Friday,
August 18 - My son, Christopher, and I left Vancouver, Washington about
9:00am. We stopped at Fred Meyer for gas for the car and batteries for
GPS. We headed north to Snoqualmie. We stopped for breakfast at
McDonalds in Kelso at 10:30. The weather was hot but a lot cooler than
last year. We had lunch at Denny's in Spanaway at 2:30pm. We
found a cache behind the restaurant. Employee (smoker) muggle told my son
he couldn't go back there. Ha. We found the cache anyway as he had
finished his smoke break. We wandered for miles and miles on the
backroads of farm/dairy country. We had a great view of 14,411 ft high
Mount Rainier in the Cascade Range. We encountered a lot of traffic in
Snoqualmie and North Bend. We stopped at Double R Diner. I had
Cherry pie with vanilla ice cream. A few days ago I created a "Twin
Peaks" Bookmark. We checked into the Summit Inn for two
nights. We were in a handicap room 107-A. We attended the Meet and
Greet "going APE" from 8:30-9:00 outside the lobby of the Summit
Inn. We walked next door to the Lee Summit Deli for late dinner to take
back to our room 107-A.
Saturday,
Aug 19 - We had breakfast at The Summit Pancake House. We went to the
Event location. Christopher went through the spooky 100-year-old,
2.3-mile-long Snoqualmie Tunnel. He found Iron Horse Cache, KE BS Troop 570
Iron Horse Cache, The Iron Horse Express Cache, and The Rocket Cache along the
Iron Horse Trail. I signed the Logboard for us at the "Going Ape
2017" Event and purchased APE event geocoins. I purchased a cup of
very weak lemonade. I drove to the Annette Lake Trailhead. Exit 47
was closed for construction so I drove quite a distance to the next exit and
backtracked. I picked up Christopher. The entire hike was 5.5
miles. We found ?What a Wonderful World cache across the freeway before
heading back to Snoqualmie Pass. We had dinner at The Commonwealth
Cafe. We spent the night again at the Summit Inn in Room 107-A.
Sunday,
Aug 20 - I purchased a large muffin at The Summit Pancake House for light
breakfast. I attended the "Gone APE 2017" Event outside the
lobby of the Summit Inn. I took a Travel Bug that I will drop off
later. We had breakfast at Riverbend Cafe in North Bend. Watched
the golfers out the cafe window. I do not understood golfers. You
golf for the exercise however you ride golf carts rather than walk! I
parked at the Parking Lot. Walked the Pipeline Trail at Sammamish to sign the
Log for ?Washington DeLorme Challenge (GCQQ9B) Final. We still have
specific requirements that must be completed before logging this cache as
Found. We found Three Lakes Geo-Library at North Snohomish, found TNT
bOoK CaChe at Marysville (we had lunch at McDonalds at 2:30) and found Cache a
Nap at a Rest Stop on the way to Bellingham. Couldn't find Up the Creek
cache. We had dinner at Round Table Pizza in Bellingham. We stayed
the night at the Econo Lodge & Suites in Room 307. I prefer sleeping
on the top floor. We covered Page 32.
Monday,
Aug 21 - We had a continental breakfast. Christopher found two caches
that I had already found: Pickett House in Bellingham (#15) and Roadkill Turtle
(#32) in Sedro-Woolley. Eclipse of the Sun hysteria. We went too
far east on Hwy 20. However we did get to use the facilities at the North
Cascades National Park Visitor Center. We had to backtrack 10+ miles to
travel south across the long, narrow silver bridge on the Cascade River Road to
find the cache "Bridge over ...". Back to the silver bridge at
Hwy 20 and then east again. The North Cascades Highway was completed in
September 1972, connecting the Skagit River Valley with the Methow
Valley. The highway is closed in the winter due to snow accumulations and
avalanches. The highway crosses Washington Pass at 5,477 ft. (quite
spectacular as is the Early Winter Spires) and Rainy Pass at 4,860 ft. We
got into Okanogan really late. We checked into the Quality Inn Rooms 301
and 303. We went to Burger King and McDonalds to pick up our dinners to
take back to our rooms. We found nine caches and did not find three
caches. We covered Pages 15, 16, 32, 33, 17, 34, 18, 19, and 35.
Tuesday,
Aug 22 - We had breakfast at the Quality Inn. We drove south to pick up
Page 36. We replaced a missing cache for A Handy Cache and found another
cache downtown at Surveyors Park in Brewster. We headed north and then
east to find 14 more caches. We stayed the night at Benny's Colville Inn
in Room 243. We got some food items at nearby Whittys South Town 7 for
dinner to take back to our room. We covered Pages 36, 20, 21, 38 and 22.
Wednesday,
Aug 23 - We had a light breakfast. We found 13 caches and did not find
two caches. Finding the Cully cache was particularly exciting! The
road was primitive and it was not clear whether it circled around (it
did). We had croissant sandwiches and a coconut macaroon (for me)
for lunch at the Uphaus (German) Bakery in Kettle Falls. We covered Pages
23, 39, 24, 40, 25, and 41. We stayed the night at the Quality Inn Valley
Suites in Room 416 in Spokane. We sat at a booth at Denny's waiting to
order dinner for way too long so I insisted that we walk out. We ate at
Applebee's. Much better ambiance!
Thursday,
Aug 24 - We had the Quality Inn breakfast. We found two caches and
an Earthcache in Washington State and then eight caches in Idaho. We had
dinner at Three Mile Corner Cafe in Bonners Ferry. Many construction
delays both in Idaho and Washington State. I really should have booked
TWO nights in Spokane or Thursday night stay someplace in Idaho. It was
too much to drive from Spokane through upper Idaho and then all the way to
Pasco via Spokane. Argh! We stayed the night at Sleep Inn in Pasco
in Room 212.
Friday, Aug 25 - I was
exhausted. Time to head home via Hwy 395 and I 84. I played music
previously downloaded on my I Phone via Bluetooth until we reached The Dalles.
Too much traffic. Music would be distracting. When we neared I 84
and I 205 junction traffic had come to a complete standstill. I drove
through downtown Portland to Interstate Avenue. I stopped for gas at
Killingsworth Gas Station. I stopped at the Caples Post Office in
Vancouver to get the mail. I got the car washed at Andreson Road car
wash. We drove about 1818 miles on this trip. If I did it correctly
I have completed the Washington State DeLorme Challenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment