Our tour was interesting.  One of the buildings had a cutaway section that showed the wall studs to be huge walnut beams.  There must have been lots of walnut trees in the area when the early settlers arrived since Daniel Boone’s home was constructed with walnut beams, also.

Our tour of the Mark Twain Cave was fascinating.  It is a labyrinth cave meaning you walk through separations, or slots, in the rocks.  There are very few stalactites and stalagmites, like Blanchard Springs.  Sam and his friends visited the cave often and it has been authenticated as one of Jesse James’ hideouts.  At one point on the tour, they turned off all the lights (to replicate the time that Tom and Becky got lost in the cave).  It was the darkest dark I’ve ever seen!

Living on the road is not always easy.  We had great difficulty getting our last mail shipment.  Our forwarding service mailed it to Hermann on June 30.  We called the Hermann Post Office repeatedly, to no avail.  Finally, on July 10 – note 10 days later - it arrived so we had to make a flying trip (180 miles round trip) to Hermann to retrieve it on Monday morning.  Thank goodness, we can forget that now!

My good friend and neighbor, Helen Herr, shared the following Mark Twain quote with me:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sales. Explore. Dream.  Discover."

That’s exactly what we are doing.

This afternoon, we head north to Iowa City, Iowa.