The Home of Mark Twain

Home is where you park it.  Right now it is Hannibal, Missouri

September 4-5, 2014
Mark Twain Cave and Campground
Hannibal, Missouri

We traveled East from Mitchell, SD on the I-90 to Sioux Falls where we turned south on I-29.  We traveled along the Iowa/Nebraska border finding a cheap campground along the Freeway.  We pulled in to find it not to our liking and continued on to Rock Port where we found a lovely campground called Rock Port Rivers Edge Campground a quarter of a mile from the freeway in a nice grassy park.    The owners greeted us and put us in a nice long pull-through so we didn't have to unhook the car.  The next morning we headed East through Missouri from St. Joseph to Hannibal.

Hannibal was quite hot and very humid but we got a pull through in the trees for shade and turned on the A/C which we ran all night.  The next morning we began to explore Hannibal.

Our first stop was Main Street in historical Hannibal.  The buildings have been beautifully restored.

At the end of Main Street is the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse.  There is 244 steps from the end of Main Street to the lighthouse on the hill.  It was dedicated in 1935 in celebration of Mark Twain's birthday.  

We chose the Hannibal Trolley Company Sightseeing Tours to see it all with less walking.

The Tom & Huck Statue at the foot of Cardiff Hill on Main Street.  Dating to 1926, this was the first public American sculpture to depict fictional characters.

Turtle Island on the Mississippi River.  The turtles were caught in early days and sold to a local restaurant for Turtle soup.

A fantastic view from Riverview Park on Harrison Hill.  The park has 465 acres which were donated along the river for this park by a wealthy resident of Hannibal.  It is full of walking trails and great views of the Mississippi River. 

River Barge

What would the Park be without a statue of Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain

The Mississippi River sure is big.

Lonnie sure enjoyed the ride to all the sights.

Railroad Bridge over the river.  The bridge rises for river traffic.

Our tour took us through some neighborhoods of historical houses and to the Rockcliffe Mansion built by a lumber baron who wanted to see his lumber floating down the river so he built on a hill overlooking the river.  We did not take the time for a tour of the grounds and house. 

We enjoyed the story of Samuel Clemen's life in the air conditioned Interpretive Center.  This is Huckleberry Finn's house.

Becky Thatcher's House across the street from the home of Tom Sawyer created as it was in the stories by Mark Twain.

Tom Sawyer's house

Becky tries her hand at white washing the famous fence.

We called Bill and Veta Swires to invite them to join us for the dinner cruise on the Mark Twain Riverboat.  They jumped in their car and did the 2 hour drive from Illinois to join us.

The view from the 200-foot overlook of the majestic Mississippi River and Hannibal from Lover's Leap 

It was a very hot 90 degree day with high humidity.  We stopped into a Winery at the Mark Twain Cave Complex where we were camped on our way back to the RV.

It was a nice relief from the heat and we were also treated to a wine slushy.

We really liked this wall hanging but it would not fit in the RV.

As soon as we got back to the Motorhome, the storm started with wind, rain and lightning.  The temps started dropping rapidly.  We were worried that it would cancel our dinner cruise on the riverboat. The water was a little choppy when we got down to the docks but we were assured that the Riverboat would take off as scheduled rain or shine.

It was a little cool to sit out on the deck but it was a great view.

The pilot house on the Riverboat.

Lonnie, Bill, Becky and Veta enjoyed a great dinner together

We were entertained by this singer who also like to go through the audience before dinner to get to know everyone on board.

The Railroad bridge going up for the Riverboat to go under.

Going under the bridge.

We did have to pull back into dock for 20 minutes while a storm cell moved through bringing high winds and giving us a fantastic lightning show before we continued our cruise on the Great Mississippi River.

There was plenty to do in Hannibal including two cave tours, Sawyer Creek Fun Park, the Unsinkable Molly Brown house and many Theatre productions that we didn't have time to see.  We left Hannibal in the morning, crossed the Mississippi headed into Illinois to spend time at the home of Bill and Veta in Atwater.  That will be the subject of our next Blog so stay tuned....

Becky and Lonnie