TriCities Geocoin Challenge: Lacey to Selah

I have been waiting for this weekend since June 2020 when it was canceled for the first time because of Covid.  We did hold the 2021 geocoin challenge but in September and it was different (I was glad we had it though) and this year we finally are heading somewhat back to normal.  I was so glad to see they allowed camping again, even though we really weren't a fan of the park it was being held in (there are no showers available for campers) and wished they would go back to Lake Sacajawea State Park. 

I made sure to post my will attend log when the event published and saved my personal leave day like I do for this event every year.  It was nice to look forward to our events again because two years is too long!  As it got closer, I let my coworkers know and put in leave for a day and a half.  Ben did the same thing for his job.

On the Wednesday before we left, we put the new battery into the Escape, went grocery shopping for the food we would need over the weekend, we washed our clothes and started packing the camping gear, chairs and other things into the back.  I didn't want to forget anything because this was our first time camping since June 2019.  We really did waste a bunch of time, didn't we?  The sad thing was though is that we won't get that time back.

The day of, I got up and went to work, tried to get as much done as I could so I wouldn't have anything left over for me to do later or anything left for my coworkers to do, except the afternoon phone calls. Ben got up around 8, packed the rest of his stuff, put stuff into the Escape and he took it to Les Schwab to get a safety check done on it because of the battery issue we had early in the week.  He picked up ice and Meconi sandwiches to take with us on the road.  He came back and the Escape had a clean bill of health.

I took a quick shower at break time to maximize my time. I worked until 11:30, logged off, packed up the rest of my stuff and made sure the dishes were done, the cat box was clean, the kitties had food and water, we turned off the stuff we weren't going to use until we got home and went through the house one more time to make sure we had everything.

As we finished, Doug (he had the day off and was helping Dad) called me to ask if I could drop the truck off in Rainier on my way out of town.  I told him we didn't have time for that and should have asked sooner.  We needed to get on the road, so we didn't get stuck in weekend traffic. He said it wasn't that big of a deal.  We said bye to the kitties and told them to guard the house.  We finally left at noon and headed towards Yelm, munching on our sandwiches.  We called Trish and Mom to let them know we were on our way.  Trish had the day off and Mom was on lunch break.  It felt good not to be at work.

We made it through Yelm and turned in McKenna on the 702 towards Eatonville.  This year, I didn't have to stop at any of my caches to fix them. We opted to go around Eatonville and we got stuck behind some slow people making the fun mountain highway pretty boring.  I saw there was an Adventure Lab in Elbe, so we decided to stop and grab it.  It took us less than 10 minutes to finish Brown's Junction Adventure Lab.  We stopped at the visitor's board, the store, the locomotive and the church, where there were two places to answer questions.  

I asked Ben if he found the Addiction Cache #2:  Big Nose (GCPTR9) and he checked and said no.  I told him that I found it over 10 years ago, so I had him run back across the highway to go look for it.  I told him that it was probably an Altoids tin hidden in the front somewhere.  It took him longer than I thought it would for him to find it, but he did eventually find it.  I almost had to go help him.

We continued onto Morton and got onto Hwy 12.  It seemed like we were making pretty good time and we were able to pass slow people and semi trucks along the way.  Just before the grade near the entrance to Mount Rainier, I got a text from Willmarth stating how our plan was going to change.  He wrote:

"Ok, so things here are going to be a little crazier than normal.  We are leaving early tomorrow morning for a basketball tournament in Illwaco.  Yes...Illwaco!  Just where I wanted to spend the weekend.  I didn't know until Kevin's coach called to thank me about 15 minutes ago that Kevin "volunteered" to have the team stay overnight tonight at our house!  WFT?  So now we have 10 teenage boys coming over here tonight.  So...here is what we will do.  I already rented a hotel room (at the only hotel in Selah) so the team could use the pool tonight after practice, but nobody is actually using it.  So how about you and Ben use the (free) room tonight.  Is that okay wiht you tow.  It is a nice hotel with a pool.  Our house is going to be chaos tonight.  I didn't know about all of this until 1:30 today, and I've been trying to figure out what to do. We can get together this evening.  Sorry about all of this.  Having a teenager is crazy! The hotel is the Quality Inn.  It is the only one is Selah.  Let me know what you think.  Again, I apologize for all of this mess." 

