476. Atoka, Atoka County (OK70)

This courthouse was a little more interesting than Coalgate was. Not necessarily better, mind you, but definitely more interesting. It’s still got that arched 70’s thing, but the multilevel thing out front definitely marks it as different. The fact that there’s a cache onsite made things that much easier. Well, it was supposed to, anyway. While I was looking around for it, a deputy decided to stop and check out what was going on. To be completely fair, seeing some random guy wandering around the courthouse grounds with a flashlight might be considered by some to be suspicious. I cede that point. He asked me if everything was OK and I told him yes. I knew what his next question would be (what was I doing here) so I made a quick calculation. We all know I don’t like having to explain myself, but wandering around the courthouse grounds with a flashlight at four-thirty in the morning was not something I could easily bluff my way out of. I decided to fess up and told him about geocaching. He thought it was vaguely interesting and was a bit amazed that I had come so far. That was it. He left. No asking for my ID, no deeper inquiry, The proverbial “That” was, in fact, that. I’ve had worse experiences with the law.

It shouldn’t have taken me that long to find the cache. It also didn’t help that I was literally barking up the wrong tree. It wasn’t behind the tree, it was behind one of the monuments. Of course, if I had actually read the cache description, I would have known it was, instead of just going to the tree at the GZ. It was found, signed, and returned easily enough (if not quickly enough). I even left a trackable because when I was heavy with them. I picked up a handful back at Challenge for the express purpose of sprinkling around caches out on the road. But the road beckoned. I began racing towards the sun again, looking for a next landing in…