317. Texarkana, Miller County (AR01)

I’m sure some of you are thinking “Hey, Atreides? Can you actually finish a state before starting a new one?” And I’m sure my answer would be something along the lines of “I go where opportunity takes me!” That said, there’s something kind of quaint about the birdhouse here on the courthouse lawn. For some reason, it makes it seem more southern than a lot of other places farther south. Or maybe that’s just me projecting…something? Not a clue. You know what I did see here? Something I’ve never seen before.

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I have seen a lot of war memorials out on the road, but I’ve never seen one that separates by county (Texarkana is in both Miller and Bowie Counties) or separates out black troops before. I’m a bit conflicted over whether to be a little disappointed because they were separated out or a little heartened that their contribution was even noted. I think it was Plato who said “wisdom is knowing that there are contradictions in the world and not feeling the need to resolve them.” I’m not saying that I’m wise (if I have any wisdom, it’s the wisdom of Coyote), but I am leaving the debate to other minds than my own. Besides, I have other things on my mind right now.

Welcome to the Texarkana Walk of Fame Park. It’s a park near a community center and, well, it’s not all that impressive or kid friendly or anything like that. you know what it has, though?

My first ever, live videoed cache discovery? As you can see, it was a keybox, cleverly hidden in a small tree display sign. Is this the beginnings of my career as a video blogger? Not likely. But I also decided to take a few extra minutes here. You see, I have guest stars with me here!

The Girls helped me grab a virtual at the line between Texas and Arkansas. I don’t usually like to use caches too close to a border for claiming a county because weird things can happen when it comes to giving credit for where they’re placed. I’ve seen at least one cache on the border between both states that registers as being in the State of Arkansas, but in the County of Cass. But I already had an official one so a fun one was nice to have with a little help. And besides, as a stipulation for the Arkansas County Challenge, all caches have to be physical so no virtuals anyway. But I had that keybox from earlier so I was good. We all piled back into the car and rolled off (after grabbing some lunch for the road) to make a visit to…