My first stop of the trip was at Donner Pass, in Eastern California. In 1846, the Donner Party, a group of 87 settlers from Illinois, were attempting to reach California by passing through here. They were caught in an October Snowstorm at this spot in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and were not able to get out until the spring of the following year. The snow that winter was the heaviest ever seen in the Sierras - it was twenty-two feet deep, marked by the height of the base on which this statue stands. Miraculously, 45 of the 87 in the Donner Party survived in shelters they built. Of course, they survived by eating the flesh of those who had already died. And me? I just got in my car and drove through.