Little House on the Prairie

   As we drove through Mankato, Minnesota and I saw the sign for Sleepy Eye it occurred to me that we were in the land of "Little House on the Prairie."

    What a quaint name for a town. Do you remember Pa Ingalls making trips to Sleepy Eye?
   When we got to Walnut Grove we stopped at the Laura Ingalls Wilder visitors center to get directions to the Ingall's homesite located along the banks of Plum Creek.

It is a very pretty site and easy to vision the Ingall's family living here.

The same flowers grow along the banks.

 I think Laura must have picked flowers like these for her Ma's table.

I'm sure life in the 1800's was much the same for all farm families in the Midwest - drought, grasshoppers, winds, hail... Pa's goal to become a successful farmer never happened and they eventually settled in De Smet, S.D. where he worked numerous jobs.

The family, minus Laura, are all buried in the De Smet cemetery.

Thanks to "Half Pint" we have all been able to follow the journey of the Ingall's family through her books and then the television show...   b