Had a very pleasant one hour visit with my ex-wife last night. In fact, it was so pleasant, but as I drove away, I thought to myself, you know, I see why I married her but as I drove away, I am sure she thought to herself, you know, I can see why I divorced Also, had a very pleasant chat this morning with Dave and Lenny, the long-term proprietorsof not only the James Dean museum in Fairmont, Indiana, James Dean‘s hometown, and where he is buried, but also the proprietors of keeping his memory alive. I think next year I will attend the James Dean festival in late September on the anniversary of his death. I learned from Dave and Lenny that more than 20,000 people attended this year at the town that has a population of 4000 it only increases every year. Others may have a difference of opinion, but I believe it was James Dean, who started the youth culture it still persists in this day. Sent from my iPhone
Thursday, October 8, 2026
Day 31,
annie enjoying her last treat in a lovely roadside park in webster Indiana just before we get on I 70, the last of hundreds of highways and byways that we have traveled on and over for the last 31 days. Tonight we will bivouac somewhere in Ohio and tomorrow make the last 300 miles home, just in time for me to get ready to turn in one tragedy for another in New York on Sunday, the hapless donors for the equally hapless Macbeth’s.
Sent from my iPhone
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
Day 30, wednesday, October 7, recap for the day
Back to the Beginning: Springfield and Riverton
Today I returned to the beginning of the Donner Party story.
After following the trail westward across the country—through the plains, deserts and mountains, and finally to California—I spent today exploring the places around Springfield, Illinois, where the journey began in April 1846.
My first stop was Abraham Lincoln’s home. Lincoln and James Frazier Reed knew one another not only because they had served together during the Black Hawk War, but also because Lincoln had represented Reed in a number of legal matters. Lincoln was living here when the Donner and Reed families prepared to leave for California. Standing outside his house gave me a useful sense of scale: these people occupied the same small community, traveled the same streets and undoubtedly knew many of the same people.
Despite that connection, Lincoln was not present for the Donner Party’s farewell gathering at what is now the Old State Capitol on April 15. He was 50 miles away in TREMONT and could not return to Springfield in time for the bon voyage event. That small detail adds another human dimension to the story: even though Lincoln knew Reed well, he missed the moment when Reed and the other emigrants formally set out for California.
From Lincoln’s home, I drove to the Old State Capitol. On the south side of the Capitol plaza is a plaque commemorating the departure of the Donner Party from Springfield. I photographed both the building and the plaque. After visiting so many remote locations associated with the expedition, it was satisfying to find this modest marker at the place where the journey officially began.
I then drove along what was probably one of Springfield’s principal streets in 1846, following the likely route from Lincoln’s neighborhood toward the land where the Donner families gathered before setting out. The distance is surprisingly short. These were not figures from some distant and disconnected world; they were Lincoln’s neighbors.
At the southeastern corner of what is now the junction of Interstate 55 and Interstate 72, I passed the former Donner property. Much of the land remains green and relatively open. There are modern sanitation buildings nearby, but enough undeveloped ground survives to make it possible to imagine wagons, livestock and families assembling there 180 years ago. For a few moments, the modern highways and buildings receded, and the landscape again seemed large and empty.
From there, I continued east to Riverton, known as Jamestown in Reed’s time. James Frazier Reed had substantial interests in this area, including land, a mill and a furniture-making operation. I drove through town and located at least one property associated with Reed. Riverton remains a pleasant little community, with enough open land and older streets to retain something of its nineteenth-century character.
The day’s most unexpected discovery was Wheeland Park on the Sangamon River. It is now a small public campground and boat-launch area—quiet, green and very lightly developed. It may look much as the surrounding countryside did in 1846, which is precisely its appeal.
In fact, Wheeland Park may be the ideal starting point for anyone attempting a future retracing of the Donner–Reed trail. I would camp there the night before beginning. The next morning, I would imagine James Reed packing his wagons, leaving his property near Riverton, passing the Donner encampment outside Springfield and joining the families as they headed west.
That would provide a far more tangible beginning than simply starting beside a historical marker. It would recreate, as closely as the modern landscape permits, the gathering of the families and the first movement of the expedition.
Tonight I am camped at White River Campground near Cicero, Indiana. Although most of the campground is occupied by RVs, the staff gave me an isolated and secluded site. I finished arranging the Grenadier just as the last usable daylight disappeared and darkness settled over the campground—exactly on schedule.
