Musing Mondays - September 15

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme from MizB at Should Be Reading. It asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

My Musing:

Over the summer I traveled to the Midwest to follow one of my dreams: seeing some Laura Ingalls Wilder sites. I met friends from Austria, Toronto, and Wisconsin and we hopped into a couple of cars and drove to De Smet, SD to Walnut Grove, MN to Spring Valley, MN and to Burr Oak, Iowa before crossing the mighty Mississippi back into Wisconsin.

Now, you have to realize why this is such a big deal for me. First of all, I have never flown alone. I don't like flying as it is, but I have never had to get my silly little person through the airport and then fly into two unfamiliar airports by myself. I was so scared that something bad would happen that I carried my luggage on and didn't take anything with me that might get me in trouble with security.

Once I landed in Wisconsin I was fine, but then I had another hurdle to jump over. I don't care to drive in unfamiliar places. Luckily, the ladies I was with had traveled to these places more than once, so really, I was just following along. The neat thing is that we didn't use a GPS. As I said, they had taken these roads before, but they also used maps--like actual road atlases (the kind that I haven't seen or looked at in about 20 years). I would have brought my GPS, but I sure didn't want that confiscated by airport security. Now that I am selling real estate, I use my GPS almost daily.

This was by far the most exciting and amazing thing I have done in years. The kids were always too small for me to consider joining the group in the past. Another motivation for me to join them was that the 40th anniversary of the classic TV show, Little House on the Prairie is this year (September 11, 1974 to be exact), and they were having a three-day cast reunion in Walnut Grove. I didn't want to miss it. I figured this chance wouldn't come again anytime soon. They tied the reunion into the annual Wilder Pageant they hold in July, so we also got a chance to see the show. Actually, because I was traveling with an Ingalls relative, our seats for the pageant were so close up we got to sit next to some of the Little House on the Prairie cast members that were watching that night.

I had such an awesome time. It encouraged me to plan a road trip for me and my family next year. Not sure where we'll go, but I was thinking BEA might be part of the plans. I would also like to visit Prince Edward Island one day and see the areas I learned about from the Anne of Green Gables series.

Has your love of certain books or a television show ever prompted you to visit the places they are set in? What is the one place that served as a setting for a book or television show that you desperately want to visit?

P.S. If you visited before, you will notice I updated this musing. I wasn't feeling very inspired when I wrote the first one. :)