642. Mountain View, Stone County (AR61)

Well, the courthouse is made of stone.  A little part of me thinks it looks more like a nice residence than like a courthouse, but after a quick swing around, I saw the old jail in back and that removed any question.  That, and also apparently Mountain View is the (self-declared [though nobody is competing for it]) Folk Music Capital of the World.  It joins a rarefied club with cities such as Nashville (Country Music), New Orleans (Jazz), Memphis (Birthplace of Rock and Roll), and Austin (Live Music).  Who knew?  I most certainly didn’t!  I would have at least gotten a postcard or souvenir at the Chamber of Commerce across the street had it been open.

Since I was in the Folk Music Capital of the World, how fitting the cache should be at a dance hall?  I hit the parking lot and found the appropriate tree with a little bit of unexpected poison ivy there.  I was pretty sure the cold had killed it, but I was a little worried that I might have touched it.  I’ve never been particularly bothered by it, but I also have never taken to testing said theoretical immunity either.  Luckily, my worry that I might have to cut the trip short because of welts and swelling turned out to be baseless.  As has been the pact for time immemorial (or at least the length of my life), the ivy did its thing (which was nothing, in my case) and I did mine.  Once the cache was signed and returned, I would continue to do my thing, this thing, once again when I made it to…