880. Leadville, Lake County (CO64)

The front of the courthouse was partially obscured, but that I cannot blame on the trees. There was some kind of event there, so they put up a canopy for it. Not the first time I’ve run into a courthouse in use. Heck, not the first time on this trip. All the kids running around complicated things a little, but I managed to get the best photograph I could, and one does with what one has. As for the courthouse itself, well, it was the 60s, possibly the 70s. That said, it was totally to Leadville’s credit that it felt like what Aspen would be if there was less money and less plastic (metaphorically speaking, of course). It felt like a hip little place to spend a few days getting away from everything, but I didn’t have a couple of days. At one point I had to stop in somewhere so I could get a wireless connection (heck, I really didn’t even have a couple of hours since I burned up most of my spare time back in Aspen).

I was done with the idea of expending effort, so I went for a Virtual in the town cemetery that left me torn for a few reasons.  It led to a grave and I had to identify the occupant, which was by no means difficult.  He was an actor and performer in the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show I personally had never heard of, but I have no doubt that mavens of the genre knew of him.  There was more than enough information on the cache page to identify him with a simple Google search and he has his own Wikipedia page.  Of course, being an older Virtual, it was placed before most people had instant access to all the world’s knowledge in their pocket.  He was also a Confederate veteran, making me less interested in giving time and column inches to the preservation his memory.  That said, it wasn’t the primary thing he was known for, so I can let that go.  He has to suffer the “indignity” of a Black guy visiting his grave.  If he’d be cool with that, great.  If not, well, I’m fine with his discomfort as well.  But none of that really mattered.  What did matter is that this Virtual, once I had logged it, was it.  I was finally done with the State of Colorado.  All sixty-four counties were accounted for.  I never had to come back. 

Thus began the long drive back to Texas. My original plan was to take my leftover time to shoot over to Nebraska and grab another handful of counties as I made my way home. I just didn’t have it in me, though. Even the prospect of more counties wasn’t enough to keep me going at that point. The mountains of southwest Colorado had worn me out. I went southeast, back through some of the smaller, less painful mountain passes I had driven on the way up. I didn’t want to go back through the Raton Pass at night as I had on the way up, but my desire to go home was more powerful than my desire to see it one last time (and maybe get the Earthcache there). Once I made it back to Hartley County, I got a few hours of sleep at a truck stop along side a few big rigs. It turned out lucky that I had headed back early. The aftermath of the weather that caused the floods in Kerrville knocked out a lot of roads I would have taken, resulting in a longer trip back home. But make it home I did. And there is no better feeling than sleeping in your own bed after a long trip.

And the next morning, when I awoke, I wept, for I could not log The New Colorado County Challenge.

And that is how I finished my tenth state, the Land of Peaks and Passes.