Trip to Hannibal, Missouri
I finally got back to the great state of Missouri this past Sunday.
While I knew that I was staring down a 94 degree day, I also knew it wasn't any warmer in Hannibal.
So at about 7:54 am, I decided to leave the house, jump in my car, and catch 11 am mass at Holy Family Catholic Church in Hannibal with my family on Father's Day.
It marks my first time back in the state of Missouri, and Hannibal, since July of 2020.
I wanted to take the Iowa and Missouri side to get there, as it's more scenic. But brevity is the soul of wit. I plugged into my GPS the destination, and found that I could get there in only 2 hours and 37 minutes by taking the straight shot from Route 67 to Route 136 in Maconmb, catching 94 at Colchester and linking up with 336 again as I approached Quincy.
I saw the big, lush, green beautiful bluffs as I listened to some late 1970's pop song on 106.7 , crossing the bridge into Hannibal.
I blew past the church once, but saw people walking from the parkling lot, so turned around and doubled back for the lot. The church is sandwiched between its school and another church.
I followed a lady in who welcomed me to Missouri and located my parents just as mass was about to begin.
Following church, I got gas. Desperately needed gas. In fact, I was cutting it awfully close. By Quincy, my gas tank had gone to E. By Hannibal, it was at the very bottom. I had just enoguh gas to get from the church parkig lot to the Shell Station on the corner.
We went back to my parents' Motel 6 and Dad was stuck on the phone for about a half hour trying to negotiate a change in the hotel reservation for Quincy. He had apparently made the reservation for only one night, the 17th, but needed it for both the 17th and the 18th, returning home on the 19th. It was surprisingly hard to do. It involved cancelling the current reservation and booking an all-new room that he could have for two nights.
And you guessed it, this demanded dad share his e-mail address for the new invoice to be sent. Since dad was nowhere near a computer, and his smartphone wasn't set up to get his e-mail, I managed to log into his e-mail using my smartphone. I was able to screenshot the e-mail with the new confirmation number. Then I texted it to dad.
I was able to take care of the logging into his e-mail and transferring of the confirmation number to his phone all while we waited in line at the Mark Twain Dinette. But it was worth the wait. I was fine with a 25 minute wait. It gave me time to figure out the long-winded route to his e-mail, pin numbers, user name, password and all.
Lunch consisted for me of a pulled smoked pork sandwich with barbecue sauce, plus potato salad on the side. and a root beer in a frosty mug. They were super busy in the restaurant. I narrowly avoided running into a waitress with a huge, heavy tray of food over her shoulder.
Following lunch, we went for a walk by the river. I was so happy with the picture sthat mom was able to get of us on her newer smartphone, I wound up breaking down and upgrading phones myself a couple weeks after I got home.
Grabbed dad some chocolate peanut butter buckeyes from the County Market as a part 1 of his Father's Day present. I got mom some apples and Lipton Green Tea bags. Between the County Market and the Casey's, I was able to buy an issue of the Hannibal newspaper and the Quincy one.
I went home that night going up the Missouri side. It's a longer trip, but a prettier trip.
I stopped in Tiffin, Iowa on the way home to pay Phil Kopp and his mom Sharon a visit. Sharon got a very good Casey's pizza, barbecued chicken flavor, which we ate while watching the last couple of hours of the Tony Awards.
This was my first time getting back to Missouri since 2020. I have been staying closer to home lately, admittedly. My Google Places shows how seldom I travel. I finally had a third state in my June update with the Missouri trip for the first time in close to a year.
While I knew that I was staring down a 94 degree day, I also knew it wasn't any warmer in Hannibal.
So at about 7:54 am, I decided to leave the house, jump in my car, and catch 11 am mass at Holy Family Catholic Church in Hannibal with my family on Father's Day.
It marks my first time back in the state of Missouri, and Hannibal, since July of 2020.
I wanted to take the Iowa and Missouri side to get there, as it's more scenic. But brevity is the soul of wit. I plugged into my GPS the destination, and found that I could get there in only 2 hours and 37 minutes by taking the straight shot from Route 67 to Route 136 in Maconmb, catching 94 at Colchester and linking up with 336 again as I approached Quincy.
I saw the big, lush, green beautiful bluffs as I listened to some late 1970's pop song on 106.7 , crossing the bridge into Hannibal.
I blew past the church once, but saw people walking from the parkling lot, so turned around and doubled back for the lot. The church is sandwiched between its school and another church.
I followed a lady in who welcomed me to Missouri and located my parents just as mass was about to begin.
Following church, I got gas. Desperately needed gas. In fact, I was cutting it awfully close. By Quincy, my gas tank had gone to E. By Hannibal, it was at the very bottom. I had just enoguh gas to get from the church parkig lot to the Shell Station on the corner.
We went back to my parents' Motel 6 and Dad was stuck on the phone for about a half hour trying to negotiate a change in the hotel reservation for Quincy. He had apparently made the reservation for only one night, the 17th, but needed it for both the 17th and the 18th, returning home on the 19th. It was surprisingly hard to do. It involved cancelling the current reservation and booking an all-new room that he could have for two nights.
And you guessed it, this demanded dad share his e-mail address for the new invoice to be sent. Since dad was nowhere near a computer, and his smartphone wasn't set up to get his e-mail, I managed to log into his e-mail using my smartphone. I was able to screenshot the e-mail with the new confirmation number. Then I texted it to dad.
I was able to take care of the logging into his e-mail and transferring of the confirmation number to his phone all while we waited in line at the Mark Twain Dinette. But it was worth the wait. I was fine with a 25 minute wait. It gave me time to figure out the long-winded route to his e-mail, pin numbers, user name, password and all.
Lunch consisted for me of a pulled smoked pork sandwich with barbecue sauce, plus potato salad on the side. and a root beer in a frosty mug. They were super busy in the restaurant. I narrowly avoided running into a waitress with a huge, heavy tray of food over her shoulder.
Following lunch, we went for a walk by the river. I was so happy with the picture sthat mom was able to get of us on her newer smartphone, I wound up breaking down and upgrading phones myself a couple weeks after I got home.
Grabbed dad some chocolate peanut butter buckeyes from the County Market as a part 1 of his Father's Day present. I got mom some apples and Lipton Green Tea bags. Between the County Market and the Casey's, I was able to buy an issue of the Hannibal newspaper and the Quincy one.
I went home that night going up the Missouri side. It's a longer trip, but a prettier trip.
I stopped in Tiffin, Iowa on the way home to pay Phil Kopp and his mom Sharon a visit. Sharon got a very good Casey's pizza, barbecued chicken flavor, which we ate while watching the last couple of hours of the Tony Awards.
This was my first time getting back to Missouri since 2020. I have been staying closer to home lately, admittedly. My Google Places shows how seldom I travel. I finally had a third state in my June update with the Missouri trip for the first time in close to a year.