My wife and I went on a sabbatical 9 years ago and visited places Twain had
lived in and/or written about, from Hawai'i to Heidelberg and Firenze. We
missed a few. We made a car trip from Washington, DC through New York City,
to
Elmira, Buffalo, to Hartford and up to York, Maine. Then across to Chicago,
down
to Keokuck, and into Hannibal (and Florida) before boarding a riverboat in
St.
Louis with neighbors of Cyril Clemens and ending up in New Orleans.

Terry Ballard said it best--Hannibal has fluff, but it also has the dirt on
which Twain trod. There is authenticity behind the drumsticks and kids
dressed
up in straw hats. It is worth visiting Hannibal.

Dennis Kelly