To and From Hannibal, MO.

In getting to Hannibal, we had a choice-ride 98 miles with hills or sag in early and see Hannibal (the city or Mark Twain's boyhood. Well...that's a no-brainer! We knew our last chance to catch the van was at 51 miles. That was our plan. We got up at 5:00, put our bags in the van, ate a quick breakfast and...it started to rain. Our rain gear is now packed deep within the van. So we hoped for a mere sprinkle. At first that was the case but by 30 miles we were soaked again. We couldn't see out of our glasses so we went up and down the hills peering over our glasses and beneath our visors. I have been trying to follow my friend Dale Anderson's advice when he said, "brakes are just for looks when you go downhill." But on this day I could imagine our bikes slipping out from under us on the wet surface. When the van went by we were the last two to catch it and relieved to do so. Some of the women jumped on because they wanted to see Hannibal-others because of the dangerous conditions.

We got to the hotel, cleaned up and caught a cab to see the Mark Twain museum, his boyhood home, the white picket fence and Becky Thatcher's house.

After that we found an ice cream store. When we had the lady from the store asked if she could drive us back to the hotel. Folks along the Mississippi are really friendly.

This morning when we left Hannibal we were on Highway 61 a main road for trucks. The shoulder's were really bad. (Whoever scouted this route probably did so by car.) We ended up having to ride on the highway. It was scary. At 47 miles, the 4 lane highway turned into a two lane with no shoulder. The SAG vehicles picked everyone up that day due to the dangerous conditions. But our time was great. We did those miles with an average of 13.6.