Had to stop in Dallas City, right?

When we finally left Hannibal, we crossed over into Illinois to run The Great River Road on the east side of the Mississippi. In pouring over the maps and planning out the trip, I had noticed Dallas City and determined to stop there. It had been close to 20 years since Kevin and I had a beer together in Dallas. This just had to be rectified.
Dallas City is a very small town. But one thing that is certain about nearly every burg we went through on this trip is that even the smallest town has a local watering hole.
Carol's Saloon was about 3 doors up from the railroad tracks where this picture was taken. We provided the bartender with someone to talk to at 2:00 PM, although there were 3 others perched on the stools playing the poker machines.
The other thing I love about these small town bars? An ice cold can of beer was available for $1.25. I hadn't had a Hamm's before and now I have had 2! Kevin's Budweiser was $2.25.
Back in Dallas, Texas, it would be hard to find one beer for what we paid for both.

As we made our way up the Great River Road, we were both struck by the high water marks on some of the houses and farm buildings. We saw one convenience store/gas station that was closed due to the flooding. The building looked to be no more than 10 years old. There was still lots of flood debris all over this area and the fields of course had no crops. In many places there was still standing water.

Not too long after this, we must have missed a turn for the scenic route. Suddenly all the roads were dead straight, running north and south or east and west. After what seemed to me to be 2 hours, I can't tell you how excited I was to see this -

Seriously. That was the first time in FOREVER that I got to lean more than just moving from one side of the lane to the other!
It is unbelievable how much corn there is growing in that part of the world!!

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.