TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Visiting Willmarth, Over the Hills and Buffalo Wild Wings

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

TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Lacey to Selah

We have finally reached our favorite time of the year:  the TriCities Geocoin Challenge.  This year felt a little different than the ones of the past.  I had been hearing rumors swirling around about this event possibly being the last one for a while and we recently found out our friends Brenda and Ray were retiring and moving to Portugal.  This would be the last time we did this event with them.  It made us sad, but we knew all good things do come to an end eventually.

Earlier that week, I put in my leave, picked up a few groceries to take with us, did a couple chores and did some laundry.  I wanted to make sure everything was somewhat clean before we left.  I really hoped that nothing went wrong while we were gone.  When Ben and I or I leave somewhere for a long weekend or vacation, something dumb always happens when we leave Doug in charge.  Will this be the first time nothing happens?  We will see.

The night before, I spent some time packing up as much as I could and loading it in the Escape.  I would have to add more stuff to it the following morning including some of our bedding and the food in the cooler.  This year there wasn't any camping because it was being held at John Dam Plaza in Richland again.  Another sign that this event was going to be the last one.  Ben and I had to book a couple nights in a hotel again.  We chose the Super 8 in Kennewick again because it was familiar and somewhat near everything. 

Ben took the day off and I took a half a day off.  I worked until 11:30, getting stuff done as I waited for work to be pushed over.  Ben slept until about 9:45, got up shaved and got in a shower.  He packed up his clothes, some bedding and got it into the Escape.  We made sure our cats had a clean cat box, plenty of food and water and gave them treats.  We made some "to go" tuna fish sandwiches and brought some Fritos with us.  We checked everything one more time and told the kitties to guard the house while we were gone.  

I had recently taken up a "part time" job at lunch time.  One of Mom's co-workers asked me to go over to her and her husband's house Monday-Thursday and let out their two dogs because their previous person couldn't do it anymore.  They said they would pay me $35-40 bucks a week. Of course, I agreed because it seemed like an easy gig, and I like having extra cash on hand.  What makes it difficult is having random days off during the week and setting aside time to go over and do it which ruins half of the day.  Vacations are easier because they have a person that can go over when I am gone, and it's known in advance.  So, we stopped by the house to let the dogs out to go potty and to throw around the toy for about 15-20 minutes.  The weather was warm and decent but not super summery yet.  We were hoping once we got to Eastern Washington the weather would be hot!  I love me some sunshine!

We locked up, left and headed to Yelm. It was busy, and I am glad there is a back way through town to avoid most of the lights.  I started in on my tuna sandwich and we texted Willmarth that we were leaving Yelm.

We followed some slow people through McKenna and out to Hwy 7.  We decided to go through La Grande and Alder instead going through Eatonville and sadly, we had to follow a bunch of slow-moving cars through there.  We finally got to Elbe and to the turn off to Morton.  We were lucky here and didn't have to be behind anyone. 

We got to Morton, and I checked my phone for the cache I wanted to stop at.  It was outside of Morton on Hwy 12 at the transfer station.  Weigh Two Go (GCA972H) was the newest one in the area.  There was a lot of room to park, we got out and went over to ground zero.  The coords kept bouncing all over the place.  It took a little bit to figure out.  We both knew it had to do with the tile, so we spent some time flipping over the tile and Ben eventually found the correct tile and pulled it out of its hidey hole.  We signed our names, got a picture and put it back.

We continued east on Hwy 12 and traffic was pretty minimal, this is why we leave on a Thursday afternoon to head over.  Willmarth had texted us while we didn't have service and it popped up when I had a smidgen of service, this is what he said,

"Val, Kevin is having a major melt down today.  He doesn't have his pills until tomorrow, and he is being very rude and violent.  We are about 15 minutes from calling the police.  I booked a hotel room for you guys in Selah.  Sorry, but this stuff has been happening a lot lately."

I told him okay and thank you for the hotel room.  We agreed that we would attempt to hang out the next day once Kevin was under control and on his meds. He said he would let us know.  

We got to Packwood, and I remembered a really cool cache, Out of My Cold Dead Hands (GC74XDA) I got several years ago, and I knew Ben didn't have it and would like to get it.  We stopped, he got out, found the cache and hopped back into the Escape.  He said that it was a pretty cool cache.  We got back on the highway and drove on.

