Hannibal, Missouri

 On my way up to Iowa from Bonne Terre, Missouri, I had to stop in Hannibal to see where Mark Twain grew up or Jay would have been really upset... if I happened to accidentally mention the fact.  Because he's a really big fan of Mark Twain's.  So is Joe.  Here is the home Twain grew up in.  They charged $8 for a tour but I didn't see any reason to do that.  The whole town had those signs or plaques like the one above on the buildings.  So you knew what significance it had in Twain's life or his books.  He really included his hometown and stuff that went on there in his stories.  One of the plaques said that using his town in his stories helped him to make sense of his life.  That made sense to me.  The sign says this fence is the one Tom Sawyer painted.

Here's proof that that house above was really Twain's home because here is an actual picture of the actual Twain standing in front of the same house.

 This is the house that was used for Becky Thatcher's home in Tom Sawyer which is right across the street from Twain's home.

This is supposedly Twain's river boat, sitting on the Mississippi River at Hannibal.  There was a light house and I thought I would climb up the stairs to the top of the bluff overlooking the river to get a panoramic view of the river, but after about the 1000th or so flight of stairs climbing on and on forever!!!! I decided it wasn't all that important to get a panoramic view of the Mississippi River!  Anyway, some guy doing yard work at a house on that hillside climb told me you couldn't go in the light house anyway.  So really, what was the use?  At Hannibal I headed east away from the river inland in Missouri and then north to Iowa.  It was 400 + miles from Bonne Terre to Lorimor, Iowa.  A long drive and I'm still tired.