The sky was gray again this morning as we left Manhattan and headed east. We followed the interstate and only left it just before Kansas City when we stopped on the bank of the Missouri River at Kaw Point where the Kansas River flows into the Missouri. There is a park here to commemorate the stop that the explorers, Lewis and Clark, made here when they were on their great voyage of discovery across the United States. They had been struggling with their boats fighting the current of the river and we could see why it was a problem. The current was very strong! There’s a metal sculpture at the rivers edge showing Lewis and Clark pointing the way upstream. Neil helped them in my photo.
Head West!
Behind you can see the skyline of Kansas City which, as it was mainly on the other side of the river, is actually in Missouri. Back on the road we crossed the river and so added our 32nd state to our tally!
A few miles past the city we turned off the interstate and headed north to the little town of Napoleon. It lies on the river and from there we followed a couple more scenic byways along the river. I have to say that by this time I’d already decided I preferred Missouri to Kansas. There were still lots of corn fields, but they were scattered across low rolling green hills and there were so many more trees. The towns were all pretty with some really lovely homes mostly immaculately maintained. These were the country towns and farmhouses I’d seen in countless old TV shows and movies.
Pretty, classic Missouri home
We made a brief stop at Lexington MO which was the site of a very significant early battle in the Civil War , which the South win convincingly. The towns were all sleepy and quiet, everything was closed on Sunday morning and everyone was at church.
Around one o’clock we arrived in the little town of Marceline where I was going to get my only taste of Disney for this trip. Walt Disney’s family moved to Marceline from Chicago when he was 5 years old and he spent what he described as some of the best years of his life here. He had very fond memories of the little town and modeled many parts of Disneyland on the town, including “Main Street USA” and several of the rides and decorations. There is an excellent museum located in the old Santa Fe railroad station house and we had a great tour given by a woman who had met Walt on one of his frequent visits to the town in the 1950s. I was in Disney heaven!
As we left we drove past his actual boyhood home, before we carried on east to Florida, Missouri to visit the birthplace of another famous American, Mark Twain. He was born in a tiny cabin in the town which has been moved to a location on the lake near the town and the whole cabin is enshrined inside a specially built building. There is a museum as well and the site is located within the “Mark Twain Historic Site State Park” on the Mark Twain Lake.
They had any translations of Huckleberry Finn and Other stories. We were particularly interested in the one on the left!
Finally we drove the last few miles on to Hannibal , which is the town on the Mississippi River where Twain spent his boyhood. There is no way you could walk through the town and not know he lived here, you drive down “Mark Twain Ave” to see the “Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum”. The Mark Twain riverboat takes people of cruises up the river underneath the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge. We had dinner tonight at the Mark Twain Brewing Company in preference to the Mark Twain Dinette!
We went for a walk through the town to see the sights and were impressed by the scale of the American Queen River Cruise boat which was docked in town today. This is one of the modern day riverboats that take people on extensive river cruises up and down the Mississippi river from New Orleans to St Louis and even up the river as far as Minneapolis. The smaller Mark Twain riverboat that takes tourists on little trips around the river here in Hannibal looked like a midget in comparison.
Mark Twain’s Boyhood Home in Hannibal.
Whitewashing Tom Sawyer’s fence
The American Queen River Cruise Boat
Mark Twain Riverboat
Despite a certain cynicism about the milking of the “Mark Twain” name, we had a really nice meal at the Brewing Company tonight Its a local craft brewery and as well as a delicious Ragin’ Cajun Burger I was even tempted to try a couple of sample glasses of a couple of their specialty brews.
Burger and Beer
We’ll see more of the ‘Ol Man River tomorrow as we head down its banks to St Louis.