What up Mark Twain?

Day 27 - Pittsfield, Il to Hannibal, Mo

Yep. That's right. Today, not only did we cross another state border into Missouri (number 9 I think?!) but we also crossed the Mississippi River by bike. And don't worry we did it in style. As we gathered for our route meeting we noticed that there were some adjustments that had been made to the cue sheets. Due to a mudslide that had taken out the entire road that we were supposed to ride on, we were re-routed onto the interstate for the last few miles. As many of you know, it is completely illegal for cyclists to ride on the highway, but we really had no other choice. (Shuttling all of us and our bikes in the van can take hours - and what fun is that anyway?)

A few hours later, all 31 Bike & Builders were escorted by the Hannibal police department on the highway that took us accross the Mississippi River, across the Missouri state line and into Hannibal, the hometown of Mark Twain. Needless to say, it was one of the most fun rides we have had yet. We were able to ride two abreast and take an entire lane on the interstate which was pretty cool. I was (somehow?!) able to get a few pictures of us rolling in. I will be sure to post them soon!

Waiting for the police escort near the onramp at 72!

It was a super duper hot day and while we were fried, a few of us decided to ride into town to check out some of the Mark Twain historical sites. It unfortunately ended up being a huge, moderately corny tourist trap. Yes, the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were written in and inspired by Twain's life in Hannibal, but I mean literally EVERYTHING there is the Mark Twain something or rather. For instance, you can visit the "Mark Twain Fried Chicken Dinette", the Mark Twain antique shop, the Mark Twain Deli, you can get your Mark Twain tee shirt at the local walgreens...the list goes on. You can even whitewash and sign your name on a fence just like Tom Sawyer. It's that kind of touristy. I guess its great that they can capitalize on it and generate some business from their late resident. I suppose it was worth it to see it once, it was all just so weird.

Downtown Hannibal, Mo

That aside, the hosts at Hannibal were awesome and there were even some cyclists in the group that joined us on the early portion of our ride! We love picking up cyclists!