the pondering pomegranate: Mark Twain's Hannibal

i'm not really the correct person to do the narrative for the next two posts. that person is the smart guy i'm married to - who is much more well-read than i. how, you might ask, does a person who has never read a single Twain write about the thrills of visiting Hannibal, Missouri? well, that probably won't stop me.

we enjoyed listening to a rebroadcast of the Prairie Home Companion show

on our way through the cornfields.

photo by Mike

this tune, by Iris Dement, seemed so very apropos to the scenery.

photo by Mike

several times, both on our way out and on our way back, we ran across Laura Ingalls Wilder sites. i don't recall ever reading any of her books, but (like most American girls in the late 70's & early 80's) i certainly remember the television show! we didn't have the time to stop at anything, but we happened to drive by this little church on our way to Hannibal. reading later, it seems her husband's parents were really the ones who lived in the community - but Laura & Almanzo did move there at one point & went to the church for a time.

the last few days of our our trip were similar to the first few in that we really crammed in a lot, on top of doing quite a bit of driving each day. we arrived in Hannibal & crashed at the motel for a while - unfortunately, we crashed a little too long &, by the time we went into town, almost everything had closed for the day.

main street, near Twain's boyhood home (photo by Mike)

photo by Mike

we enjoyed walking around and peering in windows, though.

i believe the Clemens (Twain) family lived above this store at one point.

Mark Twain's father was a judge (of sorts).

Becky Thatcher's house (Twain based the character on a little girl who lived in this house)

white house was where Samuel Clemens (Twain) spent his formative years.

our Samuel, whitewashing the fence

not sure if Tom Sawyer would've gotten very far convincing Joseph to whitewash....

excitement mounted when we found one place still open at 7:30 on a Sunday evening. sadness followed when they said they were no longer making sandwiches. we ended up going to a grocery store near our motel, but we did pick up some yummy desserts from "the first coffee shop west of the Mississippi."

on our way back around to the car, we noticed WATER overflowing the manholes & streaming out from under this metal wall. what on earth?!?

so, we climbed up the earthen bank at the edge of town,
& this is what we saw:

The Mississippi River, completely overflowing her banks
& attempting to flood the town!

obviously, this is a frequent occurrence, as there are several river walls that they close in order to protect the town - but what a sight!

the next day, at the Twain Museum, the boys thought it would be a good idea to practice piloting a boat. just in case.

photo by Mike

the morning we left Hannibal, we toured all the Twain-related buildings, which was very interesting. Samuel had a difficult time getting into Huck Finn's house, though.