In Mark Twain's Cave (discovered 1819)

On the Mississippi River (11 July)

Today we were planning to drive from Jacksonville northwards into Iowa, but we got delightfully sidetracked. Emil had realized that the tour eastwards had made a SAG stop in Jacksonville, so we searched for and found it. This led to the inspiration to follow the route backwards to the second SAG stop at John Wood Community College towards Quincy. After a lovely tour of the byways there (i.e. we took the wrong road out of Jacksonville), we also found this stop. It was a special one for me because I'd had a lovely chat with Michelle, the secretary, there, so I dropped in to say hi. She greeted me with a big grin and "you came back"! The upshot of this brief visit was the hearty recommendation to make a side trip to Hannibal, Missouri to visit the birthplace of Samuel Clemmens, otherwise known as Mark Twain.
So we drove West instead of North and spent a wonderful morning exploring sites and reliving adventures that figured in Mark Twains stories. First of all was an informative and entertaining excursion through Mark Twain's cave. Our young guide had a great sense of humor as well as being very knowledgeable about the characters in "Tom Sawyer" and about caves in general.
We then drove into Hannibal proper and enjoyed the attractive little shops. A walk along the waterfront brought us to the "Mark Twain", a reconstruction of a paddle steamer (now driven by two brand new 300 hp diesel motors) and the possibility of taking a cruise on the Mississippi. Well, the paddle steamers on the Vierwaldstättersee are really much more beautiful, but the opportunity of riding the Mississippi just couldn't be passed up. So, after a quick lunch, we boarded the "Mark Twain" and experienced another entertaining and informative excursion into the life and times of Samuel Clemmens.

Too bad we couldn't travel afterwards by boat north to Iowa City!

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