781. Leesburg, Loudoun County (VA001)

Oh, Virginia!

It was technically not my first time in Virginia. On the way to Charles Town, an accident caused a detour into the Old Dominion. As I saw the fog-touched hills and the horses running in their green fields, I thought that what I was watching was exactly what I thought of when I thought “Virginia.” When I finally reached the courthouse, I thought the same thing. The aged simplicity I respected in Charles Town was repeated in Loudoun County’s courthouse. The portico was equally inviting and intimidating in a strange sort of way that I couldn’t put my finger on. That wasn’t my main concern, though. We didn’t reach the county until well after sunset, so I found myself on the grounds after dark. This is nothing new for me, but having people wait for me to do my work made me a little more anxious than usual. I was tempted to put out a call to the Future Arborists of America because the trees made it difficult to photograph, but I managed to find a good spot without too much time spent in the attempt. The surrounding fence was also interesting in that it had a turnstile-type gate. I’ve only ever seen that in one other place before, but this was far more ornate and involved.

The cache was a little more difficult than intended. We pulled up to a small shopping plaza and descended like locusts. We searched high and low, looking for something that would get us the county and allow us to move along since we were on a bit of a timetable. The six of us combined just could not find the thing, though. As the others continued the search, I looked through the logs in case there might be an extra clue that would help us and found the most interesting hint of all. A former finder suggested we ask the man in the coffee kiosk. There was, in fact, a nearby coffee kiosk, and there was a man in it roasting and grinding beans as well. So, I approached him and asked point-blank, “Do you know where the geocache is?” Laughing, he pointed to a shrub in one of the planters. As we looked for it, he told us when we were getting closer or farther until we finally discovered, in the piney limbs, an iron frog with a bison. As some of us chatted with him, telling him more about geocaching and our travel plans, others put ink on the log. And once our work was done, we adjourned across the street to get snacks and drinks and decide our next moves. We confirmed our next target cache and set off for…