Madison, Wisconsin                      

After a day of R & R, we were ready to explore the city.  Madison is a lovely town built around several small lakes.  It  seems to be a proud city and would be a nice place to live. The city is sometimes described as The City of Four Lakes, comprising the four successive lakes of the Yahara River: Lake Mendota ("Fourth Lake"), Lake Monona ("Third Lake"), Lake Waubesa ("Second Lake") and Lake Kegonsa ("First Lake"),^[8] although Waubesa and Kegonsa are not actually in Madison, but just south of it.

 It is also the State Capitol.  The beautiful Capitol Building is builtt in the center of a large square and every Saturday the square is closed to traffic and they have the largest farmer's market.   Other vendors are welcomed but they have to be on the other side of the street from Capitol.

We went before it got too hot so it was fun walking around and looking at everyone and everything. 

Madison, Wisconsin at last

   By the time we arrived in the Madison area, we felt like we needed a stiff drink but then we were already seeing Pink Elephants!

July 5, 2012  Leaving Hannibal going to Madison, WI

Today we took off towards Wisconsin,  the roads are rough because of the extreme heat and first thing, the salad plates in the upper cupboard committed suicide.  They hopped out and all broke except 2.  What a mess.  It is beautiful farm land.  The crops look stressed because of the 100 degree temperatures and lack of water.  Wish I could shrivel up a little too.. Unfortunately, I am growing but not in a good way.

We had to drive through Iowa to get to Wisconsin.  Oh what a horrible trip.  Their roads were terrible to start with then combined with the extreme heat expansion.  We were bounced, vibrated, and jolted across the state.  Finally we arrived at the Wisconsin border!  The roads were better.   By the time we arrived at the KOA in DeForest, WI  we were all exhausted.  Even Lexi.   As we started setting up we noticed the steps that expand out from the coach were broken and the bar on the tow bar was bent, and the sliding door to the closet jumped off the track but luckily was not broken.  Now, does that tell you how bad the roads were?!  We are staying here for a week before heading north.

No visit in Hannibal would be complete without a visit to the Mark Twain Cave.

 It is the oldest operating show cave in the state, giving tours continuously since 1886.^[1] The cave became a registered National Natural Landmark in 1972. Mark Twain Cave plays an important role in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer^[2] by Mark Twain and is named in honor of the Hannibal native.

Cave Entrance

One odd, even macabre, event in the caves' early history happened in late 1840s when Hannibal physician Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell purchased the cave and used it for several years as a laboratory for experiments on human corpses. His most notable experiment involved an attempt to petrify the remains of his deceased daughter.^[6] Twain's book Life on the Mississippi offered a rather gruesome description of the activities:

In my time the person who owned it [the cave] turned it into a mausoleum for his daughter, age fourteen. The body of this poor child was put in a copper cylinder filled with alcohol, and this suspended in one of the dismal avenues of the cave.

After two years the experiment proved a failure and the girls body was forcibly removed by angry Hannibal citizens who learned about it from children who discovered it while exploring the cave, and sometimes used the body to enhance the spooky atmosphere during the telling of ghost stories.^[8] Many townsfolk also believed that Dr. McDowell used bodies stolen from area graves for other experiments, a not uncommon practice prior to the 20th century. Twain would weave that suspicion into the plot of Tom Sawyer in a graverobbing scene involving Injun Joe.

  It's over 100 degrees outside but cool in the cave.

Donna sitting in the "Parlor"

  Could this be a relative?

July 4th in Hannibal, MO

We were surprised and pleased to find that the carnival in Hannibal was Jones.  That's the same one that we have used in Raytown for years and they have been coming to Hannibal about 25 years.  It was easy to spot owners, Darcy and Carl's 5th wheel because of their darling white picket fence around their patio.  They were busy but made time to visit with us for a while.  What a nice surprise.

It was a full day starting with parade.  We watched for 1 1/2 hours before going on to visit all the vendors on the town sqauare park.  It was a wonderful park in the city with large bandstand with live music and the sidewalks spread out like spokes on a wheel.  Perfect for booths on both sides of sidewalks.  There was a large variety of items sold.  In the parade, there were a lot of politicians and queens and princesses from several towns and organizations.  Most all of the churches had representation as well as many businesses.  While waiting for the parade, we met some other people from southern Missouri.  They were delightful.  The aunt, 94 years old, still ran the uniform store behind us.  She was born and raised in Hannibal.  Amazing lady.  They even went inside and got us a folding chair to sit on.  Meeting people is one of the best things about travel.

The children really enjoyed all the candy thrown to them.  Everyone seemed to have buckets full but they were careful to throw them toward the crowd on the ground and not in the air.  Another welcomed thing they gave out was the frozen coolaid sticks.  These were really welcomed by young and old since it was so very hot.  Later in the parade there were floats with people using super shooters and spraying the crowd.  One lady was even using a large bowl to throw water on people.  Everyone wanted to get wet.  How funny!

As we were watching people, we noticed some of the girls with a darling hairdo.  We inquired about it and they said a man at one of the booths did it.  We searched him out and it was amazing how quickly he did it.  He was selling wired hair bands and with any purchase, he'd do your hair if you had longer hair than mine.  Go to http://festivalnet.com/fno/members/104997 for more info.

Since the 4th was in the middle of the week, their celebration started on the 4th and continued through the weekend.  There was to be live music and many contests like fence whitewashing, backseat drivers race (person in wheelbarrow giving directions to person pushing it who is blindfolded), and many more fun contests.  Unfortunately, we planned on leaving on the 5th so we didn't get to see any of these.

Fireworks from Lovers Leap over the Mississippi River

Between the town and river is a large levee.  People gathered in chairs and blankets on top of it to watch fireworks.  Near the river is a park which was full of people too.  There were several young ladies singing patriotic songs.  What a fun evening!