Future Arborists of America, attend! We were doing so well with courthouses up to this point. This one even looked kind of promising. I liked the little bit of towering dome we can see, but someone went and planted trees all over the place and now I can’t see a thing! This is another, dare I say archetypal, example of what I’ve been saying for years: if you’re going to plant things around a courthouse, keep sight lines open so that nice views and photography can happen! What’s the point of a beautiful courthouse if nobody can see it? On the other hand, the trees also obscure the terrible expansion attached thereto. A pink building that they wanted to match the courthouse (but doesn’t), connected by brown brick on the back of it? I don’t know what they were going for, but they’re the ones who have to live with it so I hope they like it. I don’t know if this is what is supposed to pass for style in South Dakota, but I was starting to suspect that perhaps the trees were not placed all that thoughtlessly at all.
As for the cache, I went for an LPC but found myself in a questionable position. When I lifted the skirt, there was nothing there. The last person to find it said it was there and fine three days before. The finder two weeks before that said that the skirt was stuck but they managed to get it open. I had every reason to believe it was there, but no joy. I thought it might be cleverly hidden so I searched around for a bit, though based on the find counts of the most recent finders, I doubted that very much. I was busy deciding what to do next (I didn’t bring my cache repair kit so I had no container to replace it with) when I noticed a tiny piece of paper on the ground. On closer inspection, I realized that it was a piece of the log. It had obviously been trampled and seen better days, but names and dates were still readable on it. The textbook definition of claiming a find is to put ink on the physical log and the log was in my hand. I went ahead and signed it and called it a find. I don’t know how other cachers would handle it. No doubt some would consider it unethical. I understand that, but I also don’t claim to be completely pure. If there is a geocaching mistake or sin, I have probably committed it at one point or another. I put it under the skirt and logged it. Then I reported it missing and messaged the circumstances to the CO along with a photo of the log. I would have added that photo to the log, but I couldn’t at that moment for some reason (my phone turned out to be overheating for some reason, preventing me from doing several things) so that was weird, but immaterial. As far as I was concerned, I was done with Brookings County. The sun was getting low and I estimated that I would only have time for one more county in the sunlight so, quick as a flash, I hurried to…
Geocaching While Black 