Day Ten - Hannibal, Missouri

[Andy has suggested that I use our locations in the title because we are losing track of what "numbered" day it is.  We don't have reliable internet everyday so when we have to catch up on the blog it makes it even harder.]

We have now crossed back over the Mississippi from the land of Lincoln into Missouri.  We spent the night at the Injun Joe Campground west of Hannibal, Missouri.  I was excited at the prospect of RV hookups and more importantly -laundry facilities.  We arrived after the office had closed, but we were thrilled to find the laundry room unlocked.  Unfortunately, we were less than thrilled that we could not find the light switch.  We did two loads of laundry by flashlight, then gave up and went to bed. 

  Both of my kids have heard excerpts from Tom Sawyer before and we learned a bit about Samuel Clemens at the National River Museum. However, the whole concept of Samuel Clemens writing as Mark Twain, fictionalizing his own childhood stories in Hannibal into Tom Sawyer was a bit lost on them.  Regardless, we headed out to get lost in Mark Twain's cave.  This was the highlight of their day.  Because it is well past tourist season around here, we garnered our own private tour of the caves.  It was going great until our guide demonstrated the pitch darkness underground, thanked us for taking the tour and said goodbye.  Well not really, but she had Kristen fooled and she was genuinely scared.  Thank goodness she got over that quickly so she could enjoy our bat encounter around the next corner.  The darkness she hated; the bats she loved.
A few miles from the cave is downtown Hannibal.  It was fun touring Samuel Clemens' real neighborhood and hearing the stories that were streeeeeetched into great entertainment in his books.  The tour guides and displays were so fun that Andy offered to put down his non-fiction books for awhile and pick up Tom Sawyer.

The "exact" location where Injun Joe hid his treasure.



150 years later and kids are still begging for a turn to whitewash a fence.

While we were having lunch in the motorhome, at a riverfront park,  Andy commented that it was very smokey outside.  Because we are such great tourists we snapped some pictures of the Mark Twain Riverboat on fire. Within minutes the waterfront was busy with emergency vehicles and local press.  Huge excitement for the small town of Hannibal and for us as well.