"One Must Travel to Learn"-Mark Twain

Hannibal, Missouri was full of interesting things! It was really nice to have a rest day and do some sightseeing. We spent most of the day learning about Mark Twain and some of his most famous works of literature: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In junior high, I read "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and loved it! It was really neat to see where Twain's inspiration came from and refresh my memory! Not only did we get to go to a museum with great exhibits commemerating Mark Twain's life, but we also got to see the famous whitewashed fence from Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher's house, and the house of the boy who inspired the character of Huck Finn. Although the day started off with rain, it quickly cleared up and we got to go on a riverboat ride in the afternoon without getting wet! The one little damper on the day was that we were followed EVERYWHERE by school groups on a field trip. Something I noticed about middle school children is that they don't really like READING anything in museums. Instead, they like to jump around yelling and playing with their friends. (Trying to make the most of their day out of the classroom, I guess). After the riverboat ride, Dad and I hiked up to the lighthouse with a great lookout point. We also went to the local coffee shop, "Java Jive" which was nice because it seems the only thing I've been drinking lately is water and milk. Coffee was a nice treat! We ended off the night with pizza from a local pizza parlour. Dad made full use of the salad bar, as per usual. Yesterday we cycled from Hannibal to Nauvoo (68 miles). It was a small town, but very cute! We went to a restaurant that had a great buffet. (Dad likes buffets...) We thoroughly enjoyed sitting next to a group of 8 people talking about how much they loved Banff. However, then they started talking about rules and regulations in Alberta in regards to owning land and...well, their information wasn't completely correct, so of course Dad is rolling his eyes at them because they didn't really know what they were talking about. At all. Anyways, then we went to bed and today we biked to Monmouth, Illinois after MUCH trouble finding a place to stop because of flooded roads and motels that don't answer their phones. But, we are safe and sound and heading out to Moline tomorrow which will be a shorter day in terms of mileage.
Stay tuned!
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