There's no place like home

Maybe it's because Karma or harmonic convergence or just plain dumb luck led us to find this most perfect little place...perfect for us, anyway. Maybe it's just because we're gettin older. Whatever the reason, we cut our vacation trip short. After only four days, we decided that the place we really most wanted to be was our little blue house on the river.

It's kinda funny...we normally love to travel. We kicked around the idea of goin back to New Orleans or headin down to explore Savannah. Obviously, I'm glad we decided to stick a little closer to home.

Ziggy had never been to Hannibal, so we decided to start there and take a little road trip down a portion of

The Great River Road

.

Hannibal itself, was...a big disappointment. Oh, the potential is there...but it hadn't changed much since I was there last...probably close to 25 years ago. Now, I don't mean change as in grow or modernize. Obviously, that's not the idea of a historic town. I mean change as in improve on what's already there.

The only real highlight was gettin to meet Mr. Twain, hisownself, whilst havin a few cocktails outside a little bistro.

(Click photos to enlarge)



It kinda ruined the effect though, when he got into his 1990 silver Mustang and left.

The little bar we stopped at was pretty neat. Yes, that would be a stuffed otter wearin a hot pink, sequined bow tie. Unfortunately, we didn't get to hear the story behind that one.





We also took a cruise on the Mark Twain. It was...ok. Frankly, our own

Spirit of Peoria

is much nicer, even if the scenery is a bit more spectacular aboard the MT.



After a couple days in Hannibal, we headed south down Route 79, right along the Mississippi. It was a gorgeous drive.



I'd love to do it again in the fall.

We stopped in

Louisiana

for a bit of sightseeing.



Some pretty spectacular views there, too.



We headed a little further south and ended our mini-trip in

St. Charles

. We did a little shoppin downtown, had a cold drink at

Little Hills Winery

, visited the kids for a bit and checked out The Boschertown Bar and Grill...a little bar that's favored by some of the locals and nearby factory workers, not to mention a few bikers. I neglected to take a picture or two, but it's an old, old joint...as in 150 years or so...that was originally built as a saloon/whorehouse. The bartender pointed out a few pictures hangin on the wall that showed the exterior, (which hasn't changed much at all) with the horse and buggies out front and the "bad" girls standin on the upper balcony.
Pretty cool.

We'd planned to continue the trip south on the Great River Road, but decided that we'd just head home.



I mean...c'mon...what could be better than home?