We texted him back letting him know that we were on our way up the mountain pass, and we would call him on the other side.  We got stuck behind some slow people, but some pulled off at viewpoints and others didn't want us to follow them anymore, so they pulled over and let us by.  I did have one cache, Rimrock Rail...(GC2P6A9), on my list of caches to grab on the way over.  I probably should have gotten this one years ago but just didn't for some reason. 

We found the pullout and of course it was a guard rail.  This would be the only spot a container would survive all the snow during the winter months.  We found it, signed it, got a pic with it as fast as we could so we didn't have to follow any of the people we had passed earlier.  

We got back onto Hwy 12 and continued into Naches.  We tried calling Willmarth but he didn't answer.  I figured he was busy figuring out his day.

We called our Mom's to let them know we made it to Naches and they thanked us for letting them know.  We stopped one more time off Hwy 12 just after Naches for River View (GC7MRMH).  We found the pullout and parked as close as we could.  I got out, thinking it was going to be hidden by the large rocks, but it wasn't.  It was hidden at the signage.  We got our names on it, hopped back in the Escape and continued on to Selah.  

I have their address saved on Nuvi, so I just pressed the right address and away we went!

We arrived just after 3:30, visited for a little bit and helped them bring in stuff from their Costco run about an hour before we got there.  Shannon was going doing laundry and going through Kevin's clothes...trying to thin them out.  We talked about a bunch of things including that he finally had to put his dad and stepmom into a home.  I found out later that they were literally across the hall from Grandpa at Bonaventure.  Willmarth gave me a bunch of Mariners baseball cards and Griffey things that he had from cleaning out their house.  

He still had some stuff to take care of before a bunch of teenaged boys came rumbling into their house.  We hopped in the truck with Willamrth and went to Fred Meyer, ordered pizza from Round Table, went to BiMart and then back to Fred Meyers because we forgot something.  

We picked up our pizza, stopped at the grocery store for popsicles, the teriyaki chicken place for Shannon and back to the house to eat dinner and watch part of the NBA draft.  We hung out for a little bit longer and around 10 p.m. he had to go pick up some of the teenagers, so we gave out hugs, thanked them for the visit and dinner and headed to the Quality Inn. 

Ben checked us in, he got the keys and we drove the Escape over to where the door was to our room.  We brought in our things and was impressed with the room that we got. 

It had a woodland feel to it.  There were two beds, a TV, a sink, bathroom, a couch and a table with chairs.  We got settled in and played two rounds of 10,000 and three rounds of Yahtzee.  Ben won the night 4 to my 1.  I was upset because I hate losing.

We got ready for bed and went to bed around midnight.  It was nice to finally sleep after a long day.

Next Adventure:  TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  Selah, Power Trails, Event and Dinner at Bombing Range Brewery

Car Troubles and Maintenance on my Asphalt Adventure Series

Since I had a three-day weekend, I planned on taking my bike to the trail outside of Rainier to do some maintenance on my Asphalt Adventure series.  I got some stuff prepared the night before and set that stuff aside in a backpack. 

Ben woke me up as he was getting ready for work, and I tried to ignore it but he made a bunch of noise.  After he left, I went back to bed until about 9:30.  I ate breakfast, got dressed and grabbed a few more things to shove in the backpack.  I made sure my bike tires were pumped up, brought the tire pump (just in case), grabbed some snacks, water, my selfie stick and whatever else I found that I thought I needed.

I opened the garage and clicked my key FOB to unlock the Escape.  Nothing.  Did my key FOB die?  I looked for the extra key FOB and that one didn't work either.  So, I manually unlocked the car door and tried to start the car.  Nothing.  Hmmm, maybe a few weeks ago when we went to Oregon and then to Bonney Lake was a precursor?  Side note:  when we stopped at the Walmart in Bonney Lake to pick up salad, the Escape was running funny.  But once we pulled into Trish's driveway, turned off the car, started it back up and drove through the neighborhood, the car ran fine.  Hmmm?

It had to be the battery.  I called Ben to ask.  He said it was also the battery.  I asked Doug to help me jump start it and it didn't do anything. We both got frustrated. I called Dad to see if I could borrow the truck because we suspected the car battery was dead, he said that would be fine and that he was at Grammie and Grandpa's house. I asked Doug to take me into Rainier.  Of course, he didn't want to, but he did anyway.  I couldn't bring my bike because it wouldn't fit in Doug's car, so I had to bring the rollerblades instead.  I grabbed those and some long socks.  He dropped me off, Dad told us where the battery charger was, Doug took it home and then I hopped into the red truck.  I thought to myself, of course this has to happen before we leave for the TriCities on Thursday, and we were taking the Escape.  Everything seems to happen when we have plans.

