Today we had to bid farewell to our Minneapolis hosts, Larry & Sue. We have been very lucky to have enjoyed such good weather, great company and fitted in wonderful entertainment and sight seeing each day. It was hard to say good-bye.

And so the car journey began; via St. Peter and New Ulm to Walnut Grove, and then to De Smet, finishing at Huron South Dakota.

From New Ulm, we followed the Laura Ingalls Wilder Highway across Minnesota and South Dakota. If the name sounds familiar, think Little House on the Prairie and it will all fit into place. Walnut Grove in Minnesota is the town near Plum Creek (On the Banks of Plum Creek) and later, when the Ingalls family moved into the town (Little House on the Prairie). Just before Walnut Grove we went and had a look at the type of sod houses that were built in the mid 1800's.

De Smet in South Dakota was town the Ingalls family came to when the railway was extended from Walnut Grove. Books included 'By the Shores of Silver Lake' (the above photo is the lake today, having been drained and planted with prairie grasses) and 'Little Town on the Prairie'. We had a tour of the Ingalls homes in De Smet and then visited the cemetery where the family are resting in the prairie.

I think the people in Huron may have different food tastes to mine. I'm not sure what to make of it.