Laura Ingalls Wilder Trip June 27, 2011 Mountain Grove, Missouri to Mountain Home, Arkansas

Laura Ingalls Wilder Trip Monday, June 27, 2011 Mountain Grove, Missouri to Mountain Home, Arkansas (with a long stop at Mansfield, Missouri)

At six o’ clock in the morning,  we woke to the threatening thunder-boomers rolling loudly in the sky. After enough rain to clear the air, we stopped at the Sunnyside Cafe to join the locals and police officers in pancakes and coffee.  The walls were decorated in Beatles memorabilia and other fascinating 60’s items.

The House at Rocky Ridge Laura and Almanzo lived here  1894-1957

We drove about an hour to Mansfield, Missouri where Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder  raised their only child, Rose, and lived their remaining years at the Little House on Rocky Ridge. It is here that Laura Ingalls Wilder, at the age of 65,  wrote the first four books of her series. Just as we arrived, a black cloud blew into the area and rain was rushing toward us.  We hurried into the museum with high hopes to see many of the original documents, and artifacts we had been promised.  The first find was “Pa’s” fiddle with the original case.  We learned that it is played once each year.  This was the highlight of our trip for history and nostalgia.  We had just started exploring the museum, when suddenly we were ushered to another room to see a video on Laura’s life and the history of the Wilder Mansfield property.  Parts were narrated by Laura.  This was fun and informative and our guide Shirley was helping us live the history.  

After the video we toured the house.  Each room was small due to the fact that Laura was only 4’11” and Almanzo was 5’2”.  Almanzo was a gifted architect, carpenter and cabinetmaker, and created a comfortable and cozy house that made life easier for Laura, who loved keeping house.  An example of his craftmanship was hand hewing wall beams, building custom cabinets in the kitchen and relocating the wood box inside closer to the stove.  He also lowered the kitchen counters down to make Laura’s work easier.  He made the dish drainer angle to the sink to drain the dishes, details that showed his attention to detail and his love for his wife of so many years.  We learned that Laura did not like to make bread, but to make this necessary task more fun, he put in two windows in the kitchen because it was very important for her to be able to see the creek, animals and birds outside while kneeding her bread. Both Laura and Almanzo were very handy.  He constructed the entire house despite being lame due to the effects of diptheria.  Their love was a quiet, long-lasting love of equals and friends.

Other treasures in the house, were the pump organ, the desk Laura sat at to write her books and the stories of how the house was built.

Stone House.  This special house was paid for by Rose as a gift to her parents.  In those days this house would have cost $3,000 to build, but due to the stones and improvements Rose wanted, including electricity, the house ended up costing $13,000.  Rose was well known as an author and was receiving good money so this was not a hardship for her.  She also built a garage and gave them a car.  Laura and Almanzo reluctantly moved into the house, but only lived there for 8 years and then moved back to their original house when Rose moved out to pursue her world-wide travels.  

We had lunch at a small cafe in town, catfish sandwiches, BLT and a Patty Melt, and then drove out to the Cemetery.  In a well marked section, we saw the graves of Laura, Almanzo and Rose. Almanzo died at Rocky Ridge at the age of ninety-two. Laura lived here until her death, at ninety, in 1957. 

Phrase to live by:  We don’t complain about today, yesterday is gone, and we move forward to tomorrow. (paraphrased, but you get the point!)

We drove to Mountain Springs in Arkansas, where 3 out of 4 of us had never traveled.   We are spending the night at Twin Lakes Leisure Lodge, and when we arrived the temperature was 90oC and humid, so we decided to go swimming.  The water was so refreshing.  We had dinner at Salsa and Joshua was our waiter.  Joshua was charming and we had to ask if he was a student.  He was indeed a student taking IT classes and singing in his spare time.  He regaled us with three songs and made our evening enjoyable (Beatles - Let It Be, Simon and Garfunkle and another rock song that included the word “California” .  The food was the best Mexican food we have had on this trip.  We started and ended our day with the Beatles!

Good friends, having fun, sharing stories, gathering history, making memories, traveling the prairies and countryside.   Good bye to day 7.  On to St Louis tomorrow.