In Bonney Lake for Amy's Birthday

Friday, June 4

About a month ago we asked Trish what we were going to do for Amy's birthday this year.  She is in the process of getting rid of her WorldMark timeshare so no more trips to where we stay with that timeshare anymore.  Last year's trip got canceled due to Covid.  They were suppose to go down to Klamath Falls in Southern Oregon for a week and Ben and I were suppose to go down there for the weekend and spend some time down there with them.  It sucked but it's just as well that she is getting rid of it because it is costing her way more in monthly dues than actually getting her worth out of it.  It was time to bite the bullet and find out how to get rid of it once and for all.  Trish said that we would talk about specifics of Amy's birthday in the next few weeks.

As it approached a week beforehand, Ben and I called her to ask what she decided we were going to do for Amy.  She said some sort of activity outside like a hike or something.  We were on board with the idea but was Amy?  Amy seemed to be interested but she ultimately didn't care what we did even though it was her birthday.  We talked about two possibilities, Pinnacle Peak in Enumclaw and Mud Mountain Dam which was outside of Enumclaw.  We didn't think that Amy or her boyfriend David, would be able to do Pinnacle Peak so we decided on Mud Mountain Dam.  There are a few trails there that don't gain elevation and if they are they're minimal.

As far as food, Trish said we will be having pizza on Friday night and burgers and hotdogs on Saturday while we were at the park.  She picked up all the supplies at the store and some party decorations at the Dollar Store.  She asked us to bring a tomato, lettuce and whatever else we wanted to bring so I also decided to bring pickles, because I like pickles on my burgers and they never have any, and some beans.  Ed brought chips.  We also brought drinks too.

That week, I went to the store to go shopping for her birthday present and Ben and I never know what to get Amy for her birthday or Christmas.  She is the most difficult person to get stuff for and I hate getting people gift cards.  Then I remembered that she spends a lot of money on bottled water from work.  I asked Ben, what if we get Amy a Nalgene?  He loved that idea.  It will get her to use that instead of buying bottled water all the time.  It's a win for her and a win for the environment.  I also added a few things that I've had inside her gift bag so she didn't just get the Nalgene. 

That Friday, we worked and then packed up our stuff.  Ben came home at a decent time and packed up his stuff.  We took his Edge.  There was no traffic which was nice for a Friday around 6ish.  We stopped at the Safeway in Bonney Lake for gas, I went inside and got a tomato, beans, pickles and a maple bar for Ben and I because it was National Doughnut Day.  Safeway maple bars are my favorite and I can't help myself when I go into a Safeway.  We headed to the house.

We pulled in and unloaded all of our stuff and took it inside the house.  Trish was so excited to show us her new deck.  It wasn't quite done but it would be done by the weekend.  It was missing some of the boards on the steps.  She said she has been waiting like 26 years to have a deck.  She could not wait to get patio furniture and host parties on it.  

She was still upset by her choice to hire a "unknown" person to come do her lawn.  The yard looked terrible and this has been about six weeks, when he said it would start looking okay.  She has been trying to get a hold of him so he could come fix it.  She hasn't had any luck.  I told her she should have asked Ben and I before she went ahead with it.  

Amy had the pizza going in the oven so we had a meat lover's and a Mediterranean style pizza for dinner.  Amy opened her presents from us and she really liked the Nalgene.  We told her it would cut back the amount of money she spends on bottled water, it's pretty indestructible, reusable and can be washed in the dishwasher or by hand.  

Trish realized she forgot to get ketchup and ice so she sent us back to the store to get those items.  We got back and played a round of 10,000 and I won!  I haven't won that game in a while.  It felt good.  We all had to get up somewhat at a decent time so we all got ready and went to bed.

Saturday, June 5

The next day we all got up before 9, so we could get dressed and quick breakfast of quiches and cinnamon rolls.  The weather looked promising outside but had to remember we are going towards the mountains and they tend to make their own weather.  Trish and Ed go to the park early, around 9) to make sure we got a table and a BBQ pit so he just chilled there until we left.

