Now it's blues in the morning, blues with me all night long.

[dolari]

The village of Marysville is where Young and Middle Andrea live. Older Andrea lives in San Antonio.


Well...it's a pretty nice town all by itself, really. It's an older settlement, 1850s style houses (With the occasional 1980s house thrown in). The village is pretty compact, a nice place where everyone knows each other. Very middle-class look to it. A perfect place for Andrea to grow up.

It's a neat little place, but VERY VERY creepy. What makes it creepy?


It's in the middle of nowhere, that what.

It's a good twenty miles away from State College, proper, on a branch off of Scotia Road. Scotia Road is pretty sparse to begin with...and the effect you get is of a lonely country road amid the hills of Pennsylvania. When you take the branch to Marysville, you feel like you're going down some ones private driveway. When I was exploring this part of Centre County, I had half an urge to turn around thinking I had gone on private property...but I kept going (Leif Erikson didn't turn around now did he?). Lo and behold, about five miles on a lonely; road, in the middle of nowhere, with NO signs of any kind of life, BOOM I'm in the middle of Marysville.

It was like finding a tribe of ancient Aztecs hidden in the woods of Central America. So after a good look around, and a big friendly Texas wave to the inhabitants (something that is VERY foreign in Pennsylvania), I decided to leave a different way than I came in. I took what looked like another main road out, and nearly drove off a cliff. I did a 48 point turn (Pennsylvania streets are narrow. Texas trucks are big.) and went the other direction...and again, nearly drove off a cliff. There's NO WAY OUT of this town except by that one road. A hilly road. Makes you wonder what happens when it ices.

Now, Marysville is in Pennsylvania...A Wish for Wings takes place in Texas (Preferably San Antonio). San Antonio is NOT Marysville under any circumstances. The cities around it, Boerne, Bergheim, New Braunsfels, Seguin, Elmendorf, Losoya, Lytle or Castroville ARE WAY too big to be villages. Texas doesn't have villages. It prolly has something to do with the vast expanses of nothing we have, which forces us to clump together for survival. Villages in Texas were probably overrun by vicious coyotes, vicious Indians and vicious tumbleweeds.

So for the last few Fridays, I've been taking to the road to find the perfect Texas Marysville near San Antonio. We had a few contenders (Grey Forest was good, but too ritzy, and too accessible; Rio Medina had too many businesses...Marysville was only cottages; Coolcrest was too planned, and too recent; Dallas was right out). Tonight, to soften the blow of an evil evil day (and against the advice of a premonition that I'd be in a car accident before 2001 was over), I hit the road yet again, this time going to Boerne and trying to find something smaller than that city.

I found Tapatio Springs down a little dusty Perfect For Marysville road, but Tapatio was WAY too resorty. Andrea and her family aren't really rich...the house is big, but it was inherited. Coughran was nice, but again, WAY too accessible (A freeway on one side, and a major highway on the other.) So I was about to give up and try and set the story in State College (hard to do, with no major skyscrapers in State College...I think the highest building is a seven story parking garage...not something an angel can perch on and protect her flock with).

So I'm driving along, and I find Ranger Creek road. I take this road for the helluvit...never been down it before. The road run STRAIGHT as an arrow for a few miles, and was obviously an overblown driveway for an old ranch, because it got smaller and smaller and more patchy. AndI was right...it leads right up to an old gate...but before that gate, the road veered off to the left. Taking that branch, the road smoothed out, became well paved, and wound every direction but straight.

It went for about ten miles...with NO HOUSES, NO GATES, NO NOTHING. Then in the middle of nowhere, was a T intersection. Ranger Creek dead ended, with "Turkey Knob Road" going left and right. TO the left, the road went several miles and dead ended at a ranch gate. Did a 180, passing Ranger Creek...this time, the road went on about five miles, before simply dead ending. Only a few houses were here on Turkey Knob road. Not only is this the perfect place for a Marysville...it seems to be part of an even OLDER road called Upper Cibolo Road which has long since fallen into disuse, disappeared and claimed as private property. This small segment has been partially repaved and cleaned up! History AND Fiction in one spot!

And now, at the VERY end of Turkey Knob road, where it simply dead ends, I'm planning to put the village of Marysville. :) Sure it'll have to be fictionalized Marysville, and if they ever populate the area, Texas's Marysville won't look like what they build. But it's close enough for me.


Should I need a COMPLETELY fictional New Marysville, I know of one place in Bexar County where I could fictionally create a road to the village...but that's no fun. :)

Suggestions for names? I'm considering New Marysville, Avery, Williamson (with Andrea's predecessors founding the village in 1850), Geyersville, Turkey Point (based on a local landmark), Ranger or Cibolo Village (based on a local creeks) and even Circleville.

Any suggestions on new names?

Yes, this is an attempt to completely try to forget today - why do you ask?

---

Linkies:
Marysville/State College/Scotia, Pennsylvania
San Antonio, Texas
Boerne, Texas
Bergheim, Texas
New Braunfels, Texas
New Braunfels, Texas
Elmendorf, Texas
Losoya, Texas
Lytle, Texas
Castroville, Texas
Grey Forest, Texas
Rio Medina, Texas
Rio Medina, Texas

Dallas is just a Really Big City.

Comments

[elenderel.livejournal.com]

maybe, just maybe, Andrea has relatives or something up around here, in Pumpkin Hollow?? It's a relatively isolated, forgotten, patoral, creepy place with a lake that literally disappears every so often (has nothing to do with rain or snow levels), indian burial mounds, a tiny forgotten graveyard, only one road in or out, and steep hills on every side except the entrance and exit -- which is the end of a long road that terminates in the Hollow after going through a section locals call "Thirteen Curves." There is a palpable, creepy sensation people get when they drive through the Hollow ... my friend from Long Island was *convinced* that Something was guarding the Hollow the night I took him there, and the Something did NOT want visitors, thank you very much. And he was part of the Skeptical Inquirer team in Buffalo. Another guy considers the Hollow to be an Earth energy power vortex or something like that, according to a book the guy published (there's mention of it on my homepage). So I'm not the only one who senses creepihood around here ... it's very cool and very remote and very creepy ... and it's only four hours or so to the State College area, so it's even remotely plausible ... whaddya think?

[elenderel.livejournal.com]

http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.asp?S=11&T=1&X=986&Y=11894&Z=18&W=1

I just realized that it's not on my homepage after all, but you can take a look at Pumpkin Hollow via the above link. :)

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

Andrea: "I really don't know where my family comes from. Mom doesn't talk about them much, but as far as I can tell the house we have in Avery has been in the family since the 1850s. I kind of get the feeling we're black sheep. Mom DOES have a picture of a little town her mother grew up in. She says it's in the Northeast somewhere. It could be New York, or Pennsylvania. I don't know, and Mom tells me I shouldn't ask too many questions about the relatives."