Tri-Cities Geocoin Challenge June 23-25, 2017

My son, Christopher, and I left Vancouver about 9:00AM.  I traveled west on I 84.  We found several caches on the way to Kennewick.

I have attended three Tri-Cities Geocoin Challenge Mega Events (2013, 2016 and 2017) and three Tri-Cities Geocoin Challenge Events all the way back to 2010 (also 2011 and 2014). This year's Tri-Cities Geocoin Challenge was the most enjoyable for me.

I really appreciate having the GPSs loaded at the Event. It would have been great having paper printouts of the puzzle caches. I hate the new Groundspeak App and refuse to use it. I mourn the loss of my Classic Groundspeak App.

It was great to have more time to complete the challenge this year. My son is one of the slowest cachers that attempts the challenge, so we appreciate the fact that so many cachers and volunteers waited around an extra hour to give away coins and raffle prizes. We really needed that extra hour.

I enjoyed Pasco so much more than Richland or Kennewick. I hate turnarounds (traffic circles) and heavy traffic. I had to make a quick decision at a freeway junction and chose the wrong exit. I had to drive several miles to be able to head back. Lost time when we didn't realize that a second punch cache had not been found. We had not left the area so it could have been worse. And we forgot to find a cache which we did later.

I do not do well in really hot weather and hiking uphill. I am an eight year Cancer survivor (July 2009) however I still have another Cancer (low-grade lymphoma) that I have had for many years.

We stayed in an expensive Suite at the Quality Inn in Kennewick. It was the worst Choice Hotel that I have ever stayed at. The bath towels were Motel 6 quality. I gave my son the Master bedroom and I took the sofa bed in the Living Room. There was a thin skimpy twin size bed pad. There was no bedding. No bedside (sofa side) lamp. No HGTV channel. Elevator near our suite did not work during most of our stay. It is my fault for not making reservations early at my favorite Tri-Cities hotel.

We ate dinner at Costa Vida in Richland on Friday, lunch at McDonalds in Kennewick on Saturday and late dinner at Applebee near our hotel. We purchased gas at Fred Meyer in Kennewick. I drove 652 miles. Hopefully we will be back next year!