299. Abbeville, Vermillion Parish (LA43)

Small, but again, I nod upon it approvingly. It’s been such a long day I’m not even sure what more to say. I’ll tell you this: sometimes these days wear me out. Driving hundreds of miles, though I’ve gotten very used to it, still burns me out a bit. Especially when I have to get home by the end of a night. Back when I started all this, I might have to drive an hour or two to get to my starting place and an hour or two to get home when it was over. At this point, though, I have to drive a minimum of 4-5 hours just to get out of the state. Often I wish I could jump on a plane to a major city and just drive around there. Of course, in the time of cholera, that is ill-advised, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot… If I wore an appropriate mask, skin covering apparel, and also wore goggles, I think I could manage a flight safely and only have to worry about washing and sanitizing hands. Maybe it could work. But where would I go? I’d love to go to DC, but I’m not sure how safe that is. New York City? They probably wouldn’t let me in since I’m from Texas. Boston? Maybe, and that would be a great chance to take a stab at the Northeast and all those states smaller than Brewster County. Seattle is still hot and Groundspeak is still closed up as far as I know. Denver? Atlanta? Las Vegas? Chicago? I don’t even know and flying is still not as safe as sticking to my bubble. I guess what I really need is a chance to get some sustained time out on the road. I could do so much with a week. But that’s idle talk at the moment. I’m in Louisiana so let’s do what must be done.

I originally went for a yard cache at a private residence. I eventually decided against it. Not only was it not on the front porch, but the owners weren’t home. I spent a couple of minutes looking for it, but the coords kept bouncing around and leading to the side of the house behind some shrubs and tree cover that was a little too close to the open back yard for my tastes. I decided to nope out of that one. I then ended up going to a nearby park where I found this one. Not the best cared for cache. The CO has two finds and this is their only hide. There were a few strange and inappropriate things inside which I tossed, and I replaced the log. It should probably be archived, but it wasn’t damaged or missing or anything like that. Just because it’s crappy doesn’t immediately mean it should be done away with. That said, if it’s not going to be maintained, well, it probably should be. But I wasn’t going to be the one to make that call today. I set off intending to hit one more parish before the end of the day, but there was no way I was going to beat the sunset there. Three times I’ve tried to go to that parish and three times I haven’t been able to make it. It’s becoming my white whale. Worse, if I can’t find an efficient way to get it, it’s going to mess up my final push into the state. I can do the rest of Louisiana in two days IF I can find a way to get that parish. But that is for another time. It was time to head home. I made my way home and went on with my life. But a few weeks later, I would be on the road again…