Missouri

From St Louis, we headed southwest to Mansfield, to see the house where Laura Wilder lived while she wrote the "Little House" books. She was a pretty short woman, so her husband made all the cabinets shorter than normal to accommodate her.

Tuesday morning, we visited Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, which had a very nice visitor's center for a fairly minor civil war battle. Wilson's Creek was the first major American Civil War engagement west of the Mississippi River.

Then we hit the George Washington Carver National Monument, which similar to Grant's House will be better soon, as they are currently constructing a new visitor's center. Over the course of his lifetime, Carver rose from slavery to become a renowned educator and research scientist. He created 325 uses for peanuts.