835. Castle Rock, Douglas County (CO34)

It began with a conundrum.  When I pulled up to the building, I had to go down a list of qualifications: the sheriff’s office was nearby, there was a county monument at the site, and some county officials worked there.  It wasn’t the first time a justice center would function for my purposes as the county courthouse.  I saw a reference to an older county courthouse in town that had been entered into the National Register of Historic Places and considered whether I had time to go see it as well.  Ultimately, I opted not to.  I was out there because (a) the last time I was in Denver, I left a couple of counties alone so that I could spend time with friends, and (b) I had a ton of time to kill before the afternoon.  I wanted to limit my travel and cache finds to the quickest and easiest options. 

I don’t normally dress like a cacher on most days, but on this day, attired in a black suit with a black tie, I looked more alien to caching than usual.  As a side effect, nobody paid an iota of attention to me, either.  I could have easily been a plaintiff, defendant, attorney, or anyone else to be found there. 

I felt a little rumble in my stomach because I hadn’t eaten before I set out, so I set off, deciding to combine food and a cache. I ended up in the parking lot of a nearby Wally World, which turned out to have the worst service of any I have ever been to, which is saying something considering how many of them I’ve stopped at on the road and how wealthy the Castle Rock area seemed.  But it had a gorgeous view of the city and the butte for which it is named.  I walked over, past an older man in his truck fiddling with a piece of technology he didn’t seem to understand, past the camper towing a boat that had taken up fourteen parking spaces, to find a convenient, duck-based LPC.  I was momentarily startled when a previously unseen person moved in the back seat of the car parked next to the lamppost, but he turned out to be more oblivious than I was.  I don’t even think he noticed me, which was fine because I wasn’t in a mood to stay and chat anyway.  I signed the log, and then I ducked out.  I got caught behind a cement truck for about ten miles, so I made my way slowly to…