what we wanted, beer and dinner. So, we decided to go to Bombing Range Brewery again.  We first ate here with Brenda and Ray in 2019.  We pulled up, went inside and was seated outside immediately with menus and drink specials. I ordered the chicken Caeser wrap and Ben got the mac n cheese.  I got a Mike Drop Hazy IPA and Ben the Lou Dog Red Ale. We enjoyed our dinner and beer---got silly and talked about a bunch of weird stuff.  

We paid and headed back to the park.  We had to give ourselves a "wipie bath" because this year the river was too high and dangerous to bathe in.  We got a lot of snow and rain this past winter and spring and it just barely stopped a few days ago.  This is the reason I hate it when we have this event in this particular park...the campers have no access to showers. Bring it back to Sacajawea State Park! 

After getting somewhat cleaned up, we brushed our teeth, washed our faces and tried charging our phones.  I had forgotten the plug-in part to my cable, so Ben and I had to share.  I also forgot my watch charger at home which prompted me to purchase another one for traveling. We plugged in our phones to the RV power box across the parking lot so it could sit and charge for a little bit.  Just before midnight we finally went to sleep.  We knew we had a long tomorrow a head of us.

I did get up in the middle of the night to use the porta potty and then it was hard to go back to sleep after that due to the traffic coming from the freeway up above.  

Next Adventure:  TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  Geocoin Challenge, Azteca and Showers