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Prairie Adventure: The Wilder Pageant at Walnut Grove
Walnut Grove had lots to offer the Laura Ingalls fan. I’ve already told you about the museum and the sweet campground and the Laura Look Alike contest and, of course, one of my personal favorite stops – Plum Creek. But what I did not tell you about yet was the summer’s big evening event – The Wilder Pageant. The pageant is performed only six times every summer and the tickets for next year’s pageant nights will already be on sale this fall. It’s performed every weekend in July except the July Fourth weekend. The performance doesn’t begin until 9 p.m. to accommodate the sun being allowed to set – but…
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Prairie Adventure: The Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in DeSmet, South Dakota
DeSmet. South Dakota. In regular life, DeSmet is this one street, not much to talk about kind of town. In Laura Ingalls terms, DeSmet is a big deal. Like a mecca. I don’t even know where to start or how to wade through the two hundred and fifty four pictures I took while we were there. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote nine books. Five of the novels take place in or around DeSmet, South Dakota. See? A big deal to Laura fans. In DeSmet, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society offers guided tours of the four buildings they manage. I guess that’s a good place to start. And you guys, of…
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Prairie Adventure: Walnut Grove’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Days
For several Saturdays each summer the small town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota hosts their annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Days. The town’s park is filled with tents and prairie exhibits and traditional pioneer food like cotton candy and funnel cakes. The girls made corn husk dolls. We were again so fortunate that the weather, while warm, was not the usual summer time stifling heat. All of the kids loved the craft station where they were able to hammer designs into leather and create necklaces or ornaments. The festival lasted most of the day but we were more than satisfied to wrap up our experience after an hour or so. One station…
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Prairie Adventure: Plum Creek campground
Our days on this epic road journey have been so filled with adventure and mosquitoes and prairie wind and incredible photo opportunities that we are all pretty much walking around in a state of overload. Everywhere we turn we are finding new little nuggets of fascinating info about Laura and about the prairie and, you know, even about one another. The kids are out of sync with their regular sleeping routines and we’ve had an excess of hours in a small space called a vehicle. Kevin has been working as we travel along – masterfully fitting in his job at picnic tables and coffee shops and campgrounds. Goodness – what…
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Prairie Adventure: Walnut Grove’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum
Walnut Grove. If you have met Laura Ingalls primarily through the television series then you might be more familiar with Walnut Grove than some of the other Laura Ingalls spots. It’s a tiny tiny town with nary a recognizable restaurant or grocery store. We ate lunch (and breakfast) at Nellie’s cafe because it was named Nellie and because it was there. The town features a handful of Laura treasure stops though. Of course there is nearby Plum Creek. The Ingalls family lived at Plum Creek but the girls walked into town to school. The site of the original Masters Inn, Laura’s Walnut Grove’s only lodging place, is right downtown. The…
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Prairie Adventure: Plum Creek
I no longer have any idea what day it is. Does leaving your normal town and standard routine have this same effect on you? I also mostly do not know what hour it is. We are only one time zone off but that’s just enough to kick me off balance. Today was Plum Creek day. As in – on the literal banks of the actual Plum Creek. Oh my goodness. I love Plum Creek. It’s the real deal. The actual Plum Creek Laura and Mary regularly played in. The spring where they collected their drinking water. The stream where Laura sought her revenge on Nellie by leading her right to…
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Prairie Adventure: Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Pepin and Stockholm
Ya’ll. I’m a little sleepy tonight and I think there’s a giant rock under my sleeping bag but the kids ditched the comfy hammocks this evening and I felt obligated to sleep near them in the tent per their kind requests so I’m keeping this post brief. In Pepin there was a small museum dedicated to our girl Laura. It was low cost and if you’re in the area you might as well stop in. It’s a quick stroll through but there a few simple treasures to be seen. Primarily the museum holds replicas and general same era style findings. There was a sweet dress on display actually worn by…
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Prairie Adventure: the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Unassuming. A small cabin in a big woods. 1867. A little girl born in a gray log house. Laura Ingalls. And her voice and her story and her charming way with words have traveled across the years and the valleys to speak into my own childhood and into the childhood in which my children are living right now. Seven miles outside of tiny Pepin, Wisconsin. Once the big woods where Laura and Mary tossed the pig bladder like a balloon, now picturesque farm land with fields of corn in the shadow of the low bluffs. Oh you guys. It was so simple and sweet. No tourist trap. A sign so…
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Prairie Adventure: toys and tents and eagles. and the Mississippi River.
It hasn’t even been very long yet and my days are already blending together. That’s how travel goes I think. Off schedule and out of routine in a haphazard, purposely random fantastic kind of out of control way. There was a toy store today. A giant family-owned toy store with a cute bird name. Lark. We had given the kids a specific allotment of money prior to this trip. Each kid received the same dollar amount with instructions to spend it however they wanted but when it was gone, it was gone. (Very parental phrase to utter.) Surprisingly, not every kid made a toy store purchase. Piper Finn fulfilled a…
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Prairie Adventure: it takes a long time to get out there
Are you wondering when we are ever going to actually get to the prairie? When will we ever step foot on Laura’s soil? Yeah. Me too. It takes a long time to get from the south to the mid-west. I told the kids as we were riding along, “Guys. We will change time zones in a few minutes. It’s like we will go backwards in time.” To which Hawkeye responds, “You mean I get to be a baby again?” This road trip is full of funny responses and one-liners. It’s a regular comedy routine. We left Ohio pretty early and tried to make some quick road trip time to West…
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Prairie Adventures: at the beginning
You know every trip actually begins before you get in the car, right? This trip had a rocky start Friday night at the car rental location. It wasn’t pretty. It started with Hertz and ended with Budget. It started with a way I thought things should go and ended with Kevin and I standing in the car rental parking lot, me on the receiving end of a well-spoken and true pep talk of how our attitudes as parents absolutely affect the attitudes of our children. It started with a plan to drive off in a Suburban and ended with us driving off in a Tahoe. But Saturday morning arrived regardless…
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What The Road Will Look Like From Here.
Because I like a plan. Because I’m a faithful fan of expressed expectations. Because I just really feel like it …. I want to tell you my basic idea for this blog space whilst our family is on the road during the next two weeks. Tomorrow we hit the pavement for our much-anticipated-by-our-own-family Prairie Adventure. We’re certainly not traveling to excessively remote locations. I imagine internet connection will be accessible everywhere our roads lead us. However. I am only bringing my cellular device to serve as my “computer”. Which means I do have the ability to type a blog post on its tiny keyboard. Which I will. I will type simple…
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Tricks of the Trade: Storing Our Souvenirs
This summer’s Prairie Adventure is crashing in at our door. blink. blink. And the car will be loaded and we will be on our way. (I only wish packing a car for a two week trek was that painless. I really do.) Last year I saw this idea on Pinterest and I snagged it for last spring’s Harbor Island vacation. First, I purchased a plain wooden suitcase-looking box at Hobby Lobby. (It was only about $6 with my 40% off coupon. Man, I love that store.) Next, I painted the box. Harbor Island’s box has a yellow coat. Then we packed the box in the car and took it along on…
