9-14-2012 (Friday) Quincy, Illinois to Hannibal, Missouri

24 total miles bicycled today (that’s embarrassing)
Ride time - 2 hours 15 minutes
10.7 mph

Underground controlled temperature storage facility outside of Quincy!

We didn’t leave our hotel in Quincy until after 8:00AM this morning.  We only had 21 miles to bicycle today as we plan on spending a good share of the day being a tourist in Hannibal, Missouri.  We arrived here a little after 10 and we were able to check into our hotel right away so we unhooked the B.O.B. and then bicycled in to Hannibal to do some sightseeing!


In Hannibal we went down to the Historic District and bicycled around the area and then went into the Mark Twain Museum and also checked out a lot of their shops in the area. The museum held a lot of memorabilia from Mark Twain's childhood and a lot of information about where the characters in his books Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn came from and grew up.  There was also a mini movie theater where they showed a 10 minute clip from the movie "Huckleberry Finn".  We also got to see the famous “Tom Sawyer Fence” and the Boyhood home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens - the famous Mark Twain.  We also took a 1 hour cruise on the Mark Twain Riverboat.  As far as we were concerned the town is very touristy and didn't have much other than the museum itself.

I72 bridge that we crossed into Missouri on!

While on the Mark Twain Riverboat the captain told us that the present I72 bridge crossing the Mississippi costed $53 million dollars to build in the late 1990's.  The old Tom Sawyer bridge that it replaced took 7 months to demolish and was replaced because of the flooding and also because of hazardous conditions caused by accumulation of Mayflies attracted to the bridge by the street lights - this made the road slippery and dangerous during the summer months.

After we were done sightseeing we went to the local grocery store and replenished our snacks on the bike.  We have some steep hills to do tomorrow as we leave Hannibal and continue south.