9/18/07 A Tour of Hannibal, MO

This is so aggravating! We're in Mark Twain Campground and we picked this one because they advertised they had Wireless Internet. Well, they do, it just doesn't work very well. We can get a connection but it only last a few minutes and then we're kicked off. On our way out this morning I stopped in the office to find out if there was anything they could do or if they even knew there was a problem. There was another camper in there trying to find out the same thing. He wasn't happy either.

So today we toured Hannibal.

What a lovely, quaint small town. Maybe small isn't the right word. The historic, Mark Twain part is small....and quaint. Hannibal itself is a sizable city with a population of just under 18,000. Not huge by any means but not a "don't blink or you'll miss it" kind of town either.

Mark Twain is not the only notable person to hail from Hannibal. The unsinkable Molly Brown was also from Hannibal. Remember her? She was on the Titanic. And who can forget that lovable soldier from the Korean War, Colonel Henry Potter ... from the TV series MASH? He often spoke of Mrs Potter back in HannibalMO, never Missouri, always HannibalMO, like it was all one word.

So we started our sightseeing at Lover's Leap. This was just down the road from our campground and one of those brown "attraction" signs was posted so we decided to see what it was all about. We're glad we did.

While the story varies, according to the teller of the story, the main elements are that an Indian brave and an Indian Princess were prevented from marrying by their parents and tribes. One evening when the brave landed his canoe at Bear Creek he was observed meeting and walking with the Indian Princess.

The observer revealed this to the father of the Indian Princess who was the Chief of the Indian tribe. The angered father offered an otter skin to anyone who would kill the brave. A number of the younger warriors started after the brave. When the couple realized they were being chased, they climbed Lover's Leap in hopes of hiding from those chasing them.

Cornered on the rock bluff, the young brave knew he was about to be killed.

The Princess also realized this and decided life would not be worth living if he were killed. The two embraced and threw themselves off the top of Lover's Leap to their deaths. Lover's Leap is thus a memorial to these two young Indians who sacrificed themselves rather than be apart, according to legend.

Now, as I wrote earlier, the story varies according the teller. Another story is told exactly the same way except with a different ending. It has the young brave and his Princess leaping to their deaths to elude their chasers but instead of falling to their deaths they jumped onto a barge passing by, floated down to New Orleans and opened a T-shirt shop. You pick the ending that makes you happy.

A view of Hannibal from Lover's Leap.

The mighty Mississippi... I know, I know, you've seen it before, but it IS the Mississippi!

What Illinois looks like.

So after seeing all there was on Lover's Leap we made our way downtown. We found a parking lot close to the water so decided to check that out first. We checked into a dinner cruise on the Mark Twain riverboat and made reservations. As we were about to leave Bob said, "Look at that license plate". It was from Delaware! I just had to go over and meet them. This couple, Charlie and Ginny are transplants from upstate New York to Millsboro in slower, lower Delaware. (Their description of their new hometown, not mine.) We talked with them for about 15 minutes about Hannibal, traffic during race weekend in Dover, the beach and our adventures. Such a nice couple.

Did you ever wonder why Samuel Clemens picked Mark Twain as his pen name? We found out the answer.

The 1850's river pilots did not have modern day navigational aids. When entering shallow water, a man was sent to the front of the boat with a lead weight tied to a rope. He tossed the weight out in front and let it sink to measure how deep the water was.

A series of knots were tied in the rope at measured distances. A mark is the same as a fathom on the ocean, six feet. Twain means two. The knot at "mark twain" meant twelve feet.

For the river boats, twelve feet was safe water. Years after leaving the river, Samuel Clemens remembered this river term which could be interpreted as safe water ahead and adopted the name Mark Twain. Now you know too.

Our next stop was the Mark Twain Museum.

This museum had things like a desk that Mr. Clemens used, copies of manuscripts, a replica of a river boat pilot room complete with "wheel" looking out over the Mississippi. There was also an organ that he once owned, an area filled with newspaper clippings and a special room filled with Norman Rockwell paintings depicting scenes of Tom Sawyer books.

Included in our price of the museum ticket was entrance to Becky Thatcher's house, Tom Sawyer's house, Huckleberry Finns house, a drug store of years gone by and a few other things I can't think of right now.

Part of the house is furnished just as it might have been in those long ago days when a girl with yellow braids peered shyly out of the windows at the boy across the street.
The famous fence.

The Drug Store.

Glad we have modern dentistry!

In Mark Twain's house there was a large reading board in each room with a statue of him standing next to it. On the reading board was something he wrote in a letter or something he said.

The museum people were very thorough in their set up of these rooms. They left nothing out as shown below.

We stopped for lunch at "Rumor Has It" and ate at their outdoor cafe on the street. It was such a perfect day weather wise we just couldn't go indoors. Our view from our table.

As I had written earlier everything is Mark Twain this, Becky Thatcher that, Huck Finn this, and Clemons that.

Even the soda machines got in the act.

We had passed the local VFW earlier in the day and decided to stop to say hello before we left. We met some very nice people here.

As we were walking to the VFW Bob noticed this roofing job. Pitiful isn't it?

Before we left the downtown area we just had to get the most important picture of all, the one of the statue of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

We enjoyed Hannibal so much but it was time to make our way back to camp to dress for dinner. This is the FIRST time Bob and I have "dressed up" since we left home almost a year ago. It was nice to do so for a change.

We had to be down at the docks by six for our six thirty cruise. When we arrived the river boat pilot took this picture of us.

I went to our table while Bob stopped at the bar to get our drinks. As I was sitting down the man sitting next to me asked, "Did you get online today?" I looked at him and realized it was the man from the campground office this morning. So we enjoyed our meal with Bob and his wife, gosh I am so bad with names, I'm sorry to say I have forgotten hers. They are from California but not full timers even though they spend a good amount of time on the road. We enjoyed spending the evening with them and after our meal went to the top deck for the entertainment and to sit with them while we floated down the Mississippi.

This is the man who provided the evening's entertainment. He played both the guitar and the banjo and several harmonica's. He was very good!

So this was our day in Hannibal. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.