Sarah's Notebook

Pepin/Spring Valley Trip 2007 – Part 1

Revisiting Pepin 2007

I had a great trip this last weekend. I only wish it could have been a longer trip, but hopefully next year I’ll be able to stay for Sunday and Kitty Latane’s Pepin in Laura’s time program. I tried a different route up to Pepin this year that I was told was shorter. It ended up being within 15 minutes of the other route. It did take me through some different country.

One new place I stopped was New Hampton, Iowa. They have a great public library. It’s the prettiest new construction library I’ve ever seen and I recommend anyone considering an addition or new construction of a library to visit them.

Children’s Room New Hampton Library

I stopped along the way at Spring Valley, MN. I had lunch at the A & W there. (It’s a genuine drive-in and I highly recommend it to anyone whose passing through the…

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Mentions July 2020

Sarah in WG Wagon by Sign — Sarah in Walnut Grove Photo Op Wagon

I have a few more mentions this month for taking part in the Walnut Grove digital pageant this year.

Sjoberg, Ryan. “Little House on the Prairie comes to Walnut Grove.” KEYC. 8 July 2020. https://www.keyc.com/2020/07/08/little-house-prairie-comes-walnut-grove Accessed 13 July 2020.
Votruba, Cindy. “Telling Laura’s story in a different way: ‘Laura’s Prairie Summer’ goes online starting Friday.” Marshall Independent. 6 July 2020. https://www.marshallindependent.com/news/local-news/2020/07/telling-lauras-story-in-a-different-way. Accessed 9 July 2020.
NOTE: I’m in it, but they mis-spelled my name as Utoff.
Buntjer, Julie. “Wilder Pageant goes virtual in six-part miniseries, Laura’s Prairie Summer.” Worthington Globe. 8 July 2020. https://www.dglobe.com/entertainment/6562674-Wilder-Pageant-goes-virtual-in-six-part-miniseries-Lauras-Prairie-Summer. Accessed 9 July 2020.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Digital Pageants 2020

This year all three of the Laura Ingalls Wilder pageants were canceled (Walnut Grove, De Smet, Mansfield, inclusive). The Walnut Grove and De Smet pageants decided to go online. Note these videos are only up temporarily so once they come down the links will be broken.

De Smet Pageant

This year the De Smet Pageant was supposed to be The Long Winter. They are on a system now where they rotate through all the novels in the series set in De Smet. They thought it would be too hard to get permission to do the book. I had originally hoped they’d do the Hallmark Hall of Fame radio play (which they had the rights to and which would have been really cool). Instead they announced that it was going to be based more on other people’s experiences in town.

Having seen it now, it was still more focused on the Ingalls family than I expected. It still has more on real people than the supporting player status they normally get.

They live streamed it on Facebook on Saturday, July 11, 2020. It was repeated twice on South Dakota Public Radio and for right now you can still stream the Facebook version.

Walnut Grove Pageant

The Walnut Grove Pageant took a different tack. They are had a program what should have been each night of the pageant. They joint livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube. There were some technological issues on a couple of the nights, but for a brand new attempt they did a great job.

Currently the episodes are still available on YouTube, but they’ll be coming down. However, they are working on released them on DVD. An additional fundraising project for it is selling these great shirts.

Support Your Local Pageant

Fans who visit some of the places that Laura Ingalls Wilder lived have been able to get a peek at “Laura” and her family through a pageant. These pageants have been going for decades. They are staged almost entirely by volunteers. It’s amazing they’ve been able to stay going for as long as they have. Reach out to the pageants, donate to their fundraisers. Help keep the pageants around for your dream trip.

Major Storm Devastates Eastern Iowa

Solon was in the center of the storm that they are saying was like a level 2 hurricane that hit the entire eastern half of Iowa. We’ve been out of power and on a generator since noon on Monday. We have no electricity, no landline, no TV, no internet. Cell phone coverage has been spotty and cell phone data pretty much non-existent.

