A Path to the Prairie

October 8th

I spoke to Lissa just as she was crossing the Kansas River this afternoon. She was in high spirits as the sights and sounds of the prairie always give her a feeling of coming home. For those of you who do not already know this, Laura Ingalls Wilder was not the only Little House author to grow up on an honest to goodness prairie. Lissa did as well and even worked as a tour guide on a 2,000 acre prairie preserve in her late teens.

Let's see.

This morning, she and the children saw a sign marking the Lewis and Clark trail. Lewis and Clark's expedition began in Charlottesville, Virginia, so the Bonny Glenners have been retracing the steps of Lewis and Clark on this first leg of the trip, something evident in the Lewis and Clark map posted here yesterday. (Click on the thumbnail for a close up view.) She also mentioned that they are somewhat near the site of the ill-fated Steamboat Arabia, a vessel that sank in the Missouri River and was discovered impressively intact and buried in a field in the late 1980s. I was fascinated to hear that the ship's cargo is so well preserved you can actually see blueberries in a jar and other everyday items of frontier life that otherwise would have decayed long ago. Unfortunately, the museum was closed to visitors on Sunday, as was the tourable Russell Stover Candy Factory poised temptingly next door to last night's hotel. Now that's just not right.

Still undaunted in her quest to make this trip fun and educational, something she does as naturally as breathing, she was delighted with the prospect of meeting an extremely dear friend and her children tonight and possibly stopping at a museum near their destination tomorrow. Pausing a moment, she managed to point out and explain a buffalo wallow to the children and note that the road they were on was the first Interstate in the United States.

Lissa's kids and I are learning a lot on this trip!

Comments

[Jennifer]

The Steamboat Arabia is fascinating! They found perfume bottles with perfume still inside and smelly (in a good way!). Can you imagine being the farmer who struck that with the plow in his field?

[Jennifer]

Well, I just clicked through and checked out the site, and I guess a farmer didn't strike it with a plow (where did I come up with that?), but it did involve a cornfield! It has been awhile...

[Alice]

Absolutely, Jennifer! Apparently, they sent the perfume to Europe to be copied, so now the fragrance can be purchased. It is the oldest bottled fragrance in existence today.