We are off!

Howdy folks, blogging today from the actual site of Little House On The Prairie. Now truth be told, this means very little to me.  However, apparently my wife and my oldest daughter love these books.  I vaguely remember the TV show, didn't know there were books until about 6 months ago, and didn't know it was an actual story until about 6 hours ago.  Anyway, so here we are in South Dakota.

We started our "Oregon Trail" journey yesterday in Chicago, IL.   Well my day actually started in New Orleans.  I was up at 5 in the morning to get home, repack, and then get on the road.  The drive though IL was boring as usual.  I will give Wisconsin some credit though, it is a prettier state than I would have predicted.  The Minnesota border area around the river is beautiful.  The Mississippi River was way up which kind of added to the prettiness of the area.  It was a very unusual day for two reasons: 1) I saw the Mississippi River at is southern most point, and I then later crossed the Mississippi River at its northern most point.  2) I let Brooke drive much of the drive yesterday.  This never happens, by never I mean I can't remember the last time she drove on a trip.  I was so tired from being in New Orleans the past few days, it was probably dangerous for me to drive.  I sort of liked being in the passenger seat, no pressure at all. Maybe I will have to let her drive again......neh.  Anyway, about 15 miles in MN starts to flatten out, and apparently this fact doesn't change until western South Dakota.  Not much happened last night, other than a fun night at a Hampton Inn.  I sort of feel like we are the family equivalent of a zombie hoard when we travel.  We come, we use all the towels the hotel has in stock, we eat all the free hot breakfast they provide, then we leave without a trace.  I used points for the hotel last night, so they didn't even get paid for our destruction.  Ayers family 1- Hampton Inn-0.

Today was a great day, capped off by a selfie with the Jolly Green Giant.

Its not every day you pass a 60 ft statute dedicated to the HQ of JGG.  Being that we were on a great family adventure, we felt it was necessary for the brief detour.  Today was only about 5 hours of driving, much of the scenery was the same.  I will say this, it is pretty.  Its a different prairie pretty, but pretty nonetheless.  We rather enjoyed the ride today, but that could partially be because we don't have to make it again.

The second half of our day was spent here on the 170 acre site.  This is where we are sleeping tonight, on site of the homestead.

The girls had an absolute ball this afternoon.  They played with the horses, the ponies, the baby ponies, they (all 4) road the horses, there is a baby cow, 3 baby kittens that they love, they went on a carriage ride, school house, did the whole nine yards.  I went on a 7 mile run, I think both groups were happier with what they decided to do.  During my run it was crazy to see some rainstorms off in the distance.  You sort of thought they were coming, but then you remembered you can see so far that you probably weren't really in danger. We had a simple dinner at our campsite (above), and now we are anticipating some star gazing.  Tomorrow its off to western South Dakota.  Bad Lands, Mt. Rushmore, etc. Im excited to eventually see the site of one of my favorite HBO shows.  We can only hope our ox don't break down along the way.

If you are friends with Brooke or I on Facebook, there are a lot more pictures there.  Feel free to check them out over there.