This as-told-to essay relies on a dialog with Wendy and Kurt Meyer, a 65-year-old manufacturing supervisor and 59-year-old toolmaker, who moved from Mission Viejo, California, to Washington, Iowa, in October 2021. They stayed 20 months earlier than transferring again to Mission Viejo in December 2022.
Wendy: I am a local Californian, born in Los Angeles. My dad and mom had been from Iowa and moved me to Iowa after I was in highschool. That is the place I met my first husband and had two youngsters.
After I acquired divorced, I got here again to California and met Kurt.
Kurt: I used to be born in Germany. In 2001, I used to be despatched to Lengthy Seashore for enterprise by my firm. That is how I met Wendy.
Wendy: We’ll have been married for 22 years this yr.
We deliberate on retiring and spending 50% of our time right here in California and the opposite 50% in Germany. However Kurt simply liked California a lot that in 2019, we offered our house in Germany. The intent was to remain right here in California.
We lived in Mission Viejo in Orange County. Our lives had been superior. We had nice jobs. My daughter and grandkids had been right here. We had an excellent buddy group and a fantastic church.
The climate was good. I do half-marathons, and I may practice year-round on the seashore. On Sundays, Kurt and I’d go for a stroll within the water. Every thing was in place for us.
Kurt: The one factor we did not like was the site visitors.
We began considering a transfer in 2021
Wendy: My daughter and her husband and two youngsters traveled to Iowa to go to household. When she got here again, she introduced they had been transferring there. She’s a local Iowan and wished a greater way of life for her youngsters.
My son additionally ended up transferring to Iowa. He retired from the Air Pressure and moved again there.
We had no intention of transferring. None. We had even talked about how we might by no means stay in Iowa.
However then we noticed their transferring truck pull out. I may nearly weep, even now.
Inside per week, I contacted a real-estate agent. In October 2021, we began getting ready to maneuver.
Kurt: I used to be nervous.
Wendy: I used to be, too. There are as many individuals in Orange County as there are in the complete state of Iowa! Solely about three million folks.
However my cup is all the time half full. In the course of the pandemic, I had began lacking Iowa, the place I raised my youngsters. I missed that way of life, with the farmers market, the 4 seasons, the simplicity of the whole lot.
So, we purchased a house in Iowa. We acquired a utility trailer and hauled all of our stuff ourselves throughout the nation.
Courtesy of Wendy Meyer
The city we picked was very small. It is referred to as Washington, Iowa, about half an hour south of Iowa Metropolis.
We advised ourselves earlier than we left that we might give it one yr. After one yr, Kurt and I’d sit down and do a professionals and cons listing.
Our plan was to retire as soon as we acquired to Iowa. That is what we advised ourselves. And we tried. However we did not actually need to retire.
Kurt: It is boring.
Wendy: I feel we had been each so concerned within the leaving course of and the beginning over course of that we by no means considered what would occur as soon as these processes had been accomplished.
We found retirement was so boring that my husband went and acquired a job at The College of Iowa Hospital within the engineering division. It was the most effective job.
We acquired this lovely ranch-style house on half an acre. We discovered a fantastic church. I labored part-time.
We liked how a lot area there was in Iowa.
Kurt: There was loads of area.
Wendy: I additionally felt extraordinarily patriotic there. Folks put on their patriotism proper out within the open, and I liked that. I liked seeing the farmers within the discipline.
It ought to have been good, proper?
Kurt: Nevertheless it simply wasn’t our cup of tea.
We knew Iowa wasn’t proper for us
Wendy: I did not really feel like, “Oh my god, I really like this!”
Folks have this notion — and we did too — that Iowa is far more inexpensive. It isn’t. There are particular issues which might be extra inexpensive, like the price of a home.
However the utilities weren’t extra inexpensive, as a result of Iowa has such excessive shifts within the climate. I used to be shocked on the excessive fluctuations within the climate. The seasons roll proper into one another. I do not even keep in mind Fall.
Kurt: And our property taxes had been twice what they’re in California.
Wendy: Fuel is cheaper, however you need to drive additional. We needed to drive 40 minutes to get to a Costco.
In Mission Viejo, we had live shows we may go to each summer season. They do not have that in Iowa. I like to hurry stroll and do races and there have been hardly any races there.
Courtesy of Wendy Meyer
Kurt: And we had moved half an hour’s drive from the place Wendy’s daughter and her household lived, however we did not see them fairly often.
Wendy: They’re busy with their very own lives.
I saved really saying to myself, “Why cannot I like this extra? What’s it?” After which, in the future, I keep in mind telling Kurt, “I do not need you to really feel caught right here.”
Kurt: I felt very uncomfortable.
Wendy: I did not notice I felt that very same means till in the future, I acquired a textual content from my boss at our outdated jobs in California who stated coming again was all the time an choice. It made me notice we critically had the chance to get our jobs again. I could not flip my again on how I felt in that second.
And I swear, as quick as we stated we had been going to Iowa, we determined we had been going house. In whole, we had been in Iowa for 20 months.
California simply seems like house
Wendy: We got here again to the place we had beforehand lived in Mission Viejo, actually inside two miles of our outdated place.
It is simply loopy how we had been capable of decide proper again up. I began a part-time job this week. We have been very blessed.
We miss the youngsters. However we Zoom with them. And so they come to go to. I’m going there too and hang around with them.
We’re younger at coronary heart. We weren’t able to retire. We’re very lively — far more lively in comparison with others. Now we have a whole lot of life left in us, and we actually recognize the whole lot California has to supply.
Kurt’s favourite saying is: Day-after-day is paradise. We by no means trip as a result of why would we?
Kurt: I see California with new eyes after this expertise.
Wendy: We see ourselves staying right here in California for good.
Kurt: Till the bitter finish.
