305. Raton, Colfax County (NM06)

I don’t know for sure if this is the courthouse or just a “building” but, based on my extensive experience with courthouses, I have a sneaking suspicion that it is… Raton strikes me as what I would imagine a ski community would look like: a little bit kitschy, a little bit quaint, and a little bit run down since tourism, not direct industry or commerce, are the lifeblood of the town. Feeling lived in is part of its shtick. That said, I imagine it’s hard for lawmakers to feel like they matter when…

…they work in the shadow of this. I’m probably completely wrong about that, though, considering they seem to have conquered it convincingly enough.

My first attempt at a cache was a letterbox (good!) at the town visitor’s center which was closed because of the time of cholera (bad!). After declaring “Poop!” and bemoaning my horrid fate, I ended up grabbing an LPC at a nearby fast food establishment (McCrap, if you must know). It ended up taking longer than it should have because I had to wait forever for the couple “walking” their dog that, once canine bodily functions were catered to, just would not seem to leave. It felt an eternity before they put Muffin (yes, that was the dog’s actual name) back in the car to move from the GZ. I spent more time eye rolling, watching them feed Muffin “nyum-nyums”, than I spent getting the cache.

But get the cache I did. I felt a little bit bad about it because the log was full and I don’t carry spare logs that small. I had to put my name over someone else’s. We all leave our marks in one way or another and leaving mine over someone else’s seems disrespectful. But we all do what needs to be done. I think that whomever’s name I wrote over, they would understand. I also experienced the second biggest time suck of the trip, getting supposedly fast food for lunch (at a completely different place, mind you).

And I started to roll again, but I was faced with a choice: I could go on to my next destination and get ahead of the day, or I could cross that bridge up yonder… I really don’t even know why I’m attempting to give it any suspense. You know how I am about bridges. Yeah, I headed up into the Raton Pass and came out clean on the other side in…