When I first heard about the Little House musical that was going to be performed at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I thought that I would really love to go. I am not much of a traveler, but I really wanted to see it. My husband was willing to go. Well, okay, he agreed to go because I wanted him to. I don’t think he actually thought I’d buy the tickets. I did.
I planned our trip for late in September when the summer rush of our business would be coming to an end. The tickets were for a Friday night show and we could make it a long weekend away. I let my husband know that he could choose whatever else he would like to do the rest of the weekend since he was going to be sitting through the musical with me. I did drop a hint that Laura’s birthplace, Pepin, Wisconsin, was “on the way” and it would be so neat to stop there. As the trip got closer, I kept asking him what he had planned. He didn’t have anything in mind.
I had a few ideas. I mean, Walnut Grove, Minnesota is only a three-hour drive from Minneapolis. We were going to be in Minnesota, after all; could we really miss going to see Plum Creek and Walnut Grove? He agreed, sort of. Then Rebecca, my own personal Little House travel planner, pointed out to me that De Smet, South Dakota, was only a two-hour drive from Walnut Grove. How could we go to Walnut Grove and not De Smet? That’s right, how could we? I imagine that my husband was starting to get a little worried at this point. I think it was the night before we left that Rebecca planned our whole weekend for us so that we could fit it all in. There wouldn’t be a whole lot of time, but we could work it all in. This trip just got more exciting!
We left our home in Michigan on Thursday morning, planning to get close to Pepin and stop for the night. We knew visiting Pepin wouldn’t take more than a couple of hours and we could get to Minneapolis in plenty of time for the musical. As we got closer to Pepin, I felt so anxious. I saw the first sign on the side of the road for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway and although I knew we’d see another, we went back to take a picture. When we arrived in Pepin, the town was very quiet even though the museum still had the “closed” sign up–which made us nervous–it had actually just opened. What a relief!
We took our time and went through the little museum. Then I had to collect pebbles on the beach near Lake Pepin, imagining a little girl collecting so many pebbles that the pocket was torn right off of her dress! Then on we went to the Little House Wayside, a few miles outside of town. I was overcome with emotion being there. It didn’t matter that it was a replica cabin; I could use my imagination and see what I had read about in Little House in the Big Woods, especially two little girls listening to their Pa tell stories and helping their Ma with the daily work.
On to Minneapolis. We both enjoyed Little House on the Prairie, the musical. Well, I enjoyed it and my husband said he enjoyed it. I think he did. It was very well done. I knew what to expect since I had read the experiences of others who had gone already and I hope to see it again as it travels this fall.
We decided to drive all the way to De Smet the next day because it would be closed on Sunday (off-season hours); we’d come back on Sunday through Walnut Grove, which would be open all weekend. We did all the Laura things that one does in De Smet. We started off in the gift shop, waiting for our tour guide. She took us through the Surveyor’s House that once stood by the shores of Silver Lake. It was funny to think that Laura thought this tiny structure was such a big house, and to remember how she’d said it was for them to have such a well-stocked pantry. Next we were led to the Brewster School replica and the school building that Laura and Carrie actually attended. (I love that they found the original blackboard under the wall!) Then we moved on to the Ingalls home, the house Pa built in town on Third Street after the time depicted in the Little House series. Inside the house, it really struck me that Ma and Mary, living there after Pa’s death, had to rent out rooms to make money. How empty the house must have felt without Pa.
After our tour we went through town, making a game of finding where all of the important buildings once stood in De Smet. We just had to stop at the Loftus Store. I wished we had two days there, but I was happy enough to be there if only for a day. We also stopped at the cemetery, eerie with so many familiar names. Then we drove to the site of Almanzo and Laura’s house where Rose was born.
Last was Ingalls Homestead; it too had shut down its activities for the summer season. So we were free to just wander, and wander we did. We stopped and sat for a while too, just to take it all in.
I could picture when Laura and Carrie got lost in the Big Slough and the walks that Laura took Mary on. I thought of how the homestead sat there during the long winter, desolate and lonely, waiting for spring when the family would return. I said to my husband, “You can’t imagine what this means to me.”
Until then, I never thought I’d be there. I loved the homestead. I wished we could stay overnight there (in a covered wagon, of course). Even now just thinking about it, the emotions come flooding back. I said I wanted to run on the prairie; my husband told me to go ahead. I didn’t want to look foolish so I decided against it, but I so regret that decision. Oh, and to stand and look at those cottonwood trees and think of Pa planting them with his family around him. I couldn’t believe I could touch them. Then it was time to go… so sad.
Back to Minnesota and Walnut Grove. Our first stop of the morning was Plum Creek. It was Sunday morning and past the tourist season. For the first hour or so we didn’t meet another soul. I waded in Plum Creek, or what there was of it; it was quite low and I found it hard to imagine how Laura was nearly swept away by the rushing water. We tried to find all the things she had written about in On The Banks of Plum Creek. We walked and walked on the trail, enjoying the beautiful day we had been blessed with. For what seemed like the millionth time that weekend, I thought about how she had walked there, played there, lived there.
We drove to the town of Walnut Grove next. We enjoyed going through the museum and all of its associated buildings. We found the church with the bell purchased partly with Pa’s donated money.
Then my husband surprised me by remarking he had read about Pa being trapped in the blizzard for three days right there under the creek bank and eating the oyster crackers that he was bringing home. Ha! I guess he either gave up and decided he needed to learn something, or maybe he did enjoy it after all!
We experienced it all, or all we could fit in. My husband wanted to start heading back home that day and I had to give him that. It’s hard for him to be away from the business when he knows there’s work that needs to be done. So I went happily. Not only had that life-changing weekend left me with such wonderful memories, it also followed a very difficult time in my life and truly lifted me to where I felt truly happy and peaceful.