In the wind...

The constant wind must have been a challenge to the people who placed the geocaches in the wheat fields above Kennewick. We've had our eye on these power trails for a couple of years, and it was great fun to come here for a few days, to this place we called home for more than seven years.

We used to bring our dog up here to run free, and we'd forgotten how exposed it is. Rolling hills, but the wind doesn't care about that. It finds a way around. In every direction there are fields being plowed for planting, interspersed with brilliant green fields of wheat and potatoes and peas. Beautiful, but exposed. To sun, to amazing views, and especially, to endless wind.

We found containers under rock cairns, and half-blown out of guardrails. We found containers in holes in the ground, coated in dirt, with a hunk of wood on top. We found containers stuck into pipes too heavy to blow away, and film cans wired to signposts. We also found containers being guarded by big hairy black spiders with white spots, and by even bigger (but harmless) black beetles. It became a habit to poke at the containers with the end of my pen before putting my hand anywhere near them.

My hair blew into tangles, and I almost lost my hat countless times. And once I had to wrap my arms around a signpost to keep from blowing away, while holding onto the container and trying to sign the logs. It made me giggle.

Yesterday a storm blew through and it rained. Today the air was crystal clear, and the views from the Finley hills were gorgeous.