I’ve come out to my cousin’s house because her internet is back up. So I haven’t been around much lately. At this time I have no idea when we’ll be up. At 1:30am this morning the power crews got that tree that was blocking the road and hanging on a high power line in front of my house. Look for more from me later, but it will be awhile.

Prince Edward Island History

Earlier this summer I took part in the online L.M. Montgomery conference. If you don’t know about it, Montgomery fandom has a strong base grounded in both academic support and loving fanship. If you love Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables, try to get to this great conference which is held every other year in Prince Edward Island.

While I was taking part in the online conference I was taken to the University of Prince Edward Island YouTube channel. On it I discovered a series of videos about island history. I thought you might enjoy watching it, too.

Here is the most important one: Where Prince Edward Island Got Its Name

Here is the link to the entire series: Keep an eye out for more

And One More on the Way Roundup 2012

Have you stopped by any of these great additions to Laura trips.

Sarah's Notebook

These are links to a series of posts I did as part of the build up to LauraPalooza about fun touristy spots that you can add on your Laura Ingalls Wilder trip whether you are coming to the conference or on any Laura trip.

Sarah in WG Wagon by Sign Sarah in Walnut Grove Photo Op Wagon

And One More on the Way 2012

And One More on the Way: Cassville Ferry

And One More on the Way: The Lincoln Highway

And One More on the Way: Phelps Park

And One More on the Way: Barn Quilts

And One More on the Way: Lanesboro MN

And One More on the Way: Sail Lake Pepin

And One More on the Way: Mary Tyler Moore

And One More on the Way: SPAM Museum

And One More on the Way: Little Brown Church

And One More on the Way: Wanda Gag

And One More on the Way: Sleepy Eye…

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Laura Ingalls Wilder on American Masters Gets Date!

If you’ve been following along with this blog, my podcast, or my trip videos or hung around in Laura Ingalls Wilder online sites you’ll have known for quite awhile they’ve been working on a documentary for American Masters on Laura Ingalls Wilder. Tuesday afternoon PBS announced it’s on their schedule to air on December 29, 2020. (Note: Each PBS station can independently alter their airdates and times. Check your local station’s schedule for exact times.)

I met Mary Murphy (producer), Chris Czajka (assistant producer), and Caroline Curvan (researcher) when I visited Mansfield. They’d visited Pepin during the LauraPalooza conference and Burr Oak right before the Wilder Days in Mansfield. When I saw them in Mansfield they were planning on having around 200 minutes of film and for the final documentary to be 90 minutes. So who knows what will be included?

I can’t wait to find out. 🙂

P.S. I asked them about the other minutes because it sounded like a lot of what they filmed should be preserved even if not used. Apparently they are working on a central, accessible place for the extra film from all these movies. I hope that’s true because I’d love to see the rest of it.

Burr Oak Laura Days 2012

Check out this video from Burr Oak about their Laura Days back in 2012.

Sarah's Notebook

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Burr Oak, Iowa has put out a video about their most recent event. Put the last weekend in June on your calendar for next year.

I’d like to point out that they are wrong about the games. None of these are games Laura would have played, although they are old-fashioned.

Also, they really should have taken a few second shots of some things. Like when a door opens up and somebody starts to come out and hurriedly backs in, stop shooting and start over. However, it does a nice job showing what the event is like and I think it will make you want to visit next time. I’m especially glad to see they had a stagecoach back which I think is great thing to get a photo of the stagecoach in front of the Masters Hotel. Looking forward to next year.

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Sarah's Notebook

Top 10 Posts During August 2020

Pepin/Spring Valley Trip 2007 – Part 1

Mentions July 2020

Laura Ingalls Wilder Digital Pageants 2020

De Smet Pageant

Walnut Grove Pageant

Support Your Local Pageant

Major Storm Devastates Eastern Iowa

Top 10 Posts During July 2020

Prince Edward Island History

And One More on the Way Roundup 2012

And One More on the Way 2012

Laura Ingalls Wilder on American Masters Gets Date!

Burr Oak Laura Days 2012

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De Smet Pageant

Walnut Grove Pageant

Support Your Local Pageant

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And One More on the Way 2012

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