We got up the pass and had to stop just before the summit due to construction.  Ben was already asleep, and my phone wasn't connected to the Escape so I couldn't listen to my podcasts due to the no service in the area.  We had to wait for about 20 minutes in a thunderstorm.  It rained pretty hard but was glad we weren't the motorcycle riders a few cars in front of us who were getting soaked.  The construction crew were working on pieces of the road that got ruined by the winter weather just a few months prior.  I was glad we weren't there for a long time.

We finally got going and made it up to the top of the pass.  This time of year is not as busy as the winter and we drove through the summit pretty quickly.  As we started down, I told Ben about the new virtual cache, Clear Creek Falls (GC9P4R0) at Clear Creek Falls (a place I have stopped at many years to get caches) and said that we were going to stop to get away from all the traffic.  He said sure.  We stopped at the viewpoint, and I asked if he had to use the restroom, he said no.  We found the sign we needed the words off of and again, this is a cache that could be interpreted differently depending on the person and how they interpret it.  This is a virtual and should be straightforward, unlike many multicaches I've done over the years.

I took a picture of the sign so we could ask others before us what sentence they used to send to the cache owner.  We got back on Hwy 12 and continued east.  Once we got back into cell phone service again, in Naches, I checked in with Willmarth again.  He apologized to us once again about his behavior and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to leave the house to even have dinner with us.  Instead of just going to the hotel, I asked Ben if he wanted to drive around the area and geocache.  He said sure.

We drove up the hill towards Tieton and Cowiche and to grab Naches Valley View (GC7PEKQ). We had a hard time finding a place to pull off the road to go get it.  Ben stayed with the Escape while I ran across the road to go find it.  It jumped around but I managed to zero in on it.  I got our names on it, a photo and a photo of the great view of the valley from up there. 

We drove through the apple orchards and down the hill to the Yakima River to get Silverfoot (GC1M7X7) and it smelled like dead animals the entire time we were there.  I checked the geocaching app to see where the next grouping of caches were at.  They were down in Fruitvale so that's where we went.  

We drove past the Fred Meyer and down the other side of the road to grab Stars View (GC7PP2F).  I originally thought it was at the movie theater but ended up being in the parking lot between BiMart and Starbucks.  I had to get out and wait for people to drive by since it was in a busy area and inside a lamp skirt. I hustled to get this one done just because it was muggle central.

We went up the hill on Summit View to get NOT 1601 Pennsylvania Ave (GC6VB6Q) and wasn't sure what we would find.  The business that was near the cache site was for disabled people and had a giant horse on the grounds.  We parked at a parking spot in the lot and walked down to where the cache was.  We made the grab; Ben took my picture and we put it back.   

 

We saw there was one down the road a little way called Throwing Shoes (GC272A2) so I had Ben navigate the way.  It was an easy grab at a park with a horseshoe pit.  We parked near the cache and noticed some people parked nearby possible arranging some adult extra curriculars, we assumed. Ben found the bison tube. 

I checked in once again with Willmarth and he said to go find some dinner because he wasn't going to be able to meet up with us. I looked on the internet to see which brewery was closest to us.  That was the Valley Brewing Company off of River Road and that's where we went.  We parked and noticed this brewery was on the small side.  We walked in, looked at the beer options and I got the River Road Amber Ale and Ben got the Irish Red.  We took them to the outdoor patio and then went to Tacos El Rey that was attached to the brewery because we needed some food.  Plus, Mexican food sounded good.  I ordered the taco plate with beans and rice and Ben got a burrito.

While we waited, I wrote some notes in my handy dandy notebook.  It was warm but the wind started to pick up, so I put my sweatshirt on.  Our food came and it was delicious.  We looked at the geocaching map app to see which other caches we could grab after dinner before going to the hotel for the night. We finished off our dinner and beers, thanked everyone and went back out to the Escape.  

We drove into Selah and drove out towards east side of town.  The first one, NRV A Guardrail Cache (GC2P5MY) was rated as a 4.0/1.5, that had me deciding if we should stop and attempt it or not.  Most cache 3.0 and above usually are hard and take up a lot of time to find.  Sometimes, you get lucky. Let's go see if we were lucky.  

We parked along the side of the road in a small pullout.  We both got out and were very careful because this time of the year there are hidden bees inside the guardrails.  I noticed a smell and something weird in the ditch.  What is that?  It was a roasting pan with a pig head inside of it.  What?!  We took a picture of it just so we had an illustration with our story.  We started looking for the cache and actually found it quickly.  It was a magnetic face plate attached to the side of the guardrail.  It didn't fool us!

