Road Trip to Springfield Missouri: Day Three

We had a fantastic time at the Laura Ingalls Wilder house(s) and museum today! Boy, what fun it was to see the houses she lived in, but, also (and maybe even more so), items she’d written about, such as Pa’s fiddle. The museum was full of information, pictures (many of which I’d never seen); in essence, so much history of this special woman’s life. There was also a goodly portion of the museum dedicated to their daughter, Rose Wilder Lane (someone I knew basically nothing about beforehand but, from what I’ve discovered, she was interesting in her own right but, how should we say, probably very high maintenance).

Before we got to the site, we ventured to “downtown” Springfield to have breakfast at a place I’d discovered over the Internet (it had great reviews) called Gailey’s Breakfast Café (and, of course, we also had a buy one get one free coupon). The place is located in what appeared to be a refurbished bank building. Everything in it was delightfully cheerful; right down to our waitress who simply oozed happiness (review follows).

We arrived at the museum, etc. around noon. Perhaps because it was mid-week, there were not very many other people there. In fact, the only other people I saw (aside from the docents, all “elderly” ladies who sat around knitting and talking about which Lean Cuisine was their particular favorite) were a young-ish couple (the male part of said couple looked decidedly bored and neither one of them said anything during the tour of the farm house) and an elderly Japanese man (in the museum) who was really interested in the apple trees in the orchard but didn’t have enough time to go on the tour or look in the museum. We spent a few minutes in the museum but were quickly shepherded out to watch a 10 minute film on Laura’s life (in which there were two or three quick sound-bytes of Laura’s voice; that was cool!) and then on to the tour of the farm house. Probably my only beef about the entire experience was that the tour was so fast; and, although the docent was friendly and knowledgeable, we both felt we were rushed through, which wasn’t really necessary given the fact no one else was waiting to go on the tour.

Anyway, one real interesting coincidental thing was, that, on a table in their dining room, there was a church fan (of the type that, I guess, people were handed during church services when it was hot). One of those “weird, freaky things”; it was the exact same one as one my mom has on one of her tables at home! That made mom’s day!

Given that the house was started in the late 1890s and pretty much completed by the early 1900s, it was amazingly modern (the Rock House that daughter Rose had built for them on their property (where they lived for 8 years while she took up residence in their farm house) even more so).

Mrs. B Poses Near the Farm House

I’d say we spent over two hours in the museum looking at everything in great depth. Afterwards, we went up to the Rock House for its tour. Finally, after taking several pictures of the property, we drove over to the cemetery to see Laura, Almanzo and Rose’s final resting place. My review of the Laura Ingalls Wilder historic site and museum follows.

Mrs. B's Mom and Pretty Scenery

Wilder Grave Site

Lucy did well by herself in the room; we left her for about 8 hours. She was happy to get out, though, and romp around in the grassy area outside of the motel. She’s been pretty regular poop-wise, too!

Mom and I played more Gin (we’ve ping-ponged back and forth over the lead, I’m currently ahead by a mere 34 points) ate some Cheez-Its and drank some wine. Later, we went back downtown to have dinner at Trolley’s Downtown Café and Grille (right around the corner from Gailey’s Breakfast Café, as it turned out). I was so pleased to discover that they had Fat Tire Beer (from Colorado and it’s been almost impossible for me to find it since I left Colorado in 2000) on tap! Restaurant review follows.

Mrs. B and Mrs. B's Mom Ready To Dig In

Now, we’re back in our room and it’s time for me to wind down after this wonderful day! Oh, and we only got one license plate today, IA.

Mrs. B

PS

I'll post the three reviews I mentioned next time. This entry is too long already!