Meanwhile, we got all of the stuff packed up into the two vehicles and Ben and I set off while Trish and Amy went to go pick up David.  We thought we'd be clever and take a back way near the Rainier School to avoid traffic on Hwy 410.  That soon backfired on us and we had to back track and eventually get onto 410 in Buckley.  The weather was still decent.

I checked the geocaching app to see how many were along Mud Mountain Road that were easy to get.  There were a couple of them but we had time to grab one on the way through.  We knew we were ahead of Trish, Amy and David.  I haven't been out this way since the last time we came through here in September 2016.  Wow!  It's been that long?!  There were three along the road but we only had time to grab one, I looked to see which one was a quick park and grab.  KC Geo-Poker 2013 #9 (GC4JX4W) was indeed a quick park and grab.  It was hidden in the guardrail next to a gated off area so there was plenty of parking off the side of the road.  As we were signing it, Trish, Amy and David drove by.  Ben and I just waved.  

The weather was still okay.  We might make it through the day unscathed.  

We pulled up to the parking lot and found a place to park.  We started unloading our stuff and taking it to the covered picnic area that Ed has been guarding since 9 a.m.  The wind started picking up so it made it hard to put the table covering on the picnic table.  Luckily, someone remembered tape.  We get everything organized and you could tell Amy and David were bored to death.  The outdoors aren't there cup of tea.  However, it's good for them to get out once and a while and do character building things.  It started lightly raining so we decided to play a round of Phase 10 while we waited for the rain to die down.  Amy and David use the restroom and then want to sit in the car waiting for the rain to subside.  It got worse.  It was pouring down rain now and the wind made it even grosser.  We had to make the call.  Today wasn't a day to BBQ in the park but we sure tried.  We helped Trish put everything back into the vehicles and we drove back to the house.  We were all soaked.

Along the way, the weather miraculously got better and Ben and I stopped at the bottom of Pinnacle Peak for a cache.  We both noticed that they put a lot of work into this parking lot.  It actually had a parking lot now instead of pullouts along the road.  They did a great job and it looked really nice.  Anyway, Mt. Peak Parking Lot (GC79FEB) was another easy park and grab. It was hidden beside a large rock off to the side.  I sign our names and got back into the Edge. 

We got onto Hwy 410 and drove the short distance into Buckley.  There was one more we could get that was an easy park and grab.  The Mountain Man Geocache (Troop 557) (GC8FD5P) was hidden inside of some Rhododendrons off the side of the Foothills Trail.  We signed our names and put it back better than we found it.  I could see this cache eventually disappearing.  

Ben and I drove home the back way so we didn't have to continue driving on Hwy 410.  We got back to the house, settled in and helped Trish prepare everything.  It was after noon and everyone was ready for some food.  The weather was nice in Bonney Lake but not at Mud Mountain Dam.

We got the BBQ prepared, I made beans, got the plates, napkins, silverware and the rest of the food set out.  Ben was outside making hot dogs and burgers.  Trish had made her famous potato salad, she had fruit and cupcakes for later.  We ate, chatted about random things, cleaned up and played dice and Phase 10.  I played terrible in both games.  We also brought Throw Throw Burrito and had a blast playing. 

We ate cupcakes and David gave Amy a necklace for her birthday.  It was getting late and we had to gather up all of our stuff so we could head home so we could take care of our kitties.  We gave out hugs and told Ben's mom we'd be in touch for the next gathering.

We got home at a decent time, the traffic wasn't bad and fed our kitties.  They were happy to see us.  We unloaded our stuff, Ben played his game for a while since he hadn't been on in over a week...plus he had to catch up with Josh.  I watched some DuckTales, worked on my blog and ate some popcorn.  When we got tired we headed to bed.

