The bulk of our driving on the way to Minneapolis was on Friday through Wisconsin. After spending the night in Janesville (We drove after the Wait Wait show to the hotel. I was playing with my camera while on the road at night.) , we had a route planned through Madison and on to Minneapolis. Of course, with road trips, the fun is in getting off the route and exploring the area- so, of course, we did.Our first detour was just barely off the interstate to investigate the rock formations we saw. The scenic stopping point was closed. I took pictures of a few signs we saw. I thought it was ridiculous that milk cost more in Wisconsin, a state full of dairy farms, than in Indiana. Lately, the standard price seems to be $2.99/gallon around here. There was a bus company I was convinced could have come up with a better name. Another sign I got a picture of illustrated a joke I heard recently...
Why does Wisconsin have the best cell phone coverage? ... More bars in more places.
That may only make sense to those who know anything about Wisconsin culture.
men's jewelry
I digress. The big detour we took was well off the interstate, when we saw signs for the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I'll be honest, I've never read the Little House books, but I want to! Josh liked them as a child and was interested to see what there was to see. We stopped at the Mabel Tainter monument to get information and directions to the Little House in the Big Woods. As an added bonus, on the way there, we passed the childhood home of Caroline Woodhouse, the author of Caddie Woodlawn. Finally, we got to the Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthplace. As with most of the Midwest, the Big Woods is now a Big Field, but besides that it was pretty cool. Nearby, there was a cute church and a cute schoolhouse-turned-house amidst the still-rural Wisconsin scenery. As we drove, I tried to picture what I knew of the books, and covered wagons forging a path through the landscape to build a house and settle on a plot of land. It was kind of neat.
Finally, we ended up in Minnesota, off course but in the right state. We went through the birthplace of waterskiing as well as the home of Red Wing Shoes on our way to the show.
We arrived in Minneapolis. Well, St Paul, actually, and the Fitzgerald Theatre. We were early again, but had reserved seats, so couldn't sit up front like the night before. The crowd was the same demographics as the previous NPR show (either our age or retirement-age) but the average age of the crowd was older, and the group was less diverse. We were sitting next to a brother and sister that were are age, and insisted upon talking loudly. Slightly annoying. .. And the show began! Singing! Jokes! Stories! Guy Noir, private eye! Ketchup, with natural mellowing agents! Powdered Milk Biscuits! And, of course, the news from Lake Woebegone. All in all, a blast. And live! In person! Somewhat like the movie!
And thus ends the Radio portion of our travels. The next day held more adventures, but that will be for another post.
3 comments:
Thanks for letting us tag along on your trip!
Let me suggest the audio book version of Little House, read by Cherry Jones--superb!
My husband had never read the books, and we listened as a family on our last trip. I was surprised how much my husband was interested in the masculine details, and believe me, there are many.
I think I enjoyed hearing them with a fresh ear as an adult more than I even did as a child.
I really loved the Little House series when I was younger! So much, in fact, that I used a bunch of PaperBackSwap credits to acquire the collection.
I want to read it to my kids someday, plus I wanna read them again for my own enjoyment!
You should be able to find them at your library, I believe.
I have taught Little House on the Prairie for almost 9 yrs now. I love it and so do my kiddos.
I am so jealous of your adventure. My school has taken 2 Laura trips and neither time did I feel like I had the money to do so. I should have gone and forgotten about the money.
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