When you don't have a home, where is home?

In the spring when my gap year with travel began, we were a little uncertain how our plan would go.  Actually, I was uncertain about everything. After our trip to Bend where we signed a contract on a yet-to-be built house with promised delivery for mid-December and deposited a huge check into an escrow account, we still seemed reluctant to claim Bend as our future home. In what I considered a step toward stability I decided  to call the new city home. When asked "Where do you live...? I  planned to answer Bend.

As I moved forward with my plan, I noticed that R still told people we were from Chicago. Often his explanation came with a fairly lengthy description of our travels and rarely mentioned Bend. I guessed that those he spoke to assumed we lived apart.

I found this a little disturbing mostly because I worried that he had forgotten we had moved, together.

"You do know we no longer live in Chicago, right?" I ask in an unusually kind way.

He nodded that he did and agreed he'd start telling people who asked that we lived in Bend. Which was not really true because we weren't living there and wouldn't be there for months and we did not have a home there only an escrow account.  While the anxiety of rootlessness was fogging my mind, I was growing clear about one thing, we were houseless. Now I really felt uncertain about everything and we both hadn't a clue where we lived.

Not long after, R was tested. We flew from LAX to Florida where we would board a ship for a transatlantic crossing followed by six more weeks of travel.  A friendly flight attendant started chatting with us and ultimately asked where we were from. We both paused and I offered up, "No where." Great, I thought, good answer. R said that we are homeless. She looked at us suspiciously. I got it, we did not look homeless even if we both felt that way.  After a brief silence, I explained that we'd sold our Chicago home and would travel for a few months before transitioning to the west.

"I like that plan" she said with a big smile. "That's a great plan." 

"Then where will you live? Los Angeles?"

Bend, Oregon we said, almost in unison. 

"Oh, Bend." Oregon is nice. Rustic, like Seattle."

At that moment, I believe we located home.