Thank you, Mom, for updating our blog this week! We've travelled over 1100 miles so far. I have added a few photos from the previous days to Mom's posts.
Tonight we are north of Kansas City, MO in a motel. We started looking for a campground a little early this evening but didn't find anything so finally stopped at this place at 7:00. We wanted to dry out anyway so this is a good place to do so. We have an indoor pool and wireless Internet access!
This morning we woke up in MO damp and with a partially deflated air mattress. The campground we stayed in last night had a great pool and playground. It had an electrical outlet at our site for our fan. However, it had a one particular feature we didn't care for: it was right next to a railroad crossing! Every hour or so, a locomotive would come thundering along and blast us right out of sleep! A few other factors also kept us awake last night - thunder and lightening, airplanes, and cars driving by (the tent site was right by the road) as well as an uncomfortable mattress.
We got up when the rain stopped and packed it all up to get out by 8:30. We bought a new mattress on the way out of town and headed to Kansas. We started out on an interstate but spent most of the trip on highway 166.
The Little House on the Prairie is a very out of the way spot. The Ingalls lived here a year when it was Indian Territory but had to leave when the government told white settlers they could not stay. The only thing that is there from when the Ingalls lived there in 1870 is a well that Pa and Mr. Scott dug. Laura gives a detailed description of how Pa built the log cabin from scratch in the book and volunteers have recrfeated the little house. There's also a farmhouse and barn that were built in the 1880s by another family, an old schoolhouse, and post office moved from elsewhere. The girls liked the log cabin but didn't care for the bees buzzing around it. We liked the little shop in the farmhouse. We were especially excited to buy the dolls prairie dresses with matching bonnets.
I also bought two little tin cups with a penny and a stick of candy in each one. These are the gifts that Laura and Mary Ingalls received for Christmas the year they were out on the priarie and a blizzard kept Santa from coming. A neighbor, Mr. Edwards, walked to Independence to get the gifts for the girls. Laura and Mary had only ever shared a cup until that Christmas. When we see these cups it helps us to be thankful for all the riches we have.
The prairie farmhouse was small but cozy. It held 2 beds, a table and rocking chair that Pa made for Ma. Pa Ingalls was an amazing man to have done all this himself. He could build a house and furnish it. He could dig a well, plant a field of wheat, and play the fiddle too. By the way, a highlight of our visit to Mansfield yesterday was seeing Pa's fiddle. It is played once a year and we heard a recording of it as well. The fiddle was very special in Laura's books. Seeing it was like seeing a character come to life. We were touched.
We're on our way north now to De Smet, South Dakota. We'll spend most of our day tomorrow on I29. I expect to spend 2 days to get there. I'll either call in or write an update tomorrow evening.
