Little House on the Prairie travel in Missouri and Kansas

by Jamie Rhein on

A few years ago, a friend of mine embarked on a trip to Kansas City on the now defunct Skybus for an anticipated mini-road trip vacation that included stops at two of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s houses.

These weren’t the only places on my friend’s family’s itinerary but they are the only highlights I can remember. Both of the houses are near small towns where life moves at a slower pace and charm is part of the draw as well as their unique spots in American history.

Starting in Kansas and Missouri isn’t a chronological approach to Laura Ingalls Wilder travel, but it is a way to pick up two significant Little House locations. Although Laura was born in Pepin, Wisconsin, these other landmarks were significant to her life–one provided the framework for the 1970s-1980s TV series. The other is where Wilder lived during her adult years until she died.

The Little House on the Prairie Historical Site is about 13 miles from Independence, Kansas and is a small reconstructed cabin that reminds me of Lincoln’s boyhood home in Indiana, although a bit more rough around the edges. Even though the rustic log cabin is not the actual home of Wilder, it is close to where the original cabin once stood about 13 miles from Independence. Built according to descriptions from Wilder’s book, the cabin, along with the 1872 school house, general store and post office offers a glimpse into what it was like to be a family creating a life in the early Midwest.

The cabin’s surroundings are similar to how the area looked when Wilder lived here with Ma and Pa and her sisters. I imagine if you look over the tall waving grass and the clouds drifting across the sky in the summer you can almost hear the TV show’s theme song.

For a bigger taste of life on the prairie living head to the Prairie Days Festival on June 13 where food, wagon rides, costume character contests, a petting zoo and craft vendors tap into the nostalgia of that time period. If June is too soon, I noticed Bluegrass on the Prairie on October 10 and Christmas on the Prairie, November 28.

For more Laura Ingalls Wilder travel head to Mansfield, Missouri. Rocky Ridge Farm, about 30 miles from Springfield is where Laura moved with her husband Almanzo and penned all nine of the “Little House” books. At this house are Wilder family artifacts and details about early American pioneer life. Here’s a tour of the house that provides an excellent overview of what you’ll see here, as well, as details of the changes the farm has gone through over the years from the first time Wilder settled here.

Mansfield, like Independence, throws a Laura Ingalls Wilder-themed festival each year. Wilder Days is on September 19. From the description, it seems like the crowds participate in 19th-century style fun. Don’t come expecting to just sit around.

There’s also Laura’s Memories, an annual outdoor theatre production in August and September that chronicles Laura’s life and her grave, along with her husband’s at the Mansfield Cemetery.

One place that sounds like a worthwhile eatery is the Owl’s Nest Cafe. The food is a mix of Native American and recipes from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Cookbook and the cookbook Good Ol’ Downhome Cookin.’

As a three-day weekend trip, making a loop that takes in Independence and Mansfield might be a simple, relaxing and interesting getaway. My friend’s trip exceeded her family’s expectations. If you do go, I’d bring a copy of Little House on the Prairie to add to the experience. The book is also on audio CD that includes fiddle music. Listening to the book while driving through land that can seem as flat as a pancake would nicely pass the time.

While you’re tootling around, for more Laura Ingalls Wilder travel, you might as well head to Marshfield, Missouri to see her star on the “Walk of Fame” outside the Webster County History Museum and to the State Capitol Building in Jefferson City to see the bronze bust of Wilder as part of the Hall of Famous Missourians collection.

Because Independence and Mansfield are only a little over three hours from each other, you could put them together into an inexpensive travel option. Joplin, Missouri is almost exactly in the middle of the two and would be another worthwhile stop.

For an account of Little House travel starting in Minnesota and taking in South Dakota read Marla Elena Baca’s article about her experience recently published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Tour stops #4, #5, #6, and #7: From the college towns: “Come and couch-surf Kansas!”

by Rolf Potts on

After a somewhat lonely showing in the Salina Central Mall, I took my book tour east on I-70 for a series of events on college campuses in Manhattan, Topeka, Lawrence, and suburban Kansas City. It was here, amid college students who were keen on the message of Vagabonding and intrigued by the tales in Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, that I feel like my book tour finally hit its stride.

