Before we get into our Hannibal, MO wanderings, I should say that we were feeling rather unprepared for our departure. Stan was all packed, but we’d never gotten around to a test trip and the blog (yes this blog) was nowhere near ready. We thought about delaying the trip another day to get the blog launched, but worried that one day would become two, which would lead to another week, and before you know it we really would be just living in our parents’ basements. In the end we decided to hit the road with what we had and make the best of it.

First Day on the Road

On day 1 we traveled from Sun Prairie, WI to what is technically Hull, IL to locate a camp spot I found on freecampsites.net. Part of our budget travel plan is to explore the many free camping opportunities throughout the US. Along the road to the camp spot, we saw another recently occupied area. There was an old mattress and ripped couch all ready for company. While it’s not uncommon to see discarded mattresses along the side of country roads, we did take note that the couch was a homey and unusual touch.

At the end of the road we found a lovely little park with a boat landing and a few grassy camp sites. The strange thing was that none of the sites appeared to have been used anytime recently. And by recently, I mean the last year or two. The location was beautiful—right along the Mississippi, easy to find, and convenient. We couldn’t understand why the sites would go unused. This combined with the suspicious furniture and Tom having recently been warned by his sister about dangerous “river folk” along the Mississippi led us to camp at established grounds instead. We ended up staying at the Mark Twain Cave Campground which includes various amenities such as showers, laundry, and WiFi. Hardly roughing it, we know.

Exploring Hannibal

Hannibal—specifically the quaint downtown area—is a place where if you squint just a bit and use a little imagination you can easily see what it looked back in the 1840s when Sam Clemens (aka Mark Twain) was a boy living there. You can picture the wooden buildings (some a bit crooked), dusty streets, and unhurried yet busy lives of the local people. Business owners sweeping their steps while children and pigs (yes, wily pigs that escaped from the local slaughter-house) run amok.

We spent most of our educational time learning about Sam Clemens. We explored the interpretive center, Huck Finn house, Mark Twain boyhood home, Becky Thatcher house, museum gallery (with a great Norman Rockwell collection), and light house. Sam Clemens’ life was exceptionally hard in many ways. He had multiple siblings pass away in childhood and after reaching adulthood, his younger brother was killed in a steamboat explosion. I have to think that Sam Clemens must have had some level of eternal optimism. When you read his writings and the way he’s able to look at the world with so much humor—as bleak as it must have been sometimes—you can see why his words resonate with millions yet today.

Overall the Mark Twain Home Foundation has done a wonderful job with the exhibits. We typically enjoy small and unusual museums in general, but the wealth of information about Mark Twain was well displayed and organized for a variety of age groups. I for one can never resist opening the wooden door in an exhibit to see what it will reveal. It’s also nice that the self guided tour takes you through the downtown area. The street has beautiful old two- and three-story buildings painted in cheerful colors and intricate patterns housing various shops.

We spent the rest of the day exploring some local parks. First, Riverview Park for a late lunch. Then Huckleberry Park for a round of disc golf. We also encountered our first confederate flag of the trip in a faded red SUV parked by hole 18. It turned out to be driven by a very polite high-school boy, who was playing a round of disc with about 5 other equally polite high-school friends.

Looks Like Rain

That evening clouds started rolling in and there was that electric feeling in the air before a big storm. The woodland animals were going quite crazy or were at a minimum making very strange noises. We woke around 4am the next morning to what at this point had been the loudest thunder we’d ever heard and blindingly bright lightning illuminating the inky black sky. The lightning consistently took turns flashing first on the right of Stan, then on the left. It was like nature’s dance party but with a really slow rhythm “Boots…and…pants… And…boots…and…pants…And…”

That night and the next day we got our first real taste of Middle America Spring storms. Rain all day and a temperature drop of at least 20 degrees. We set-up our office in the Tom Sawyer shelter day and worked on the blog. The rain continued through our final night in Hannibal. Fortunately, we had campground amenities. Clean, hot showers feel so luxurious when you’ve spent the night in a van and eaten all of your meals outdoors for the last 48 hours. So, freshly scrubbed but starting to get a little damp around the edges we wandered out of Hannibal onto our next destination. We followed the Mississippi along HWY 79 for a bit and took in all the vibrant greens and melancholy grays of Spring. Do any of you have stories about the Mighty Mississippi? Or favorite spring trips? Comment and let us know!

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