I drove it down to Military Road and Waldrick, backed it in to the pull out, strapped on the rollerblades and started down towards Rainier and Asphalt Adventures #1 (GC31DCY).  There were quite a few people riding bikes and some people walking their dogs down the trail.  It's always nice when they smile or nod at you.  One guy, walking along with his wife, said, wow, you're hardcore!  That's a lot of work to rollerblade.  I just smiled at them and rolled along my way.

I got to AA#1 and replaced the whole thing because the container and contents were damaged.  When I got to AA#2, all I had to change out was the baggie and logbook.  That location had a small stump I could sit on while I changed out everything...it made it easier since I was wearing rollerblades.

I saw there was a newish one down the Yelm-Rainier-Tenino Trail not too far away from where that trail intersects with the Chehalis Western. I decided to rollerblade that extra milage to grab At the Crossroads (GC9RZH5).  It was a quick find at the bottom of one of the trail signs. I signed my name and bladed back to the junction.

AA#3-#9 was mostly replacing baggies and logbooks.  All of the containers were in pretty good shape.  There were some of them it took a while to find them because they had migrated from their original hiding places over the years. Between AA#6 and AA#7, my rollerblades snagged a loose stick on the side of the trail, and I fell hard.  Luckily, I did not hurt myself that bad.  I had a scrape on my elbow and a sore right side of my body from where I landed.

I got up and made it back to the intersection of where I parked the truck.  I checked on Rocks Among Us (GC3785X), crossed Military Road to finish AA#9-14 along the Waldrick Road section of the trail.  I replaced a lot of the containers and most of the baggies and logbooks.  One cache, AA#11 (GC35FPH), I had to replace the entire container because it had gone missing, and I had it disabled for a couple months because the weather was so bad to go out and fix them. 

I crossed Waldrick Road to the to the other side and continued my way.  I changed out everything on AA#15, had to make a new cache for AA#16 because I wasn't able to get out and fix it right away and the reviewers archived it.  On AA#17, I just had to replace the logbook and baggie.  I turned around and rollerbladed back to the truck.  

Bev tried to call me, but I wasn't sure if she would be able to hear me because cell service is a bit spotty out here.  I answered it anyway.  She was curious of what I was doing, and I told her I was doing maintenance on my caches since I had the day off. It was a quick convo since she knew I was busy and in a bad cell reception area.  I told her I would chat with her later.

I took off my rollerblades and got back in the truck to drive down to the Monarch Sculpture Park to check on AA#18 and #19.  I found a place to park, got out and walked to them.  It felt weird walking after rollerblading like three miles.  I replaced the logbook and baggie in the first one and the other one was fine, so I let it be.  I walked back to the truck.

I drove to Grammie and Grandpa's house to see what Dad was doing.  He wanted me to help him throw some stuff into the burn pile and he mixed up some ant spray and we killed a bunch of ants trying to take over the yard.  Before I left, we threw the ladder in the back of the truck for Erika and Zach.  They mentioned needing one because they had baby raccoons living in their roof.

I went home and Ben came home around the same time I got there.  We discussed the dead battery in the Escape, and we took my car apart to get to the battery, so it took a while.  

We literally had to take the hood, the windshield wipers off and other various parts just to get the battery out, how insane is that?  Why do they make cars so complicated now?  He took the battery down to Auto Zone.  Meanwhile, I made tacos for dinner while I watched game three of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Lightening showed up and won 6-2.  We ate, watched random TV, talked to Trish for a little bit.

We cleaned up the kitchen, did the dishes, talked about the rest of the week, planned our weekend, talked to Ray and Brenda about the TriCities, got cleaned up and went to bed.  It was a nice three-day weekend until my Escape decided it wasn't going to work, days before we were supposed to take it on vacation.

**We did get a new battery, and everything was fixed by Wednesday.**

Next Adventures:  TriCities Geocoin Challenge:  Lacey to Selah

Father's Day

A few weeks back, I asked Dad what he would like to do for Father's Day this year.  He said he really didn't care what we had as far as food was concerned but he wanted to have a BB gun range in the back yard with various targets.  I said, we could totally make that happen.  I added that we were probably going to have burgers and dogs since we already had everything from when we were supposed to have a BBQ on Memorial Day.  He said that was fine. 

