Summer Odyssey 2010 - Grand Forks to Salt Lake

The first leg of our summer road trip took us near De Smet, South Dakota to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead and museum. Due to a major storm system (tornadoes touching down all over the county) and a meeting in Fargo, we got a late start and drove into De Smet around 11:30 p.m. We were planning to camp at the Ingalls homestead and had only gotten vague instructions on the phone, so it was quite an adventure to find it and set up camp in the dark. We were c..o...l...d... out there on the open prairie, and heard coyotes howling at an uncomfortably close range, but the stars were stunning and the sunrise one of the best I've ever seen.








Haley and I have been reading the Little House series this past year and were very excited to check out the museum and homestead. We were not disappointed. We would HIGHLY recommend a visit - you can even reserve a covered wagon to sleep in. Westward, ho!

From the top of the viewing tower.

View from inside the dugout house.

Sweet little "Olden Days" girl.

They could have stayed to "wash" clothes all day.

Driving the covered wagon to the old school house.

This is Jake during the lesson....

...and this is Haley. She was SO in her element.

Jake's turn to drive.

We thought this was pretty funny - modern day wagon train!

From De Smet we drove south and spent a night in Nebraska, then headed west through Denver to stay a night in Aspen Valley, Colorado. Rob and I took turns running that morning, taking in the stunning mountain views before starting the last leg of our drive into Salt Lake City. We were all SO tired of driving by this point, and while Haley and Jake were perfect little travelers with their DVD players, Alex was not. We stopped at a convenience store in Duschene for bribes and I fed Alex bits of Reese's Pieces all the way into the valley. Were we ever glad to get to the cousins' house!