684. Cottonwood Falls, Chase County (KS087)

Nice!  Another white stone clock tower, this time with red accents.  I found it striking, though I wished they had taken down the Christmas lights that I could see still strung up on the building.  That was far less important, though, than the white SUV that started slowing down in the street directly behind where my car was parked.  My lizard brain was already processing scenarios, thinking that something was about to, as they say in the parlance of our times, “go down.”  I was already halfway in the car, sitting behind the wheel and already reaching for the lock.  Once I was safe inside, I considered several maneuvers to get myself into a position to drive away.  Luckily, all that split-second thinking was for naught.  The SUV slowed down but then sped back up and continued on its way.  I have, on a number of occasions, noted how self-absorbed people can be. Most pay zero attention to what you’re doing.  One definitely doesn’t expect a curious lookie-loo at 2:30 a.m.  I don’t know one way or another if it could have turned into an “incident,” but I’m much happier not having to find out. 

I was worried about the county from a caching perspective for a minute.  It looked like most of its caches were either in cemeteries or in a national preserve that I’m pretty sure was closed at the moment.  However, Providence provided!  The cache was a pill bottle at an old bridge.  I signed the log, calmed by the rushing of the water beneath.  However, the cache set off one of my pet peeves.  A whole bunch of people logged finding it in the last two or three months, but the last signature on the physical log was six months before.  What’s the point of even finding the cache if you’re not going to sign it?  I get that sometimes one can forget a writing implement or something similar.  I’ve done that myself on a few occasions.  Heck, I even know a person who likes to find them but never signs or logs them.  But that many people, that many times?  I call shenanigans!  But it didn’t matter.  My business was done here, and I went on to my next stop in…