On 20 Jun 2001, at 11:57, Gail Meyer Kilgore wrote: > He won't tell us when he is going to be in Colorado as he is going to > NM too. :-) Today was another wonderful day here in Hannibal. We took the tram tour of the city sites and jumped off at the old city art where Mark Twain used to hang out. It was quite fascinating as to what the city has to offer. I didn't even know Twain wrote THAT many books. They had complete sets of his works there which must have 5 to 6 feet long in their shelves. One lives and earns. We walked down to the big river wharf where it all happened for Twain and then ate in a very bucolic old style restaurant. I had the Twain Superburger. The whole thing brought back tidbits of memories of times when I read the various stories of Twain. I must say it's all still a bit mixed up. I don't even know where and when I read these things. It must have been in Germany and in German of course. he caves don't come to mind at all and yet Becky and Huck went there a lot to explore but I keep confusing Huck with Tom Sawyer. Twain is typically Tom and Huck a composite of three other kids Twain knew as a boy. I can could and still can identify with the characters as I went through a lot of it myself as a boy. Most do I guess. The situations might have been different but the expereinces still very much the same because we all got into trouble with the powers to be. I could describe in some detail the old war-crippled professor who would walk 5 KM to teach my sister and I some English. My parents hired him out of their meager resources as refugees but still wanting us to have a head start in our new country. Well, I used to spie and had other help me with signals as to when the professor would arrive. I was not permitted out and had to wait. With his arrival I'd be out the window more often then not as I simply couldn't stand his English lessons and in genral was not one for school - period. I just liked to read a lot all on my wn and what interested me. I guess I was into Huck Finn back then and got my ideas from him. :-) Seriously, much f what I imagined America to be was from such stories and they must have been Twain. I mean I thought all the houses were on a river and had big white columns and large driveways with big trees on each side. It was a very romantic imagery of the old south. I must have gotten it from Twain but I just can't remember the details. One can imagine the surprise when I met my first row houses in Philadelphia. THIS is America with everything stuck together? But one gets used to reality rather quickly. In the moring we're off to Columbia t witness the great cross country antique car race or ralley. They'll have 110 old classics there around lunch. They'll stop and their drivers get some refeshments (lunch) and then they move on. It's all by the clock and should be very interesting. The day after we'll be going out to dinner in an old bordello and then we'll see 'Mame' in the Columbia local repertory theater. Saturday it's off to Sedalia where well over 1000 coaches made by Newmar will be assembling for a rally of birds who fly together. That will last a week. Part of the program we signed up for is a train trip to Jefferson City where we'll get a city tour and stop for lunch in a German restaurant in town. I'll report more on that as it happens. Once were done with Sedalia we'll be off to Golden where the idea is simply to get used to the elevation a few feet at a time. We'll probably only stay a day or two and then get up high in Breckenridge where we hope not to get the headaches we had on an earlier trip to the Grand canyon and other places. Does anyone have any good medicine against altitude sickness> I asked the guy at the drugstore when I picked up my bee sting stuff and he said to just take Sudafed. Breckenridge will be a longer stay with various trip planned up and down the mountain sides. There are also train rides on the agenda. Same in Durango. From there it's oof to Chama, NM and then some other place and eventually Santa Fe. Fred