Re-reading Little House Traveler this weekend, I was struck by two particular things:
1. Despite the fact that she presumably had a decent income by the time she made her trip back to South Dakota with Almanzo, Laura was compelled to track her finances in her journal.
2. She and Almanzo were farmers to the bone; their primary observations on the long ride up and back dealt with crop conditions.
Now that I’ve lived in Kansas, wandered through Nebraska, and visited the Dakotas, it was easy for me to picture the route they took back to that “Land of Used to Be.” After the week of hot, humid weather we’ve had here in the Upper Midwest, I could empathize with their need to constantly cool the car and the dog. It was a hot, hot ride north, and the hot winds blew them back out of Dakota–for the last time, Manly said.
For those who’d like to know, in Laura’s own words, some of their life after the closing pages of The First Four Years, I’d recommend reading this volume.