Today did not involve dramatic mountain passes, deserts or pioneer graves. Instead, it supplied something equally important: a clearer understanding of where the Donner–Reed story began and how close together its principal participants once lived.
After traveling thousands of miles along their trail, I finally returned to their first few miles.
Day 30, wednesday, oct. 7, White River Campground.
at about 4 PM , on my way to Fairmount, I realize that my ex-wife lived just 40 miles from the turn off off the interstate, so I changed my plans, instructed ChatGPT to find me another campground for the night, called my ex-wife and said I’d be stopping by in a half hour for some dinner, and I did. A very pleasant time talking with her. Tomorrow, we will start the day with our visit to Fairmont, which has become a ritual for me for reasons you will see tomorrow, and then proceed east after that for the last campsite on this trip. Just in time for me to make Macbeth on Sunday in New York.
Sent from my iPhone
B 30, Wednesday, October 7, old state capital building Illinois
The state capital wasn’t here then, but this was the partial of land where the daughters and Reed camp the night before on April 15, 1846 before they departed the next day on their tragic journey, at least for the donners
Sent from my iPhone
Day 30, Wednesday, October 7,
This was George Donner’s land in Springfield, Illinois before he disposed of it, hopped on his wagon to a tragic end.
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Springfield Departure Records
https://chatgpt.com/s/t_6ac5b6d3cba88191adba5f51732e2c2c Sent from my iPhone
829, Tuesday, October 6, Illinois State Fairgrounds, campground, Springfield, Illinois
Today was a busy day, as well as an important one. With ChatGPT‘s assistance, I believe that I was the first person to reconstruct as accurately as possible the path that the donor party took from Springfield, Illinois, independence, Missouri. I did it in one day, basically, where is it took them 30 days. And what a lovely campground this is at the fantastic fairgrounds for Illinois State in Springfield. Any, of course welcomed are finally landing here after almost 300 miles are driving today.
Sent from my iPhone
Day 29, Tuesday, October 6, the path from independence to Springfield
Traveling on the road is really quite pleasant from independence to Springfield as I am traveling all of the back roads, the local roads, following the past that the Donner party probably took. ChatGPT has done an excellent job in mapping out the route that they took on the first leg of their journey, a task no one else has accomplished. I just found this lovely park just west of Paris, Missouri that Annie enjoyed.
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, October 5, 2026
Day 28, Monday, October 5, Higginsville, Missouri
October 5 — Colby, Kansas, to Higginsville, Missouri: 440 Miles
Our original goal today was Perry Lake, west of Independence, Missouri. From there, I planned to begin retracing—in reverse—the Donner Party’s journey from Springfield, Illinois, to Independence, where they joined the Oregon-California Trail.
No one knows precisely which roads or paths the Donners and Reeds followed during that roughly 330-mile journey, which took them about a month in the spring of 1846. For the past several days, however, I have been working with ChatGPT—also known as “Chip”—to reconstruct their most likely route. We have studied period maps and plats, identified the villages, settlements, river crossings and roads that existed in the 1840s, and considered how emigrants traveling with heavily loaded wagons would most logically have crossed the country.
The result is what I believe to be a highly plausible reconstruction of that forgotten opening chapter of the Donner Party story. I may even be the first person to attempt to drive and document the entire route.
Because I was making excellent time today, I told Chip that I wanted to begin the reconstructed route immediately and continue perhaps 50 or 60 miles beyond Independence before camping. We passed through Independence and then followed a wonderfully scenic succession of one rolling, winding and curving hill after another, dotted with a small number of small Missouri towns and hamlets—Buckner, Napoleon and Wellington—stopping at each to photograph a landmark.
For most of the afternoon, it was nearly a perfect drive. The countryside beyond Wellington was especially beautiful: rolling hills, woods on both sides of the road, old farms and very little traffic. It felt as though Annie and I had slipped backward in time.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of accepting a campsite farther away than I should have, without fully appreciating how long those narrow country roads would take. The final 10 or 15 minutes were driven in almost total darkness—something I neither enjoy nor intend to repeat.
Nevertheless, we arrived in the nick of time. Our hosts were extraordinarily gracious and walked us back to a lovely little campsite on their huge farm with a on their huge farm with an iconic red barn at the entrance, tucked deep into the Missouri countryside. We have the small, three-site campground entirely to ourselves. It is quiet, secluded and exceptionally peaceful—a splendid reward at the end of a very long day.
