Skunk River (Henry County Nature Conservancy)
About halfway to Hannibal was a little town called Marceline, the boyhood home of Walt Disney. I drove the three miles off the highway to see the Main Street that Walt patterned the Main Street at Disneyland after. It looked very similar, but who knows which was really built first. I had hoped to find a place to buy a nice big lemonade, but settled for a 44 ounce cherry limeade at the Sonic a few blocks away.
Back on the freeway it was still muggy. I passed farm after farm before hitting Hannibal around 4:30 pm. There was a historic district right along the Mississippi River with Mark Twain's boyhood home and other places he hung out. I could have taken a tour on a Riverboat, but decided to move on instead.
A little dog attacked me as I was taking a self-picture of me alongside the river. As dog owners do this one put his dog's feelings above mine and rather than step in physically, called his dog incessantly in a kind tone. Had I not been so focused on my picture, I probably would have made a perfect field goal through the riverboat smokestacks as I punted him into the river. I have never understood dog owners that feel its their pets perogative to mess a human's yard, defile a person's leg or even kill a human (as in the San Fransisco case and numerous others well documented) and still feel the owner and dog is blameless and act as ifv the dog is some kind of special deity worthy of royal treatment. Then again, they probably don't understand someone out on the mississippi taking pictures of himself. I got a picture of the dog attacking me anyway an the old man laughing in the background.
I was really enjoying this part of the trip. I was cruising. I was relaxed. I was seeing things I would probably never see again. I went ahead and crossed the Mississippi at this point just for the heck of it. I drove about 50 miles north in Illinois to the nearest bridge back and crossed back into Mississippi. I really wanted to pass right through Iowa, but since it was almost 6:30 pm I was not goingto make the same mistake I made in Kansas and drive too long.
I made it into Iowa fairly quickly driving past mile after mile after mile of corn fields. I mean these fields were the size of cities they were so huge. I headed for a place called Oakland Mills State Park that I had found on the map just southwest of Mount Pleasant.
Around 8pm, still swaeting profusely from the humidity, I pulled into what I thought was the State Park. As I later discovered after registering and payhing it was a county nature conservancy park that had 4 campsites on well-manicured grass under oak trees next to a dark forest available for $5 per night. What a deal. It appeared no one had stayed there for over a week and no one would be there now. Although the restroom was atrociuos, I paid my $5 and set up camp. I tried my bike out on some local trails ending up in the Oakland Mills Cemetery.
When I realized my error about being in the wrong place, I drove a mile down the highway to find half a dozen RVs parked next to the Skunk River in a wide open paved parking area with no trees. The tent area was no better and the fee was $8. Aslo, the local teenagers were using the day use area to set off firecrackers every 30 seconds. I was very thankful I pulled into the park I did first.
The mosquitos were tolerable, but what really caught my eye were the fireflies. I had never seen a one in my life. although I believe I read about them in one of Mark Twain's stories. It was an eerie and fascinating sight to stare into those dark woods and see little blips of light come on, move around a little, then go out. Very neat!
I retired around 9pm to read some PKD before going to sleep. I leftthe rain flap off, opened all the windows in the tent and reduced my clothing to the minimal decency and still I was sweating. No sleeping bag necessary that night. I layed down a blanket and slept uncovered.
In the morning I was up and on the road by seven. It was a cool humid morning. I felt like I had not had enough sleep the night before. I thought the humidity and length of drives I had been making were starting to wear me down. I hope Minnesota would somehow change that.