Well, these three places were my home for the past week, BUT the house in this picture was built by the REAL Almanzo for the REAL Laura. We were close enough to Mansfield, MO to make a morning trip over to this gem. Having lived with this character and the Little House story for so long now, I almost cried when I saw Pa's original fiddle in the museum right next door to this uniquely and lovingly designed house. My favorite room was the kitchen where each counter was about waist level, the perfect height for his 4'11'' bride, Laura. All of the cabinets were well within her reach. When they finally got electricity (a luxury piped in by their daughter Rose), Almanzo carved out a perfect cubby for the refrigerator...and I am talking PERFECT. There was nary an inch of space between the sides of the fridge and the wooden walls of the cubby. My father would have been impressed! As you can see, it was a beautiful fall day. Looking out over their land, my heart yearned to own something as peaceful one day.This was our first and only split week, playing two towns in one week. While it does not compare to the one-nighters I did on tour in Europe with Grease!, it still is difficult to travel and perform on the same day. Both cities gave us some great crowds. I have to say I was a little partial to Little Rock because of our stay in the fabulous Peabody Hotel (complete with live ducks in the fountain) and a restaurant/bar called the Flying Saucer which served not one but TWO types of gluten free beer. It is once in a blue moon that this happens, so I made sure to taste them before I left. :)
Our presenter, Larry, is taking care of us for the next 2 or 3 cities. He's a good guy, so I'm looking forward to bringing the show to each of his venues.
One last picture: Every picture that I have seen of Almanzo and Laura has them standing at least 3 feet apart from each other, and awkwardly looking at the camera. So, Kara and I tried to recreate history in front of "our" house :)
