"Tokosaben"

Normally when I'm driving this route, it's when I'm on my way to "Tokosaben," the property my family purchased back in 1970.

When I was 13, my family and four others bought 40 acres just outside of Greeley Hill, and the name I came up with was voted as the unanimous winner.  Here's how I came up with the name:

I took the "T" from the Tindall family; the "O" from the Opdyke (my) family; the "KO" from the Kobiashi's; the "SA" from the Sato's; and the "BEN" from the Benthin's.  The really cool thing about the name was that before we voted on the name, we all voted on our choices for which of the five 2-acre parcels each family would get to build their cabin on.  Based on the statistical math (5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5), the odds of each family getting their first choice were 3,125 to 1.  And that's what happened.

Then, as if to prove what a 'special' place it was that we were creating… the parcels that each of the families chose as their first choice, were in the same order as the way I had put the letters from their names together.  The odds of that happening are 9,765,635 to 1 (3,125 x 3,125).

Basically, Tokosaben had a one in ten million chance of happening the way it did.  All of the families have always felt that this was how lucky we were to be together in the place we were.  Two of the families have since sold their parcels, but the feeling of 'community and love' is still being carried on to this day, and I hope it continues that way forever.