The weekend didn't go as planned (sucky weather) but we had some back up plans so it turned out alright.  Amy's birthday has been a little different over the past two years since Covid but maybe soon enough we can go back to the beach in the next year or two (not with WorldMark) and spend the weekend there.

Next Adventure:  North: Shop Hopping and Picking Up Caches

Memorial Day Weekend: Ellensburg to Yakima and Home

Ben and I set our alarms for 9 a.m.  Of course we laid there until about 9:30 because we are not morning people.  We did eventually get up, did our bathroom things, put on our clothes for the day, ate our cereal, bananas and chocolate doughnuts.  I put my bag on the bed and started packing up my stuff a little better than just cramming or piling clothes inside the bag.  I folded everything neatly so everything would fit.  The dirty clothes bag was just going to be put inside the Escape how it was.  Ben got his stuff all packed up including the bathroom stuff and the items we kept on the hotel table.  We made sure everything was unplugged and stored away.  

We took everything back out to the Escape and tetris'd it in the back as best as we could...making sure the cooler with our drinks was accessible.  Ben took the key cards through the hotel to check out at the front desk and I drove around front to meet him.  We got gas at the Chevron once again before we left.  I like having a full tank before we go anywhere.  While I pumped gas, Ben walked around the building and found the cache, Pit Stop (GC42Q59).  He said it was pretty easy but was very nervous because there were bees nearby.

Before we got onto I-90, we stopped at the trucker gas station/rest stop to get the one here.  Many years ago, there used to be another cache here that has since been archived.  I was not able to find that cache before heading to Yakima down Canyon Road.  I was hoping today we would find the newish one that was here. Broadway's Flyby Cache Cache N' Go (GC95MTE) was on the south side of the gas station/grocery store combo between the building and the first row of parked cars.  There was a picnic table, a green electric box and the random wires and electronics on the side of the building.  We have to be careful about muggles going in and out of their cars.  I stood there for a minute to decide where someone would hide a regular sized cache.  Ben was carefully looking and I had him come stand beside me.  I ask him, okay, where would a regular sized cache be?  What was out of place in this general area?  We noticed a black lid, one that would screw onto a PVC pipe, that was very out of place.  We open it up and there it was!  We sign our names quickly, get a photo and we put it back, hoping that we weren't seen.

We got onto I-90 and got off at the I-82 junction to head up the hill to Yakima.  I wanted to stop at the Manastash viewpoint on top of the hill to do the three caches up there.  We get up there and find a parking spot.  We choose to to do Kittitas View SB (GC7PR1Z) first.  We followed the coordinates to GZ and look for a few minutes.  We found out we were not in the correct rock pile so we walked to the one about fifteen feet from us and bam, there it was.  We signed our name and put it back where we found it.  We walked through the parking lot and noticed the great view of the valley and Mount Stewart in the distance.  We took a few pictures.

Inside one of the guard rails, was the second cache, View From the Top (GC46194) and of course guard rail caches are dumb but we also had to be somewhat sneaky with people coming in and out of this viewpoint area.  We did manage to grab it, sign it and put it back before anyone saw us.  We walked the short distance to the earthcache, Manastash Ridge Formation (GC98H75).  It had us analyze and estimate the different layers while answering the series of questions from the cache owner.  We wrote down a couple answers and some of them I could look up online.  We got a photo of the hillside so I could refer back to it later.  We walked back to the Escape and continued south on I-82.

About halfway there, I told Ben to text Willmarth to let him know we were on our way.  I decided since we stopped at the northbound Selah rest area on Friday night that we should stop at the southbound Selah rest area to use the restroom and get the cache that was here.  As we got closer to the rest area, I really needed to pee.  Ben said he was good.  I added, well while I am using the restroom you can go look for the cache, you know kill two birds with one stone.  He said, sure.  He went off and found Selah Creek Leg Stretcher (GC7FNAV).  He said some bees were also trying to make a nest at this location as well.