We drove up the road further and turned onto a dirt road that led up to the canal.  We stopped and grabbed a quick nano called Just Another Warning (GC7B5DX) which was hidden on the metal gate, we got our names on it and quickly put it back since there were a few people driving up and down the dirt road probably wondering what we were doing.  We got back in the Escape and drove further up the road to get the last one, Roza Canal Project (GC2V4VX).

There was a separate "service" road to get us closer to ground zero, but I had to be careful because there were parts on the dirt road that was very soft sand, and we didn't want to get stuck.  I monster trucked through and found a place to park.  We got out and found the cache quickly.  We got a few shots of us and the cache and just the canal.  It was a pleasant evening in Selah.

It was getting late, so we drove to one more cache, In the Center of the Action (GC29KB2) which happened to be near the Grocery Outlet.  We grabbed the cache first, which was a nano, signed our names, got a photo and put it back, before we went into the store.  We walked across the parking lot and went into Grocery Outlet.  We ended up getting a couple candy bars, microwave popcorn and Ben wanted ice cream.  

The hotel was right around the corner, so we went to go check in.  Ben got the cards, we drove around to the side of the hotel and brought our stuff in.  We sure do bring a lot of stuff for a weekend trip.  It's better to have too much than not enough...especially underwear and socks.  We got situated, called Mom and Trish to let them know what was happening and how our day went.  We played Yahtzee, 10,000 and War while we ate our candy bars, popcorn and ice cream.  The TV played in the background.

I got in a shower, got ready for bed and went to bed around 1:30 a.m.

We grabbed 11 caches and tried a new brewery. 

Next Adventure:  TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  Visiting Willmarth, Over the Hills and Buffalo Wild Wings

Father's Day Trip to Ocean Shores

A few weeks ago, I asked Dad what he wanted to do for Father's Day this year and he said he wanted to go to the ocean.  I asked him which beach and he said Ocean Shores so we can stop by BiMart on the way through Hoquiam.  I told him we can make that happen.  I asked him what time did he want everyone to be at our house?  He said we can leave by 10 a.m.  Father's Day was set.

I let everyone know what we were going to do and when to be ready by but sadly, Trish and Amy didn't come, and I wished they would have.  A few days before, I made sure I had all of the beach stuff staged in the garage so we could take it with us. It consisted of a bin with toys, plastic buckets, plastic shovels and random sticks from the last time we were at the beach. I grabbed the other large shovels and set them aside.  Doug had a kite in the garage, so I grabbed that and set it with the bin and shovels.  I grabbed a few chairs and the pop-up table. 

The day off, I got up around 8 a.m., made Ben get out of bed, ate a light breakfast, grabbed some snacks and threw it in one of the reusable grocery bags, grabbed the medium sized cooler and stuck a bunch of drinks inside of it with the ice packs.  Mom, Dad and Grandma rumbled in with Mom's Expedition and Erika, Zac and their dogs soon followed.  We wanted to minimize the cars, so we all packed up Mom's Expedition and Zac's car with the bags, food and beach items.  Charlie was going to go with us so we stuck a sheet down in the back so Doug could sit with him.  We left as close to 10 a.m. as we possibly could. 

I drove Mom's Expedition while Zac and Erika followed behind us but had to make a pit stop first.  I told them to meet us at the BiMart in Hoquiam.  We got onto Hwy 101 and then onto Hwy 8, west towards Hoquiam.  It rained on us a little bit between Summit Lake and McCleary.  The traffic was minimal, so we made great time. 

We got to BiMart and Erika and Zac pulled in shortly after.  We all got out, went inside and wandered around for a bit.  Dad was there for some ammo, oil, snacks and a chair he wanted.  We were probably there for about 40 minutes and all used the restroom at different points.  We got in line and Dad paid for his stuff and Erika bought a few things.  I didn't need anything.  

We packed up the vehicles, got situated and got back onto the highway. From there, it would take us roughly a half hour to get to Ocean Shores.  Traffic wasn't that bad until we got on to Route 109 past Hoquiam. We got stuck behind a bunch of cars going really slow and it frustrated me because I just wanted to be there.  Once we finally got to the turn off, I rejoiced because all of those people were going straight or turned at the casino.  Yay!  No more slow people!

