155. Anson, Jones County

This county occupies another interesting subset that I’ve only recently noticed: seats that, with the county name, form the name of a person. This seems to be a rarefied category, occupied by Anson Jones and Gail Borden. I’m sure Dr. Paint Rock Concho must be sad to hear that he (or possibly she—I don’t want to be gender assumptive here) is not included. Fun fact: Anson still had laws on the books outlawing dancing except at the annual Christmas dance. This was the inspiration for the book No Dancin’ In Anson: An American Story of Race and Social Change which, in turn, might have inspired the movie Footloose. What is it with the 80’s and the Panhandle? Am I really even still in the Panhandle any longer?

My first choice of cache was right around the corner from the courthouse, but with four hours of sleep and at least half a day’s driving left to do (as fun as it all was, I really as getting to my true limit at this point), there was no way I was going to look for a rock in a rock garden. But there’s always a cemetery. It was a pretty mundane hide; I barely remember it at all. It was a micro in a tree that is easy to find when you’re searching in the right tree. Guess how I figured that bit out? Anyway, it was found, signed, and I got on down the road. This time was really was on the road home and I made my next stop in…