We sort of wondered why they were there, allowing as how maybe because of thin walls or something they would help drown out any room to room noise. We looked out the window and were somewhat mollified to see we were right next to the levee, and had a fairly nice view of Old Muddy…(note yesterday’s report).
So, after our dinner at Ole Plantation (note yesterday’s report), we retired to our Purple Passion room and got into bed. In a few minutes we said; “oh, listen! there’s a train!”, as the seldom heard (anymore) whistle romantically droned in the distance. A minute or so later, we heard it again, but closer. Again. Closer, until it seemed it was right outside our window, which essentially it was. It dawned on us that levees are usually accompanied by road beds, and sure it enough it was. To be fair, the building didn’t shake nor was it lighted up by the headlight, but at least nine more times during the night, the whistle blared at each of the many RR crossings within town. Sleepless in…..Hannibal.
At breakfast the next morning the tour director expressed sorrow that it had not been checked out in advance, and immediately said we should move to a nearby Best Western where we currently reside (along with several other transplants). LuLa Belle’s also contains what some consider the best restaurant in town, and we had breakfast there. Being with a group we were offered a plated breakfast of eggs, biscuits and gravy and potatoes. Hearty and artery clogging.
After breakfast we re-boarded our coach and headed south to visit the birthplace of Sam Clemens in Florida, Missouri.
Turns out it was named Florida because of the abundance of flowers in the area. Anyhow, the complete cabin as been preserved and a “Shrine” built around it as part of a state park.
Humble beginnings for a great man!
We saw a very nice film on the life of Sam, and they also display some furniture from his final home in Connecticut. After leaving Florida (current population, zero) we retraced our journey back to Hannibal. We were fortunate to have our guide be the curator of the Twain Museum(s) here in town, and he provided a great commentary along with some quotes in Twains own words about his boyhood. Upon reaching Hannibal we toured “Huck Finn’s” house, the actual boyhood home (and famous ) fence, the “Becky Thatcher” House, and Sam’s father’s law office. We were then released for lunch on our own, and went to a little coffee shop run by a friend of one of the tour directors, and had a very nice cup(s) of (bean and tomato bisque) soup and a Panini of chicken and pesto along with a roast beef sandwich. Both were good and we thought the soup was especially good.
Then a brief respite and back to the Boyhood Home Museum for a discussion on the book Pudd'nhead Wilson, led by the museum’s director (our pre-trip assignment was to read the book). It has a very interesting plot/story, but will leave any discussion of that for another time. After that, we had another wine and cheese relaxation period, and then all went over to LuLa Belle’s for dinner. After hearing those good reports, we were anxious to see for ourselves. The dining room carries the theme of the upstairs former offices for romantic occupations
We were seated in a separate room that contained the bar, and were presented with menus. In the interest of time, we’ll skip the details, but there were numerous choices under Appetizers, Beef, Chicken, Pasta, Seafood, and Pork. With any entrée, you get peel & eat shrimp, a Caesar or special salad, twice or baked potato with the usual set of fixings (including blue cheese). A lightly poured scotch helped with menu selections and after a good bit of dithering, I took the Yellow Fin Tuna (Grilled Fresh Fish) with the Tarragon butter option, and MFO took the Pork Tenderloin with Portobello mushroom and sauce. I did Caesar and MFO did special salad. The shrimp arrived along with a couple of tubs of sauce, and I figured they were about 24 count shrimp, but did have some taste, although deveining was a good idea. After that the salads arrived, and the special salad was greens, and my Caesar was romaine, but overdressed with no discernable anchovy component. Eventually the mains were auctioned off) and although I think I got the tuna with sundried tomato, it didn’t make much difference, the tuna was gray from top to bottom. My “twice baked potato” was essentially potato skins with some potato like stuffed piped atop. There was definitely a crust under the potato stuff.
The pork was the same, except the mushrooms were not portobella and MFO claimed not much taste
A plate of Prime Rib at another spot did look good, and everybody who had beef was quite pleased with it. Maybe poor choices on our part, or maybe the Feeder is just too exacting.
We were also joined at dinner by Richard Garey, who does Twain interpretations, much like Hal Holbrook
After dinner we trouped over to a little theater and greatly enjoyed Mr. Garey’s performance. It's quite a nice little theater. Oh, and of course we were
DFD and DFT(heater)
tomorrow continued tour and how we met the "old man river project" people!
No comments:
Post a Comment