Wilder

The Wilder family lived in this house.

Above and below, the school attended by the Wilder kids.

Artie and Ranger are waiting to welcome the students.

Heading southeast from Watertown, we had to detour through DeSmet, SD, The Little Town on the Prairie.  Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book, Little House on the Prairie was set here, as was By the Shores of Silver Lake.  It was lunchtime when we hit town so we decided to stop and visit the Wilder’s.  They weren’t home and their house was all locked up.  The house is a work in progress, was moved to its current site just a few years ago, and has yet to be restored inside.

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Coincidentally, en route to the Twin Cities, we drove through another small town where the Wilders lived: Pepin, WI.  Little House in the Woods was set there.  We didn’t stop, were in a hurry to get to our campground and commence deskunkification.  Probably wouldn’t have stopped anyway, too many points of interest, too little time.  Back in my whippersnapper days, I read all of Laura’s books and enjoyed them, as did Trish.

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We stopped in Watertown to visit LHC friends Jim and Joan, who have a lovely home on a nearby lake.  Jim loves to hunt and fish; J/J had us over for a delicious dinner of walleye pike Jim caught.

Bird's the word!

Our next stop was Huron, to see Bill, Trish’s work colleague from years past.  Huron is the home of The World’s Largest Pheasant.  Wowsers!  Can it get any better than this?