September 18 Mark Twain at his best

It was a good day and I think we are both feeling more back to normal. I’ve made arrangements to have a 90 day temporary driver license sent to me in Branson, and one set of new credit cards sent there also. Then when the rest of the cards get sent home, Kam can send them to where ever we will be. What a mess! Every day I think of something else that was in my purse. This could go on for a while.

Did he write on the fence?

We left around 9:30 on the 20 minutes drive into Hannibal. It’s a pretty small town and easily navigated. We stopped at the visitor center to pick up some info on what to see and where it all was and also to see if there was a Dodge dealer or RV place to have new keys made since my set was in my purse. The lady gave us some leads so we first went to check on the truck key but it wasn’t open on a Saturday, imagine that! So we drove back to the “historic district”, which is basically a few blocks dedicated to Mark Twain and his characters. There was plenty of parking so we got a good spot centrally located.


The Boyhood Home

 We started in the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum. With your ticket there you gain entry into the Becky Thatcher House, the Huck Finn House and the Museum Gallery. First we did the small museum that told the chronology of Samuel Clemens life and some history of his parents. There were many quotes and excerpts from his biography. He was one of 5 children and his sister and one brother basically lived into adulthood. It told of all of the many professions he held before he ever wrote a book, of his bankruptcy and how he then started touring to pay his creditors and earn a living. We were surprised at how many books he actually wrote as most only know of his Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn ones. From there the path lead us to the Huck Finn house, which was really his childhood friend, Tom Blankenship. Again there were quotes about Tom and his family.

Next on the path was Mark Twain’s boyhood home. His father was rather unsuccessful for many years and they moved a bit, but this house was where they lived when his father regained some financial security as a lawyer and judge. Becky lived across the street and Tom kinda behind him. The house was pretty nice, 3 rooms downstairs and 3 bedrooms upstairs. The family had slaves, several at one time but ended up having to sell them. Mark’s father died when he was 11 and his brother was shipped off to work in St Louis as a printer’s apprentice and sent money back to the family. His sister gave piano lessons and his mother took in borders. At age 12 Mark was apprenticed to a newspaper printer, learning to set type and all about the newspaper business. Quite an interesting story that just went on and on through his various occupations.

Tom and Becky out for a stroll

We exited out the front door of the house across the street from his father’s law office and Becky Thatcher’s House. It was closed for renovations but we did get to see inside the law office and an old druggist shop. Next door was a shop that had 16 dioramas depicting 16 scenes from Tom Sawyer. They were very impressive and so detailed. From there we walked a couple of blocks to the Gallery Museum. That was REALLY impressive. Back in the 1930’s Norman Rockwell was asked to do a series of sketches, that he made into paintings, to illustrate a printing of Tom Sawyer. The sketches and paintings were all given to the Museum and are so expressive. He visited Hannibal and went to all the places mentioned in the book to get a real feel for it and his drawings were much different that previous ones. The museum also had displays representing many of Mark Twain’s books AND we got to steer a riverboat and sound the whistle. That’s because Mark Twain was a riverboat captain for several years.

Bill at the lighthouse

We stopped at a recommended restaurant, The Abbey Rose, for lunch and it was excellent. I had a Quiche Florentine with a small salad and side of yummy orzo. Bill had a southwestern burger (that was huge) with a side of pasta salad. We passed on the pumpkin bread pudding! Refueled, it was time to make the 244 steps to the Mark Twain Lighthouse Monument at the end of the street. The view of the town and the Mississippi was awesome as it was nice and clear out. We drove out to the cave but realized it was an hour tour inside a 52º cave and we had not remembered to bring jackets so passed on it.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at a hardware store to see if we could get keys made of the RV keys, but no luck there.

We got home in time to take Xena for a nice walk and relax a bit before going to the campground’s Pig Roast. Well it really wasn’t a pig roast, but pulled pork and all the trimmings. It was a guest appreciation dinner and talent show. It was primarily for the seasonal residents who leave their RVs here all year long and spend most of the summer here, but we did enjoy the free dinner. Since we didn’t know the people, we didn’t stay for the talent show. It had rained a big one just as it was time to attend the dinner, so once we finished and it had stopped we thought it best to get back to the RV. We just watched some TV the rest of the evening.