So Long, Ames
Yes, the time has finally come to leave this Heart of the Great American Heartland and motor our way back West.
We’ve had a great, extended summer here in Ames. Five months that included plenty of walks through Old Town, with its lovely old Victorians fronted by giant trees that canopy streets; numerous visits to Reiman Gardens, including the evening they had more than 1,000 carved pumpkins, lit up and glowing brightly on a chilly night before Halloween; dining out with old friends at our favorite eateries; enjoying lots of sweet drinks at Cafe Diem on Main Street; and all that peace and serenity that comes with living in a smart Midwestern university town.
We’ve stayed long enough see pumpkins on front porches, and long enough to see Iowa State’s football team beat then-undefeated Oklahoma State at Jack Trice Stadium on a lovely late-October afternoon.
But in recent days the heater has been coming on almost every morning at our place because our overnight temperatures have been edging toward — or into — the 20’s, and daytimes are hovering in the 40’s or low 50’s. Those temps are enough to make us Californians ready and willing to hit the road.
So we will, this Friday morning. Over the decades, we’ve gone back and forth, East and West, on every major interstate in the nation. This time, we’ll head south on I-35 and eventually meet up with I-40 and — along part of the trek — that legendary old Route 66. We’ll zoom through the likes of Wichita, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Kingman and Barstow before hitting the 58 into Bakersfield and the 99 into Fresno.
We’re planning to take this a bit more leisurely than in years past — at least partly because we’re older, and long days of driving have become more difficult.
Once we’re in Fresno, we crazy Harts will stay in an AirBnb for a couple of weeks before we get possession of our new place in Madera County — which, we have been reassured, will be ready for us Nov. 23.
Of course, we won’t be there to take possession then because we have long-made plans to be in Mr. Disney’s World in Orlando over Thanksgiving and into December.
That’s right. We won’t move into our place until December, though it will be available in November. We wouldn’t want to make anything easy, and we won’t.
We had planned to make this summer the last one we’d spend in Ames. We were going to sell our condo here and move full-time back to California. But, of course, there were problems. Not enough construction people to finish our place out there in September, as we had hoped. And the builder had trouble getting materials — one of the ongoing effects of the pandemic.
So we had to stay here in Ames longer than we anticipated, and since we did not want any potential buyers tramping through our home, we simply did not put it up for sale.
That means we’ll be coming back sometime next summer for a much-shorter visit. We’ll plan to put our place on the market then — or not. Plans — and our minds — are highly changeable.
Meanwhile, we’ve had a whale of a time here these five months. And in recent days, Old Town ash tree leaves have turned yellow and dropped to the ground — and lots of lovely maples have turned fiery-red. We’ve seen frost coating rooftops and lawns, and at night, our clear skies are highlighting stars and planets in ways we won’t see in smoggy, smoky California.
But the Golden State is where we were born and lived for most of our lives, and it always draws us back, even as Iowa has lured us here for the summer. So, yes, our time has come to hit the road, again.
We really have had a wonderful life — and going back and forth across the country plays a big part in making it so.