This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Wickliffe Mounds State Park, Kentucky
As we crossed into Tennessee, we had our first rain of the trip, a short but intense shower. Most of the Midwest is having a severe drought this year, and we have encountered much less rain than I expected. The rest of the drive was routine, and we easily found a hotel in Memphis close to the Mississippi.
Mississippi River crossings today: 1
July 13, 2012
This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
The Gateway Arch
Everyone had told us to expect big crowds at the Arch, so we made advance reservations for a 10:30 trip to the top. While the area was busy, at least by Hannibal standards, the lines were actually very short and we would have done fine without reservations. We passed the time at the museum until our reservation time came up.
The scale of the Arch is enormous. When you look at it from a distance, it is hard to imagine that people actually take a transportation system (special elevator) and walk around inside the top. But inside it’s quite roomy and not nearly as cramped as I expected, or even remembered from a childhood visit.
Celeste and Kenna in the replica arch we built
Mississippi River Crossings today: 0
July 12, 2012
This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Clarksville, Missouri
Around noon, we reached Clarksville, a small town right on the River with a very pleasant riverside park where we had our picnic lunch. Exhibits in the park showed the devastation from several river floods. As in Hannibal, it was quiet, but that seemed normal in Clarksville because the town had much more modest aspirations. Their gateway carries the motto “Touch the Mississippi”, and we did just that.
We had decided we needed to find something really fun to do, and we all enjoy ziplining, so we went a little out of our way to Caveman Zipline Tours in Stanton, Missouri, southwest of St. Louis. It was a good course, with two long (about 1000 foot) runs. But we came nowhere near the advertised 50 miles per hour; more like half that (as confirmed by my GPS).
Coming into St. Louis, we passed through Fenton, Missouri and continued on for a treat that had been recommended to us, Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. This is clearly an institution in St. Louis, having opened in 1941 on historic Route 66. We ordered “concretes”, mixtures of their frozen custard with various mix-ins (mine was oatmeal cookies). They are called “concretes” apparently because their consistency is hard enough to hold onto the spoon when inverted, which the clerk demonstrates as she gives it to you.
Mississippi River crossings today: 1
July 11, 2012
This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn
Hannibal is a tourist town, but far from a thriving one. Main Street, the pedestrian main drag, is in poor shape. There were other tourists about, but the parking lots and the shops were designed for many more visitors. Celeste described it as a “sad tourist town”.
We spent the morning visiting the Mark Twain home and museum. The museum had good exhibits on several of Twain’s books, such as Innocents Abroad, which looks like something that I’d enjoy reading when I get a chance. An unexpected treat was a display of several Norman Rockwell sketches and paintings for Twain books.
In the afternoon, we went a couple of miles south to the Mark Twain Caves. Sam Clemens visited these caves as a youth, and featured them in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The caves were cool on a hot day, and our tour guide was entertaining. The outlaw Jesse James is also said to have used the caves as a hideout. One comment from our leader that gave me a chuckle was that “three cryptographers from the University of Illinois had verified his signature on the cave wall.” I’d be very surprised if they had cryptographic signatures then!
We ended the day by taking a one-hour cruise on the Mississippi. The tour and commentary were quite good, but the ship itself was a standard tour boat decorated in Mississippi River style, not the picturesque Mississippi paddle wheeler that we were imagining. There was plenty of room: the capacity of the boat was about 200, but there were only about two dozen passengers.
Mississippi River crossings today: 0
July 10, 2012
This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Township Hall, Honey Point, Illinois
The exact location specified by Google Maps turned to be in the middle of a cornfield, but fortunately there was a utility building by the road with a sign, “Honey Point Township Hall” so we knew we had made it. Getting back out was interesting, too, as we navigated down narrow farm roads trying to get back to the state highway.
We had a picnic lunch in the town square of Carlinville, a classic American town just like the one in the “Back to the Future” movies except that the courthouse was a couple of blocks away. The county seat is a notable building built some years ago but unfortunately in poor repair.
Illinois River ferry, Kampsville
Online reviews made the hotel options at Hannibal seem marginal, so we opted instead to stay in Quincy, Illinois, a larger city about 20 miles to the north. We first stopped in Hannibal for ice cream and to get a feel for the city, which as expected was very touristy. We continued to Quincy and found a comfortable hotel where we took our first swim of the trip, and had an enjoyable dinner before retiring.
Mississippi River crossings today: 2
July 9, 2012
This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
We spent today in Springfield, Illinois visiting the state Capitol and various Abraham Lincoln historic sites. Fortunately, the heat wave broke overnight and it was quite a bit more pleasant. We began by parking and walking to the State Capitol. It was a Sunday morning, but Springfield seemed eerily quiet compared with other capital cities like Sacramento.