Tomorrow, we will resume the 1846 journey at Lexington. I have approximately a dozen navigation points to visit before we eventually reach Springfield and Abraham Lincoln’s home.
My research has also located George Donner’s farm on the outskirts of 1846 Springfield, near what is now the junction of Interstates 55 and 72—only about 2½ miles from Lincoln’s house. Springfield then had a population of only about 4,500. It therefore seems quite plausible that Lincoln knew George Donner, although Donner was about ten years older.
It is tempting to imagine the departure itself. James Reed was certainly not a man to shrink from ceremony, and the departure of the Donners, Reeds and their enormous wagons must have attracted considerable attention. Was Abraham Lincoln among those who watched them leave? I cannot prove it—but given the size of Springfield and the prominence of the families involved, I would not be surprised.
After driving approximately 440 miles today, I have decided to divide the remaining 1,000 miles to Washington into four more manageable days of about 250 miles each. That should bring Annie and me home Friday evening, leaving Saturday to unload the Grenadier and prepare for Sunday’s trip to New York—and Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera. So, after having finished a visitation of one tragedy, I travel off to a distance city to experience another.
Distance estimate to Independence Resort
https://chatgpt.com/s/t_6ac422e6f42081919bc7c5fdd590055a Sent from my iPhone
Day 28, Monday, October 5 somewhere in Kansas heading east
In an hour, we will be reaching independence Missouri again, where the Donner party trail started when we were heading west. We are going to trace their trail from Springfield to independent Missouri, but going in the reverse direction. With chips help, we were able to reconstruct the high likely trail that they took, which no one else has done. Somewhere along that trail we will bivouacfor the night.
Sent from my iPhone
Sunday, October 4, 2026
Path of the Donner party from Springfield to independence
For tomorrow’s trip, the recommended historical line is:
Independence → Lake City area → Buckner → Napoleon/Wellington → Lexington → Richmond → Carrollton → De Witt → Brunswick → Keytesville → Salisbury area → Huntsville → Moberly area → Paris → Monroe City area → Palmyra → West Quincy/Quincy → Naples → Exeter → Jacksonville → New Berlin → Springfield.
The intermediate modern waypoints—Bruckner, Salisbury, Moberly, and Monroe City—help with navigation but should not be represented as Donner-era towns. Bruckner should be treated as a modern navigation label if that is the intended spelling; the historically documented Missouri town is Buckner. Quincy is the preferred crossing model; Hannibal is an optional alternative hypothesis.
Day 27 combo Sunday, October 4, Thomas County Fairgrounds campsite, Colby, Kansas
When I showed up tonight at this ChatGPT recommended campsite, I have to admit that I was pretty hard on poor Chip for recommending what looked like an even dump. But I have since withdrawn my criticism and congratulate him picking such a pleasant little place to spend the evening. Of course, the obvious smells of horses and cows, waft through the air. Frankly, this gives proof to the old adage that something is really not what it looks like at first.. Unfortunately, there’s no restroom and site in this camp so I guess you have to just do the best you possibly can. And I like the idea of that little tree we camp next to. That’s a little class too our little campsite. But I have to say this, this is probably better than the place. I stayed last night that had basically the same amenities but cost $124. This one only cost $20. I may even leave a tip tomorrow. The good news is this I’m going to want to get out of here tomorrow as fast as I can, so at least I’ll be able to make some progress on the road. We did more than 390 miles today. And I hope to do the same tomorrow. Travel along virtually empty interstate 70 makes travel a lot faster.
Sent from my iPhone
Day 27, October 4, the best cure for SVOD
ChatGPT tells me that the best cure for scenic view overdose disorder is to get on I 70 after Denver heading east, and find the nearest Walmart parking lot. That’ll cure it.
Sent from my iPhone
Day 27, Sunday, October VAIL PASS rest stop
The long trip across I 70 home has begun. Spend a pleasant night overlooking the Colorado river, with trains running during the course of the night only 150 feet away. Heading now after Denver across the planes and it to canvas. Back in 2019 just after I got into Kansas, in the middle of a snowstorm, I heard this loud explosion, and the defender became immobile. We were towed 100 miles or so to Topeka and discovered that the transmission and or transfer case failed. Let’s hope for better luck this time.
