417. Evansville, Vanderburgh County (IN02)

First of all, it doesn’t look like the county administration runs out of a courthouse. It looks like the government here is run out of a series of disconnected offices, which is alright from a purely functional perspective. Hadn’t run into that since back in New Mexico. The Civic Center here seems the right place since the county clerk works out of here, as do a number of the courts. The logical place I think. Secondly, though, I ran into a problem I haven’t had since back in Lubbock. You see the pretty tree there? Well, I spent a lot of time looking at it because for about 30 minutes I couldn’t get a decent photo. When I got here, I took a few minutes to determine if I was at the right building and decide my next move when I was done here. The second I pulled out a camera, muggles (mostly families) began to come and marvel at it, too. They came on foot and came in cars. Couples stared at the lovely lights while children scampered and played all about it. They came and went, replaced by others, as if I had arrived at the moment of the zeitgeist. And all I could do was wait. I get it. Christmastime and all, but they were screwing up my shots! Sure, it was night and not long ago these would have been lost hours, but it was still burning time I could have used for other things. Couples get bored, though, and children have to go to sleep. Eventually, they all departed and I got my photo. The thing is, why would you want this…

…when you could have this? Look at this beautiful creature! This is the old courthouse. When I was driving into downtown and saw this from the freeway, I actually doublechecked to make sure that the Indiana Statehouse wasn’t here. It was just so majestic for a “mere” courthouse and apparently that was the intention when it was built: to create a majestic courthouse for an up and coming, rich and important city. I can only assume that there had to be a good reason for them to remove county function from the building. They obviously use it for something, but, if I was the county executive, whatever form that might take, I would rule this fiefdom from my office/throne room high atop this tower. I’m sure the real takeaway from all this is that I may not understand exactly how counties are run in Indiana.

The cache was at a (relatively) nearby building. As you can see, it used to be a bowling alley (yes, that is sarcasm), but has been repurposed into a restaurant/sports bar or something or other. Outside there were some gas meters and lines and, when I poked a little bit, I found a magnetic keybox, painted to fit in with the mechanisms. Once it was claimed and returned, I felt a bit sad. This was the ultimate extension of my trip. Believe me, if I had another day to work with, I would have spent the night in Cincinnati. But I didn’t. So I got in the car and began the southwestern trek back from whence I had come. I would be getting no sleep as I made my way through the dark. I crossed a bridge and got down to work fifteen minutes away in…