LAURAPALOOZA

Hi all!!
I am in Wisconsin at Beth's house and tomorrow we are headed to Mankato, MN for the first ever Laurapalooza conference.  (For those of you who don't know, or don't remember, my friend Beth is a relative of Laura whom I met online 12 years ago)  We are headed out at first light tomorrow and will drive for about 6 hrs to get there.  We are looking forward to meeting some old friends that we have met on previous trips as well as some new friends.  On Fri evening Dean Butler will be joining us and showing his newest documentary about Laura.  I'm excited to see it.  I haven't met him yet but Beth has a few times.  It will be a very exciting evening for this Dean's Diva!  
Here is a link to our schedule at the conference.  http://beyondlittlehouse.com/laurapallooza-liw-conference-in-minnesota-in-summer-2010/laurapalooza-2010-schedule/
Will tell you all about it on Sunday when we return to Beth's.

Safe trip....have a great time.

Have a great time, Marilyn. Can't wait to hear the details!

How exciting Marilyn!

I'm jealous of your luck, Marilyn! Please! Took good pics and share it with us... Have a good time there.

Vanesa.

Well, some news to share with you. Beth's husband has not been in good health over the past weeks. He spent a few days in hospital last week and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to visit. He got better and was doing well until yesterday. Beth took him to the hospital to get checked out again. I stayed at home and waited for news.
Beth called and said that the dr's hadn't found anything yet. Dave made her promise to continue on with the trip so she said that we were going. I went to bed and didn't hear anyone come home. It is now 5:30. Dave is still in hospital but Beth has made further preperations to leave since coming home. Sooo, I guess we are still going, but with heavy hearts. Dave's daughter is visiting from MN and will take care of her dad while we are away.
Beth is still asleep. I don't know what time she got home so I have no plans to wake her. I need everyone to pray for Dave. We will be calling several times a day to check up on him. If anything worse happens, we will head back home. Please pray that this doesn't happen and that poor Beth can enjoy herself. I almost feel bad for being here. If I wasn't here, there wouldn't be a problem.
Thanks,
Marilyn

Well, she has awakened and told me that Dave has pnemonia. That's what he had last week. We will stop and see him on the way out. Please pray for us.

Laurapalooza sounds very interesting. I can't wait to hear all about it. I do hope you and Beth are able to enjoy yourselves, despite Dave being in the hospital. It is good that his daughter is there with him to help take care of him. I do hope you get word that he is improving while you are away so that you both can enjoy the trip more. I will certainly keep all of you in my prayers.

Wow, there is a lot going on at Laurapalooza. I hope you two are able to enjoy yourselves. I'll pray for Dave.

I will pray for Dave. What a pity he is not well...

Vanesa.

Wow! I have never have heard of that!! Have fun and I hope Dave feels better!

Oh Marilyn, I am sorry things are getting so messed up. Wouldn't you just know it?! I am sorry about Dave and will be praying for him.

Beth and I returned home a few hours ago to a household of family who
were here to welcome Dave home from the hospital. He is doing much better,
thanks so much for your prayers.
Our time at Laurapalooza was absolutely amazing!! I don't know where to start.
I think the best part for me was meeting our friend from Australia, Carrie. She recognized Beth and I
from the pics in the photo albums. She had I hit it off right away and spent a
lot of time together.
The presentations were so informative and there were sooooo many topics, I
learned lot. I hardly know where to begin. We had LIW authors that included
Bill Anderson, John Miller and Pamel Smith Hill, all of whom shared their
bountiful knowlege of Laura. We had one presenter who works as a meterologist
and who spoke about how the winter of 1880-81 could be proven to have been so
cold, according to the records of towns in the area around DeSmet. It was
fascinating. Another presenter figured out just where the wheat that Cap and
Almanzo went for was located. Laura said that it was something like 15-20 miles
away but he figured out where it was and looked at sensus records as well as
farm records of that farmer to prove that it was him how had sold the wheat and
what he grew the next season instead of the wheat that he no longer had. Soo
cool.
It was an amazing few days, ones that I won't soon forgeet.
The hilight of the trip for a lot of us was a dinner date with a very special
friend. 9 divas took Mr Butler out for dinner. It was amazing. We
arrived a bit late back to his siggy signing table but he didn't seem to mind.
He showed us the Almanzo documentary and then we viewed the new one about Laura.
It was very powerful and we could tell that it was a labour of love for him. I
hope and pray that he finds a distributer soon so this piece of work can get
into the hands of so many who will enjoy it.

http://ht.ly/2cD41 Check out this link, Carrie
is sitting next to the gal in the prairie dress and I am sitting beside her.
How cool. The article interviews Carrie and a few others and talks about some things that we enjoyed.
Marilyn

Fascinating, Marilyn! The link was really interesting, too.

Glad you had such a good time, and thank you for the report!

I'm so glad that you're having such a great time! SO good to hear that Dave is doing better, too! Thanks for having us tag along.

Sounds like this was full of things to learn. Glad you had a great time.

These are great news, Marilyn! I'm happy Dave is doing much better!

I just knew that you will enjoy your trip and learn a lot of things there...How wonderful you could see Bill Anderson and John Miller in person! I admire them very much. I've read almost all Anderson's stuff.

I think the story about Cap Garland's wheat was somewhere in the web...I think that it could be at De Smet site or even at the Laurapalooza's one.

Hope I could visit the same places you did some time in my life.

Vanesa.

I'm so glad to hear that you had such a nice time, and that Dave is doing better. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

Oh my gosh, a dinner with Dean---talk about a Diva's dream come true!! That was so cool of him to do that! It must have been surreal sitting down to dinner with "Almanzo Wilder" in the flesh! Well, you know what I mean.

Glad you had such a great time after all, and that Dave recovered fairly quickly!


Oh, and I love that first line of the aritcle, "If you hold a Laura Ingalls Wilder conference, they will come."

Wow, great pictures! Thanks for letting us see them! (Marilyn, you always have a mischievous glint in your eye. )

Awesome pics Marilyn!! Thanks SO much for sharing them! That must have truly been a surreal experience for you, meeting Dean AND Melissa!! Those are memories you will surely cherish for a lifetime.

Thanks for sharing these! They are wonderful. It looks like one was there, with you. They are very clear pics.

Dean Buttler and Melissa Sue Anderson looks great, and have a very sweet way of smiling.

Vanesa.

Marilyn...put the one up of Melissa signing the book. I'm puzzled why she is signing it with her right hand. I always thought she was left handed......??