Once inside we were greeted with a stuffed brown bear in the entry way. Directly after that some rangers pointed us to a small theater where a movie had just started about the Donner Party. The movie sort of summarized everything we had just learned in our audio book. The main difference I noticed was our audio book focused more on a woman Sarah Graves Fosdick, where the movie covered the entire party.
It was a nice birthday present to myself, being the history lover that I am, to first hear about these items and then see them in person. The one that stood out to me the most was a little doll. In the book the settlers were crossing the Salt Lake desert with salt/sand blowing into their faces day and night. They walked for over 24 hours with blistering heat in the day and freezing temperatures at night. And all of this was done while infested with flea's, lice and bedbugs. At night to protect their children from the freezing temperatures parents would sit across from each other with a blanket over their heads and the children in the center so the kids would be protected.
In order to lessen the burden on the oxen, which were growing weaker by the day from lack of food, water and extreme use, the travelers started to throw out unnecessary items from the covered wagons. One grown man sobbed when he was told he had to throw out his rolling pin that belonged to his mother. Then came the little girl, Patty Reed, she had a very small 4" doll that she was told she had to throw out. Instead she hid it away inside her dress and managed to take it all the way to California with her. A replica of that doll was on display here. But I got distracted and didn't get a picture of it.
Outside there was a statue, the shaft of the statue represents the depth of the snow which was 22 feet. They placed the sculptures atop this pedestal so that no matter how deep the snow got, the people will always be seen and remembered. Those are my two monsters there to give you an idea of height.
Once back on the road we were all getting hungry for some lunch. In an attempt to find something healthy I ended up doubling back toward Lake Tahoe, persuaded by my friend Google with promises of a salad bar just 13 miles behind me. After traveling up the highway for about 8 miles my car finally got a signal to it which then readjusted the GPS and that's when I found out the salad bar exit had already been passed. So onto the next exit where we were able to get back on the highway going the other direction only to pass the exit again because my GPS lagged. Yup, we ended up at Burger King. Our Burger King ?server? was curt, rude and snarky. We ate chicken fingers drenched in grease and french fries from the previous Tuesday.
For the record, I do realize how princess'y I sound after describing the horrid conditions of the Donner party, only to start bitching about no GPS signal in my air conditioned car and greasy food that was served to me. In my defense, and my husband will vouch for this, I never claimed to be anything other than an unapologetic princess. #irony
The misery of being stuck in a car for 3-4 days with 2 dogs and 2 kids was weighing on my nerves, as I'm sure it was on every other breathing thing inside that vehicle. The car was so pigged out, it was like driving around in the back end of a dump truck. The boy was begging me to take it to a car wash, but I resisted just wanting to get to our destination. The dogs were hot and restless, the kids were arguing and with my Bluetooth not working I have nothing to listen to except the news, and holy hell is that a bummer these days!
But just over that hill, as you descend into Sacramento you start to see the first Palm Trees. A smile washes over my face, the sun is bright, there are flowering bushes dividing the highway everywhere, it's just so..... de-stressing. Just past Sacramento you start seeing wide open spaces with rolling golden hills, then along the highway sporadic fruit orchards start to pop up, apricots, cherry, the vineyards make limited appearances. Once we are passing through Contra Costa county there is a bridge going over some kind of shipping yard. I don't know what inlet it is called, (yet), but I do know the effect going over water has on me. It feels right, my heart skips a beat and for whatever reason I feel lighter in spirit. What dirty car? Who's kids are arguing? It all falls away.
We rolled into Dublin just before dinner. Ed wanted to take us out to dinner for my birthday, but the last thing I wanted was to get back into that car. We ordered Chinese for me and the girl while daddy and the boy ordered a pizza. The night was spent trying to straighten my body out and adjusting to apartment life.
Yes you heard that right, until our housing situation is squared away we are 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs and 2 cats all living in a 2 bedroom apartment. To top it off we are only allowed 2 pets and are trying to just smuggle the other 2 by until we're set on a place. This means a lot of back parking garage potty walks. Since I am writing this many days since this happened I can report that we are all on a nice schedule and as adjusted as 4 people can be in this situation.
Until next time I'll leave you with this arrival in California photo I'm captioning,
Dog...."Oh, it's you again"
Cat....."Seriously? WTF?"
omg!! i can just imagine. glad you were able to see Donner party museum. i want to see it!!
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