Sun 9/18/11

We’re in Quincy this rainy morning and we’re not letting a little rain get in our way. A lot of rain is forecasted for this afternoon though so we’ll see, might have to stop and catch football game on TV.
We’re driving 21 miles to Hannibal, MO for a trolley tour of the Mark Twain sights then we’ll check out Lock & Dam 24. Also today is the National Great River Museum in East Alton , IL and the Lewis & Clark Historic site in Hartford, IL. Tonight we’ll be staying in Alton, 141 miles down the road.
Don’t have all of yesterday’s pics up yet so keep checking back.

We dodged rain drops most of the day, didn’t bother us a bit. We took a trolley tour of Hannibal first thing this morning. Saw the childhood home of Samuel Clemens circa 1939, heard about his early life living on the river his inspiration for writing about Huck, Tom, Becky and Injun Joe. He was not only a writer but a journalist and river pilot. Something I found interesting is that he was born as Halley’s Comet was going overhead in 1935 and died 75 years later again during Halley’s comet.

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Bob, Joanie, Paul Gerry and Lisa waiting to board the Hannibal Trolley.

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Tom and Huck

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Samuel Clemens childhood home.

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Doug and Mary sitting in the back, Roy and Kathy.

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Turtle Island

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Jude and Jim at the Mark Twain statue.

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Downtown Hannibal

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Lunch at the Hawg Pit BBQ in Grafton, Ill. Great pulled pork sandwich’s, coincidently my son in law was cooking a 16 LB pork shoulder at the same time, they had yummy pulled pork for dinner.

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Enjoying our lunch stop at the Hawg-Pit, Jim, Bob, Joanie, Gerry, Lisa, Doug and Mary.

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We visited the Lewis and Clark Historic Site in Hartford, IL which is the start of their famous trail. Two years ago we stopped at the mouth of the Columbia River just inside Cape Disappointment. They have a wonderful interpretive center there also.

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Barges along the river in Illinois.

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We ended the day by touring the 15 story Confluence Towers which overlooks theĀ  Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

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View from the top. Missouri and Mississippi rivers, this is approximately the site of the start of the Lewis & Clark expedition.

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Lisa and Mary Carol.

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The towers are 15 stories high.

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Our stop for the night in Alton, IL.

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Another shot of the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site.

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We were supposed to tour Lock & Dam 24 but it was closed due to security reasons, they said the orders come from Washington and they didn’t tell us what was going on.
We ended the day by touring the 15 story Confluence Towers which overlooks the the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
We were joined by our old friends from the Route 66 trip, Dennis and Cindy Manier.

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