Welcome to Hannibal, Missouri

Boyhood home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens - the famous Mark Twain!  Well I was excited anyway. As a young girl (not so long ago), one of my favorite books was Tom Sawyer.  It was one of my first Romance novels, Tom And Becky, lost in a cave, it was dark, Indian Joe was after them…well anyway I loved it.  So while perusing maps for this trip and seeing that Hannibal was on the way to Nauvoo, we were of course stopping.  It will not be at the top of  “vacation spots we want to return to’’ but it had its moments.  The town is pretty run down, and since it wasn’t tourist season, alot of the tourist traps were closed, but I had done my research and after convincing Jessica that this tour would not be televised, we set off! First stop the Museum to get our tour of the town tickets.  The Museum was the best part (and really the only stop that cared that we had tickets)  It had lots of  Tom and Huck memorabilia, and a self guided tour complete with   a Styrofoam grave yard that told you how to get rid of warts… a fake river…there was a real one outside… a really cool stage coach, that showed old western clips on screen inside (Arlon enjoyed the old westerns)…

and Jessica even found a good looking man or two, to sidle up to. (Dreams of being a debutant)One of the best parts of the museum was all the original Norman Rockwell prints.  During tourist season they have a booth by the fence that sells straw hats and will take your picture painting the fence…Jessica was so sad it was off season…NOT! To give her strength to continue our tour…we stopped in at the local ice cream parlor…Had Huckleberry ice cream of course.  and a picture of Arlon’s hero Barney,  (Jessica and I had more fun with that than Arlon).  Then we saw it…the lighthouse on the hill.   THE CHALLENGE…who could make it to the top first…Arlon said he would opt out so not to embarrass us. I took off like greased lightning…it was alot of steps, the altitude gave me breathing issues, I forgot my depends, the beauty overwhelmed me and I had to keep stopping to take it all in…needless to say Jessica won! and mocked me just a little in doing so!  Not a very gracious winner. and she cheated on the way down. where she patiently waited for me.  So I made her pose in the butterfly garden…which was still dead because it was winter. That will teach her to gloat! I think she liked being a gang member more than a butterfly…but whats a mom to do.

my favorite description in the travel book was the one for Lulu Belles dining emporium…in the day a working brothel, delicious lunches and dinners, and if your LUCKY, breakfast.  Now…just lunch.  so after strolling along the Mississippi river, we bid Hannibal a fond farewell and headed off to Nauvoo!