I have had many ask me how I got the inspiration for what the area looked like around the ranch that Peter and his family owned in "Country Boy, City Girl". The fact is, I for the most part used real life.
One of the advantages of the modern era, is that we can easily pull up maps and satellite views to use as reference or inspiration for our stories. Myself, I spent some time with Google Maps, as I was starting the second story, until I found an area that resembled what I had described. I already knew that the very basic description from the first book was not enough if Pete was going to buy that land back. I needed something much more accurate if I was to keep all the future details straight.
Now it is not exactly the same, but it was close enough to what matched the story. And when I was in Book 3, I then expanded on it even more. Now granted, the dimensions and exact layout is not the same, but by looking at the photo and what I described, it is easy to see what exactly is where. The original ranch, the "Black Farm" across the highway, even the quarry and old pits filled in with water.
Roughly the area north and east of W. Siphon Road and N. Laughran Road is where the ranch is, but with a small bluff a hundred yards or so North. And south of that would be the "Black Farm", with the triangular spot of land, with the canal running through it. Not exact, as that did not match what I wanted for my story, but close enough that it is recognizable. Bordered along the Portneuf River. But once again, the river expanded to about twice the size as it really is. Make the river the size of the current river bed, expand the bed twice as much, and that is roughly what the story describes.
As well as the "Henderson Farm" on the other side, and the small trench made to go to the swimming area inside the Scout Camp (which in real life really is a Scout Camp). And if followed to where the Portneuf funs under Interstate 86. the area just north and west of the river where Hainji Net and Gem Computers is located (much of it today a storage facility). Where across the freeway and a bit west the remnants of the old WWII era air field runway can still be seen.
I know that what I describe is very different, but the general layout can be seen, even if the dimensions are nothing like what it is like in real life. But doing things like this helped me in my mind remember what went where, and how I would expand things as the story progressed.
And something I have encouraged others to do when writing a story. Find something at least close to what you want in real life, then use that as a template to write around. Helps keep things straight in your head as you can refer back to that if needed. In addition, give more inspiration for things to add to the story. The flooded gravel pits were only added once I saw that at that location there really were flooded gravel pits, in almost perfect locations.
I spent many hours in these images as I was writing, both to keep descriptions straight, and to get further inspiration.
https://i.pstorage.space/i/oykJJlwmm/original_Casa_del_Mañana.jpg