Sojourn in a Far Away Land - Hannibal

There are quite a few cultural differences that I have noticed here. For one thing, nobody fences their yards. It is just endless grass with no divisions. Another thing I have learned is that there are not any potlucks here...they are called "carry ins." For the most part, you do not see anybody outside in their yards during the day. They seem to come out at dusk when it has cooled off a bit. The problem is that the mosquitos are large enough to carry off a small baby. I have never seen such large mosquitos, except in cartoons. It actually hurts when they bite you. We have been enchanted by the lightning bugs, though. I have never actually seen one before, so it is fun to see them in the dusky light.



We drove up to Hannibal, Missouri to see what we could see.

We took the scenic route along the Mississippi river, which was very pretty.
You can see the muddy field that is still drying out from the flooding along side the river.

We wanted to go on a river boat ride, but we decided to wait until Alan could go with us instead. (are you happy, Margaret? Benjamin is not looking at the camera because the sun is in his eyes)
They had a picture spot where you could be Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher.
We did take a trolley ride tour of the town. It was very educational
and interesting. We saw the house that the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown was born in, and the caves that inspired Mark Twain. We heard about Lover's Leap and indian scalpings and many other fun stories.

We saw some Mormon missionaries walking down the street as we rode on the trolley. They didn't look very happy. I imagine they were not enjoying the heat and humidity either.
Mark Twain, of course, is the most famous past resident of Hannibal. We haven't gone to see his house or anything yet.
We did learn about turtle island, where they gathered turtles to make turtle soup.
This is definitely a pretty area. But there are also a lot of bugs and unbearable weather.