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Travels with Snowbirds Quest for The Stamp May 9-10 2017 Hannibal MO
First time I ever posted a panorama picture. Not bad. View from lover's leap. Hannibal sits on a big rocky bluff. This location is called Lover's Leap, and it looks just like it could be.
I probably have never been so happy to leave a campground in my entire camping career. Our St Louis campground was a shithole. We know it is not the garbage haulers job to pick up the trash around the dumpsters, but you would think that someone from the campground would have picked it up at least this year, or last year, or the year before it, right? There are so many started and unfinished projects that weeds are growing up around the building equipment left in place at the project site. Kim says the place is sad to her. The residents seem like a sad group, and I agree. No laughter of campers playing games and having fun. The few kids that are here do play at night and do add laughter, but otherwise, somber. Lots of workers in small unkempt rigs, or renting the new, but very tiny, cabins. There are
a few large nice looking rigs sitting in unkempt sites as well, and I assume they belong to insurance adjustors while they are working here. Since there are very few other options for camping near St. Louis, I understand the need to stay at a place like this. I want to review them on line and trash the shit out of them, nicely. I am looking for some hidden meaning words, that readers might understand, such as ‘rustic’ meaning old??
Moving on. Rant done.
Our ride from St. Louis to Hannibal was relatively uneventful, on interstates for a while than wonderful US Route 61N. We only saw downtown historic Hannibal on the way into town with everything named after Tom Sawyer, or Huck Finn, or Shoeless Joe. Mark Twain Cave and Winery and Campground is very nice; about 100 sites some under trees, some out in the open, and we are in a partial area. Nice long grave, back in sites, mostly level. The unusual thing is the utility pole is in the center of the site, not off the driver side, and about 25 feet back, BUT, the sewer hole is towards the front of the site.
I opted to pull back so my cord and hose would reach (hose didn’t, had to add extender, power cord just made it. Sewer might just make it if I really stretch it, we’ll see. We made plans what to do while in Hannibal.
Excellent TV reception for 10 stations, NBC, Fox, CW, PBS, Religious. Looks like no Survivor for me this week. What is it with ABC and CBS with such poor quality air antenna reception, but NBC shines and can be picked up at almost any angle the antenna is pointed. Excellent, free wifi, too, I can stream. I downloaded 2 episodes of Amazon Prime’s Bosch.
While out walking, I noticed a very large nest high up in the tree behind me, of course wondering what it was for. Well, at 11:00 pm I found out. Mr Hooty Owl started going off at something very loudly. His friend was on the other side of the campground, and between them it was a loud lengthy concert. I slept well but not for long and was awake before the birds at 4:30 and up walking Winston at 5:30. At 7:00, a helicopter started buzzing nearby. Round and round
and round and round. Drowning out the birds. It had a large chain saw dangling from it and it must have been trimming trees near power lines someplace very close. Winston was very out of sorts during this. He wouldn’t go out, he wouldn’t eat, he just wanted to lay on my bed. Should I be concerned about a tick-borne disease? Just as I was getting ready to leave for our day’s events, he felt warm and went into the crate very easily. Not right.
Kim did her Groupon research and came up with fun stuff for the day. She bought the full Mark Twain experience tour, regular $9/senior. Groupon was 2/$9. We toured the Clemens’ house, his father’s ‘law’ office, Becky Thatcher’s house. It’s an interesting place. It can never be a National Monument, as the way they have it set up it is not ADA compliant at all. They have permanent scaffolding with stairs to the second floor. Each room was plexiglassed off; you could see in, but not touch. I am sure this is a very popular place for class trips. We went to Mark Twain pub for lunch. Kim and I had 4 ounce local
beers, $1.50. Ginnie had her root beer. Salads, flatbread, a long wait because they made the wrong flatbread, but we had nowhere to go for a bit. The Groupon cost $14 and gave us credit for $30 in food. Our total bill was $8 extra plus tip.
No Groupon for the Mark Twain Riverboat cruise, $18 for a one hour cruise. The skies were threatening, but we found a spot on the second deck forward, out in the sun – it never rained; it was a great ride learning a lot about Hannibal’s waterfront, and its way of life long ago. The captain told us the river is down 7 feet from a week ago, but it still at flood level and runs very quickly and there is so much flotsam and jetsam. We had fun listening to the two older than us couples behind us, who just met on the cruise, talk about their RVs and their problems and their trips. Old town Hannibal is reminiscent of a down on its luck mill town in central Pennsylvania. A little rundown around the edges, empty stores, lots of for sale signs. Again, it’s not summer time yet; it’s depressing.
Back to the RVs and Winston was happy to see me. His nose felt cool and he was excited to go outside. I left a message for my veterinarian to discuss symptoms of diseases caused by ticks. He ate most of his dinner and was excited to go out again.
No passport stamps for Hannibal. On the road again tomorrow to a campground about 30 miles west of Springfield, IL where we will do the Abraham Lincoln thing and a Frank Lloyd Wright house. More passport stamps there.
Kat out
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