Day 6 - Sunday, July 18, 2021

Today we traveled from Fort Madison, IA to St. Louis, MO.  The total distance is only about 200 miles, but like most days it involves smaller curvy rural roads which passes through small (and even tiny) towns.  We could go direct, but that would totally defeat the purpose of doing the Great River Road Trip.  

We were only a few miles out of Fort Madison when several deer were in the road ahead.  I managed to snap this photo as one deer stopped in the woods to watch as we passed by.

Around 10:00 AM we reached Hannibal MO.  This was on our list of places to stop.  The town is not very large so we just parked and did a walking tour.  The first thing we saw was this statue of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. 

From the town level, we climbed three (or four?) long flights of stairs to reach the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse.  There was a nice view of the Mississippi as well as the town.

After about forty-five minutes of walking, we were ready for a break.  We enjoyed a half-hour of sitting beside the Mississippi River and just relaxing.   Perhaps just as Samuel Clements did as a boy growing up in Hannibal, though not on as nice a bench.

Back on the road we were getting hungry but as we passed thru town after town, one with a population of only 18, there was no place to eat.  Finally in the town of Elsberry, MO with a population of about 4,000, we spotted Rachel's Restaurant.  Judging by the parking lot, it looked like the Sunday church crowd was there, and it was.  There was one available table and the regulars welcomed us like we were one of them. 

In addition to the expansive menu, these were the Specials.  I passed on the bologna sandwich with chips and went with the fried chicken.  We agreed it was excellent and only $8.

After a couple of false starts trying to find it, we finally arrived at our hotel for the next two nights, Courtyard by Marriott.  Our room was nice, and Carl and Janet were next door.  Unfortunately their lock was not functioning properly and they they had to move.  We are on the 17th floor and they are on the 18th.

After about an hour to recover, we decided to walk down to The Gateway Park and the Arch.  It was only about a 12 minute walk and traffic was sparse, with it being Sunday.  We viewed the Arch and then explored the Archway Museum.  It had changed a lot since Kay and I were last there about 30 years ago (the museum, not the Arch!)

We were disappointed yesterday when we tried to get tickets online for the tram to the top of the Arch. Online tickets are sold out for the next 2 weeks.  We went by the ticket counter just to check and were told they always have some same-day tickets available and to come back at 9:00 AM tomorrow.  Hopefully we can obtain tickets then.  Another covid casualty , they are limiting the number of tram tickets due to the virus...