Here is our little tent on the Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, South Dakota.  We arrived on Friday night shortly after 9:00 pm and set up in wind like I have never experienced in the summer.  A lovely warm prairie wind, but wind none the less.  Our very nice tent neighbours heard us setting up and came to help us.  Tenting people are so nice!  This photo was taken in the morning, about an hour later our tent was flat like a pancake and one of the fiberglass poles was broken.  That was strong wind!

Our two day stay at the Ingalls Homestead can be described as nothing less than perfectly, perfectly wonderful.  Back in April when I first got this crazy idea of taking our yearly trip to the Maritimes by car instead of plane I started by google mapping the journey, calculating the costs and measuring my nerve; once those things checked out I started researching the states we might travel through…when I learned that there was this wonderful place that honoured my childhood hero there was no turning back.  I simply HAD to go there; it became, in my mind, akin to a trip to Mecca.

After the tent disaster we upgraded our accommodations to one of these covered wagons, ours was the one farthest to the right. That sky, it was incredible.  Like nothing I had ever seen before, but it made me familiar and at home.  Space, I have learned is something that I have unknowingly craved.

Hanna, like myself at her age, is an avid reader.  The only complaint I heard from her teachers this year is that she had a hard time putting down her books when it came time to move on to another topic.  She loves Harry Potter and has read the series numerous times.  I have encouraged her to read some of my childhood favourites, including the Little House series, for years now.  Hanna is the type of kid who must come to her own conclusions and make her own choices.  Like me she is stubborn and head strong and since Little House had no magic or talking cats in it she immediately dismissed it.  She is a very generous girl though so when I told her how much this part of our trip meant to me she was totally on board with spending some time on the prairie and begrudgingly agreed to read the Ingalls Wilder books.  I bought Little House on The Prairie in audio book since I wanted to refresh some of my memories before our arrival.  By Chapter two Hanna was hooked and is now reading The Long Winter.

She has totally adopted the prairie sensibility, though I doubt that Laura ever wore a tube top under her apron:

True Laura fans will remember when the Ingalls ladies made those decorative shelf liners.

This is Fox in summer school:

And Hanna with the traditional prairie dinner of tortellini.

Hanna driving the team, Sam and David:

The folks at The Ingalls Homestead have done an amazing job at recreating many of the elements of the Little House stories, including one of my favourite features a reconstruction of the dugout described by Laura in On The Banks of Plumb Creek. This is a wonderfully snug little dugout, that cost all of $2.14 to build back in the 1880’s.  Compared to the cost of a starter home in my neighbourhood, it might actually be manageable.

This is Tim, owner of the Ingalls Homestead.  He and his wife along with their daughter Ann operate the homestead along with a staff of about 25 employees.

Every staff member at the homestead is required to read the Little House series at least twice, and each of them have an incrediably broad knowledge of not only the books but of life is De Smet in the 19th century. The people of South Dakota are wonderfully warm and authentic. One staff member, Dianne who has worked at the information center and retail store for over 10 years said goodbye with the biggest, warmest hug that a traveller could hope for.

When I planned this visit, I had no idea that I would be arriving during the annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Pagent, staged by residents of De Smet.  It was so lovely to watch this production under the setting sun with the stars beginning to twinkle!

I can’t end without showing you some more pictures of our covered wagon and the prairie.

This, we decided is the Fox Box, a place for time outs...

This, we decided is the Fox Box, a place for time outs...

This is amazing sky, I wish that I had the photography skills to capture it in a way that does it justice.

This is amazing sky, I wish that I had the photography skills to capture it in a way that does it justice.

This was such a wonderful visit, I can’t imagine what would have made it any better…but if you are looking for WiFi you can find an strong, open connection in the parking lot of the Super 8 about 3 minutes down the road. All praise to Super 8 parking lots across America!