Tuesday: LeClaire, IA to Hannibal, MO

Our route today is mostly four land and two lane non-interstate highways.  Just less than 200 miles.

The day started warm and very overcast, with rain forecast to begin about the time we wanted to pull out.

Al Marsh actually put his hooding up (that's British car talk meaning "top")  We've seen him drive all day in the rain before without benefit of the weather protection.  He must be mellowing.

 

And rain, it did!

 

 After an hour or so we stopped for gas and to dry out.  Most Morgan's are not as dry as today's sedans.  Ours had a bit of a drip on Sally's foot while Reg and Char stopped to put rain suits on. But what's a little water to a Brit car? 

Susanna is Myron's daughter, who flew into Davenport late yesterday to join him, and us, on the last few days of our trip.  She was introduced to serious Morgan driving today with the rain and highway speeds.  She is still smiling.

 

  While at the gas station four more Morgan's came by.  We tend to travel in groups of three or four cars rather than line up eight or nine to go through the towns we encounter along the way.  In just a few miles our group caught up with the other group and caravanned for awhile.  But the lights broke us apart again as we each carried on.

We got to Hannibal about one o'clock and after checking in to a brand new Best Western took a walk downtown to find a restaurant.  The town is chock full of Mark Twain history, including the famous white fence Tom Sawyer used to his advantage.  Hannibal is where Samuel Clemens lived as a boy and used the town as the setting for "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer".  Lesser known about Hannibal is that it is the southern migration destination for bald eagles that live on high Mississippi River bluffs.

Here, Char tries out the brush.

One of the many museum's in town memorializing the Mark Twain writings.  Bill kindly stepped up to scale the photo.

And at the Mark Twain Micro-brewery Sally stands next to a carving of Twain.

After lunch some of us cleaned our cars thinking the rain was over.... at least there would be no more driving today.

Jim Clark's is joining the Crawl today for the last few days, and seeing his car in the parking lot was proof of his arrival.

Out dinner tonight is on the paddlewheel Mark Twain, a two hour dinner cruise on the Mississippi.

 

 They reserved several tables in the center of the dining room for us.

 

 Beth Miller celebrated her birthday today and was surprised with lots of attention and surprises.

 

 New to the crawl today is Jim and Colette Clark of North Carolina.

 

 And new to the trip yesterday is Myron Koenigs daughter Susanna Goring of Cincinnati.

 

 The Mississippi from the middle.... a calm wide waterway.

 

 Here is Beth being recognized in front of all of the guests on the cruise by the entertainer for the evening.  She is the boat captain/owners daughter and she sang quite well.

 

 As the party went on some started dancing--Charlie and Colette tripping the light.

 

 A birthday drink in a sparkling glass.... happy birthday to our tour hostess, Beth Miller and our friend Missy.

 

 Reg and Myron found pirate themed dew rags to wear at home when they work on their cars.  Somehow they look good in them.

 

Tomorrow off to St Louis and the great arch.