Sep 18, Saturday
The trip was windy, a little hilly, and took about 3-1/2 hours. It was a pretty straight path with little interesting to see. Lisa even commented that it was the most boring road trip we had taken.
Ray Behrens Recreation Area
We arrived about 3 pm at Ray Behrens Recreation Area, which the Corps of Engineers managed. It had 165 campsites on Mark Twain Lake. We had site 116 in the Little Blue Stem section of the park, which had a nice long concrete pad with a concrete patio. Though the website listed this site as a Standard Electric, it had full hookups.
Mark Twain Brewing Company
After we quickly set up, we drove into Hannibal and went to the Mark Twain Brewing Company for dinner in a Ford Model T manufacturing facility near the Mississippi River. We ordered a flight of four beers and some lunch.
Downtown Hannibal
Afterward, we walked around the downtown area. The brewery was located across from the Mark Twain Boyhood Home Museum, which we planned to visit the next day. We found most stores closed as we walked the main street, but we enjoyed seeing the restored historic buildings. We find a few stores open, like Lydia’s Cabinet of Curiosities, which had a weird wood sculpture outside the store, a strange mummy on the inside, and numerous other odd artifacts and many gemstones.
We wandered down to the marina area, which looked fairly new.
We got back to our trailer around 8 pm.
Sep 19, Sunday
For breakfast, we enjoyed the Peaches and Creme Cheese Strudel that we had gotten from our trip to Amana Colonies the day before for breakfast. We both enjoyed it a lot.
Mark Twain Boyhood Home
I left around 9 am and returned to Hannibal to visit the Mark Twain Boyhood Home. When we arrived, I learned that military veterans had received free tickets. It was a nice museum that did a great job of describing the man himself. The museum consisted of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home, Becky Thatcher’s House, Huckleberry Finn House, J.M. Clemens Justice of the Peace Office, Grant’s Drugstore, the Interpretive Center, and the Museum Gallery.
Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse
We then drove up to Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse on a high hill overlooking the city. The hill was said to be a favorite play area of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and the gang. The lighthouse was built in 1935 to memorialize Mark Twain on his 100th birthday. It was destroyed in 1960 by a windstorm and rebuilt in 1963.
We had to drive up a very steep hill to get to the parking lot just below the lighthouse, and Sam walked the staircase up the rest of the way. The area around the Lighthouse offered great panoramic views of Hannibal and the Mississippi River.
Lover’s Leap Overlook
We drove north for a couple of miles along the high banks of the Mississippi River, past beautiful homes built on the high peaks of the hills. We then decided to go to Lover Leap Overlook just south of town. This provided an even higher overlook of Hannibal and the Mississippi River.
Downtown Hannibal
We had a Riverboat tour scheduled for later, so we grabbed a beer in downtown Hannibal at Rumor Has It. Then we went down to the marina and found a nice place to eat lunch overlooking the paddle boat we would take later.
Mark Twain Riverboat Cruise
After lunch, we boarded for the one-hour tour on the Mark Twain Riverboat. We ordered a couple of beers from the bar and got front-row seats on the top deck. The cruise was rather short but nice especially when we got a breeze on this hot day.
Hannibal Riverfront
After the cruise, we walked a little more on the riverfront. We were also able to see the giant paddleboat America which was docked there for the day.
Union Covered Bridge State Historic Site
We then decided to take a road trip out to the Union Covered Bridge State Historic Site. This bridge was built in 1871 and is the only one of the four remaining covered bridges that represent the Burr-arch truss design. Lisa and I just think they are beautiful.
Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site
On our way back to the trailer, we decided to stop at the Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site, even though it was only open on weekends. The site consists of a building that contains the two-room rented cabin Samuel Clemens – Twain’s real name – was born in, first editions of many of the author’s works, a manuscript of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and many of the furnishings from Twain’s Connecticut home. We had hoped there might be some things to look at outside the museum, but we found nothing but a small trail to an overlook called Clara’s View. (Clara was Mark Twain’s only child.) We then drove up to the city of Florida, Mark Twain’s birth city. Today it is not more than a couple of streets and houses. We did find a marker marking the location of his cabin.
When we left the historical site, we headed back to the trailer and got there around 6:30 pm.
Sep 20, Monday
We decided to visit the Boudreaux Memorial Visitor Center, which the Corps of Engineers run. Exhibits inside the visitor center explore the benefits of the Clarence Cannon Dam and Mark Twain Lake. Outside was a nice viewing deck overlooking Mark Twain Lake and the dam. We also walked on an ADA-accessible trail approximately ¼ mile in length called Eagle Trail that meandered through an oak-hickory forest offering spectacular views of the lake.
Road Trip along Mississippi River
We then decided to go north along the west bank of the Mississippi River, turn around at Keokum, and go back south along the east bank.
Our first stop was Riverview Park, just north of Hannibal. This was a large park with more beautiful views of the Mississippi River. We found a picnic table near One Outlook and enjoyed lunch.
We continued north along the Great River Road but could never get close to the Mississippi River until we took BUS 61 through LaGrange and Canton. We stopped briefly at an overlook in Canton and watched a barge getting loaded with grain in the distance and the Lock and Dam #20.
We continued north from Canton, which connected us to MO-61. We took the Alexandria exit and could drive closer to the Mississippi River into Keokuk, IA. We passed several fireworks stands before entering Iowa, so it was evident that the surrounding states were probably not as liberal with fireworks as Missouri was.
Keokuk was a large city, but most of the area around the river looked depressed. They did have a nicer riverwalk area. We got some gas in Keokuk because the gas in Illinois was 30-40 cents per gallon higher. We crossed the Mississippi in Keokuk and headed south down the east side. The road mostly followed the dike, about a mile from the river. A lot of flat farmland was being harvested between the dike and the river.
World’s Largest Fireworks Superstore
Since we were not getting very close to the Mississippi River, we gave up trying to follow the River. We crossed the Mississippi River back into Iowas in Quincy and headed to the Fireworks Superstore, which self-proclaimed itself the world’s largest. We were amazed at the number of fireworks they had and all the cute names on fireworks. They also had large metal statues of the Transformers and a metal statue of Predator there.
Muddy BBQ
For dinner, I wanted to try out the Muddy BBQ. We passed it several times, and I saw it listed as a top restaurant in several articles. They had recently moved to a new location connected to a gas station. I tried to order the ribs, but they had “forgotten to take them out of the refrigerator.” Instead, we both order the pulled pork sandwich, beans, and sweet potato. It was good but not exceptional.
Sep 21, Tuesday
We headed home around 10:30 am.