From "jeebus, we're insane!" to a mere "jeebus, that's a lot of driving, but I think we can do it!" And perhaps even more, but we aren't there yet.
In any case, one of the things I have always wanted to do is see where the Ingalls family trekked across this nation of ours.
It was an obsession of mine as a kid, you see: the full Little House book series.
Including the teevee show. Even with that mean Nellie Olsen, I just loved Little House on the Prairie.
There is just something magical about the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I want to be able to share that now with The Peanut. She's at the perfect age, and I'm hoping that seeing some of where Laura traveled along with reading the books will catch fire for her, too.
Lake Pepin, Wisconsin, where Laura was born in the cabin in the Big Woods is a possibility, although it is so far off our driving track that I'm not certain we can spare the extra day and a half it would take to go, see and then be on our merry way...especially since many reviewers say there isn't much big woods nor Ingalls remnants left anywhere in the vicinity.
So, perhaps for another trip for that one, if at all?
From there, it was Independence, Kansas or thereabouts, for the Little House on the Prairie journey that ultimately got them ejected from "Indian Territory" after the homestead had really gotten itself established. (This is the area where Mr. Edwards brought the girls presents from Santa Claus through the flooded river. I loved how excited they were over a single stick of sugar candy.) We're hoping to drive through Independence on the way home on the trip, just to see the little log cabin they reconstructed that looks a lot like the one the Ingalls family lived in while they were there.
Then they went to Plum Creek, near Walnut Grove, Minnesota which we are going to make a priority on the drive out West at the start of our trip. There is a little museum there, and I'd love to stop and see it. The covered wagon above sits outside it -- how fun would that be to climb in and out of as a kid (let alone as an adult)?
From there, we plan to drive through De Smet, South Dakota, on our way across to the Badlands, and finally end up at Rapid City, South Dakota, to see Mt. Rushmore and some of the surrounding sights.
De Smet is where the final few books of the Little House series took place: where the family moved so that Pa could work on the railroad grade and ultimately spent a winter in the surveyor's house overlooking the new townsite; where the family homestead stood; and where Pa built the nice store building on the lot he homesteaded in the town itself. This is the place that Laura and Almanzo met, courted and ultimately married. How can we not drive through here, even though it takes us an hour or so out of the way?
Finally, on our way out of Independence, we'll drive to Mansfield, Missouri, where Laura, Almanzo and their daughter Rose lived on their farm, and where Laura wrote her books. They have set the farm up along with a museum, and I've always wanted to go and see it because they have Laura's lap desk there, the china shepherdess and Pa's fiddle. How fun!
In between, there will be the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, the Black Hills, the Beartooth Highway, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and Dinosaur National Monument. Whew!
At least, that's the working theory of the moment. It keeps evolving as we take a good, hard look at what is and is not possible (and sane).
The question I keep coming back to is this: the driving logistics are pretty easy to plan in terms of route and hotel stays and such, but how do you plan for the staying sane and enjoying yourself part? We're trying to make this drive manageable by only taking it in 500 mile or so chunks every day -- a few days will require a bit more, but the goal is to stop early enough for a swim and a decent dinner and some time out of the car for everyone.
My problem is going to be my hermit nature: there will be no personal quiet space for two whole weeks, and I'm a little worried that it will grate on my last nerve by day 4.
Above and beyond that, The Peanut will be 8, likely still very chatty and still not prone to patience over long periods of stillness...so how much to pack in for things to do in the car, versus packing the car so full that we are miserable? It's a conundrum.
Like I said, it is an evolving plan. But one that presents a number of very fun puzzles on the front end of the road trip.
(Photo of covered wagon in front of the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Walnut Grove, MN, via Open Up My Head.)
2 comments:
audio books for the peanut to listen to while looking out the window -- esp handy when mom needs some down time. i presume that lhotp is available on audio books and it would be a way to keep her entertained and hook her into the stories.
We are reading the Little House book right now, so that we'll be most of the way through them by the time we start the trip. But we've been thinking about some of the classics as audio books: Treasure Island, Heidi, the Narnia books, something like that.
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