Expanded Horizons

A couple of days ago, I had a really surreal experience finding a cache. I ended up going for one in the middle of Austin proper, in one of the wealthier neighborhoods just west of downtown.

Neighborhoods like that always weird me out just a little bit because something about money makes them weird. And in this case, the deer statue in the yard is, in fact, a deer. I expect that outside of town, not within ten minutes of the State Capitol. But that little treatise got chucked out the window yesterday when I received the message that so many have received: I was the owner of a new Virtual cache! I was happy to be one of the lucky four thousand who got one for a few minutes. Then the hard part dawned on me. I need to figure out a place to put it. Austin already has a lot of Virtuals spread around and old ones to boot. The University of Texas is lousy with them as the aforementioned State Capitol. Many of the most interesting spots in town have one (I know because I’ve gotten them all). My thoughts expanded to neighboring counties, but I couldn’t think of anything that was enough of a draw for me to want to place my valuable Virtual there. Of course, I began to think about perhaps placing it at the Travis County Courthouse, it being in keeping with my theme, but decided against it. The courthouse is not exactly the most attractive courthouse and I can’t think of another one that worthy of getting people to visit that didn’t involve a trip to the proverbial far side of the world and back. Then it hit me: I’ve found a lot of Virtuals at cemeteries, so why not draw someone to the grave of someone I admire?

Once I got to thinking of graves, I ran into a similar issues. The Texas State Cemetery is well full of famous graves and the most famous already have Virtuals or Adventure Labs associated with them. A few of the local cemeteries have a famous Texans (Oakwood, Austin‘s original cemetery, has something like a dozen governors and an Alamo survivor), but a lot of them don’t mean much to me outside of their historical nature. I would like to lean toward someone Black, but most of the interesting figures around here are sports related and, if you didn’t know, I’m not super into sportsball of most kinds. Again, my thoughts expanded to further counties and I started to think of some folks I respected. Katherine Anne Porter in Brown County? That’s a thought. I’m not into baseball, but Rube Waddell in Bexar County would be a heck of a story.I looked at several sprinkled about near Dallas and Houston, but none of them really spoke to me. Well, a couple did, but I thought their stories might be too dark for these purposes (he said, remembering that Virtual at the murderer’s grave in Lincoln). And then it really clicked. It’s a Virtual. Who says it has to be anywhere near me? And that’s when the possibilities really began to fill my head. Who do I admire who’s grave doesn’t have a Virtual? I know for a fact Annie Jump Cannon doesn’t, so do I go back to Delaware? Neither does Benjamin Banneker and I already need to go back to Maryland. There’s several Virtuals in Arlington National Cemetery, so maybe one for Henry Johnson or James Reese Europe, or even requiring visiting both? What about Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin in Massachusetts? What about Winfield Scott at West Point? I considered Harlow Shapley and Ernest Hemingway, but I’m not excited enough about them. But I sure as heck would put one at the grave of Joshua the First, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico!

So now I have a new reason to get back out on the road! I’ve got a Virtual to place!