The River Runs through It
PART 1: FINDING TREASURES
Our day began in St. Charles with a search for a few letterboxes, one in a downtown park. Find three quick boxes and head on up the road, we had planned. But fate has a way of intervening and the river injects its influence as well.
As we were walking along the riverside trail, we spied a wallet in the middle of the path. Not our first experience stumbling upon a lost wallet while letterboxing, we picked it up expecting it to be empty of anything valuable. We were wrong. This one was fully intact, complete with driver's license, credit cards, cash, and other typical contents. Knowing that it wouldn't survive long, we rescued this poor billfold and took it away, after locating the letterbox and stamping in.
Returning to the car, we examined the contents to determine how to restore the wallet to its rightful owner. His driver's license indicated he was 18 years old, and there was even a high school ID card. Perfect! We'd deliver the treasure to the local high school office and they could ensure its return. But, no. He was a member of the class of 2011, graduated last spring.
Finding no "in case of emergency" card with phone numbers, we decided to take the wallet to the house at the address on the driver's license, though we had little hope of finding the boy or his parents at home on a Monday morning at 9:30. Sure enough, no one answered our knocks and calling at the door. Nor could we raise any of the neighbors.
What does a pair of letterboxers do when they have a treasure they want someone else to find? Hide it and provide clues to its whereabouts, of course. The sky was overcast, and rain had been threatening, so we knew our treasure, like a stamp and logbook, needed protection from the elements. And we just happened to have a plastic letterbox container with us.
So we secured the wallet in the waterproof container and hid it under some mulch in the front yard of the house. Then we left a note on the front door letting the owner we had found his wallet and hidden it, asking him to call us and we'd tell him where.
Sure enough, some ten hours and 150 miles later, the young man called. We gave him the "clues" and he found the box while we were on the phone with him. He was overjoyed to have his wallet returned fully intact and gushed about how we had restored his faith in humankind. Interestingly, he never asked about the brown camo painted container we just happened to have to hide it in.
PART 2: THE EAGLES HAVE LANDED
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Mississippi River Lock and Dam #24 |
Beautiful limestone bluffs near the river offer the eagles a hospitable high point away from the human traffic near the dam. The town holds an annual Eagle Days festival in late January, but bird watchers can spot our national bird around Clarksville from December to mid-March.
PART 3: LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
With Ken's keen interest in Mark Twain, we couldn't leave Missouri without a visit to Hannibal, Twain's boyhood home. Although there are certainly those who try to capitalize on the appeal of the author's name, an excellent museum depicts the life of Hannibal's famous native son.
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Huck Finn house |
Riverview Park, with an impressive statue of the author overlooking the river from a high cliff, was beautiful in its autumn colors as we rushed down a tree-lined trail searching for a couple of letterboxes before the drizzle turned into a downpour.
And no one's life is more famously intertwined with the Mississippi River than that of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. It even gave him his famous pen name.
DAILY STATS:
- Started in St. Charles, MO; ended in Quincy, IL
- Miles driven: 170
- States: 2 (MO, IL)
- Letterboxes: 6 found, 3 attempted
- Drivers ignoring stop signs: 71
- Wallets found: 1
- Leaf color: 38%
- Businesses in Hannibal named for Mark Twain: 34
More Photos from Today
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Last (?) train to Clarksville |
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Tom and Huck statue, Hannibal |
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Some of the many Mark Twain businesses, Hannibal |
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Cloudy skies in Louisiana, Missouri |
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Louisiana, Missouri |
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Riverview Park, Hannibal |
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Clarksville, MO |
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Historic home of Red Delicious apple developers, Louisiana, MO |