The night before had been very interesting – our first behind bars. It was comfortable, although the queen sized beds were ram-jammed into the cell blocks – there was no space at the ends of the bed. We rose and went down to breakfast, which the hosts Marc and Jeanne, presented so beautifully that it almost seemed too good to eat (but we managed). Last night we had sought sustenance and it turned out that Preston is almost totally bereft of anywhere to eat and we ended up at the Branding Iron Supper Club, which was more or less the only game in town.We wanted to go out cycling to enjoy the beautiful weather and countryside. After several false starts, to pump up tyres, fix seats etc we set off on a planned trip from Preston to Harmony some 14 miles away. As well as having a pleasant name Harmony is the centre of the Amish community in the area so it sounded like the place to head for. The country trail route takes you all the way between the two towns, initially running along the banks of the Root River. On leaving Preston the river takes a path away from the roads and you soon find yourself in the depths of the southern Minnesotan countryside – with endless fields dotted with the occasional cow chewing the cud with some of its colleagues. Jack’s bike was not performing too well and he and Emily were starting to feel tired. At this time we had only gone 4 miles or so – and there was a long way to go still. Karen, Jack and Emily decided to turn around, but Mark decided to carry on to Harmony alone and planned to meet up with them in Harmony. Which amazingly happened. Harmony was a bit of disappointment. So we decided to head out of town towards Canton – where we soon spot a sign to the Laura Ingalls Wilder (of Little House On The Prairie fame) museum. We had wanted to go the Wilder museum in Walnut Grove in South Minnesota but it had closed for the season. On our way we spot a small road side café / gift shop – and as you might know by now we never pass a chance for an ice cream. So we pull into the Country Grapevine Gift Shop and are pleasantly surprised that they also did food – so in short order we get our fill of some delicious grub which we wash down with an enormous ice cream.
Our appetites complete we set off to find the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum, which as it turned out was in a small town called Burr Oak. 4 miles over the State line in Iowa. We get to the small building, formerly a bank (the site of the first bank robbery in Iowa), and now the museum gift shop. It was about 4.15pm and the museum and gift shop was due to close at 4:30pm so we thought we’d get a chance to look around the gift shop. The museum director, Mike Blevins, was on hand and was very happy to offer us a tour of the museum across the road. The building was a originally a small hotel that the Ingalls worked at for 18 months on their way back from their failure to set up a homestead in Kansas. They we offered dwellings in exchange for their work in the hotel. The building itself was tiny – basically 4 rooms on the first floor and 4 on the second and there was also a basement. The rooms in the hotel were decorated with artefacts from the period and information about the Ingalls. Mark and Karen both had fond memories of the TV 
series and I for one never realised they were autobiographical. Emily and Jack had never heard of the Ingalls but did know something of the homesteading period in US history. Mike’s tour was a fascinating insight into their lives whilst in Iowa and he also explained the timeline of the Ingalls’ movements around the Midwest and how this fitted in with the books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. In one room there was a organ which was a period version of the one that would have been played by the Ingalls – Mike allowed Jack and Emily to sit down and play. We had a great time and Mike was very kind to give us the time – funnily enough as we were going around he made similar comments to Mark Schmidt at the Winslow House after Jack’s answering his questions and Emily’s constant chattering. This was to the effect that Jack could take Mike’s place in doing the tour and that Emily would be a handful when she grows up.
2 comments:
Nice Blog :)
cool blog :)
Post a Comment