After finding the cache and using the restroom, we got back on the freeway and made our way down to Selah.  We heard back from Willmarth, he and Kevin were at basketball practice and had about an hour left.  He said he would be home a little after noon.  I told Ben we could find a few in town while we waited.  We looked at the map and found a few we could find.  We had to kill about an hour so we started at House in the Tree (GC4ZT4N) off of Pomona Road.  I was glad to see a place I could pull off the road.  We both got out and walked to this large tree.  I thought this was going to be an easy grab.  Haha, it wasn't because we both overlooked it.  We literally walked past it.  I could have hit us in the face!  We walked back to the Escape and off to the next cache!

We looked at the time and we had maybe enough time for a couple more.  I looked at the map and saw a couple caches just to the north of where we were.  I looked closer and it was a small trail in the Selah Cliffs Natural Area Preserve.  I ask Ben, you wanna go?  He said sure as he was nose deep into his Clash of Clans game.  We pulled into the parking area and there was one other vehicle here, most likely a family enjoying their day.  I told Ben there were three here but we probably weren't going to go get the third one which was at the end of this trail.  It was a mile away so a two mile walk there and back.  Ben said he didn't have the pizazz to do that much walking in this heat.  I agreed.  So we decided on just the two caches.

We get out and lock the Escape and stopped at the one near the entrance to the trail head.  That one was called Enraging Daisies (GC7BCT5) and I was not sure what to expect.  It was located at a sign that talked about the preserve.  We started looking and I noticed a bolt and nut combo that didn't make sense.  I started unscrewing it and low and behold it was the cache.  Ben thought it was a pretty clever hide.  We sign our names and kept in mind the family that belonged to the vehicle were walking back down the trail and were almost at the trail head.  We stood there looking at the sign pretending we were reading up on the place before putting the cache back.  Once they left, we put it back and got a couple pictures of it. 

 The last cache of the day were down this neatly graveled pathway.  It was a little less than a half a mile and we walked past many flowers, some cacti, saw birds, insects, heard running water but there wasn't water in the small creek at the base of the cliffs and we thought it was weird, enjoyed the cliffs for a couple of minutes and found Selah Cliffs NAP (GC97JQD) which was tucked in the corner of a wooden structure.  It was a quick find.  We were the only ones out here which was nice.

I got a text message back from Willmarth stating they were home now so whenever we were ready to come over they were excited to see us.  Back in April, I dropped my phone on the ground, screen down and the screen hit a rock.  Of course, I didn't have a screen protector on it and that was because none of them would stay on my phone.  I went through two of them.  They would come off.  The Samsung Galaxy 9+ had rounded edges and it screen protectors did not stay on so I tried really hard to keep my screen safe.  It stayed safe for almost three years.  Anyway, there was a blemish on the screen and it slowly got bigger over the course of a month and a half.  While on our trip, it was hard to get it off of its sleep mode every time I wanted to use it or I got a phone call.  It got worse as the day went on.  I really didn't want to buy a new phone.  They are so expensive nowadays.

We walked back to the Escape and put in Willmarth's address into Nuvi.  She took us the quickest way to his house.  We got there just before 1 p.m.  Because of Covid, we have not seen them in almost two years.  We got to their house and saw different vehicles in their driveway.  We parked and went inside.  We were attacked by guard dogs, Fletcher and Zooey.  We sat in the living room for a while and visited.  We talked about Covid and the long 2020 we all just had, the vaccinations and how our bodies reacted to it, work, school, Kevin's school year and his basketball team, frustrations, the stuff they've been doing, the stuff Ben and I have been doing and dealing with all the estate stuff when you have a family member who passes away or who is in a nursing home.

Ben spent some time with Kevin while I chatted with Willmarth as he was watering his vegetable garden.  Shannon spent time spiffing up the place and trying really hard to get Kevin to start studying for his finals and last week of his freshman year of high school.  We usually aren't here until the end of June when school isn't in session.  He and Shannon did go into the back room a few times to work on online flash cards.  I went back there to see what kinds of subjects he was studying.  The high school he attends is a private Catholic school in Union Gap.  Kevin had to take an assortment of religion classes and that is what he was studying for when I went into the room.  We went through some of those flash cards and I ended up learning something as we went through them.

