Whelp. We've been home for 3 weeks and back out on the road for 9 days again, but here's to getting caught up! ;)
The last 2 days of our First Leg took us to the Laura Ingalls sites in De Smet, SD, and Walnut Grove, MN. The former is the homestead site with building replicas set in place according to Laura's descriptions, as well as the nearby burial site of her family. The latter is multiple museum buildings with lots of reading about Laura's life, things that belonged to her, items relating to the t.v. show, and hands on displays of the era. We spent a couple hours at the latter, and would've stayed longer except we were SOCLOSE to home!
Cottonwood trees planted by Pa Ingalls.
Laura Ingalls Wilder is buried in MO, but the rest of her family is in De Smet, SD.
The fireplace mantel from the show, Little House on the Prairie.
Shopkeepers, bankers, and postal workers.
We stayed overnight at Big Sioux Recreation Area, and enjoyed some time visiting with some church friends, Andrew and Audra Sternke, and their kids! The USS South Dakota Memorial was on the way to their house, so we stopped by, as Eric's Grandpa Will England served during WWII on board.
The scale of this ship is huge!
Kate likes to photograph her feet in different places along the way, and we thought this one was especially cool... the decking of the battleship her Great-Grandpa Will England walked on.
Monday we walked the path at Pipestone National Monument... sacred site for Native Americans that believe the pipe smoke carries their prayers heavenward. The stone is beautiful, but takes work to get to under the other rock. Apparently it can take up to 5 years for the government to grant permission to a tribal family to dig in their own space. They consider it an honor to work the soil and rock in search of the pipestone.
Dig sites from tribes looooong ago.
So smooth!
We made it to church in time for Taylor to surprise her friends at youth group, and were so giddy to see Eric that we didn't even bother parking the truck and trailer... just pulled in the yard, threw it in park, and joyfully skipped/ran to him in the front step lights. :)
So cool you got to see and touch the decking of your GR grandpa from so long ago. ~Nana Glad to have you home for a short while.
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