Monday, 7/9/07

So far, this was the best place. De Smet, South Dakota is where Laura lived and wrote Little Town On The Prairie, where her parents would live the rest of their lives. We got to see several houses that they had lived in, which have been preserved as museums, with some of their real belongings and the rest just items from that time or made to look like they were from that time.

We started at the Surveyor's House, where Pa was offered a job and the chance to take care of the house while the real Surveyor was gone. We had a tour guide who really knew her stuff! You could tell she cared about the facts in the book and history and being ACCURATE! This is important to me!

We then went to the house that Pa built for them to live after Laura got married and moved. That house was pretty cool too.

After that we went to the homestead that Ma and Pa lived on. I will try and explain homesteading in another post, although if anybody wants to in a Comment, that'd be cool. We were excited because we found out you could actually camp right there!

We found out something wonderful as we were browsing in Loftus Store, the actual store that Laura shopped in and wrote about!!! The man at the store said,

"Oh, you're camping at the Ingalls Homestead? Are you staying in one of the covered wagons?"

Now, you have to understand, one of my things I wanted to do at SOME POINT on this trip was to sleep in a covered wagon. In the olden days before cars, people traveled in wooden wagons that had a stretched canvas roof over them. They had to choose really carefully when they moved since wagons were small and they would have to pick the most IMPORTANT items to take with them.

We got to the campground just in time! There was ONE covered wagon left for sleeping in. It wasn't too expensive, either! Cheaper than most motel rooms.

So we slept in a sort of covered wagon. It actually had walls in the front and the back, and the canvas was reinforced, ok, there was also electricity, but we didn't USE it. That would have been WRONG!!!!! DID PIONEERS HAVE ELECTRICITY???

When Ma cooked over a fire, she used something called a "spider". Today we would call it a dutch oven. It's a big pot with a heavy lid that you can lift up and set in the coals for cooking. We have one. We made a stew with some beef, carrots, onions, potatoes, flour, a bit of bacon and some vinegar. It was sooo good, and we cooked it over a fire, just like Ma would have. She probably would have also made biscuits, but well, we did our best.

We also ate cold stew for breakfast, along with some coffee.

We toured the homestead before we left, visiting the school Laura would have taught at (we took a covered wagon ride to get there), the "Little House" where a lady was showing us how to make pioneer toys and crafts, petted a calf in the barn, pumped some water from the well PA DUG HIMSELF, and admired the cottonwood trees he planted as a wind break.

It was SO COOL. You could tell that the people there in De Smet really love what they do. It isn't just about tourists. They love the history and the people and the animals and everything. The staff even had a dog named Jack, and it was a total coincidence. It was so funny. At one point Jack got out, and he wasn't supposed to. You could see him running and romping across the prairie, stalking and chasing badgers or r... r... some animal that starts with R that I can't remember the name of right now. If he had a thought bubble it would have been, "I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"

We drove from De Smet, SD to Wall, SD. Wall is purely a tourist destination. It started because a store owner and his wife started putting signs on the highway for free ice water. The signs got bigger and sillier and they added silly attractions to entertain tourists as they drove through.

Now it's like an amusement park! It is so weird. I will just have to show pictures. I can't even describe it.

We priced motels since we have a long drive tmw so we didn't want the whole tent deal to slow us down. Also we need an oil change in the car. We didn't like any of the prices, and it turned out that THIS WEEK is the 100th birthday of Wall, SD so that's why all the motels were pricy and full. So we continued on and drove through THE BADLANDS.

The Badlands, I had heard, were some cool rocks. As we were driving towards it, I said to my friend,
"So what's the big deal about the badlands anyway?" She basically said, You'll see.

I was in the middle of saying something when she turned a corner in the Badlands National Park and I literally dropped what I was holding and gasped out loud.

I can NOT describe how amazing this place was. It wasn't just a bunch of rocks. It was...

It was color and light and the amazing power of nature and proof that no matter what we build, nature can build something cooler.

Again, I'll just have to show pictures.

We drove another 80 miles to Rapid City SD where we are staying for the night in a motel. I got to take a BATH!!!! I love baths! I am sleeping in a BED! And my friend will get up early and let me sleep late and she will go get the oil changed. And of course, the best part of staying in a motel is that there is internet, and I was able to post.

There are so many more things I want to say. I've been writing in my travel journal/scrapbook a lot, and if it doesn't fall apart, I'll have a lot to share and show when I get back!

We have been pretty careful about not buying crummy souvenirs, and I think the ones we've got are pretty cool. I was VERY tempted by a charm bracelet at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead- it had a violin and a sewing machine and a book and a horse. Oh well. There will be other cool things.

We've also been pretty lucky about our detours. Seneca Falls was a whimsical detour. So was The Harkin Store. Several other moments that were unplanned ended up being some of the best, like the Eau Galle Cheese Factory. Remind me to show you my souvenir from THERE!

I will try and post more frequently, but hey! If it's only my dad and grandma reading this, I can talk to them on the phone or something! If my students are reading this, SPEAK UP! I want to know that you're out there! I'm lonely!