Around 3, is when Willmarth started getting lunch ready.  We had burgers and hotdogs he cooked on the grill with beans, chips and potato salad as sides.  We ate in the living room and tried to guard our food from the dogs.  We chatted about other random things as we ate.    

It was approaching 5:00 and we, unfortunately, had to get on the road since it took us about 3 hours to get home.  We thanked them for having us over, they were happy to see us almost after two years, we gave out hugs and told everyone we hoped to see them soon.  I was talking to Shannon about kayaking and she and Kevin went last summer and loved it.  I told her that we have kayaks but we needed to get the hardware to transport them on my Escape.  I added, once that happened we could come over and we could go kayaking.  She said that would be awesome and that we would talk about it soon.

Ben and I got in the Escape and had the AC on full blast.  We waved goodbye and got back onto Wenas Road to head to Selah.  Once we got into Naches, I stopped by Slim's Market, the creepy grocery store on the right side of Hwy 12.  I've stopped here hundreds of times throughout the years.  I wanted some cold drinks.  I grabbed a Cherry Coke because it sounded good.  I thought Ben would want something but he passed.  

We got back on the highway and didn't stop until we got home.  There wasn't a lot of traffic heading west on the pass, which was nice, I'm sure I-90 was a total joke with all the people heading home after the holiday weekend.  We got home around 9ish, unloaded the Escape, got cleaned up, called Mom and Trish to let them know we got home safely and the kitties were so happy to see us.  

It was nice to get away for the weekend and explore an area we really weren't that familiar with.  I've been through the area tons of times while at school but never got a chance to stop and learn about the area.  In four days we found 227 caches, learned some history of Quincy and the surrounding area, went hiking, drove some historical roads, met up with a fellow cacher at a virtual cache, ate some good food even though the places we wanted to go were permanently closed or had Covid hours. The best part was that we got to spend time with each other and finally got to see and visit our friends in Selah.  I am looking forward to the next time we get to come over there to hang out and go kayaking.

Next Adventure:  In Bonney Lake for Amy's Birthday

Memorial Day Weekend: Ancient Lakes Trail, Ancient Lakes Road Series and Crab Creek Power Caching

For some reason I woke up before my alarm went off around 6:00ish, the night before I had set my alarm for 8.  I must have subconsciously thought I needed to get up earlier than intended so we could get all of the stuff done that I had planned...almost like I had anxiety that we wouldn't have enough time to get everything done.  The weird part was that I felt rested and didn't need to sleep anymore.  I got on my phone and checked my messages while I let Ben sleep for a little while longer.

7:30 rolled around and I started getting ready for the day.  I had to coax Ben to start getting ready.  The faster we could get ready, the quicker we would be out on the trail before it gets hot.  It was suppose to be 85ish degrees in the middle of the state today.  It's not bad because it's a dry heat rather than the moist or humid heat on the west side.  Ben eventually got ready to go.

We ate our little boxes of cereal, a few doughnuts and some milk for breakfast.  I made sure we had all of our stuff that we needed in the Escape with us including our lunch making stuff, drinks and caching stuff...like our notebook full of notes.  I've tried to be paperless when I cache but I just can't do it.  I write notes down of the ones we find so I can log them when I get home as well as having them for when I update my blog.

We loaded our stuff into the Escape and stopped at the Chevron to top of with gas.  That is the one important thing to do when you're driving in the middle of nowhere without cell service.  Make sure you have enough gas.  We got onto I-90 east and drove out towards where we were yesterday.  We got onto the highway to Quincy and followed Nuvi to the Ancient Lakes trail head.  I told Ben we would have to do the mini power trail when we were done hiking.  He thought that was a good idea.  We stopped at the rest area outside of Quincy to use the restroom since we weren't sure what kind of accommodations were at the trail head.

