We Don't Say the F____ word in Hannibal

Howdy Y'all;
I was informed that I am technically a day behind on the blog but I really did come out here to see the Great Northwest and not so much play in cyberspace so I guess maybe checking in a couple of days apart might be a good idea.
Today is July 7 and it was an early day indeed for the inhabitants of the Dawg Haus. Bob unloaded the bikes last night so we would be ready bright and squirrelly this morning. Sure enough we were. Left camp about 8 am local and rode into the lovely burg of Hannibal, Mo. (Tourist population 1000, local permanent population 36 old ladies and one old man who drives the horse trolley.)
I checked the weather last night and we were supposed to get rain, lots of it, after 1 pm. So I thanked God for the lovely day I had yesterday and let Him know that I was willing to put myself in His Hands. Let the weather be weather, there's a purpose for it all. Sunny until 3 pm. By then we had;
Toured Mark Twain's boyhood home (for those who like real kitsch there's a coke machine with his image on it out front)
Checked out the whitewashed fence of Hucklberry lore
Watched a river boat come into dock
Stopped for malts at the mark Twain dinette (made with ice milk; weird)
Went to a toy train museum
Checked out the house of the Unsinkable Molly Brown
... and taken a wonderfully long ride along River Road and stopped at a scenic look-out to see the full majesty of the Big Muddy. It was everything I'd hoped and more. We found an old back road to a local dam and lock and took the hilly, winding path to finally arrive at the literal banks of the Mississippi river. Bob dipped his back tire into the flood waters overtaking the boat ramp, dried it off on the helicopter pad next to the dam, and off we went in search of grub.
We stopped at a restaurant across the highway from where our campground is and had a wonderfully tender, medium-rare rib eye steak with side dishes topped off by coffee and cheese cake. I feel positively decadent. Of course the minute we walked into the restaurant it started pouring down rain. We didn't care. We were there for almost 2 1/2 hours, taking in the river view from the air-conditioned luxury of the window-side table. It stopped raining right after the dessert course in time for us to cross the highway and head back to the haus. We were blessed with a day that was humid and the rain came along and took it down a couple of notches. Thank you Father for doing things perfectly as you always do.
Of course I have to reward myself for having such a perfect day so now I'm sitting in front of the laundry mat washing clothes. but even this chore seems out of the ordinary due to sitting outside listening to the birds in the trees. Of course it would be Bob's idea of a good laugh to hand me a washboard and a rock and tell me to mosey on down to the creek...
For the technically minded out there; our shower drain has been backing up since we got here. seems the little bugger was clogged. Luckily, being married to the most intelligent handy man in the world, it was fixed right quickly by Bob. He replaced the small sewer line with a much larger one and viola! fixed. Is he the best or what?

10:00 pm (9:00 local)

Thank goodness we got that last 4 hours of sun out so the boeards on the trailer dried. Bob would never have gotten the bikes back on if they were wet and the rain here is starting to become of scarily biblical proportions. We're thinking about renaming our camper "The Ark". I'm not taking any pairs of those freaking mosquitoes or horse flies though. Let 'em die!!! So all in all we are packed for the most part and will be heading through the long long state of Kansas tomorrow. That drive will probably feel like a winter in the Overlook hotel...

By the by; the meaning of the lack of the use of the "F" word in Hannibal, right on the banks of the Mississippi river, is "Flood".
Thanks for reading...



Camping in Hannibal:
www.marktwaincave.com

Warning: this place is not nearly as clean as the KOA so if you have a thing against dead skeeters on the bathroom shelves I highly suggest you come only in a huge motor home with complete bath. The personnel here don't seem to be too picky about cleaning on a regular schedule.