I suspect that university campuses will always be my bread and butter when I tour for books — if nothing else because of the “time-is-wealth” slant of Vagabonding, which college students are always keen to hear. My tour of northeastern Kansas colleges started at Kansas State University in Manhattan, where I was slated to give keynote address to the Kansas International Educator’s conference. The word “keynote” was slightly intimidating (it made me feel like an adult all of a sudden), but I decided to keep the subject matter of my speech close to what I know best — travel, and the gut-level lessons you learn when you live in unfamiliar cultures. Since these concepts are easily applicable to international education, this led to a great post-talk discussion of living overseas, including safety issues and how to best motivate students to leave the comfort of home and study/travel abroad.
After my speech for the KIE folks, I jogged over to the K-State student union building and gave an International Coordinating Council-sponsored talk to 20 or so students, including hitchhiker extraordinaire Aaron Bell (whose hard-won hitching strategies I will blog about later this year at Vagablogging). Several members of the audience were members of Couchsurfing.com, and they all had a common refrain for would-be USA travelers out there: “Come to Kansas and stay with us!”

I say right-on to that, since a place like Kansas is off the beaten path in the truest sense of the word, and the student-couchsurfers there seem keen to show travelers the best of what the state has to offer.

Once I’d finished in Manhattan I continued on to Topeka, where I spent a day at Washburn University speaking with the writing students of novelist Thomas Fox Averill and memoirist Sarah Smarsh. None of these classes dealt with travel writing per se, but even among the fiction students I was able to generate some great discussions about how travel can sharpen your sense of place as a writer (and I’ll share some of these specific tips in my next post).

After an open-to-the-public Marco Polo Didn’t Go There reading at Washburn Union, I made a red-eye drive to Kansas City, where I was slated to give a noontime vagabonding talk the next day at Johnson County Community College. JCCC is one of the largest and wealthiest community colleges in the United States, and as a venue it reminded me of my talk at Google’s New York office: It was very organized and high-tech, with a sharp and engaged audience. As was the case at K-State and Washburn, a few of the students in the audience had been Vagabonding fans for years, and they brought in yellowing first-edition copies (some of which had traveled around the world with them) for me to sign. It’s always awesome to meet people who not only have read Vagabonding, but have already put it to use, and traveled around the world and back with stories to tell.

My final stop on my tour of northeastern Kansas was the classic college town of Lawrence, where my cousin Dan and several other old friends live. There I made an appearance at the River City Reading Festival alongside Kansas authors like American Shaolin author Matthew Polly, River of Doubt author Candace Millard, and Ice Harvest author Scott Phillips. I had a small but lively crowd at my reading, but the real spectacle was the author signing tent afterward, where a long line of people was stretched out along the library waiting to meet — no, not me — What’s the Matter With Kansas author Thomas Frank (who was there promoting his new book, The Wrecking Crew).

I managed to attract a dozen or so Marco Polo Didn’t Go There fans during my hour-long stint in the tent, but Thomas Frank’s mob of admirers was a reminder that other authors certainly have a more high-profile manner of promoting their books this year.

After Lawrence, I headed off to London, England of all places — to record voice-over for a Travel Channel special I’ll describe in a future post. [Photos by Jeffrey Couch.]

Extreme Geography in the United States

by Justin Glow on

Catherine’s post on the not-so-well-known geographical center of the United States got me thinking: there’s something fun and intriguing about visiting, say, the northernmost point in a country, or perhaps driving eastward until you can drive no further — if only so that you can say, “There’s no one further east than me,” unless there’s someone else standing next to you. If so you’ll have to say, “There’s no one further east than me…and this other person.” But somehow that’s not quite as romantic. Unless it’s a girl and you’re a guy and there’s a bit of chemistry going on. Anyway. Here we go:

All 50 states:

48 Contiguous:

P.S. This is my 500th post with Gadling. Woo!

Hitch50 Comes to a Finish

by Adrienne Wilson on

Remember Scotty and Fiddy? They started off about two months ago on a mission to hitchhike their way to the state capitals of all 50 states in 50 consecutive days. (Yes, even Alaska and Hawai’i.) Erik gave them some link love early on in their adventure and now that they’ve completed their fantastic voyage from state-to-state it’s time to recap. On October 10, 2006 the two young men headed off into the cold, dark, unfriendly land we know as the United States… Okay, that’s not true. They did head off on October 10, 2006 and I’m sure part of the whole thing was not only set up to score some free travel, but to show that there is a little kindness in the hearts of Americans everywhere for two men with extended thumbs. Now, whether or not they stuck out their thumbs or just prearranged every single ride, you’ll have to find out on your own by visiting the Hitch50 site.

They did spectacular job blogging the whole shebang which includes photos and video. I kept tabs on the fellas by text messaging, hoping to give them a lift at some point in their journey, but they moved a lot faster than I imagined they would. Their mission was successfully completed the mission on November 28, 2006. Way to go guys!