72 degrees and sunny? I could get used to this.

Well I’m happy to report that we made it safe and sound to our new home in Mountain View after a very long 3000 mile drive across the country. In some ways it was a fast trip. There was so much countryside we passed at 60 mph that it made the distance seem that much greater. I’m sure we could have extended the trip a week, or two weeks and still felt rushed. On the other hand, the 14 hour days were pretty long and we just wanted to get there.

A few pictures from the last day of the move

The last leg of the drive was split between uneventful and pretty much crazy. We passed through all of Nevada without a hitch.

Pretty desolate actually. I think Bri had this great picture in her head of movie-style desert and lots of native americans telling stories, but really there was just nothing. After we left Wendover, it felt like we drove the whole state and only passed through about 1000 houses.

Within about 20 miles of the state line towards California, everything started to change. Lots of people, a few more trees, some mountains, and then Reno. We coasted right through, knowing what we had spent the last 4 days working for was right around the corner…

And all of a sudden we were in our new home state! What we didn’t know at the time was that 250 miles of crazy driving separated us from our final stopping point. From Reno we started the climb. The altitude gain was a little weird coming out of Reno. You feel like you’re going downhill, but you’re actually climbing… a lot. The river below flows towards you, which looks even weirder. Around Truckee we climbed some of the steepest hills yet, with the aforementioned overburdened moving truck. It was slow going, let me tell ya.

Once we crested (about 300 feet shy of the record we set back in Wyoming) the drive down was equally crazy. Some very steep grades, coupled with construction on I-80 put me on edge the whole drive down the Sierras. I relaxed just a little when we got down to Colfax, but was soon worried as we reached the heavy 4th of July traffic around Sacramento. The traffic continued the entire way to Mountain View. Then to top it all off, there were very heavy winds as we passed on 680 past Walnut Creek and San Ramon. It was like trying to pilot a tugboat between two ships 10 feet apart in the middle of a hurricane. Not my favorite way to drive.

But we made it! After the challenging drive, the heavens opened up and everything settled down once we reached Mountain View. A friendly neighbor helped us unpack about 2/3 of the truck that night, so we were even able to sleep on our own bed. The last few days has been about doing all of those little things you need to get done after a move – changing addresses, updating your drivers license, putting stuff where it belongs. Most of that’s behind us now so we can finally start to enjoy this place!