Our two-day LauraPalooza

We left Sparta, WI. Not too long after leaving, we crossed the Mississippi River into MN. I have never been west of the Mississippi, except by plane, which I don't think counts, so it was exciting to be crossing the Mississippi. We stopped at the welcome center to stock up on brochures and to get a state map. The welcome center was by Lock 7 in the river navigation system.


We headed up Rt 32 which gave us a lovely, scenic view of the river enroute to the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder in  Pepin, Minnesota.


Arrived in Pepin around 11:30. The town is very small. The museum had items relating to Laura Ingalls. It also had a gift shop. Admission was $2 donation for adults. $1 for children.  Next store there was a local store that sold organic cheese curds. I bought a bag. They were delicious so I went back and bought another bag.

 We then drove 7 miles out of town to see a re creation of the log cabin Laura lived in during the events of her first book, Little House in the Big Woods. When we got to it, we were all surprised at how small it was. It is on the very site that house was on. It was neat to think that those wonderful people I have read about in The Little Books lived here 150 years ago. The surrounding land is no longer Big Woods. It has been cleared and is now farmland.

We left Pepin and picked up Rt 14, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway. We took Rt 14 into Tracy, MN. On the way we passed lots of farmland. (More to come...)