I woke up before BJ and went for a mile and a half walk to get some of the road kinks out of my legs and back. I went to the top of a hill overlooking Hannibal and the River and got to look at the recently risen sun glowing red in the East over the river. Then I walked down to the light house and back to the B&B in time to get BJ up at the usual time.

Today was moving day, leaving Hannibal and taking River Road down to St. Charles. Unfortunately the road only runs close to the Mississippi in a few places but those places are beautiful. First we stopped at a scenic pullout south of Hannibal. These are views both upriver and downriver.


We continued on the Great River Road to Louisiana, a river town in Missouri, not the state. We couldn’t find anywhere to view the River while we were there but we did drive around looking at the large number of Victorian houses, I believe I read that there are 125 in this town. We rode on down to Clarksville, another river town, and this time were able to see the River.

We went looking for the Pinnacle Peak area outside of Clarksville which is supposed to have great views of the bluffs along the River but we could not find an access road. On to St. Charles which is our “home” for the next three days. St. Charles was a French settlement founded in 1769 by French settlers and was later a rendezvous point for Lewis and Clark. It reminds both Alan and I of Alexandria, Virginia, as it is full of old brick Federalist style buildings. After all the Victorian architecture we have seen on this trip, St. Charles is very different.

After having lunch we walked around the old town a bit and wandered over to the banks of the Missouri River. St. Charles also offers access to St. Louis so in the next three days we plan on doing a little exploring in both places.