We followed Nuvi's directions through a series of roads through farm land.  We finally get onto Ancient Lakes Road, part of it is paved and the rest of it is a dusty dirt road.  There was a vehicle front of us so we gave them room so we didn't get completely dusted out.  Once we got to the trail head, we arrived around 9 a.m. and found a place to park.  This place was busy!  I expected it to be during a holiday weekend so I wasn't really that surprised.  I changed into my hiking shoes and socks, made sure we had everything we would need and shoved it into my back pack along with our Nalgene's.  We walked past a group of people and got a GO COUGS from them.  Of course I said it back. 

We walked to the entrance and followed the old jeep trail to the left towards Ancient Lakes and through the towering coulees (basalt cliffs on either side of the carved out valley.)  The views were stunning and it was nice to be out of the forest of Western Washington for a while.  

The middle of the state has some incredible geological features thanks to the Glacial Lake Missoula and the massive flood that came through here millions of years ago and carved out a lot of these cool features we see today.  It's amazing what erosion can do!  We stopped at several locations to take pictures and to take in the views.  We walked past a couple people walking back to the trail head.

We walked a little under a mile before we stopped for a giant rock nugget and a waterfall cascading down from the basalt cliffs.  I was surprised this spot didn't have an earthcache.  Other trails had them but we would have to come back another time to do the other trails in the Quincy Wildlife Recreation Area.  You could spend days here exploring.

We continued on towards the lakes and after a little less than a half a mile, we were overlooking one of the Ancient Lakes.  It was such a great view from here of the entire area.  We chose a path to take down to the lake.  Once we got down there, I took off my back pack and we relaxed a bit; taking in the views of this really cool recreation area.  A couple lakes over, we saw a bunch of people enjoying their weekend camping and hanging out.  We both ate a snack and had some water.  It was getting warmer.

On the way back, we took the same path and about halfway back to the trail head we were surprised by a a snake.  Luckily, it wasn't a rattlesnake.  We were on guard the rest of the way there.  

The basin views were amazing after our almost two mile hike.  I saw we were getting closer to the trail head so I got my caching app ready to grab 3 Ancient Ladies (GCVCPQ) which was hidden in the rocks to the right of us.  It was a pretty easy find but we had to hurry because people were coming down the trail and they could see us.  I got our names written down and hidden back before they walked by.  

We walked back to the Escape but picked up the first cache, Ancient Lake Road #33 (GC5WWM5).  Yeah, we did the series backwards.

I drove but since the caches were on both sides of the road, Ben got out on the ones on the right side of the road and I got out for the ones on the left side of the road.  If we couldn't find them, both of us would look so we had two sets of eyes on them.  Some were very easy and we could see them from the Escape and some were harder to find.  My Escape got really dusty when people drove by.  When we got to Ancient Lake Road #28 (GC5WWKT) we freaked out a kid that was walking down the side of the road.  We blew by the cache and had to back up to where it was.  I'm sure the kid thought we were going to kidnap him.  We assured him that we were geocaching.  He nodded and continued on walking.

It was definitely hot as we both got out of the Escape grabbing caches on either side of the road.  There were a few that I had a hard time finding.  The coords weren't exact but they got us to the general area.  Most were hidden near a pile of rocks or tucked in a bunch of sage brush.  The sagebrush wasn't Ben's friend however, we were able to get him to remember to take his allergy medication that morning so it wasn't that bad.

As we approached the end of the 30+ cache mini series, I was ready for a restroom and some lunch.  Ancient Lake Series #1 (GC5WVPN) was the last one and it was where the dirt road part of the road met the paved part of the road.  It was near the sign next to the road.  We pulled off the road at the turnout, grabbed it, signed it and took a photo.  We finished this series of caches under an hour and a half.