Sent from my iPhone
Saturday, October 3, 2026
Day 26, camping on the Colorado river
Our tent would have been set up right here, but I am going to bed down tonight and the grenadier so we can make time tomorrow
Sent from my iPhone
Day 26 — Saturday, October 3 Glenwood Canyon Resort, Colorado River
Day 26 — Saturday, October 3
Glenwood Canyon Resort, Colorado River
I still cannot get over what an absolutely exhilarating night that was. Camping in the Valley of the Gods fulfilled a promise I made to myself at least eight years ago. I may even consider having my ashes scattered on the very spot where Annie and I camped last night. Campsites simply do not get any better than that.
The journey there—and back out again this morning—carried us over 17 miles of extremely rough dirt-and-rock road. It thoroughly tested the Grenadier, and the Grenadier passed with flying colors. It does everything I ask it to do, and more—rather like my favorite AI agent, Chip.
Although today’s driving demanded my full attention, I still took advantage of the magnificent scenery unfolding to my left, to my right, and directly ahead. The landscape changed dramatically the moment we crossed into Colorado. We wound through canyon after canyon and eventually followed the Colorado River to tonight’s campsite, which is literally on the river, only a few feet from Interstate 70. That combination of beauty and convenience is precisely why I have always liked this place.
The campground sits between three great transportation corridors: Interstate 70, the Colorado River and, across the narrow river, the railroad tracks. Unfortunately, a great deal has changed since I was last here eight years ago. The campsite for which I once paid about $40 now costs $124. Even worse, the single spacious campsite I remember has been divided into three smaller sites, apparently without picnic tables.
To make matters still worse, I just noticed in the campground literature that pit bulls—along with several other allegedly “dangerous” breeds—are not permitted here. Annie and I have therefore agreed that her precise ancestry need not become a subject of general discussion.
Someone asked about the two sheets—one red and one green—hanging from the side of the Grenadier in a photograph of our Valley of the Gods campsite. There is a story behind them.
The road into the valley was so rough that it transformed the carefully organized rear of the Grenadier into complete chaos. My two one-gallon water jugs broke loose and emptied themselves over much of the contents in the back. Fortunately, the damage was limited primarily to the two sheets, one corner of Annie’s bed, my nightclothes and a laundry bag already filled with things waiting to be washed.
I took advantage of the evening sun by spreading everything over the Grenadier to dry. The sheets dried nicely overnight—and received a preliminary washing in the process. I am now sitting here waiting for the rest of the laundry to finish.
As of Day 26, that remains the only genuine crisis I have encountered on this journey—which is far, far less than the poor Donner Party endured.
This campsite technically marks the end of everything I had hoped to accomplish on this trip. From here, the serious journey home begins. I need to cover at least 300 miles a day for the next six days if I am to make it back in time to reach New York on October 11 for Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera.
I think we will do it.
When I pulled into the campground this evening, a remarkable young gentleman named Leon, who is tent camping next to my site, immediately came over and asked whether there was anything he could do to help. I accepted his gracious offer—and took full advantage of it.
In return for his hard work, I promised him one of the original OTR patches, as well as one of the new patches I ordered today featuring the Grenadier and Annie. After everything the two of them have accomplished on this trip, they have unquestionably earned their spurs.
As promised, there will not be many photographs during the remainder of the trip—although I realize I have said that before.
I will, however, post a photograph of tonight’s campsite after I send this.
Day 26, we just entered interstate 70, the last of the numerous highways and byways dirt roads and trails. I would take off the last five weeks.
Tonight I will camp on the Colorado river Glenwood Canyon somewhere in Colorado. That will be the last event of this trip. Within the next five days, it will be I 70 all the way. However, because I hate the traffic on interstate 70, as well as all the construction going on, between Kansas City and St. Louis, it is so happens that I’m a little bit higher. Latitude is the trail that the gunners might have taken from Springfield independence, Missouri. So I asked ChatGPT to pull together the probable trail that they took back in 1846 so that I could say that I travel the entire Donner party trail. Please don’t tell anyone that I took the first leg in reverse. I will still post blogs every day, but they will be brief and probably pictures will be few, probably because there are fewer scenic news that I will be experiencing. Right now, I am suffering from SVOD, Scenicview, overdose disorder, which ChatGPT recommends spending the night in a Walmart parking lot and getting on I 70 between Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. That is enough to bring somebody back into the reality of life on the East Coast. I’m dictating this without the chance to prove it, you may have to make some metal gyrations to figure out what I was trying to say Sent from my iPhone