444. Purcell, McClain County (OK38)

You can almost never go wrong with red brick, am I right? I have to admit that I had a weird (bordering on heretical) thought on the way here, seeing the town water tower…

If I did all this again, I wonder if, instead of courthouses, I might use water towers? Pretty much everywhere (except the tiniest of towns) has them, and they are often employed in an interesting and artistic way to show civic pride. Interesting use for industrial instruments of hydration, no? That would definitely be a way to distinguish each town from the next. Sure, there are going to be a lot of big white bulbs on sticks with a town name, but sometimes they can really be something.

The cache was in a little wooded area off the side of a road. If I had gone in the direct way, I would have landed on it immediately. I, however, did not take the direct way. I ended up taking a little trail that went in and wandered around for a little bit, signal bouncing all over the place, until I stumbled upon the horrible truth: the cache was in the first place I looked for it, but somehow I didn’t look at the back side of that tree. The last person to log it reported it was wet. Since it was freezing when I found it, the pages of the once wet log were frozen together, a first for me. I had to peel them apart to sign it, and felt as if I had reached another rite of passage. At least the way out was easy (as the way out often is). I was shaking with both anticipation and cold as I got back in the car. I was about reach a special place with a special cache. Glee and expectation were my copilots as the car warmed my bones on the ride to…