Day 31

This morning Gus had the privilege of meeting with a pastor of a church in Fallon, NV. They had a great conversation about Spain and we are excited about future ministry possibilities with this wonderful church! After packing up, off we went. For the land of California!!! I was super excited to cross over the state line and back into California, after being gone for a month. It was even refreshing to see California license plates. Yes, yes, yes I know how naive that sounds. But California is the only state I've lived in so I feel very drawn to this state. Even though LA isn't the most beautiful place. In fact, I wouldn't categorize it as even nice looking, especially compared to the sights we've seen and the beautiful places we've visited all over the rest of the country. But it is home. And being in California is one step closer to being home!! And for today at least we are in a pretty part of California-Northern California.

I've posted about the beautiful skies everywhere we've traveled. And today, I, for the first time, thought California's skies were pretty...


It was also refreshing to start driving towards the mountains and the pine trees. Just starting to get a glimpse here...

On our way to our final destination, we stopped at the teeny tiny town of Graeagle. Every year when I was a child, we would go camping for 2 weeks just outside of this town. And we would often come down the hill to this town for groceries. I have very fond memories of it and today we saw that it hasn't changed a bit!

Here is the store I have very very fond memories of. Love the wood floors. And the smell when you walk in the door. And the meat counter that is still there.

Driving down main street. Love the red houses with green roofs!!

And then we began driving to the campground. Love the trees!!

To Plumas Eureka State Park. Lovelovelove this place! Unfortunately it was closed down for the winter. But we still drove as far as we could. Gus and I went camping with my family 7 years ago and we hadn't been back until today. How fun to drive down memory lane!!

Driving down the road from the museum, pictured above, to the campsites. Many memories of walking down this road!

The view from the road. Breathtaking...

And more views on the way back down. We couldn't get any closer than the end of the road; all of the campsites were closed. But that's ok. We saw enough!

We arrived in Quincy, this charming town about 20 minutes away from Plumas. To our friends the Biddles, whom are parents of our dear friend Emily. They are such hospitable hosts with a beautiful home in the mountains. We felt like we were on a retreat! They do not yet have grandchildren and so enjoyed our two boys! Mr Biddle played a lot with Cael...


And Mrs Biddle enjoyed snuggling with Coen...

And here is Coen, all dressed for bed, having one last romp on the floor...

While Mrs Biddle read to Cael...so fun!

Thank you Biddles for letting us stay with you!!

So tomorrow we go HOME!!! We have about an 8 hour drive, which we will break up a bit by one last visit with some friends for dinner, but we are planning on arriving home late tomorrow night. I am so looking forward to being HOME and putting everything away. No more suitcases and ziploc baggies for all of our possessions. However, we have had so much fun on this trip. Seen some wonderful people. And beautiful places. And driven about ten thousand miles. Phew! We've added up the miles on all our road trips and have driven about twenty thousand miles. And seen 31 states. It has been such a privilege to travel so much in the US and see our beautiful country. But there is no place like home and I am so excited to return!! Thank you everyone for all of your encouraging comments to read while we've been on the road. And for your prayers and support of us!!