A New Home (on the Prairie)

Hello, and welcome back to Minnesota or Bust. The first thing you may notice is that we're no longer calling ourselves Minnesota or Bust - we threw the "bust" out the window last month because we succeeded in what we set out to do. We've changed the header accordingly to reflect our status as citizens of the loon state,

Minnesota, our home.

In an interesting twist of fate, we've settled near the land that the Ingalls family (see our Little House on the Prairie post for more details!) put up their first sod house, just down the road from Walnut Grove. We've had fun watching reruns of Little House and noticing the references to the local communities in the show, like one storyline which refers to nearby Sleepy Eye as a lawless town full of gamblers and bandits.

Johari and I are more familiar with Sleepy Eye from the pottery her grandmother used to acquire there on vacations years ago. Now we're starting to think grandma didn't just go for the ceramic mugs and plates, but perhaps to play blackjack at the town's secret casino. She probably liked to square dance too. Oh Sleepy Eye, you den of sin.

Like many communities that go from one extreme to another Sleepy Eye has come a long way as evidenced by one blurb I found while researching the town -- a story which noted that the citizens tried to ban MTV in the 1990's. So fear not friends, the residents of Sleepy Eye are now a bastion of morality and civility, where the only gambling happens at the church's Bingo night and fish fry.

Stay tuned for further updates from up north!