95. Mentone, Loving County

Paint Rock? Thy have thyself competition! Loving County is the second least populous county in the country (there’s a tiny piece of Moloka’i waving coyly at it from the corner). There are fewer people in Loving County than in Paint Rock itself. But you wouldn’t know that when you’re standing here at the courthouse. The trucks pass by constantly, rumbling out their loads (most likely of oil) on their ways to who can guess where. There’s more trucks than people out there. That’s got to count for something. There was a virtual at the courthouse that took no time at all so that was a quick little claim, but I had to grab a traditional for reasons. There are only three caches in Mentone so I went to get the one in the direction I was headed.

This old piece of granite is a little different. I usually see these at courthouses, not at rest stops outside of town, commemorating odd random locations. I didn’t even know these were even made for anything else. It’s now making me wonder where else these might be, if maybe someone might have cataloged them for the world to remember. It also happens to be the location of the cache, a bottle under an appropriate rock. IT was grabbed, signed and returned. Then I got back on the road. You see, I had a little something planned since I was out here. Since the phone reception was crappy (thank you, RunFast), I couldn’t use my phone for mapping. Luckily I have a good sense of direction. I drove for a while and turned and headed for…