19 Comments
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Darin's avatar

Thank you for the restack, @Lique

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Lique's avatar

Welcome!

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Kent Peterson's avatar

Lovely. When you get a bit older you should do the entire trip on a riding lawn mower.

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Darin's avatar

If anyone asks, I can say that I am just touching up the verges on the highway.

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Louise Haynes's avatar

Great stories, Darin! Thanks.🙃

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Darin's avatar

Thank you, Louise!

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Ralph Turner's avatar

A good trip down memory lane for you and an enjoyable tag-along for us. Thanks for sharing. Rural Virginia's not unlike here. Certainly just as flat in the places we visited.

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Cedric's avatar

It's funny how things change and what you remember. My wife always makes fun of me when we go visit my parents at their beach house because the first time I went there with her I said that I remembered the place when it was only sunflower fields. Then it was all built up, the village having grown to 10 times the size it was when I was a kid.

When I was a kid, my mother was a primary school teacher. I was going to the same school (but she always refused to be my teacher). Years after leaving the school, I went back, and everything seemed to be on a different scale: huge things looked small; normal things appeared tiny. One thing didn't change though: the smells.

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Darin's avatar

And for me, that one thing was the taste of the water from the well.

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KewtieBird’s Photo Journey's avatar

A very interesting and personal tour. Thank you for taking us.

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Darin's avatar

Thank you, Kewtie!

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søren k. harbel's avatar

You write these super illustrated stories so well. I have never been to Ainsworth, and it is unlikely that I will get there in person, but thanks to you I feel like I have, and that is your gift to me. Thank you!

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Darin's avatar

Thank you, Søren. It’s not much of a place really, it never has been, but it does carry memories.

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Susanne Helmert's avatar

At least they improved the Golf course dispite you not being there…

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Darin's avatar

I’ll admit that I was surprised by their initiative, but I was pleased that they felt confident enough to act without me.

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Dave's avatar

I took the time to trace Route 20 back to near my home in Chicagoland. It’s 95th street and I drive it occasionally. It’s also a part of the route I take going to Galena. A nice town in hilly northwestern Illinois. Made me feel connected to Ainsworth.

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Darin's avatar

Just a bit farther west.

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Thomas D’Arcy O’Donnell's avatar

.. well done ! (not the ‘steak though.. & keep in mind you will get a bull calf or heifer depending on the sex of the steak.. you planted - instead of eating it medium rare or blue rare or burnt to a crisp ‘well done.. eh !)

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Darin's avatar

Moooo!

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