TWO PEAS AND THE POD: MARK TWAIN AND HANNIBAL (MO)

I used to play the Wordle Unlimited Game nearly every day and had over 2150 games played with a 98.37% win record.

Then my computer had a major malfunction and erased all my online Wordle data, which left me so disheartened I ceased playing. That was nearly a year ago now.

A little over two months ago I decided to return to playing just the daily Wordle Game.

Now after two months my record is a PERFECT 68-0 and today's word nearly stumped me.

I think if I wouldn't have guessed ROVER for today's puzzle and lost, I could have very easily quit playing again.

Wasting no time, shortly after getting set up, we headed up to the Gift Shop and purchased tickets to go tour the Mark Twain Cave.

MARK TWAIN CAVE

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In 1890 they created this pedestrian friendly entrance to the cave using dynamite.

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The cave consists of numerous passageways laid out like a city street grid pattern.

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Some of the passageways are 100' tall.

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There are estimated to be 250,000 signatures adorning the cave walls.

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The signature in the center of this photo has been authenticated to be that of
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain), the great American writer and humorist.

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Clemens was known to explore the cave while he lived in Hannibal betweens ages 4 and 18.

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Here is one of the passageway intersections.

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Not sure who this is supposed to be but other artwork can also be found on the cave walls.

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Here our tour guide, Bobbie, shares more Mark Twain stories relating to the cave.

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There are few cave formations to be found in this cave, but here are the best.

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OK, time to find our way out of this maze of a cave.

WEDNESDAY - For our second and final day here in Hannibal, MO we're going to tour the boyhood home of it's most famous historical resident, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain).

For a small fee you'll be able to take a self-guided tour of several historical buildings that are featured in Mark Twain's famous books, namely The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

THE MARK TWAIN BOYHOOD HOME

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This model of a sculpture that never was made is found in the Interpretive Center.

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Next door is the modest boyhood home of Tom Blankenship (aka Huckleberry Finn).

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I'm not sure why the pathway brought us in through the back door?

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This is the front door facing the street, complete with the address.

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This huge stone wall was erected between the rear of Mark Twain's home and a lumber yard
as a fire break in the event there was a fire at the lumber yard.

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Inside of Mark Twain's Boyhood Home.

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The front of Mark Twain's boyhood home in Hannibal, MO.

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Right across the street is the childhood home of Laura Hawkins (aka Becky Thatcher).

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In keeping with the Mark Twain theme of this visit we ate lunch at the Mark Twain Dinette.

After lunch, while we were still in the parking lot for the Interpretive Center, I asked one of the volunteers who was taking care of some yard maintenance if the lighthouse I saw way up on the hill above town was accessible to the public.

He said, "Sure! You can either walk up the several dozen flights of stairs using the public pathway over there (pointing) OR you can drive up to a little known 2-car hidden parking lot right at the back of the lighthouse".

I thanked him and then climbed into ROVER and started our drive up to the lighthouse.

In front of the lighthouse is the regular parking lot for the public,
but there are still several flights of stairs if you start from here like Tricia did.

I drove all the way up to the base of the back of the lighthouse
and took one of the two parking spots I found there.

The front of the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse.

This is the rear view of the lighthouse.

Now that the in-town sightseeing for today is complete, it's time to go and fill ROVER's gas tank with $3.05 Missouri gasoline before we cross the bridge into Illinois tomorrow where gasoline is reported to be $3.86 for the same gallon of gas. OUCH! Multiply that by our 36-gallon tank and that's a pretty big chuck of change.

The same volunteer also told us the best view of the Mississippi River and the town of Hannibal is from a location called Lovers Leap just outside of town.

It's on the way back to the campground so we drove up and took a look for ourselves.

They had a cool metal art piece for lovers to hang a padlock with their names on it.
As you can see in the background some people still chose to place their padlock on the fence.