4. Llano, Llano County

So I took a drive today…  Vaguely interesting, but the foundation is made of local granite and the architect also designed the DeWitt County courthouse (don’t worry, we’ll get there).  Of course, there were monuments for WW1 and 2, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Enduring Freedom.  There was also one for Confederate dead…

So I’m about to discuss a subject that I haven’t wanted to get into because it’s a can of worms I don’t want to open with people.  Unfortunately it keeps coming up at courthouses so I should say something about it since it colors my views on some things.  When I see a monument to Confederate dead, I’m not bothered by that.  A lot of people in the county died in a short time in combat and the county has chosen to note that.  I obviously have certain problems with WHY they fought, both as a black person (The primary State Right being defended was the right to own slaves) and as an American (these men, despite being “reconstructed”, took up arms against this nation).  But I don’t blame people for wanting to remember this segment of the county’s population.  Where I very much have a problem is this…

As you can see from across the street, the courthouse is flying three flags: the US flag, the Texas flag, and a Confederate flag.  What the hell is a government building doing flying a flag of a rebellious nation, an act I (and probably many others) find offensive as both a black man and an American?  How are you going to fly that over all these memorials of men who died fighting for the United States?  And it’s obviously not an afterthought because they are raising and lowering it (and, because of John McCain, placing it at half mast).  Yes, I very much have a problem with this.  No, I do not make a thing of it.  It’s disappointing, but that is the way of a great many things.

Anyway, I grabbed several caches in town.  One was in the courtyard square (which was actually across the street from the courthouse but meh…).  A couple were placed by Boy Scouts.  I opted not to get their third placement.  A micro, possibly nano, in a tree behind a church while services are occurring?  That’s a hard NOPE.  One was a regular in a local park.  It had been muggled, but the muggle must have been a little kid because they just took out all the toys and arrayed the toy soldiers to fight the monsters (a dinosaur, a scorpion, and a slice of pizza?).  The local cemetery, of course, had several.

Dillard Cooper was a survivor of the massacre of Goliad.  That’s kind of a thing (in Texas, anyway).  Toward that back of the cemetery, I was led to this view:

After the cemetery, I headed across the Llano river and found a DNR LPC and one that finished me for Llano for the day…

So there’s one here at this railroad car.  If you follow the line, you get to this GZ:

That’s a little busy for a 2.0/1.5, no?  So I check the hint: “its not inside”.  <sarcasm>Really?  I would have thought inside would be the perfect place for it!</sarcasm>  So, is it magnetic and attached to the car or rail?  Or is it shaped like a rock and on the ground?  I chose option three: it’s noon, I’m sweating like a criminal, I’m low on water right now, and would like some lunch.  So I said “screw it” and let it be.  Didn’t mark it DNF because, quite honestly, I spent a grand total of 2 minutes looking while deciding if I even want to bother.

And so, I said goodbye to Llano proper.  You were pretty for a short visit, but I just don’t think we’re right for each other.