Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong. Take me home to the prairie.
(Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Well, I lasted 65 days in the (sort of) Deep South…
My sojourn to Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia, in which I couch surfed at my sister’s and got under my nephew’s feet as much as humanly possible, went from late July to early October.
Some mugginess, some heat, WAY too many bugs, a fair amount of yard work, and one trip to the ER to get antibiotics for a yard work-related foot infection later, I’ve called it a day and left behind Scooplex, the roadside ice cream stand which won my heart (and taste buds).
The taste of West Virginia.
Yes, I’m back … in red and black.
Back to the prairie which it turns out I missed far more than I thought I would.
Back to 45 degrees and rain, like Mother Nature and all other deities intended.
I continued to write about Cow Town from 2,800 miles away, but now I am returning to once again fully embrace my destiny in person as “that guy who won’t shut up about Coupeville.”
I have danced the dance with my blog for 13+ years, through nearly 12,200 articles — threatened to quit, sort of quit, changed my fickle mind, then gone through it all again — but apparently I’m not done just yet.
This is what I was meant to do, and this is where I was meant to do it. That much I know to be true.
At this point in my life, I don’t want a “real” job. I want the “right” job, and, for me, that “right” job is writing Coupeville Sports.
And to do that, to really do that, I need to be back on the prairie of my (sort of) youth.
From 2,800 miles away, I can get stat sheets and coach quotes by email, trying to adapt to the three-hour time difference between different sides of the country. That’s true.
But to truly have the blog be everything it can be, to go deeper, to be the person who really documents the sports hopes and dreams of a small town nestled in the middle of a rock out in the water in the Pacific Northwest, I need to live here.
Maddie Big Time hitting identical buzzer-beating three-balls from half court in back to back games … 17 days apart? It meant more in person. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
We’ve done so much together since Coupeville Sports began in 2012.
The Wall of Fame in the CHS gym, documenting 100+ years of athletic accomplishment.
The 101-year and 50-year celebration nights for Wolf boys’ and girls’ basketball, respectively.
Every time someone digs out an old newspaper clipping, or a lost photo, the past becomes the present. And there’s still more to uncover — Tom Sahli’s sophomore basketball stats will be mine one day, I swear!!
There’s more work to do. There’s more moments to celebrate. More lives to impact.
I’m gonna make some folks happy, and chafe some others. It’s my nature.
But I’m going to do it here, back on the prairie.
Back where the fog often rolls in across Mickey Clark Field — which turned 50 recently, by the way — as the deer wander in to lead the blocking for Wolves returning punts on the gridiron.
Where the rock-hard bleachers in the gym are ready and waiting to once again abuse my nether regions.
And where spring sports will undoubtedly start way too early, chilly prairie breeze shooting up my shorts and punching me in the tender vittles.
I’m not returning to my duplex, as it’s undergoing a transformation into something new, but I’ll be just a few blocks up the road.
Which means the library, post office, bank, gas station, PC, and the gym and sports fields all will still be within a mile or so of my new residence.
I am a creature of habit, though one who used the West Virginia sojourn to reduce my worldly possessions to what I could fit in a duffel bag.
For what do I truly need beyond a notebook and a computer?
Well, probably a microwave, so it’s a good thing my new place comes pre-equipped with one.
And a washer and dryer!!
I’ll be living the high life and not hanging around the Oak Harbor laundromats like in days past, feeding quarters into the hungry, hungry machines.
In the end, my trip to West Virginia pushed me out of my comfort zone and gave me a slightly different perspective on things.
I saw some living history while squatting on the other side of the country, including the deadliest battle fields in US history at Antietam.
Unless we count my daily brawls with the local bugs in my sister’s back yard…
Bloody Lane, in quieter times. (Sarah Kirkconnell photo)
My time away also reinforced the core truth that I am most at home in Washington state, on Whidbey Island, camped in Coupeville.
I wasn’t born in Cow Town, maybe, but this is where I want to be, where I need to be.
Prairie Life Maybe 4 Ever.
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David Svien
1722 Whales Run Place #B
Coupeville, WA 98239
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The “Godfather” handshake never goes out of style.
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