In just a few hours, I’ll be on my way to the McFarthest spot where Hiram and I lived for seven years. We moved there in 1978, two shiny new college graduates with our first grown up jobs. Seven years later, we returned to Iowa so our three-year-old son could be closer to doctors and a children’s hospital.
When we left Harding County, a tiny bit of my heart stayed behind, though I didn’t know it way back then. But with the passing of years and decades, it calls to me disguised as longings for the immense sky and the cool night air, for elbow room and old friends. In answer, I pull out my mystery novel manuscript and let my imagination take me there.
But this week I’m making the long drive west and north to do background research.
I want to smell the air, see the small towns, and hear gravel ping against the fender.
Feel my stomach lurch as the car rounds the curve at the crest of the Jump-Off.
Remember what it was like to live without cell phone service and wireless wi-fi.
Visit the school where I once taught, where a former student teaches now.
Hug old friends.
Share old memories.
All in an effort to pour this far away, precious place and the kind of people who live there into a fiction story. So readers who don’t live there and don’t know what they’re missing can fall in love with my McFarthest spot. So the remote and vast land that captured my heart 28 years ago captures their hearts, too.
Are you there yet?
You bring back fond memories of the times I drove all the way up there from Custer to visit the two of you, on the long gravel road in the beautiful countryside, past the not so beautiful missile silos. I wonder if the missile silos are still active after all these years.
I will enjoy reading your book with your McFarthest spot when it is published. I am sure it will bring back more memories of the trips. (Plus I like reading mystery novels).
Russ
P.S. Say hi to Hiram for me when you get home.
Hi Russell,
I remember your trip “north” too. You were a good friend to make the effort. The missile silos are no longer active. This trip, I didn’t take the long gravel road at all. Now that Highway 20 is paved, and the speed limit is 65 mph on it and Highway 65, the route through Buffalo is just as fast, and it’s much easier on vehicles. So said the natives, and who am I to quibble with them?
Jolene