787. Prince Frederick, Calvert County (MD07)

The courthouse was, I thought at the time, another lovely colonial example like back in La Plata, so Georgian with just a hint of neoclassicism that would be all the rage in public building construction.  Except it wasn’t. It was built in 1915. I sometimes forget that, having never read any serious books on the subject, I know as much about architecture as I know about Abyssinian basket weaving. Since it was a weekday, I also had to remember that people would be coming and going, doing their business and paying little heed to tourists such as myself.  I can’t explain it, but I like seeing a courthouse as a living, functional building instead of just some mausoleum of the past.  I not only enjoy seeing the people come and go from it, but I also like to take the opportunity to see the inside, whether it’s to ogle at its beauty or just to use its facilities.  There was no time for that in this case because we were already getting ready to leave.  We had gotten the cache soon after reaching town.

Near the entrance to a cemetery, we saw what might have been a bit of the land primeval had it not been so close to a house and a walking path.  A short walk on that path brought us to a fallen tree, where a dropped pen betrayed our quarry, drilled in beneath.  I felt I should give credit where credit was due.  While it wasn’t hard to find, it was harder than might have been expected.  Some of that could probably be chalked up to a slightly different style of hide than we were used to.  Fallen trees this large aren’t really left around long enough for something like this in Central Texas. We popped it open and stamped the log.  After my jaunt to the courthouse a few blocks away, we were off again, bound for…