We followed the farm roads back to the rest stop.  We both went and used the restroom and then I went to go find the cache, Quincy East Rest (GC3TVBH).  For some reason I had a rough time pinpointing where it was.  The coordinates kept going everywhere.  I eventually stopped looking at the phone and just checked every spot along the fence.  I turned around and there were three people walking towards me looking at their phone.  They must be geocachers.  I said, you must be looking for the same thing I am looking for.  Sure enough, they were cachers from Salem, Oregon on vacation to go see their grandma in Wenatchee.  We found the cache together because I originally overlooked it and felt really dumb.  We chatted some more as we walked back to the parking lot mostly about our travels and where we were from.  It was nice meeting them.  Ben was near the Escape talking to a biker guy, who was from Eastern Washington somewhere, puttering around on his bike for the weekend and they were talking about motorcycles. 

I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the back of the Escape and handed one to Ben as he kept chatting with the guy.  I ate mine at the back of the Escape, put away everything, organized it and spent some time writing down some notes in my notebook.  After about an half hour, I asked Ben if he was ready to head to the next power trail and he said yes.  He thanked the guy for the chat and we got into the Escape to head to Beverly.  Beverly is southwest of Royal City.

We got onto Hwy 28 to Quincy and took the highway south back to I-90.  We got onto I-90 and at the interchange we got off onto Hwy 26 towards Pullman, however, we made a turn onto 243, if you stayed on that it will eventually take you into the TriCities.  We followed that road along the Columbia River until we reached Beverly and Lower Crab Creek Road.  Over the past few years I've heard people talk about this power trail and put it on my list of caches to do some day.  Well, today was that day.

This was Ben's first time doing a power trail this large.  So I told him about the last one I did which was years ago now but that was a few hundred in a span of like five days.  I also shared the concept of the rolling log to make these type of caches go quicker.  Usually it was the entire container and log but for today, it was going to be the logbook.  We found the cache, took the logbook, signed it in the Escape on the way to the next cache and we traded logbooks.  We continued on like this until we were done with the series.  We started at 01 - Crab Creek (GC73GP3) and ended on 97 - Crab Creek (GC73ZZN) with many caches not in the series in between plus the spur.  We switched off every 20 caches just so neither of us got super tired because it was hot outside.  It took us about 2 hours to do the entire thing.  

Some memorable points during the Crab Creek series:

My 12,000th cache was 17 - Crab Creek (GC73K3Q).  Due to the sheer amount we found so far and not knowing how many I needed before reaching this milestone it was not documented in photos.

A small truck carrying a load of garbage and scrap metal drove past us, stopped about a half a mile ahead of us, got out, then got back in the truck and drove off. It didn't look like they adjusted their load or was checking to see if there were any problems.  Ben and I thought it was weird.  We kept our distance until they were out of view.

A coyote ran in front of the Escape a little under halfway done with the series.  It was insane watching it dart from on side of the road to the other.  I had not been that close to a coyote before except at zoos and wildlife sanctuaries. 

There were a few along the road that were hidden pretty good and a couple times both of us had to get out and search for them. 

Ben finally got to experience somewhat of a power trail and he said that he would like to to more in the future.  I have my eyes set on Walla Walla soon and maybe take a day to do some of the TriCities ones when we are there in September.

We turned around and grabbed Lower Crab Creek (GC73MAF) and Crab Creek Cascade (GC2FQDM) on Road E SW.  We drove north towards Royal City picking up caches along the way.  We picked up two at the intersection of Hwy 26 and Road E SW.  The first one was a lamp skirt called Chubby Girl 30 Just Had to Do It Today (GC2BFW9) and the other was across the highway at a guard rail called Chubby Girl #3 Air Time (GC1A1DY).  Both were pretty easy.