We continued to the Dana-Thomas house, a Frank Lloyd Wright house a few blocks south of the capitol that is operated as a historic site. The house was beautifully and painstakingly restored, and many of the original furnishings, designed for the house, were preserved.
Abraham Lincoln’s home
We moved on to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, learning a lot about his life from multimedia presentations and artifacts over a couple of hours. We finished the day at a local brewpub, which gave us a great opportunity to catch up with Jeff and Maria, our local relatives, with whom we hadn’t talked in quite some time. It was a pleasantly warm evening, such a welcome change from the heat of just 24 hours earlier.
Mississippi River crossings today: 0
July 8, 2012
This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Fenelon Place Elevator, Dubuque
As promised, this section of the Great River Road was scenic and enjoyable, well worth the extra time required. Just before we got to the Quad Cities (in this case, Moline, Illinois), we hit Interstate 80 and it was basically freeway the rest of the way to Springfield. The farmland was typical of the area, and much flatter than it had been further north.
Once again, it was unpleasantly hot. Springfield tied their high temperature record of 104. We are hoping the cold front will come through tonight and cool things off.
Mississippi River crossings: 1
July 7, 2012
This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Today is when we actually hit the road. After a short walk across the Stone Bridge in Minneapolis, we drove to St. Paul to visit the Minnesota state capitol. We also made a stop (shortened by a lack of parking meter change) at the Mississippi River Visitor Center, located at the science museum in St. Paul.
Mississippi River near Prescott, Wisconsin
After all those stops, it was getting late, so we pushed the rest of the way to Dubuque, mostly through Wisconsin since that was most direct, before arriving about 9:30 pm.
River crossings: 10 (including 2 on foot and 2 accidental)
July 6, 2012
This article is part of a series about our recent vacation traveling down the Mississippi River. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Kenna tossing her hat like Mary Tyler Moore
Downtown Minneapolis is very well planned and bicycle friendly. We walked several blocks from our hotel past the local government offices, and then came to Nicolet Mall, the shopping district. A farmers’ market shared the wide sidewalk for several blocks, with a wide variety of fresh, reasonably-priced produce. We bought some pluots and bananas for the trip. We walked through what is apparently the flagship Target department store, which was nice but not as over-the-top wonderful as we thought it might be.
At one point a man on the street asked if we are from Fargo. I was a bit suspicious (we don’t sound anything like the people in the movie by that name) but played along. We had a nice conversation about various towns in California, and then he turned at an intersection and wished us a good trip. We’re not sure whether the people here are friendlier or we are just more open to conversations like this, but we are enjoying it.
The Mall of America
After returning via light rail, we set out in search of something with regional character for dinner. We ended up at a small restaurant in northeast Minneapolis called Rachel’s, where we sat outdoors in a very pleasant garden area. I had “from scratch” Corned Beef Hash, which was so much better than the canned hash that I used to eat with some regularity. The owner of Rachel’s stopped and had a very pleasant chat with us, further reinforcing our impression of Minneapolis as a very friendly city.
Mississippi River crossings today: 2
July 5, 2012
Stone Bridge Crossing the Mississippi
Our vacation trip this year is a classic road trip. We’re starting in Minneapolis and driving down the Mississippi to New Orleans. We will be diverting a bit on either side of the river to see things and people we want to see, so we will not see the whole thing. But we hope to get a sense of the cultural changes as one follows the flow of the river.
Minneapolis is, of course, not the source of the Mississippi. The source is also in Minnesota, at Lake Itasca, near Bemidji. But we decided that it wasn’t worth it to drive four hours in each direction just to say that we had been there.
I have a bit of trepidation about the weather forecast for this trip. The central and eastern US are in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave. The high in Minneapolis is 101 degrees today, and I wonder what sort of severe weather might be in store as the heat breaks. But we live in a time when air conditioning is common. It’s not like when I was a child and my family drove across Kansas in a non-air-conditioned car when it was 104 degrees out.
We flew to Minneapolis via Denver, and upon arriving, rented our car for the trip. I need to be more mindful of those hidden rental car fees, like the $10/day to add my wife as a second driver, when I shop for rental cars. Our rental car is a small SUV, a Jeep Liberty, which is the right size for us but seems a little unrefined. It’s also black, which is likely to be uncomfortable in this hot weather. For our first two nights, we chose a hotel close to the Mississippi, both in keeping with the theme of the trip, and because there is a fireworks display there this evening.
Minneapolis fireworks
As I have done for the past two years, I’m keeping a journal of our summer vacation and plan to publish it, delayed by a couple of weeks, on this blog. Watch for daily installments over the next 16 days.
Mississippi River crossings today: 2 (on foot)
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