Day 8 Almost Home Elko, NV to Truckee, CA 320 miles

As we crossed the border from Nevada to California the change of terrain was remarkable and the beauty of California was stunning. In an earlier post I had commented on this from the direction of west to east, but going the other direction the experience of the dry, monotonous desert of Nevada that leads into the dramatic and rugged elegance of the Sierra Nevadas had us awestruck. We both had a moment of feeling such love for the state we had spent our entire lives in. We felt home.

What a complicated feeling this is. We are simultaneously very much looking forward to getting home and also feeling so sad to leave our family behind. Home has taken on a different meaning since we sold our family home of 25 years and moved into a rental in February. We poured our hearts into that house. We updated or remodeled every part of it doing much of the work ourselves (ourselves meaning Thomas). Our children grew up in that house and both of them got married in our backyard. And yet, we both felt it was time to leave. The house had “done its job”. But now we live in someone else's house and we weren't quite prepared for how that would feel. Going home means going back to the familiar life we know that is now so unfamiliar during this surreal time. Thomas retired unexpectedly as a result of being laid off and I have not seen any clients in person since February. So...what is home and what is normal life is undefinable for us (and maybe for many of you) right now. We feel like, well, nomads right now and we are searching for our place.

We are now less than 4 hours away from the Bay Area. We have been gone for four and a half weeks. This adventure that we had planned for so long has come to an end. We are so looking forward to "seeing" our friends again whether that be from six feet away and outside or in our living room on a screen. Thank you for accompanying us on this journey. Tomorrow I will submit our final post.