Hannibal, MO

We only traveled 19 miles today, but had to stop in Hannibal, Missouri, that All-American river town, boyhood home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens and inspiration for the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. 

We tied up at another no-frills municipal marina, this one right in town, and were greeted by a calliope concert from the Mark Twain Riverboat as it was loading up passengers for a tour. After lunch in the cockpit on another beautiful sunny day, we headed down Main Street to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, a well-restored, informative, multi-building exhibit of the Clemens family’s life in Hannibal. 

Fun fact (and one you won’t learn at the museum): Samuel Clemens joined a Confederate militia early in the Civil War, but served only two weeks before deserting. He went west to Nevada, where he began his career in journalism and adopted his famous pen name. Fun fact (and popular nautical trivia question): “Mark Twain” was a term used on riverboats—it means two fathoms, or 12 feet of water depth, which was safe for navigation. 

Hannibal, MO is also the birthplace of Margaret (Tobin) Brown, better known as “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” who heroically assisted fellow passengers board lifeboats and survived the 1912 sinking of The Titanic.

After getting our fill of Hannibal’s history, we visited the gift shops and general stores that line Main Street, then hiked to the grocery store and back to Dragonfly. There’s a cruise ship due in early tomorrow morning, so we’ll be on our way again.