Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal, Missouri is a small town right on the banks of the Mississippi River. What makes this small town special is that Mark Twain spent most of his childhood there and based The Adventures of Tom Sawyer off his time there. The first thing we did when we got there is rush to get on the trolley. The tour guide told us a little bit about the city and the Mississippi River. The town was surprisingly interesting and was very profitable for the steamboat industry back in the day.
The trolley then dropped us off at the Mark Twain museum. It was really fun because you got to do all the things they did in the books while learning all about them. We steered a steamboat, rode on a raft and hopped in a carriage.
Once we were done we walked across the street to Mark Twain’s old home. It wasn’t that big, but you could see different aspects of Tom Sawyer. Like how you could see the drainpipe Tom would’ve shimmied down. Or where Tom would come home after a night of adventure. It was really cool.
Mark Twain’s childhood home.
Right across the street from Mark Twain’s house is where Laura Hawkins and Tom Blankenship lived, the inspiration for Becky Thatcher and Huckleberry Finn. It was like taking a tour of the book. We also saw the drug store were Mark Twain worked for awhile.
Tom Blankenship’s childhood home.
We parked our RV right next to Mark Twain Cave so we decided to go in. The cave was exactly like the one at Disney. There were lots of different passages and they were all very different. We saw where Jesse James hid and where Mark Twain slid on the rocks. It was a really fun day!
