Hannibal, Elsah, St. Louis

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Felt great to sleep through the night and relax a little bit.  I got up and went swimming in the pool, it felt great!  We were going to go to mass but no Catholic church in Hannibal.  Went and saw the Mark Twain stuff in Hannibal, historic buildings, house where he lived, Cardiff Hill, lighthouse. I love this quote from Mark Twain, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.  Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's life." The town was not very crowded at all, in fact very few people at all.  Kind of sad.  Headed further down on the Illinois side of the Great River Road.  This was quite beautiful.  The corn however is all dead.  The drought has hit the farmer’s here quite severely.  Soybeans seem to be doing fine. I wonder if all we eat is corn and soybeans.  So far, I have not seen any evidence to the contrary.

Hopping town of Grafton right on the Mississippi, but we did not stop.  Stopped in Elsah instead which is a small little town with all sorts of old houses, stone cottages, Prinicipia College (Christian Scientist).  Walked around and took pictures, then on to St. Louis

  Drove to Forest Park and walked around for awhile hoping our travel club lady would call.  Saw the Jewel Box, but could not get inside, got all sorts of info on St. Louis at the visitor center, saw the Korean War Memorial, and got a nice walk in.  Just when we had figured out a place to camp in Illinois across the river, Betty called, so we went and stayed with her in Crestwood.  Very nice lady who lost her husband 20 years ago.  Had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, awesome salad bar with homemade soups, breads and frozen yogurt.   We walked her Crestwood neighborhood.  She had a friend over so we spent time in our room planning options of travel past St. Louis.  Time for Jack to call our travel friends!  Also published a blog.  We are so behind!  It is good to get some positive reinforcement to continue with the blog.