A Boyhood kind of Week

After traveling to Peoria, where we were able to encourage (and be encouraged by) lots of great dads and moms, we made our way to Hannibal, MO – boyhood home of Mark Twain. It was neat, and the kids hardly complained about being at a dead guy’s hometown. It helped that we have been reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at night. We saw of few sights, bought some souvenirs (see Familyman Show – travel edition) and stopped at Long Branch State Park where we stayed the night…and Ben (13) almost killed himself on the playground.

Next day stopped at Marceline, Mo – boyhood home of Walt Disney…but it was closed. Which just goes to show you should always check out times and availability BEFORE traveling hundreds of miles out of your way in hopes of seeing something neat. We did drive by a house that Walt lived in as a boy and had our photo taken beside his famous Dreaming Tree (when we get home we’re going to order a sapling grown from the tree).

Since then we’ve been camped out at my wife’s sisters (think Cousin Eddie) and the kids have been in kid-heaven playing with their cousins. Thankfully one of their neighbors has wireless internet…which I’m using now.

Today we all went to The Moon Marble Company to see them make handmade marbles…very cool and would make a great field trip for those of you who find yourself in the Kansas City area. (Plus they have about every conceivable old toy and game from your childhood.)

Tomorrow we head over to Kansas City, Mo to a big convention and then it’s off to Springfield, Mo on Sunday.

As they say in the RV world, “Swing wide and keep your eye on your tail.”