Oh, West Virginia! On a certain level, I was happy to add another Jefferson County to my ever-growing list of them. On another level, this was a slightly different kind of courthouse than the ones I'd seen before. I think a lot of courthouses I'd seen, especially ones in the Midwest, were trying for a … Continue reading 780. Charles Town, Jefferson County (WV01) →

Frederick County, like Howard before it, has a more modern courthouse. This one, however, does not make me feel physically ill like the last one did. I liked the central seating area, but I was a little confounded that the statue there was John Hanson, the first president under the Articles of Confederation, instead of … Continue reading 779. Frederick, Frederick County (MD04) →

Oh God. It hurt me to look at this. I'm not going to say that this is the worst courthouse I've ever seen, but it is certainly at the bottom end of mediocre. Actually, I take that back. I wouldn't even call it that. The bottom limit of mediocre ascends as this one slides into … Continue reading 778. Ellicott City, Howard County (MD03) →

And yet, there is a county that Baltimore is separate from. I was struck by the courthouse I found here, enjoying all the marble and limestone. Little bits of life were buzzing around, to the point that I had to wait for wedding photographers to move, and eventually I asked someone who I thought was … Continue reading 777. Towson, Baltimore County (MD02) →

Oh, Maryland!So, for the first time, I have encountered a new kind of county equivalent: the independent city. Many independent cities are very old, founded with state rules predating the Constitution, though this is not always the case. There are also cities where the city and the county have merged into one entity that takes … Continue reading 776. City Of Baltimore (MD01) →

On Saturday, my daily cache was an Event, a semiannual gathering held at each equinox. A bunch of us conversed together regarding our lives, our travels, and our histories. Some faces we hadn't seen in a long time were there, which was nice. I was especially nostalgic since they were the COs behind both my … Continue reading Dramatis Personae →

My last few caches have not been the most exciting or distinctive. Actually, they've been downright mundane because I've not been trying too hard. Even though the summer heat has begun to abate, I've still not been in the mood to search for anything difficult or far out. Those both just mean more time in … Continue reading The Emotions Fly →

I was talking to someone yesterday who said something that’s been kicking around the back of my head for a long time: Travis County has a lot of caches (over 2,500, if you must know), but not enough of them are truly quality caches. It may be a little hyperbolic to say that there’s a … Continue reading Dereliction Of Duty →

So the girls and I went for a drive. I had to get them back to their mother after a weekend of shenanigans. At the same time, I also realized that I didn't have a cache for the day. But that's one of the good things about grabbing a cache on the road. We were … Continue reading A Small Weekend →

I feel it is time to offer you all one of my greatest, most closely guarded secrets. I didn't start writing all this so that I could document every county in the United States. I started writing this so that I could make terrible, pun-like jokes to a captive audience! So, assuming nothing goes wrong, … Continue reading Five Thousand, Two Hundred And Eighty Feet of Rock →