Fort Scott

Yesterday we went to Fort Scott, Kansas. I ended not taking many pictures because I was busy helping Little Bit with her Junior Ranger.

It was an interesting park, and the Junior Ranger did a good job of making us go over the whole thing.

I think we would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't SO hot! There's something more . . .intense about the heat out here. And the northern part of our trip got us ready for fall, making the heat here seem even worse.


The volunteer at the desk made the kids happy by just giving them their badges, and Civil war trading cards, without making them say the pledge. He also took time to go through the trading cards with Little Bit and tell her a little about each one.

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Long Day

Today was by far our longest day so far on this trip. Last night we parked in a parking lot at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. A friend of my parents who lives in the area had told them the college had RV hook ups and arranged with the college for us to park there what she, and therefore we, didn't realize is that the hook ups are in a regular parking lot on campus with cars parked all around them. We got parked by waiting till the lot cleared out some in the evening. So . . .this morning my dad woke up a little after 7 and realized the lot was filling up and we could get parked in. We woke Little Bit up enough to move her from the floor to the sofa, got everything ready to go, including slides pulled in, then woke the big girls enough to get them to turn the other direction in their bunks so their feet were pointed to the front, not their heads, and pulled out. Dad stopped at the entrance of the lot to hook the car on the back and while he was doing that, literally minutes after we pulled out of our spot, someone came and parked in a spot that would have blocked us in! Drove a few miles to a Walmart lot and stopped to let kids finish waking up and all of us make our coffee and eat breakfast then headed to the Homestead Memorial national park site. Spent the morning there . . .


Not surprisingly, the homestead memorial is on the prairie. It has its own kind of beauty but the girls and I are in agreement that we have no desire to live on the prairie. So flat and hot and . . . Flat!


This was in the eclipse's path of totality, so they still had stuff about that here. My favorite was the series of small quilts they had showing the stages. So gorgeous!


All 3 girls got their Junior Rangers but as usual, Ashlyn didn't want her picture taken.

They had a "Not so Junior Ranger" book here do mom did that one and got a different pin.

We left Homestead around 1pm and ate while dad drove into Kansas to the Pony Express Museum there. It's small, but very cool!

The original pony express stop for this area is still on it's original location! It was used as a home until the 1940s. The interpreter at the museum said recently a woman in her 90s came to see the museum and said she had actually lived in this house! So cool!


Inside the original building they have a place where the show the different "layers" in the wall.


The building still has it's original floors and at some point in it's history someone flatten out tin cans and used them to patch the floor. Talk about using everything you had!


Riding gloves.


There was a telegraph key in the museum that you could try. Lexie taught Little Bit how to use it.


The people who lived in the wayside house when the pony express was in operation were German. This is s German Bible.

So we spent a couple hours there then decided to do a couple hours of driving to get closer to tomorrow's stop, Ft Scott. We found a campground that looked like it would work well but dad didn't have good cell reception there at the museum so we figured we'd drive a little bit then stop and dad could call and confirm they had a spot available. We discovered that cell service was spotty most everywhere and places to stop were minimal . . . By the time mom could call it was after hours and the recording gave no indication of if there was a way to stay there if you hadn't planned ahead. So, new plan . . . Found another campground, called and actually talked to a person. She said they did have a spot, so we drove to this campground (which happens to be in a town named "Peculiar" I've been making tons of jokes about that, the girls don't find me as funny as I find me lol).

Didn't get to the campground until after 8, then had to get parked, not an easy task to back a motorhome into a spot in the dark. Get leveled and hooked up . . . By then it was bedtime!

So today was our earliest time pulling out, by at least an hour, and our latest time parking, by probably 2 hours, first time parking after dark. Long day, and hard on dad, doing so much driving, a lot of it on 2 lane roads with quite a bit of wind. I'm proud of my girls for handling the uncertainty without complaining, and generally being great travelers.

This campground has laundry facilities and showers so I'm going to get laundry going in the morning and take a much needed shower (with so many of us, we have to be careful about water usage if we spend very long at sites without water hookup and/or a dump station. So, while the shower in the motorhome works fine, we've been conserving water so no showers since we left DeSmet Monday morning). And hopefully the kids will sleep in a bit.

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De Smet Day 2

Today we stayed on the homestead and enjoyed all that it has to offer.

Mother Nature apparently thought we needed to truly experience the prairie so we had warm, but strong, winds all day long! I can't say it made me have any interest in living out here! Ashlyn commented that she didn't realize there could be wind like this with rain or cold.


The horse's name is the same as Little Bit's.


Ready to ride.


Nobody knows what happened to the original claim shanty that Pa built on the homestead but town records give us the dimensions so they built one the same size. This is the room the 4 girls shared after Pa added on the first addition (2 bedrooms). The "main room", that was the whole house for the first year, is twice the size of this bedroom.


The whole shanty as it would have looked after 1883 when Pa added another room to house the organ they bought for Mary.

Kids could try their hand at doing laundry outside the shanty.



