Only 1,700 miles to go

Ted. When Judy and I were admiring the statue of Dignity in Chamberlain, South Dakota, we were also taking a last long look at the Missouri River, which has been our constant companion throughout Montana and the Dakotas. 

The Missouri River at Chamberlain, SD

While the river still flowed another 700 miles to it’s destination; the Mississippi River, we had 1,700 miles yet to drive to our goal; St. Simons Island on the coast of Georgia.

Many of those hours on the road were spent in comfortable silence or listening to Agatha Christie audiobooks. We did have a couple more stops on our itinerary, though. The first one was a pilgrimage to the childhood home of a literary hero of mine, Samuel Clemens, who is much better known by his pen name, Mark Twain.

Mark Twain's childhood home complete with whitewashed fence

Hannibal, Missouri lies about 125 miles up the Mississippi from St Louis. It is still easy to visualize 19th Century “Life on the Mississippi” (the title of Twain’s memoir) as many of the buildings have been preserved. 

The Mississippi at Hannibal, MO

 We visited a lighthouse dedicated to Mark Twain and then toured the “Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum.” It was interesting to learn that the characters in his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were based on himself (as Tom) and various townspeople. Being a typical small town, everyone immediately recognized their neighbors. For instance, it was well known that young Sammy’s first little girlfriend, Laura Hawkins was the basis for Tom Sawyer’s friend, Becky Thatcher. 

Tom & Huck - Troublemakers!

From Hannibal we proceeded south, crossing the Mississippi, and stopping on the north shore of the Ohio River. In 1972, the Illinois State Legislature passed a resolution declaring little Metropolis, Illinois to be the “Hometown of Superman.” It was time to see another hero from my youth. 

Masked, but not socially distanced

From there, we continued south stopping off briefly at our children’s homes before arriving safely at our residence for October. Over the past 10 weeks we had traveled 8,000 miles, exploring 16 different states but now it was time to rest. We’ll report soon on our adventures in Georgia’s “Golden Isles.”