DAY 347 Friday 22nd August 2008

Ashland, Oregon (Miles to Date: 37336)


The rest our trip across country is a real rush as we want to get to Ashland in Oregon where are to finish our great adventure.

From Kansas we head up through Colorado, stopping just west of Denver. We then trek across Colorado into Utah – initially our plan was to stop in Salt Lake City. For one reason or another all roads for us seem to lead to Salt Lake, but we make good time in getting there and visit our favourite outdoor store, REI and grab some dinner. The decision is then to stay or head on and gain some more distance. We decide to make a run for it and head across the salt flats towards Wendover which is on the border between Utah and Nevada. The town actually straddles the border; the east side (in Utah) is relatively sedate but the part of the town in Nevada is a whole different kettle of fish, it is full of casinos. We had had some trouble in getting a room – in fact we had just about the last room in town. What we didn’t know was that it was the Bonneville Flats race week. People come from all over the country to race their cars and motorcycles across the salt flats. There are many categories of cars and bikes, ranging from standard production vehicles to custom classic cars. We had already some of these amazing vehicles parked at our hotel in Denver and now that we are actually in Wendover there is a stunning array of vehicles on display. Unfortunately we are in a hurry so we cannot get across to the races.

From Wendover we fly across to Winnemucca in Nevada and then head north into Oregon. We leave the main routes to travel on slower road through the Cascade Mountains passing through the towns of Lakeview and Klammath Falls en route. At Howard Prairie Lake we stop to retrieve our motor home which has been parked there for approaching 3 months. Amazingly we get it started up with few problems and travel through the mountains for the last few miles to Ashland.

Ashland is our final stop on our grand tour. We had visited Ashland previously on our way through Oregon and fell in love with the town. It is situated virtually on the border with California and is in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. The thing that drew us to Ashland was the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and we had a wonderful experience when we came to see “Midsummer Nights Dream”. We simply wanted more. So this is where we are going to plonk ourselves for the foreseeable future. This journey has been a wonderful experience for all of us, we have seen and learnt so much and met so many fantastic people on the way. Hopefully Jack and Emily will retain the memory of some of this trip for the rest of their lives as it has been a once in a lifetime experience. The travelling has been tiring and in many ways we are looking to establish ourselves at least for a while and get some stability back into our lives. On the other hand we are so sad to be ending our fabulous journey. Hopefully this is just an extended stop on our journey and that there is more exploring ahead for the Hobbs family.

DAY 344 Monday 18th August 2008

Wichita, Kansas (Miles to Date: 35570)

We spend the night at St Robert, Missouri before heading down the small town of Mansfield, Missouri. This was another opportunity to continue on our quest to visit all the places that Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame lived in throughout her life. In 1894, the hard-pressed Laura, her husband Almanzo and their young daughter Rose moved to Mansfield, using their savings to make a partial down payment on a piece of undeveloped property just outside of town. They named the place Rocky Ridge Farm. What began as about 40 acres (0.2 km2) of thickly-wooded stone-covered hillside with a windowless log cabin, over the next twenty years evolved into a 200-acre, relatively prosperous poultry, dairy, and fruit farm. The ramshackle log cabin was eventually replaced with an impressive and unique ten-room farmhouse and outbuildings.

Today the farm is a National Historic Site. We start off in the museum which is full of artefacts from Laura and Rose’s lives. There is so much to see including letters and diary excerpts that we just don’t have the time to do it justice. From the museum it is just a short walk to the farm house. It is a very modest building and is very much as it was the day Laura passed away in 1957, a few days after her 90^th birthday. The first room you enter is the bijoux kitchen; the most noticeable feature of which is the very low counter tops on base unit cupboards. These were custom made, as was the case in those time, and Laura being very petite had them made to suit her size. We pass through the parlour and into the bedroom in which both Laura and Almanzo passed away. The final room is lounge, which is the largest and most comfortable room in the house.

After the tour of this farm house we take a short drive across the farm to a stone built house. This was a gift from Rose to her parents and they did live in this house for several years, but they missed their old farm house and moved back there for the remainder of their lives. We were allowed to go into this more modern home, which was rather lovely with some great details. It is hard to fathom the motives behind Laura and Almanzo moving back to their old house.

It is now time to continue on our way. We have not finished with Laura Ingalls just yet. A hundred or so miles further west is the Kansas town of Independence. Here is the location of the original house on the prairie. The simple cabin has long since disappeared and it took many years of painstaking research to find its location. There is now a replica of the “Little House on the Prairie” based on the descriptions in Laura Ingalls Wilders’ books. It does not take too long to explore the single room structure, but our sense of achievement in having visited all the main sites that Laura had herself been to during her life far exceeded our excitement of visiting this place alone. To celebrate we bustled our way into downtown Independence, which is more than a one horse town …. more like three horses and found ourselves a wonderful road side store selling shaved ice. Having satisfied our exuberance with shaved ice we head off to our stop over in Wichita, Kansas.