Part 19 – Missouri

States & Provinces visited on this segment: Illinois, Missouri

Dates: Wednesday, August 22 to Sunday, August 26

Miles Driven: 465 (11,045 total to date)

Summary: On Wednesday morning we left Springfield and drove west to Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal was the home town of the author Samuel Clemons (AKA Mark Twain). He grew up in this small town on the Mississippi River, and his most famous books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, are based on experiences and characters from his boyhood in Hannibal. We arrived in Hannibal in mid afternoon and went to the Mark Twain museum as well as touring his boyhood home and some other buildings from that time period that have been restored. We then found a campground outside of town where we spent the night.

On Thursday morning we went to Mark Twain Cave. Samuel Clemons spent a lot of time as a boy exploring this cave and several scenes in books are based in the cave. After touring the cave we drove back into town. We had lunch and saw a few sites that we didn’t have time to see on Wednesday. In the afternoon we went on a Mississippi River cruise on the Mark Twain Riverboat. We then drove down to St. Louis were we spent the next 4 nights at our friends Colleen and Tom’s house.

On Friday we drove into St. Louis for the day. We spent most of our time at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the waterfront in St. Louis. We started out by going up to the top of the Gateway Arch. Karen and I had both been there before, but it still feels weird to go up to the top of a structure and when you look straight down you just see the ground 600 feet below. We then spent a bunch of time in the Museum of Westward Expansion which is located under the arch. There is a great Lewis and Clark exhibit along with other exhibits on Native Americans and the settlement of the west. We also saw a movie, The Great American West in the four story high widescreen theater. We had dinner before heading back to Tom and Colleen’s.

On Saturday we took it easy, getting caught up on laundry and doing some other chores. The kids had fun playing in Colleen and Tom’s small pool with their kids. After dinner we went back into St. Louis and spent the evening at the City Museum. The City Museum is very difficult to describe and is like no other place I have ever been to. Their website describes it as “eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects”. It is housed in a 600,000 square foot old shoe factory, and everything in the museum is made of recycled material – items salvaged from old buildings, old vehicles, etc. There is an outdoor area where you can go through a three dimensional maze of ladders, staircases, tubes, slides, etc. that include two airplanes suspended high above the ground, plus an old fire truck, etc. Inside the building there are numerous mazes connected with a sometimes bizarre looking collection of items, items from old carnivals, … You really have to see it to appreciate it – see photo below from their brochure to get a flavor. We all had a fun time and the kids both said it was their favorite thing we did on the entire trip! That is saying something as they have really enjoyed a lot of things we have done over the past 10 weeks.

On Sunday we went to a St. Louis Cardinal’s baseball game with Colleen, Tom, and their two kids. We enjoyed the game and the Cardinal’s beat the Braves 4-1 so everyone was happy. We went back to Colleen and Tom’s and the kids played in the pool before it was time to go to bed. We had a great stay in St. Louis. Thanks Colleen and Tom for your great hospitality. We enjoyed your company and the kids had a lot of fun.

Photos (to be loaded soon): http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.vacation/Part19Missouri

Other notes: Most of the schools back here have been in session for a week now, so we are starting to find tourist sites without a lot of people, or in some cases places have already gone back to their winter hours. Almost every place we were back east they were surprised that we did not have to be back for school until after Labor Day as their schools all start either the 3rd or the 4th week of August. The exception was Michigan. My uncle said that Michigan schools used to start in August, but the legislature passed a law to help the tourism industry that forbids schools from starting before Labor Day.

Next up: Amana, Iowa