So far, things look good for tomorrow, but anything can happen. Only have the Wardrobe and Office to pack, including making up my planning book. The Wardrobe is the most difficult thing to pack, considering I have to be prepared for three seasons, summer, fall, and winter. I have to constantly remind myself that (a) I can always stop for a few hours and do the laundry, (b) I can always not stop and not to the laundry (Donner is in no position to complain; (c) I can always buy something along the way, or trade with the natives: “I will trade you my (old beat-up) SUV for your Defender,” one mechanic in Utah once offered me when the Defender would not start, and (d) I am entering in any fashion competition.
Somewhere along the planning phase of this trip weeks ago, my mind started to unclutter from life as I knew it here, and just about every thought that popped into my head concerned one aspect of the trip or another. When I am driving, I am not heading down US 295 in Maryland, but US 77 along the Blue River in Kansas on my way to Alcove Springs to see if I can find the never-discovered grave of Sarah Keyes, or turning right on 789 off Interstate 80 in Golconda Nevada to see if I can find John Snyder’s unmarked grave in a desolate, fly-infested desert by the banks of the Humboldt River (See page 92 here). I really do not need to take any maps with me this year because I have the whole Donner Party trail permanently impressed upon my brain. Just follow the rivers and you will get there, more or less, “but don’t take no shortcuts, and hurry along as fast as you can,” as Patty Reed famously said. And stay away from anyone with the names of Lansford or Hastings, especially both.
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