608. Hiawatha, Brown County (KS061)

Future county arborists!  Attend and take note!  This courthouse is surrounded by trees, sprinkled all over the grounds, different types and species to the point that I wonder if the state has this many different species and this was intentional or if this was just a landscaping choice made regardless of the state’s local flora, but that is a total aside.  My point here (and I do have one) is that the planters and landscapers have maintained clear fields of openness so that one can photograph well!  Right up the middle, the central walkway is nice and wide, free of branching clumps of leaves.  In fact, it’s flanked by a couple of evergreens, which will get fatter, but will not extend branches upward or outward, thereby obstructing the view in front of the courthouse.  I think that perhaps whoever planted these trees had a photographer’s eye and I wish I could give them the first annual Geocaching While Black Courthouse Groundskeeping Award.  To be entirely honest, I made that award up on the spot.  I have neither the means nor the motivation to endow that particular whim. 

I went to grab a cache that I snag on the way out of town and found one that looked pretty simple.  After having some bouncing GPS issues, I found this…  I checked the description (I so often don’t) and it mentioned that I would require a special tool, specifically a 9V battery.  Luckily, I was right next door to a business that should have them.  Unluckily, the last person who came for this cache bought the last one and they hadn’t been restocked yet.  I had to run across the street to a convenience store like some kind of plebian!  I’m a lazy American!  It’s my right not to have to expend effort!  But expend it I did.  A few dollars and a battery later resulted in one of my rare video cache finds…

Very simple, very clever, very cool.  It most certainly earned one of my stingily hoarded favorite points.  And, of course, I now had a new tool for my arsenal, so there was that, too.  And, as always, the road beckoned.  I pulled out of the parking lot and made way to…