Huck and Tom

Our first sighting of the mighty Mississippi was at Hannibal, Missouri, once a fairly thriving river town but now trading primarily in memorabilia of its most famous resident Mark Twain. He used the place in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and you can see the house where the young Sam Clemens (aka Twain) grew up and the courthouse where his father presided. There are also a couple of good museums and other Twain-related stuff including this statue. We learned that the character Huck was based on a real life 'river rat' that young Sam and friends used to hang out with. They envied him because he never was made to go to school and could dress as he chose and spend each day as he wanted. But like Huck in the book he had an abusive alcoholic father and no mother.