HANNIBAL MO AND MARK TWAIN

Oct. 18th

Today we had a side trip to the town of Hannibal,Mo-the boyhood home of Mark Twain.
The town was just a sleepy little river town-until mark Twain and his novels made it famous-like the author! We saw the house where Twain grew up-the law offices of his father-and the home of Becky-his first love. The buildings are preserved quite well,along with original furnishings-and a couple of museums with lots of interesting items also. We were there on the day when the town holds a big autumn festival-I was first excited about hearing this-then when we say the huge throngs of people and rather run of the mill crafts for sale everywhere-not so much. We were able to see what Mike really wanted to see-and get the feel of the cute old town. We ended up going out to the outskirts of town, saw the famous "lovers leap", the famous cave, and had a great lunch without all of the traffic on main street. On the way home-Mike took the more scenic Little Dixie Hwy-He remembered what you had said Ken! Well, it was a really beautiful trip back to our little redneck trailer park-we went thru several great old towns-including Clarksville-my favorite of all-and the scenery all the way was just beautiful. We went by some fabulous old farm houses-set way back from the hwy-green,green grass all around-like a park-very pretty and peaceful settings-makes one want to take up farming! So amazing how we can travel so many roads and see such quaint scenes-and so clean and tidy-no grafitti or trash on the roadway-no housing tracts or strip malls. Makes for a great drive-and relaxing scenery.
Tomorrow we will leave Illinois for Indiana-then Kentucky. Mike is happy to leave the city of St. Louis-we loved visiting the city-but not the crazy drivers and traffic! The pics are one of downtown Hannibal and of Mark Twain's boyhood home.