Minnesota 2020: Old Friends, More Little House on the Prairie, and HOME

On Sunday, July 5th, we left Duluth early and headed north toward Virginia, Minnesota. Some long-time family friends - the Clarks - live and worship in Virginia, so we decided to attend church services there with them. Their daughter, Cynthia, was also in town visiting from Texas, and we were so happy with the way it worked out to see her, too. 

After worship services, the Clarks invited us to picnic in the park with them. They had bought all kinds of food, including fried chicken, chips, potato salad, pasta salad, cookies, and drinks, and we had a lovely spread for lunch. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with them!

Mr. Ed and my dad have been friends for decades, and it was so fun watching him play with the twins. He just followed them around and really enjoyed their antics. They thought he was pretty great, too!

Mr. Ed and Brooke

Brecklyn, Mr. Ed, and Brooke

Cynthia is close friends with my close friend, Tia, and even lived in Oklahoma for a while. While she lived closer to us, we would see her fairly often, but that has changed since she moved to Texas. 

Cynthia and Chelley

After our lunch and some park playtime, we said good-bye to our friends and started driving west across Minnesota toward North Dakota. The drive was mostly on two lane highways that were curvy, and the trip was slow-going. Even though we were only in the car for about five hours, that afternoon felt like the LONGEST part of our trip. We did get to see a nice sunset, however.

Finally, we arrived in North Dakota!

We spent that night in Fargo, North Dakota, then woke up the next morning and drove to South Dakota. 

As soon as we crossed the border from North Dakota into South Dakota, we stopped at a visitor's center. We were permitted to walk the perimeter of the visitor's center, but all the pamphlets in the center of the room were roped off due to COVID. There were so many COVID restrictions that were truly puzzling to us. 

South Dakota

This was the kids' first time being in South Dakota.

Our primary goal for the day was to spend some time in DeSmet, South Dakota, which is the home to another Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and homesite. 

The first thing we did upon arriving in DeSmet was to find a place to have a picnic lunch. The town of DeSmet was so pretty and green, and we really enjoyed our picnic. It was this day that Chris and I made the decision to do more picnics on all our trips moving forward, even if restaurants are back open.

Daddy and Bren

Once we finished our picnic lunch, we headed over to the Surveyor's House, where the Ingalls family had lived for a winter. 

Brooke and Brecklyn

This property was a bit more open than the property in Minnesota, so we were able to go inside the schoolhouse and sit in the desks. 

The kids loved seeing a real covered wagon!

We didn't have time to do the entire driving tour of all the "Ingalls" things in DeSmet, but we did visit the cemetery where several members of the family are buried. It was neat to see their graves.

We also enjoyed driving by the Ingalls family home.

We also drove out to the land where the Ingalls family had lived and farmed before they moved into town. I somehow attracted a very chatty lady from Michigan while we were walking around the land, and she talked my ear off the entire time we were there. I don't know how that always seems to happen to me, haha. 

Being on the land we were reading about in the books was the coolest experience. We even saw the giant cottonwood trees Pa planted. I love how things worked out!

From DeSmet, we drove about three hours south to Souix City, Iowa for the night. Once we got settled into the hotel, Chris went out to get us dinner. He decided to go to Taco John's because we had passed a ton of them on our trip but had never eaten there. Somehow, he ended up spending $65 for fast food, and we had a ton of food, but especially nachos. I guess they kept asking him if he wanted nachos with each item he ordered, and he kept saying yes. Lol. I was tired from a long day of driving, so I found this whole situation to be hilarious. I'm not sure he agreed, haha. 

The next morning (Tuesday, July 7th), we headed south on the interstate. We drove through Nebraska (another first for the kiddos).

Then, we continued south through Kansas.

We stopped at a park in a small town in Kansas for lunch. There were some sketchy people hanging out at the park (especially for a small town!), so we ate quickly and kept trucking down the road. 

You know it's been a good trip when you have a van full of sleeping children on the way home!

Finally, at around 3:45pm, we crossed into Oklahoma. Almost home!

Chris and I briefly discussed visiting the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Independence, Kansas on our way home. It wouldn't have been too far out of the way, but ultimately decided that would be a little much on the last day. I'm thankful we made that decision. We were all just ready to be HOME, and getting in at 5:00pm was much better than 7:00 or 8:00pm like it would have been had we added another stop.

We grabbed El Azteca for dinner once we got home, then Grampy and G-Jo came over to see us for an hour or so. The kids were elated to see them, and couldn't wait to share their stories from the road! 

As uncomfortable as I was with the idea of traveling right now and planning a trip at the last minute, I am SO grateful that we decided to go for it. It was a great trip, and the kids have been so cute talking about all the things they experienced and enjoyed. It was such a blessing to be able to see that part of the country and God's beautiful creation!