549. Fort Collins, Larimer County (CO18)

We all know how I feel about modern courthouses at this point. I understand that time has to go forward and that the needs of a county administration will change and/or expand as the years go on. That said, this is not an unattractive courthouse, but it is most certainly not one in a style I prefer. But I guess it’s what a larger city needs so I’m not going to complain (more than I already have), though don’t be surprised if evidence points to the contrary. I actually had more than a bit of trouble finding it. I usually use Google Maps for most of my routing needs, but the Larimer County Courthouse was nowhere to be found. Why? Because (and understand I am not kidding here) the map did not mark this as the location of the courthouse. Google Maps marked this as the location of…

…the Larimer County Farmers’ Market! This was literally the last thing I expected to see here!

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To the dulcet tones of the nice man playing accordion, I navigated through the crowd, both to find a good vantage to photograph and still maintain a social distance. The ones I ultimately got disappoint me a little, but under the circumstances I had to make due with what I could get.

The cache was a nano hiding on a bike rack at a nearby county office building. But I also noticed there was a virtual a couple of blocks away so took a little walk to grab it, too. Unfortunately, I can’t show you the location because it would reveal everything essential to logging it, but suffice it to say it was a touching little thing that was quite out of place with the modern world. As I walked back to the car, I was thinking that this was the first time since I’d arrived in the state that I got something like what I expected of the Colorado experience. Of course, the big show, peak Colorado, lay around the corner and down the highway. All I needed was a turn to the right. Except I didn’t do that. Instead, I turned to the left and the highway carried me to…