A Waymarking Milestone

Only recently I was celebrating reaching the 500 waymark point, but now I have reached an even cooler milestone. I have officially posted or visited waymarks in 1/2 of all of the grid categories - 260 of the 518 categories. Of course, with the mess of new categories that have been coming through peer review lately, this celebration might be short-lived, but for now I will pat myself on the back.

We spent some time waymarking in downtown Puyallup, Washington today. I found yet another neon pink elephant to waymark (this one was a "Li'l" Elephant), enjoyed the Farmers Market, and learned a bit about the town's founder, Ezra Meeker.

There were several spots that I waymarked in the "American Guide" category, and one of them was the mansion of pioneer, Ezra Meeker. This guy was one tough old coot. He traveled the Oregon Trail to the Puyallup Valley in the late 1800's and homesteaded there. After founding the town and living a full life, at the age of 70 he hopped in his wagon and back on the trail, heading east towards congress. His reason for this second journey was to survey the trail, and to ask congress for money to create a federal highway along the route. Later, in his 80's he had the chance to make the journey a third time, this time in an automobile. And finally, at the ripe old age of 94, he flew the length of the trail in an airplane. Pretty amazing.

The photo you see above is a statue of Meeker found in Pioneer Park, a park he gave to the city in the early 1900's. You can't see it in this picture, but behind the statue is a trellis supporting an ivy vine that was planted by his wife when they first arrived in the valley. It now looks more like a tree with a trunk than a vine.

If you decide to visit the park, stop in on a Saturday or Sunday while the Farmers Market is running - preferably during berry season when all of the local farms bring their delicious berries to the market. YUM!