Road Trip Through History: Unexpected Stories in Quincy Illinois

Quincy, Illinois, was our final stop on this segment of driving the Great River Road.* It wasn’t so much a stop as a pause on our way home. But it was a good pause, with some unexpected stories. The town has a number of museums and restored historical homes. It also has an interesting outdoor…

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Road Trip Through History: In Search of Mark Twain in Hannibal MO

Unlike most of the places we’ve visited on our expeditions along the Great River Road, I had been to Hannibal, Missouri, before. But it had been a long time—decades in fact. When we drove into town on this trip, I carried two sharp memories—a recreation of the famous scene in which Tom Sawyer tricks other…

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Road Trip Through History: Old Fort Madison

And now, back to the Great River Road after a brief detour to South Africa at the end of the nineteenth century:   We got to Old Fort Madison, outside what I suppose would be called new Fort Madison Iowa, shortly before the site closed. We had driven past the town where we planned to…

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