Last spring, I had the good fortune to retrace the steps of the Donner Party. This post is part of the story of my journey. Big thanks to the Indiana Arts Council for helping to make this happen.
Setting Off
The Graves family left Lacon, Illinois, in the middle of April in 1846. They were looking for a new place to live, one that promised better weather and climate, easier farming, fewer mosquitoes and sickness. Good, rich, cheap land. California. They were looking for adventure.
I loaded up my husband and three kids in our mini-van and left my home in Indiana in the middle of May of 2016. We were going west to follow their footsteps. See the land and sky they saw. We were looking for adventure.
I can’t really draw a parallel to the two journeys at all, of course. Mary Ann and her family walked virtually every step of the way. We drove. They were forced to think about food for themselves and for their livestock. We tried new restaurants and got ice from our cooler from various hotels and picnicked at clean, comfortable state parks along the way. They had rough travel maps and a few guidebooks, but mostly word of mouth and landmarked, river-following directions. We had GPS and yelp and tripadvisor and a big atlas. And great giant road signs along the way. They had to worry about weather: rain that soaked everything, mud that slowed down wheels, scorching sun with no shade, violent wind, snow that came too early, snow that blocked their path. We had a bit of hail that caused us to slow down the car a bit and a few colder than expected mornings that required digging around for a sweatshirt.
See? No comparison.
But set off we did. Here’s a shot of the zero trip mile odometer reading, while parked in the driveway.
Here are a few snacks we packed and a few changes of clothes:
Truly we brought more books and electronics than anything else. Just no comparison.
Come back tomorrow! I’ll be telling you all about our journey, one step at a time.
For the next post in this series, go here.