I sent everyone an email the Monday before Father's Day, yes, even Tracy, Kevin and Karla.  They all decided not to come.

I asked Mom if we could get him something he needed, and she said that he mentioned that he wanted to go see the new Top Gun movie so, I arranged it with my siblings to see when we could go see it.  It was really hard to find a day we could all go on before it stopped being shown in our local movie theaters.

None of us have been to the theater since winter of 2019, before Covid.  Ben and I saw the last Star Wars movie. 

We chose Thursday after work at the theater in Yelm for the 7:45 showing of Top Gun.  Everything is online now so I had to pay for everyone to go and had to choose our seats.  Everyone except Dad owed me money.  That night as we were getting ready, I texted Erika that we would see them at the theater, and she wrote me back stating that she and Zach couldn't go.  Of course, they couldn't!  Some moron backed into Erika's car at the gym and almost ripped her front bumper off.  I was so angry that it happened that day of all the days it could have happened. 

Doug and I met Mom and Dad at the theater, we got popcorn and drinks and got out the tickets to give the ticket takers.  I asked if I could get refunded for the two, I wasn't using because they aren't able to make it.  She said yes and pointed me to the concession stand where they could refund me the money.  I thanked them for doing that for us.  I texted Erika to tell her she no longer owed me money because I was able to get it refunded.  I met up with everyone and we went inside the theater to our assigned recliner seats.  

Doug and I shared popcorn and Mom and Dad shared theirs.  It was weird being at the movies again after two very long years. The movie was pretty action packed and I was entertained.  It was nice to see how they continued the story from the 1986 movie with Goose and his son.  The porno moustaches were a little much though. Dad thanked us for taking him to the movies and we all went home.

The next day, I was doing some shopping for the rest of the stuff I needed to get, and I stopped by the Goodwill next to our house.  I found bins and bins of plastic barnyard animals with party hats.  These were going to be perfect BB gun target practice figurines.  I bought a couple of them for 80 cents each.  I took a picture and sent it to everyone.  They seemed to think it was funny and looked forward to shooting them.

I got home and proceeded to get the vacuuming done, since it took a while to do, put some stuff away and took the buns out of the freezer so they would thaw out before tomorrow.  

The morning of, I got up around 9:30, ate a small breakfast, took the hotdogs out of the freezer so they could thaw, put some more stuff away.  Doug cleaned up his dog poo out of the backyard and cleaned the bathroom.  Dad came over early so we could set up the BB gun range in the back yard since he had all of the equipment for it.  It didn't take us long to get it all set up.

Ben stayed behind to start the cooking while Doug, Dad and I went over to go see Grandpa.  Our visit was cut short because they informed us, when they brought him his lunch, that he had tested positive for Covid.  Dad was pretty angry that no one contacted his to let him know and just let us go up to his room.  So now Dad was worried that he could have been exposed.  We did give Grandpa his Father's Day card and his T-shirts before we had to go.

We got home and Trish, Amy and Ed had arrived while we were gone.  Soon after, Mom, Grandma Karen, Erik and Zach all arrived.  We started getting the food ready to go.  Trish helped cut the tomatoes and onions, Ben was almost done with the food on the grill, and I started the beans and put everything on the dining room table.  Meanwhile, Charlie was in his pen hoping people would let him out.  Not a chance dog face.

We ate, did Father's Day presents, did Zach's birthday (due to rescheduling it because people had Covid) ate cherry pie and ice cream and then went outside and shot BB guns after Dad gave us a safety lesson on guns and range etiquette.  Amy and Trish have never shot guns before, and Amy was actually really interested on learning and doing.  She had fun. 

We shot the targets and set them back up around three times.  We shot the plastic party animals I bought a couple days before, old pop cans, paper targets, army men, cowboys, Indians and tanks.  We got a family picture and then everyone got ready to go home.  

Erika and Zach had to feed their dogs and Trish, Ed and Amy had to go to a pizza party in Puyallup with Ed's family for Father's Day.  We helped Dad pick up the gun range and then Ben and I spent some time cleaning the house, putting away tables and chairs and finishing up the dishes. 

We relaxed the rest of the night.  Doug and I had the next day off because the US now recognized Juneteenth as a holiday.  Ben still had to go to work and was jealous.  He spent his evening getting ready for the new work week.  

Happy Father's Day Dad and Grandpa Dennis!

Next Adventure:  Car Troubles and Maintenance on my Asphalt Adventure Series