We spent Monday morning in Hannibal, Missouri. They might as well rename the town Mark Twain City. It’s all about him, their most famous citizen. We visited the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum. The museum consisted of 7 historic properties, including the interpretive center, which contained a lot of information about Mark Twain’s life and is located in the home where Mark Twain, birth name of Sam Clemens, grew up and where the real adventures of Tom Sawyer took place. The other buildings/points of interest included restored homes of Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher, the Justice of the Peace office where Sam’s father worked, Grant’s Drugstore, and the Tom and Huck statue. That’s only six (if you’re counting) because they actually count the gift shop as building number 7. We also saw the famous whitewashed fence. When Sam and his family fell on hard times, the family moved in with some friends: Dr. Grant and his family, where they lived above his drugstore. Dr. Grant was a first cousin of Ulysses S. Grant, who Mark Twain became friends with. Many of these buildings were the settings for some of Mark Twain’s writings, and many of his boyhood friends and family became the basis for some of the characters in his stories, such as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Becky Thatcher, Aunt Polly, Injun Joe etc.

Downtown Hannibal

Mark Twain complex of historic buildings

The famous fence

Becky Thatcher house

Apparently, Hannibal is also home to the first coffee shop west of the Mississippi:

There was also a gallery down the street that was part of the museum complex. There were many Norman Rockwell paintings of the subject matter in Mark Twain’s stories, as Norman Rockwell had been given the honor of being the illustrator for the later editions of the books. The museum also contained a replica of a riverboat/barge with some history of Mark Twain's occupations on the river, and a stagecoach, among other items of interest.

Sam Clemens began using the pen name Mark Twain in 1863. The name Mark Twain comes from a term used in river navigation. A mark meant a fathom (6  feet), and twain meant two, so Mark Twain means two fathoms. Since Clemens worked on the Mississippi on riverboats, he probably came up with this name during his nautical years.

Some of my favorite Mark Twain quotes:

“The coldest winter I spent was one summer in San Francisco.” (Having lived in the bay area and endured the unbelievably cold summers, we can appreciate this quote.)

“Always obey your parents when they are present.”

“In the end, the number of people who will come to your funeral ultimately depends on the weather.” (Paraphrased)

“He has been a doctor a year now and has had two patients, no, three I think/yes it was three; I attended their funerals.”

“It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.”

After we visited the Mark Twain complex, we took a walk down to the Mississippi River, which was only two blocks away. The river was very wide at this point, very different than what we saw in Itasca, Mn. There was no walking across the Mississippi River here.

Now THAT'S a river!

On our way back to the campground to pick up the RV, we took a short detour to Lover’s Leap, where a rock promontory overlooks the river and provides a nice scenic view.

After we went back to the campground and hooked up our trailer, we headed east. The first thing we did was cross the Mississippi River into Illinois. We then travelled across the state of Illinois and into Indiana, settling down for our last night of vacation at a KOA Campground just east of Indianapolis. No more sightseeing now – just traveling home. The fun is over. And yes, we ARE having fun yet!