Things I have in common with the Donner Party:

1. We both took an indirect route to get to the pass.
2. We were both forced by the weather to stop on the trail
3. We both ran out of beef jerky

The key difference:

1. There was a restaurant 100 yards from where I was stopped on the freeway

After waiting more than an hour for traffic on the freeway to move, I trundled up the shoulder to the exit and stopped off for a nice lunch. I arrived to hear Willie Nelson’s “On the road again,” sat with a view of the stationary vehicles out on the freeway, and read my book while waiting for the police to open up the freeway at Donner Pass. The wait was no big deal, but it did render my new set of tire chains unnecessary.

Sweet!

Thanks!