A little context is needed here. When I was a little girl the show Little House on the Prairie was airing on primetime TV. I think I missed the first few seasons since I was very little, but when I was old enough to watch TV at night I became immediately immersed in prairie life with Laura. How I wanted to be her, to wear dresses all the time and live on a farm and wear a bonnet and carry my lunch pail to the one room school house and do all my schoolwork on a slate with chalk. My mother made bonnets for me and my sister and we wore them in the backyard and played Little House on the Prairie. I read all the books about a million times. Fast forward thirty five years and my Ella was also reading the same books. In fact, when we started the trip she was just starting to read the book that takes place in the very land we were heading toward in our RV! It was mind boggling to me.
So east we went, eventually getting off the interstate and finding ourselves on two lane country roads that just went on and on and on through endless fields of corn and wheat. At long last the swarms of bikers subsided and we breathed a sigh of relief as we headed farther away from the chaos. Time began to slow down. It slowed down so much that by the time we pulled the RV into the Ingalls Homestead it was early evening. We discovered that there were four RV sites on top of a hill overlooking the homestead and that the other three spots were already taken by some very curious families who stood watching intently as I frantically directed John into the "back-in" RV space. Of course it didn't go smoothly and the tension was palpable after we finally got it lined up correctly. One of the ladies made some smart comment about our ineptitude and right then I decided we would not be cozying up to the neighbors. I wanted to enjoy the prairie in peace.
The Ingalls Homestead is located in De Smet, South Dakota - a small town where the Ingalls family eventually settled and spent many difficult years. The original house is no longer standing, but you can see a replica of what the house would have looked like, and the property is basically the same as it was when they lived on it and farmed the land. After watching a video in the visitor center, touring the property and getting a real feel for pioneer life, I began to realize that being Laura Ingalls probably was not the blissful pipe dream I had envisioned as a bright eyed young girl. The pioneers had a rough life. Nothing came easily to them and they worked and toiled for years to make a go of things and quite often it didn't work out well for them.
So we parked the RV and tried to make the most of the daylight that was left. Unfortunately we only had enough time to stop for one night due to the fact that we still had about a million miles left to cover before getting home. Ella and Jack went off with some of the other kids to check out the kittens in the barn while John and I got dinner ready and sipped Captain Morgan's and Coke. I guess to get in the true spirit of the wild west we should have been sipping whisky out of a jug, but we made do with what we had. I set up my chair on the hill and watched the sun go down and thought to myself "This is exactly what Laura Ingalls saw and heard, minus the power lines and distant eighteen wheeler noise." After the sun set we went into our RV and played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. I believe John and I won much to the chagrin of our competitive children.
The following morning I woke up at my usually ungodly hour of before sunrise and managed to sneak a peak at the sun reappearing over the opposite end of the prairie. This time I had the place all to myself and it truly felt like I'd stepped back in time. I went for a run down dusty country roads, corn and cows as my only companions. I took a few moments to read the plaque that was set in the approximate location of the original home and rested my hand against the bark of the original cottonwood trees that Pa Ingalls had planted to shield his family home from the wind. I breathed in the air and closed my eyes and wished I could just stay out there forever.
Everyone else finally woke up hours later and we spent the morning doing homestead stuff: learning how to do laundry the old fashioned way, taking a covered wagon ride, sitting in a one room school house and learning what a typical day might have been like for the Ingalls girls. The town was only a mile away so once we packed up the RV and hit the road we stopped to take in some of the other Ingalls landmarks. There are so many we couldn't see them all, but we did get an interesting tour of the Surveyor's house which was the first place the family lived when they arrived in De Smet in the late 1800's. The original house was still standing and remained much the same as it had over a hundred years ago. Our tour guide was full of interesting information and I found myself wishing yet again that we had an extra day to see it all. But alas, the open road beckoned. That and a trip to the grocery store was sorely needed, as we were headed toward the middle of Iowa and would be less likely to find too many places to stock up there.
So we said goodbye to De Smet. I have no idea if I'll ever be able to get back there, but I really hope Ella got some enjoyment out of seeing those places she was reading about in the books.
Next: The road less traveled is not always the best, especially when you're in Iowa.
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