The Journey-Don't Stop Believin'

So from St. Joseph Saturday, we decided to take a route that cut right across the state, rather than go all the way back down to I-70. The route we were on ended in Hannibal, MO, right along the Mississippi. According to our atlas, it said Mark Twain's boyhood home was there. Since we had left St. Joe about 2.30 and Pittsburgh was about 14 hours away, we decided to stop.



Wow, I was quite surprised at how big of a deal this was. All of downtown Hannibal has something to do with Mark Twain and his stories (mainly Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer). I guess it was there that Mark Twain, then Sam Clemens, got his inspiration for those stories. He had a crush on the girl across the street, Becky Thatcher, who was in the book. There was a tall plank wood fence in front of his house, which gave him the idea for the part where Tom Sawyer convinces that group of boys to whitewash it for him.


Yeah, all kinds of stuff like that. The river wasn't too far from the house. I guess there's also a cave nearby, now called Mark Twain Caves, but that also found a way into his stories.


It was pretty neat to see…and we would've enjoyed it more if it hadn't been soooo stinkin' hot. When I say stinkin' hot, I mean it literally, it was soooo hot and muggy…we were sweatin' up a storm. It was the type of humid that the air feels heavy and it's a chore to breathe. Mandie said it was like walking around being covered in a big blanket. Gross.


We got there about 6 or so, so everything was pretty much closed. But it was fun to walk around and take pictures. I guess it gets pretty Mark Twain-ey during the day with impersonators walking the streets and horse drawn buggies…It was something I'd never seen or even heard of. I guess I'm not that much of a hard core Mark Twain fan. I have heard that he didn't like Mormons though…and he travelled a lot…that's all I know about the guy.



After our literary respite, we drove and drove and drove. I shouldn't say we, I should say Mandie drove and drove and drove. At about 8 or 9 or so, I hit the wall and didn't want to drive. I was willing to just pull over at a Rest Stop and sleep, but Mandie is the kind to keep going. And she did until about 3am in Ohio. She drove all through Illinois and the lightning storm, she drove through Indiana and then finally stopped in Ohio. This video is from somewhere inbetween Missouri and Ohio. We got to see some early fireworks while listening to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on cd. So you get to hear some of that while watching pretty fireworks!




Mandie said she had to force herself to stop and sleep for 3 whole hours. While I, on the other hand, slept about twice that. Mandie then woke up and then pressed on.