We get onto Hwy 26 and start driving west back towards I-90.  We stopped for Small Town Cache (GC73JYR) which was another guard rail cache right off of the highway and F SW Road and then grabbed the last one in Royal City, Chubby Girl #6 Royal City (GC1GK4T) I wanted to pull off near the gas station (the one with the large American flag) and get it from there but Ben wanted me to stop off next to the highway.  We knew it was in the guard rail.  I decided to pull off next to the highway, Ben got out, found it and signed it.  We got back onto 26.  We continued west looking for Beverley Burke Road to the left.

We turned left onto the side road and grabbed the Peanuts series.  We found all of them (there are 6 all together) except for Peanuts - Snoopy (GC2BGQD), that one hasn't been found since last September and it could have blown away in the wind (the wind gets pretty strong in this region) because it wasn't hidden back correctly.  Bummer.  

The final cache, Peanuts - Hey Hey The Gang's All Here (GC2BGQK) except the gang wasn't all there.  We were missing Snoopy.  At least this cache was here.  We parked in a driveway and walked the hundred feet or so to the rocks that it was hidden in.  The container was crammed with toys and other knick knacks.  We walked back to the Escape and decided where to go next.  It was almost 4:45 and getting close to dinner time.  I told him that we can grab a few more back to I-90 and he said sure.

We pulled back onto State Route 243 and followed it north to I-90.  The next cache, RPS 1 Wanapum (GC204W6) which was in the parking lot of the dam visitor's center.  When Ben and I arrived it was empty so we didn't have a tough time finding a place to park.  We followed the phone to a beat up log that's seen better days.  We made the find and got a photo of the dam from this vantage point.  We walked back to the Escape.

There was one more, Wanapum Lake (GCNDCN), along this road that we wanted to stop and grab.  We pulled off the highway onto this very sketchy rocky side road.  We parked and walked the 300 feet or so to the cache.  I am glad we decided to walk instead of driving to it.  It was on a cliffside overlooking the Columbia River and Ben and I had a really hard time trying to find the cache.  It was listed as a regular so we looked for a place that would hold a regular.  After a while we were convinced it was muggled.  I started looking through past logs to see if anyone could shed light on it.  I saw a photo of a rusty beat up Altoid can.  I told Ben we were looking for a small and not a regular and that it was an Altoid can.  Within five minutes Ben finally made the find.  We admired the view of the river.

We got back onto the 243 and merged onto Hwy 26 and then eventually got onto I-90 west towards Kittitas.  I wanted to get one more cache.  We put the coords into Nuvi and she directed us to the nearest exit of the freeway.  We followed the road through downtown Kittitas and down one of the side roads that leads to the freeway but there is no on or off ramp.  Bison on the Bridge (GC7J64F) was a bison tube hidden in a post hole near an irrigation canal next to I-90.  It was literally a park and grab.

We got back on one of the side highways that took us into Ellensburg.  There, we decided on a BBQ place, not our original place we wanted to go to because they closed their doors in January 2020 to pursue just catering, but at least it was a BBQ place.  We drove up to it and it looked like it wasn't open.  There were no cars or trucks.  We were disappointed.  We drove up to the door and it was closed on Sundays.  How lame!  Ughh!  I asked Ben what he wanted to do now and we both decided on teriyaki.

We went to the only teriyaki place in town, ordered and went to the nearby grocery store while we waited for it to get done.  We had about 15 minutes to kill.  We went inside and grabbed some drinks, allergy medicine and a pint of ice cream for after dinner.  We went back to the teriyaki place and picked up our food.  We drove back to the hotel, unloaded our stuff, got comfortable and ate our food.  We watched the Sounders and Austin FC tie 0-0.  They took a goal away from us because we were supposedly offsides.  We ended up watching TV, logged some of our finds, filled out my blog a little bit, got cleaned up and relaxed.  My arm still hurts.

We went to bed around midnight again.  I was tired from getting up early and being out in the sun all day.  We forgot about our ice cream, Ben put it in the refrigerator and it melted.  I am not sure why he put it in the fridge but we had to toss it.   

Next Adventure:  Memorial Day Weekend:  Ellensburg to Yakima and Home