Fargo's visitor center knew its audience - can you guess what we're standing behind?
The girls didn't understand the appeal. Since we weren't elegible to join the Best for Last Club, we skipped seeing the other props.
The only evidence of the oil shale boom were those dirty trucks in the parking lot
The roads were so flat, straight, and empty that we could have gone 180
Love the Native American silhouette on the state route signs
Now to the more popular of the Dakotas. As much as I would have liked to combine the trips, the Black Hills and Mt Rushmore were 500 miles away on the other side of the state.
The more road trips we take, the more I appreciate the highway system in the US
The Bramble Park Zoo in Watertown, SD had a remarkably good collection of well-tended animals. We went to see the American bison, sadly not in their native habitat.
There was also a giant prairie dog village. We thought these guys were really cute until we realized how they got so fat.
Monarchs were everywhere at the zoo, probably because there were several small plots of prairie grasses, oases in the endless fields of soybean and corn
De Smet was the highlight of the trip, a visit to the Laura Ingalls homestead
Thanks to Grandma Joan, we had bonnets to protect us from the sun and high winds on the prairie
The girls learned how to wash clothes like they did in the 1880s
Not sure Erin would be smiling after 12 hours of this
same for Caroline's sewing
The girls took turns in the pony-driven cart, and Tessie even rode the big horse
There were artifacts to climb on
and a real covered wagon ride out to an old schoolhouse. That is Caroline driving the team.
We tried to use this mantra later in the trip to quell the kids' greedy gimmies
There's Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace. When the boy was announced to be Almanzo Wilder, Erin started blushing.
Baby Grace, you can't see very well
Dad demonstrated a punishment technique of keeping one's nose fixed to the chalkboard
As if it couldn't get any better, one of the barns had kittens
The next day we headed east to Minnesota
Can you tell that we're city slickers?
If you kept your eyes peeled, you could see where all that corn was going - to be processed into ethanol
To keep up with the Ingalls theme we stopped at a replica sod house
but way cooler was Pipestone National Monument, a site sacred to many Plains Indian tribes because it was the only source of a hard, red stone that was quarried and fashioned into ceremonial pipe bowls - what we call peace pipes.
It was another rare place where the land looked untouched and undeveloped
not that the girls could enjoy the views - they had their Junior Ranger books to complete
On our way out of the farmland and into Minneapolis, we had to stop at the largest candy store in Minnesota, or to our eyes possibly the world.
They had every kind of candy that you have heard of, and quite a few that you haven't. Ever tried a Black Cow, Slo Poke, or B-B Bat? Care to? Me neither.
Our hotel included access to the Water Park of America
And since we were there, we hopped over to the Mall of America, where the indoor amusement park was our main attraction
We headed east to the final state of the trip
The St. Croix River is a National Scenic Riverway, as this statue in St. Croix Falls, WI is supposed to convey
It may be sneezeweed, but at least it's scenic
The riparian NPS sites always have a firm emphasis on safety
Now back in St. Paul, where the Science Museum of Minnesota hosts the Mississippi River National Recreation Area visitor center. There the girls learned how properly tie lines to cleats that could link together river barges.
You said it Mom, it was a busy trip through the prarieland
Glad this guy doesn't raid my tomato garden
Still looking for that jackalope
Covered wagon ride
Can you imagine what the winters were like out here?
Somewhat accurate
Hugging the sacred rocks
Am I the only one who finds the sight of wind farms to be unnerving. They're always moving, they never stop moving...
Erin is a very good driver
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