Hank – We left the Brass Rail and cruised over to the City Park. I had emailed the city hall a couple days ago and they said we were allowed to camp overnight there. We elected to set up under the cooking shelter. It provides some protection from the wind. While we were setting up a deputy sheriff and two women who work there came over to the kitchen area next to where we put our tent. Someone had broken in and I think they stopped up the sink and left the water running. It reminded me of the Wet Bandits in Home Alone. Anyway, there was a lot of discussion as to how the culprit(s) got in and out because the hasp was still locked but the bolts holding the hasp were all loose. And to make this story even juicier, there’s some history with a former and/or disgruntled employee or two that may indicate possible suspects. They could have removed the bolts and disassembled the lock to get in but couldn’t have reassembled it in a locked position without someone on the inside who would have been unable to get out. The investigation continues.

A train passing by about 200 feet away woke me up in the morning. The horn blew at every crossing, as required, and there are many crossing going though Rosalia. So the horn blew all the way through town. It must have just been leaving because the clack-clack of the wheels were spaced out quite a bit. I looked at my watch and it said 7:45. Wow! I haven’t slept that late in ages. Kathy was still out so she was getting some good rest too. I unzipped the tent and peeked out. It was still dark. What the??? I squinted at my watch again. 3:45 in the frickin’ morning. I went from feeling refreshed to dog tired and went back to bed. But before dozing off again I got to thinking about the lock puzzle. Whoever did it either had a key or picked the lock. (Master locks are pretty easy to crack open.) Then they disassembled the hasp and reassembled it loosely, even reversing one of the bolts to make it look like that was how they got in. It was the Greenskeeper in the Kitchen, not the Butler in the Dining Room! Unfortunately, there was no deputy sheriff on hand to benefit from my slow motion Sherlock-Holmesian deductive powers. Life is cruel that way.

I got up–again–at 6:00. Since I hate to sit around, I put water on for tea and started packing. Kathy got up an hour later. We will plan this day now.