We visited the tiny town of Florida, Missouri, the birthplace of Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. It is surrounded by the waters of Mark Twain Lake now, but in young Sam’s day it was surrounded by forests and fields where he lived the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn on his uncle’s farm.

Family misfortune warranted a move to nearby Hannibal, Missouri where Sam and his family endured more hardships. It was common to lose siblings to accidents and disease, floods and weather extremes affected all townspeople, slavery was brutally practiced, but Sam remembered all these conditions and incorporated them in his later writing that installed him as “the father of American literature”.

The Clemens home in Hannibal.

I swear the Clemens’s have the same stove we have in Itchy’s!! Behind a plexiglass barrier here.

Common Ailments of the 1800’s that resulted in “You DIE”! Vaccines people, Vaccines!!!!

Our travels resumed, heading north into Missouri to visit Mark Twain’s childhood homes. We stayed at Mark Twain State Park on Mark Twain Lake, created by a dam built on the Salt river between 1966-1983.

There was wonderful hiking through forests tinted all shades of spring green, with splashes of summer flowers interspersed. This was the day after Summer Solstice!

One of the projects we helped with!

from this:

to this:

We arrived at our friends place in Arkansas and enjoyed relaxing time in between projects we helped with.

This is how I like to go golfing!

We stayed in eastern New Mexico at Santa Rosa State Park where a rainy day filled these potholes in the rock.

On to Texas and the McClellan Creek Grasslands where rain has greened up the landscape.