HANNIBAL, MO 8-20-2017

Another fellow I failed to mention was Joe Reynolds.  He was a trapper and a fur trader on the river in the vicinity of Dubuque.  He had some difficulty with name recognition because there was another trapper and fur trader with the same name.  So Joe Reynolds took to creating a logo for himself; a four sided diamond with the word, “Jo” in the middle.  He began branding his pelts with this logo and it became instantly recognizable.  People began calling him, “Diamond Jo,” to the point where his real name, Joe Reynolds, faded.  Diamond Jo decided that transporting his furs up and down the river could be accomplished more efficiently with the latest invention, the steamship.  So he invested and had one built then a couple more and before long, The Diamond Jo Steamship Co. came to be.  He became a very successful, wealthy businessman in the steamboat and shipping business. 

Rich and Rob at Eagle Point in Dubuque

Eagle Point in Dubuque was the location of Diamond Jo’s boat yard.  Steamboats became a form of escape for people in the early 1900s when the economy began to take a nosedive.  The boats did not have staterooms and you could not stay overnight, they were simply ballrooms and dance floors where people could party and get away from it all. 

A model of the magnificent SS Capitol - Thee party boat!

One of them was the SS Capitol and it was a glorious creation.  A tornado destroyed it a year after it was built and parts were taken from Diamond Jo’s ship, the Dubuque, to restore the Capitol.

(We are passing by some towns too quickly, like Burlington, Iowa.  I didn’t have enough of a chance to delve into the culture and history so that I could create stories.)

After Burlington, the boat stopped in Hannibal, Missouri and again it was too short a visit.  Hannibal was the location of the childhood home of Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain.  He was a phenomenal, prolific man; Winston Churchill, Will Rogers and Yogi Berra all rolled into one.  A walking tour in Hannibal takes a person through the homes of Sam Clemens and his family, Huck Finn (a character based upon Sam’s best friend, Tom Blankenship), Becky Thatcher (a character based upon his friend Laura Hawkins) and the law offices and courtroom of Sam’s father, John Clemens.  The homes are not replicas, they are the originals!  

Tom Blankenship's (Huck Finn's) house

Becky Thatcher's (Laura Hawkins) house

Samuel Clemens family home (and the whitewashed fence)

Sam's father John's law offices

Huck and Tom

One may take a walking tour through the caves where Sam and his friends often played and where Becky and Tom Sawyer became lost in, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”  On Mark Twain’s 100^th birthday in 1935, Norman Rockwell was enlisted to paint various scenes from Twain’s books.  Rockwell spent some time in Hannibal to really get a feel for the essence of the stories of Tom, Huck, Becky and Aunt Polly.  When the celebration was over, Rockwell donated his paintings to the Mark Twain Museum and they can still be seen there.  Hannibal is thick with the memories and legacy of Mark Twain.  Everything Mark Twain may be found in this pretty little town.

Sam Clemens - the boatman

They built a wall in Hannibal and finished it in 1992, just in time.  In 1993, the Mississippi River overflowed it’s banks during storms and if it had not been for the wall, much of the town and the homes of Tom, Huck and Becky would have been obliterated.

The flood wall marks up to 19.4 feet

We sailed on in the serene waters through locks # 24 and 25 and tied up in Alton, Illinois.  Today’s adventure included a trip to Hillsboro, Missouri, just a bit southwest of St. Louis.  A picnic lunch on the beautifully landscaped lawns was provided under canopy by the Villa Antonio Winery and featured some of their signature wines.  At midday, the world went dark during the solar eclipse.  We were directly in the path where totality of the eclipse occurred and the crowd hooted, gasped and cheered as Mr. Moon completely hid Mr. Sun and left nothing behind but his halo.  

I'm pretty sure an engineer designed these glasses!

Stylin!'

Party at the winery

Mr. Moon and Mr. Sun hammin' it up!

The show's over!

Pal and Fritz on their veranda

Just so you know, the Indians called the river, “Mesaz-Sepi” or other tribal names that sound similar.  They all meant, “Great River.”  And a great river it is, indeed.