While my husband was off on a Guys Weekend, the girls and I decided to have an adventure of our own. We chose to do a Laura Ingalls Wilder road trip, hitting up 8 states and covering thousands of miles!
We started off in our very own state first – kicking it to Pepin, WI for the Little House on the Big Woods. This site is a wayside off of the highway, so you really don’t ever have to worry about the hours of the house. We’ve visited before, but it was a great spot to kick off the trip! We had not been to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in town, though, and that was the perfect place to buy some bonnets to carry us through our trip, and look at some artifacts from Laura and her family.
Our next stop was all the way in Deborah, IA, but it was a pretty drive along the Mississippi into Minnesota and down to Iowa. It also didn’t feel like a long drive, as it was a little less than 2 hours from Pepin. We got to see Laura Ingalls Wilder’s real height and try hard tack. You can see it was a real hit….
Next it was off to Almanzo’s church in Spring Valley, MN, where we just made the last tour of the day.
We drove past the Jolly Green Giant statue in Blue Earth, MN and then off to Sanborn, MN for the Sod House on the Prairie. This was really interesting to see, as you could see the layers and layers of sod. We definitely got the prairie vibes at this stop, which was actually at a farm. When we pulled in, we felt like we were visiting someone’s house!
Our final spot of the day was in Walnut Grove, MN, where we stopped at the Laura Ingalls Dugout Spot. This stop was beautiful! It also is Plum Creek, from the book “On the Banks of Plum Creek.”
The next morning, we got up and hit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, MN. This museum was really fun, as it was set up like a town, with a lot of areas for the girls to explore their imaginations. We went for lunch in Nellie’s Cafe, which was across the street.
Then we drove to De Smet, SD for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes Tour. We also visited the DeSmet Cemetery to pay our respects to the Wilder family. We then visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead also in DeSmet, which was a very fun place to visit, as well, as you could learn to do laundry the way people did during this time period, go to school to see what that was like, and make your own corn dolls and jump ropes. We stayed overnight at the Homestead, getting a covered a wagon as our lodging for the night.We even got an intense prairie storm featuring hail and hefty winds. We took shelter in the bathroom because we weren’t sure how the canvas of a covered wagon holds up to hail, but it turns out we were the only ones concerned!
Our next day did not feature any Laura Ingalls Wilder sites, as we had to drive all the way down to Independence, Kansas. However, we did stop to see things because I don’t like driving that long without some fun stops. We went to the Oz Museum in Wamego, as both of my girls are fans. We also stopped at the Tallgrass National Prairie Reserve to imagine what the prairie looked like during Laura’s life. We saw the biggest grasshoppers, and felt the intense summer heat.
The next morning, we were back at it, checking out the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites in Independence, KS. We also jumped over the state line into Oklahoma to visit the Mickey Mantle childhood home. This whole day was an interesting collection of dirt road driving. Good thing I got a rental car!!! We then went on to Mansfield, MO, where we visited Laura Ingalls Wilder Home. After that, we drove to the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis to view the special nighttime showing of the Chihuahua sculptures.
Our final day of our trip was spent in the City Museum in St. Louis – a favorite of our family’s. It was fun to climb and jump and frolic after so many days in the car. We then drove all the way home to WI again. It was a great car trip, and the girls read the Laura Ingalls books in the car throughout the trip. It was a very fun road trip that was fun to do just as us girls! ❤
Car Full of Harmony 