Laura Ingalls Wilder

After a buzz by the Corn Palace, we left Mitchell and headed up to De Smet, SD, where Laura Ingalls lived several years. We've bought several of the Little House on the Prairie box sets, and the kids often watch them while we're traveling. However, while the TV show is set in Walnut Grove, MN, in reality the Ingalls moved around a lot, from Wisconsin to Kansas to Minnesota to Iowa to De Smet. Much of what occurred in the TV show actually happened to the Ingalls when they lived in De Smet. That said, unless you're a huge fan, I wouldn't go out of the way to visit the town.

We left De Smet and entered Minnesota, stopping at the Pipestone National Monument. It's a pretty small park, but nice. It's a quarry where native Americans mined a clay rock that they used to make pipes and other trinkets. 

Right now we're at an RV site across from the National Monument in Pipestone.