On Day 6 of our trip, we drove across most of the state of South Dakota. This was the only part of the trip I had never really seen before. It is sure a beautiful state! Our drive began with pine forests that reminded us of Spokane and ended with amazing farms on the green, green prairie.
We made a stop in Wall to see what the all the signs were about. It was a mall! It was neat, but we didn't spend much time there. We drove by the Badlands of South Dakota.
I forgot to mention that Elizabeth's kindergarten teacher went to college in South Dakota so Elizabeth was super excited to see her college as we drove by Rapid City.
Here was a large statue in Chamberlain, South Dakota. The kids are standing below. We ignorantly thought it was Sacajawea since the statue was at the LEWIS AND CLARK interpretive center. However, apparently it was not...which made no sense to us.
A picture at the Missouri River. The plaque says something about Lewis and Clark coming through right here. It looked a lot like home. We also have a lot of these little plaques on the river talking about how Lewis and Clark came through. We went inside the interpretive center and puttered around for a bit.
Not far East of the Missouri River, the landscaping changed to the most beautiful farmland I had ever seen! All green and so neat and tidy. Many farmhouses that had been rebuilt were absolutely amazing. I wanted to live here!
As we passed by, Nathan mused that he didn't see any irrigation circles and wondered where they got their water. Oops. I guess I haven't done a very good job educating him on non-irrigated agriculture. Irrigated farming is all they've ever known.
I was just taking pictures of the beautiful farms and houses and barns. So green! At home, the fields are green, but there is still lots of sagebrush around and it's not so picture perfect.
A house I wanted.
We arrived at DeSmet. This is where the Laura Ingalls Wilder family homesteaded.
We went to the pageant that night. I was taking pictures of their homestead and their fields. It was all so pretty. The little gray house in the picture above was the homestead. The house is rebuilt to look like the original because it was in shambles. In order to have tourists inside, they redid it to look just like the original.
Every year, they put on a different play. Every year, it is a different book. This year, the book they presented was "Little Town on the Prairie." That was neat because that book actually took place in DeSmet and we were actually able to tour the home and the school that was in the book.
Running around at intermission.
A view of the pageant. The pageant is put on just in front of their homestead.
Jeremy enjoying the show. We were one of the groups of the people from the furthest away! Most people were from South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa. However, we couldn't beat Japan.
It was such a lovely, lovely evening. It started out really hot and then cooled down with no wind and no bugs. We just sat on the prairie and took in the play. It was so peaceful. We got programs at the beginning of the play. The kids followed along with the scenes. By the end of the night (2 hours later) the kids were confused why their programs felt damp and heavy. They didn't really have a concept of what humidity was.
I can't describe how much I enjoyed sitting out on Laura's prairie. The book series was my favorite as a kid and I've read all the books to my kids. It was just so special being there.
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