We drove through town and got to the center where the roundabouts were and decided to enter the beach through that access.  We stopped at the smallest state park, Chance A la Mer, where the bathrooms were located.  Some of us got out to use them while the others sat and waited.  Once we were all accounted for, we drove out towards the beach.  

I asked Dad where he wanted to go and he said far away from people, so we drove north for a bit up the beach and found a great place away from people to stop and set up shop.  The weather at the beach was nice compared to the rain and wind at home.  We thought the weather would be terrible at the beach but were pleasantly surprised.  We grabbed the pop-up tent Erika and Zac brought, she put together Toby's tent (he doesn't like to be in wide open areas), set up the chairs, the kite and the small table to set drinks and snacks onto.  We all sat there and ate some snacks for a bit while we flew the kite and chilled.  The dogs seemed to be enjoying themselves as well.

The weather kept holding up, but it was a bit chilly when the wind blew.  I grabbed one of my buckets and wandered around the beach collecting random junk for our sandcastle.  You know, pieces of wood, rope, sticks, feathers and other plastic knick knacks.  

Doug seemed to be on the phone the entire time we were there either talking or texting Sonja, his new love interest, but at least he was spending time with his dog.  He did give it up for a little while after we gathered our buckets, toys and shovels and hauled them towards the water.  My family has always made a giant sandcastle when we come to the beach.  We determined the tide was coming in, so we planned accordingly. 

We picked a spot and started shoveling sand into the middle.  We built the castle, the moat around it and the walls to keep the water out.  We had people work on the walls, the shape of the castle, we tried keeping the sand out of the moats the best we could, and we were all having a good ol' time.  We knew we really didn't have a lot of time to mess around, because at any minute the tide could come in and do some serious damage, so we all worked on it as quickly as possible. 

When we were pretty much done with it, it was just reinforcing the walls and keeping the moat cleared out, we added our embellishments to the castle and added our toys, the alligators, whale and boats, and then admired our work.  I wish I would have brought more metal shovels.  Erika started videoing our castle, literally at the precise moment, and a wave came in and surprised all of us.  I wasn't wearing any shoes (I find it easier to build castles without them) and the tide tried taking all of our toys, buckets, shovels and even our bin and lid out to sea.  I ran as fast as I could to gather all of them yelling to everyone to grab what they could.  It was funny and we did get all of our stuff back.

We all spent some time rinsing off everything before putting it back into the bin.  I washed out the buckets and all of the shovels.  We walked it back towards the vehicles.  The clouds looked a little rough in the distance, but it never rained on us.  The wind picked up a bit more though.  We all decided that it was almost time to pack up and go.  We had been there for about four hours or so.  

We helped Erika and Zac take down their pop-up but because of the wind, it bent a part of it and basically wrecked it.  I felt bad but Erika said it was a cheapie and they had intended on getting a stronger one anyway.  We hucked into the back of their car, along with some of the beach stuff, the tent and the bags of food.  We put the rest of the stuff into Mom's Expedition.  We all piled in and left the beach front.

We stopped at the bathrooms again.  I mostly wanted to wash the salt water and sand off of my hands but a few of us got out to use the restroom. I asked everyone if we wanted to eat in Ocean Shores or wait until we got to Aberdeen.  Mom said we should go to Mike's Seafood, and no one disagreed so that is where we went. 

We parked in the back and walked inside.  We were promptly seated and luckily, the place wasn't too busy.  We all got drinks and ordered food.  Most of us had fish and chips, some had chowder and a seafood platter to share.  We hung out, Erika showed us all the video she captured earlier that day of me desperately trying to save my beach toys.  We did a lot of laughing.  Our food came and it definitely hit the spot.  The fish and chips were served on a fish shaped plate!

After we were done eating, we had Dad open his cards and gifts.  We gathered up our stuff, thanked the waitstaff, used the restroom and headed out to the cars.  Erika and Zac said they were going directly home and that I could pick up the beach stuff later. We told them to drive safe.  We all packed into the Expedition and headed towards home as well.  It didn't take us long to get home and rolled into our driveway around 6.  We helped unload stuff and brought it into the house.  Mom, Dad and Grandma headed back into Rainier. 

We got cleaned up, did a load of laundry and got ready for the upcoming work week.  It was nice to do something different than we had been for Father's Day.  This was our first Father's Day without Grandpa, and it was sad.  Life is sure different without him and Grammie.    

Next Adventure: TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  Lacey to Selah