When I was in high school, I had to travel about 30 miles each way. See, I lived in the far west suburbs of Chicago, and went to school not all that far from the Loop. Most of my new school friends lived either in the city itself or much nearer suburbs.
No one I met seemed to know where my suburb was located, leading it to be dubbed by my friend group as “the middle of nowhere.” I even made an entry in my sketch journal about it. The sketch journal was an assignment from my junior year English class that I maybe took way more seriously than anyone else did… I mean, ended up completely filling one sketch book and starting another one that I showed that teacher even after I was no longer her student.
And yes, I do still have those journals.
At any rate, I am now in the process of purchasing a house that fits much more accurately into the classification of “middle of nowhere” than Winfield ever did. While Boise, Idaho, my current location, could also be construed as a kind of middle of nowhere, being the largest city within a 6 hour driving radius, I am planning to move somewhere two hours away from that, to the small town of Cambridge, Idaho.
While most folks in Idaho know exactly where Boise is, Cambridge will probably take a little more explaining, especially to folks not from the area. It’s surrounded by mountains and in the Salubria Valley. To the west are the Hitt Mountains (and the Snake River), north the Cuddy Mountains, and, my favorite from a linguistics perspective, to the east, the West mountains.
Maybe it’s fate. My long ago school chums decreed my location as the middle of nowhere, and I’ve just been seeking that ever since…
I mean, the main reason that I even looked out that direction was that I wanted to buy a property with some space, not a condo or a townhome. And in Boise, there were no properties meeting those expectations anywhere near my budget. So I expanded my search farther afield and somehow I found this one. The house needs work, and so do the 5 acres of land. It’s work I’m excited to start.
Maybe I’ll even do some sketch journaling about it. Though I’ll probably just stick to blogging…