A day with Mark Twain

     We woke up today to bright sunshine and a campground FULL of people.  There are many more tents here than we have seen in a commercial campground in a long time.  I was happy for them that the weather has cleared up.  The clearer weather also meant that I had access to the Internet through the campground satellite connection.  It is SOOOO slow.  It barely works at all but at least I can read my email.
    Mark Twain's boyhood home is here in Hannibal.  It is pretty much what the entire town is all about.  We started at the Mark Twain Museum.  It is full of hands-on exhibits including a raft to sit on and watch clips from Tom Sawyer films.  The best part of the museum was a collection of Norman Rockwell paintings illustrating scenes from Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  We learned that name Mark Twain comes from Samuel Clemens' time as a young man on the Mississippi.  Boatmen used a rope with knots tied every 6 feet to mark a fathom of depth.  Two marks on the rope were called out to the helmsman as "Mark, twain" which meant that the river was 12 feet deep.  This was a safe depth for the shallow draft riverboats.  Therefore, Mark Twain meant safe passage.

     A few blocks down the street from the museum is the Interpretive Center, Samuel Clemens boyhood home and many of the buildings featured in Mark Twain's novels: the Becky Thatcher house, the white picket fence, the Huckleberry Finn house, Grant's Drug store and J. M. Clemens Justice of the Peace Office.  It was interesting to learn which members of the community became characters in the novels.
     Hannibal has a pretty downtown with lots of gardens and great old buildings.  I found a quilt store just across the street from the Mark Twain exhibit and spent some time looking around a really nice shop.  Rick enjoyed watching the world go by while sitting on the bench outside.
     The Mississippi is not at flood stage any longer in Hannibal so we went down to watch the boats go by.  A Riverboat named the Mark Twain has afternoon cruises.  It was such a beautiful day that we decided to go out on the river for an hour on the Riverboat.  It was a delightful afternoon to cruise along the river near Hannibal and hear more of the history of the area.  We spent some time cruising slowly alongside a Jackson Island across from Hannibal.   It is featured in several of Twain's novels.  It was easy to imagine that we were kids having a great adventure on the island.
    We drove away from downtown looking for a grocery store.  There were lots of empty buildings and almost no one shopping anywhere.  As I stood in line to buy groceries the major topic of discussion was food stamps, unemployment and supported housing.  I think that the little touristy section of downtown is the primary economic support to the community.  Hopefully things will improve.
    Despite predictions that this was going to be a rainy afternoon, the weather stayed sunny and warm.  We had a wonderful late afternoon sitting on our chairs out on the grass and enjoying the breeze.  I can hardly believe that our trip is almost over. Rick grilled some burgers to honor our last day of sightseeing.  We will be home in a day and a half.