We took a wagon ride out to a school house. Not on it's original site, and not where Laura taught, that one burned down and this was built in it's place and continued to be used until the 1960s.

Inside the kids dressed up in bonnets and pinafores. And a retired teacher told about school back then.


The water bucket and dipper. So hygenic.


The exterior of the school. The teacher said up to 30-some students attended there!


Little Bit got a turn "driving" on the way back.

When we got back from the wagon ride the big girls had to love on the horses.



The colt we met yesterday was happy to see us. He's only a month old and friendly as can be. Comes up and rubs against you if you're ignoring him.



Little Bit wanted to drive the pony cart so Lexie rode along.

Ashlyn took a turn driving the pony cart too but I didn't get a picture. She said the guy told her that pony doesn't have to be tied to the rail between rides, she stays put EXCEPT during the summer they stop at 6:30. That pony can tell time and right at 6:30 if she isn't tied up she'll start toward home lol.

The pony waiting, not tied, between rides. I love how she rests her chin on the rail.


Lexie's turn riding the horse.


Ashlyn's turn. Notice the colt waiting for her to come love on him some more.

Even though the Ingalls never lived in a dugout in SD, there's a replica of one here on the homestead. Based on the indentation left by the one on Plum Creek, I think this is pretty accurate as far as size.


I knew it was small, but the thing that struck me when I went inside was that somehow it being dark and having dark, solid, thick walls made me feel a LOT more claustrophobic in the dugout than I have in the various small cabins and shanties.

Shudder . . .even realizing that it would be warmer in winter and cooler in summer, I'm not sure I could stand to live there.

While the Ingalls' shanty is long gone, they do have a claim shanty from the time period that they moved to this property.






After we'd finished exploring Lexie decided to hang out on the front porch of the gift shop since their WiFi seems to ONLY work there. Later, I went looking for her and didn't see her on the porch at first, then I found her tucked into a corner of the buggy they have on the porch lol


And finally, one last cat picture. The cats are super friendly. This little guy had been "talking" to us then went over in the sun to sleep but instead of laying flat on the porch he decided to lay with his neck bent at a terribly uncomfortable angle against the planter leg. And promptly went to sleep like that.

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Afternoon of our First Day in De Smet

After lunch we headed back into town to finish exploring there.

There's a small "discovery center" in the park that had some craft stuff, dress up clothes, information on how to read Braille, and, Lexie's favorite, a treadle sewing machine to try!


After visiting the small museum where we'd taken the house tour, which had some awesome stuff but didn't allow pictures, we drove around De Smet to see the other locations.


The store building that Pa built, and the family lived in the first couple winters, was sold soon after. The new owner replaced Pa's wood building with this red brick building that's still standing.


Laura talks about Loftus store and it still exists. More tourist trap junk than general store now, but still a store.


The woman in Loftus store said during a renovation, some shoes, still in shoeboxes, from the 1800s were found in a corner of the attic. One of the shoes, and a box, are on display in the store.

We also drove by the church and cemetery where the family, except for Laura, is buried.

We drove by Laura and Almanzo's claim, now farm land.


Once we came back to the homestead things were winding down for the day but we did get to see a demonstration of twisting hay


Little Bit made a corncob doll (I gave up on pictures, another mom was blocking my view).

And we got to say hi to a pony and her baby before it started raining and we headed back to the motorhome for the evening.

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De Smet day 1 - Morning

Today was the first of our two days in De Smet, SD.

We got here yesterday afternoon and parked the motorhome in one of the spots right on Pa's homestead, now a museum, etc.

Little Bit had fun playing with the other kids who are staying here and all the kids had fun playing with some cats that apparently live here.



This morning we headed into town to tour the buildings that are there. They aren't open tomorrow, but the homestead is, so we'll see it then.


The Surveyor's house where they stayed their first winter in SD. Laura describes how big and fancy it was. It's a lot smaller than I expected! Especially considering they had up to 15 extra men staying with them. This is the original house, restored to similar to how it was in 1879/80, but moved from it's original location to a lot in town.


The pantry in the Surveyor's house.


A replica of the whatnot that Mrs. Boast helped the Ingalls make.


The unfinished wood that was the original exterior of the Surveyor's house.

The next stop was the school house where Laura and Carrie went to school.


Again, an original building but moved from it's original site.


Little Bit got to ring the school bell.


When they outgrew the school, it was used as a residence for years before the historic society obtained it and restored it to it's original condition. When they removed all the layers of wallpaper they found the original chalkboards!


Little Bit got to try grinding wheat in a coffee mill like they had to do during the hard winter.

Our final tour stop was the house Pa built in town in 1887.

He built the right side first, then added the left side as time and money allowed. This is where Pa and Ma lived for the rest of their lives.


This was Mary's Bible. Rather than being Braille, it's raised type.


Grace's room


The 3rd bedroom upstairs was set up with things that belonged to Rose (Laura's daughter)


Carrie's room


An example of the"insulation" and such inside the walls.


The first picture Carrie took.

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