Those 70ish Girls

We finally got out of Nevada and into California! We saw a lot of God’s country along the way. It seems like every state we’ve travelled through also has some of what appears to be God forsaken country. California is the 9th state counting Texas where we have made an appearance. We challenged all of you to name all 9 and we don’t have a correct answer yet. We haven’t been to Utah Heidi, but good guess😊.

We can’t believe all of the beautiful weather we have had virtually the whole trip. This time of year appears to have been a good choice.

Here is some history for you:

Between Winnemucca, NV and Auburn, CA there are lots of reminders of what the emigrents who traveled west to California suffered. The California Trail was deadly. Settlers traveled through what is called the 40 mile desert. It consists of barren, alkali wasteland. It took some a month to cross it. They had no water except what they could carry. Remember, they were bringing cattle and horses plus mules to pull the wagons. There have been 1081 Human graves found and over 3000 mules and horses died along the trail.

Not long after we passed through the high desert, we came to Donner Pass which is a mountain pass West of Truckee, CA. The pass has a well known and macabre history. It’s a place where George Donner and his party got stuck in the winter of 1847. They found the pass clogged with new fallen snow up to six feet deep. They were stuck there. Purportedly, they were reduced to cannibalism to survive the winter, only half of the original group reached California the following year.

We saw some of the Tahoe National Forrest, the Truckee River (both beautiful,) and Emigrents Gap, which was another area that was difficult to get through.

I was so engrossed in reading the hysterical markers as Kip calls them, I didn’t get as many photos as I should have.

It was another great day! When my brother and I were children, and our family got to do something special, Dad used to say, “I wonder what the poor people are doing today.”😯

What an unforgettable experience we are having!