More Hannibal

We had parked our motorcycles toward the north end of Main Street and walked the four or five blocks down to the pier. We made our way back on the opposite side of the street, not really stopping to buy anything but more window shopping. Both of us had made the obligatory refridgerator magnet purchase, as wel as one or two other items. Neither of us had the cash or room to buy any of the more extravegant items we saw.
The north end of Main Street is apparently the older section. This is where several historical buildings still stand. One of them is the boyhood home of Samuel Clements and his family.

Sam, of course, became Mark Twain later in life and used the surroundings of where he grew up for 2 of his more endearing novels, The Adventures ofTom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The fence next to the home has this sign standing in front of it, commemorating one of the greastest cons in literature.
At the top of Main Street, there is a park with statues of the two best friends standing in front of a fairly large hill, atop of which stands a lighthouse. The functional lighthouse is reputed to be located the furthest from a coastline in the world (more than a 1,000 miles from salt water).
Knowing there was a fantastic view awaiting us at the top of the stairs ascending the hill by the statue, we set about climbing. And climbing.
Then we climbed some more.
Remember what I said in the previous post about it being a perfectly wonderful day for a Texas boy? Well, even Texans will sweat when climbing! But we were correct in our assessment of the potential view and this is the reward was received -


Kevin, however, is not a Texas boy anymore, nor does he have much opportunity in his present position to get much exercise or aerobic activity. He did however, find the grass located in the shadow of the lighthouse just as much an expression of the goodness of Creation as the view! I told him he hadn't completely soaked the shirt with his persperation; there was only the small sweat markings on his torso.


Eventually we both recovered enough to climb back down and explore the town a little - we were done with the walking for the time being. We found our way back to the hotel and beat the 12:00 checkout time by a good 5 minutes!
This last picture shows the old courthouse and jail that Kevin wanted a picture of. I figured it would be a fine time to capture a picture of him on his Dyna and show all the stuff he had packed.
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We crossed over to Illinois and continued north, knowing we still had far to travel before we made Milwaukee.