Hannibal, Missouri

Hannibal, MO

My mom and I left for Hannibal MO one night after work, the night sky had already taken hold—it was a cool winter evening that was trying to give way to spring. It was the weekend of the two-year death-versary of my dad. Is that a traditional term for the day someone dies—probably not but a little bit of comedic relief helps to deal with my grief.

That weekend is still a bit difficult for mom and me, after two years it is still fairly fresh. We travel that weekend as a way to remember him together and as a way to keep ourselves pre-occupied, so we are not wallowing in our sadness for extended periods of time.

With the car packed up and ready to go we hit the road, the highway stretched out in front of us, I controlled the music while my mom drove.

We decided to only drive about 3 hours and stop in Springfield for the night. We could have gone all the way to Hannibal that night, but we did not get on the road till almost 7 at night so it was time to let mom get some sleep.

The next morning, we got up at a reasonable time and went to a local coffee shop; without going back into my google reviews I could not tell you the name of it, but the coffee was good and the people were kind.

With only a 4-hour drive left to get to Hannibal we set off. We got on the highway—right in the middle of Friday morning rush hour traffic. The timing was not impeccable on our part.

We arrived in Hannibal and checked into our hotel the Best Western on the River in the late morning/ early afternoon. It was the first time staying at this hotel and we will be staying there again on our next trip to Hannibal. The hotel is within walking distance to everything we wanted to do. Once settled we wandered with no real purpose down to Main Street, stopping for a coffee at the oldest coffee shop west of the Mississippi. Now this was not our first trip to Hannibal, so we already had an idea of what to expect and some of the things we wanted to do.

Below are a few things we enjoy doing when we go to Hannibal:

• Java Jive- Get a coffee and go walk down along the river,
• Finn’s- the absolute best fried catfish I have ever had,
• Just walking Main Street and going to a shop if something catches our eyes,

Those are the top three things we enjoy doing when we want a relaxing trip and do not want to constantly “go-go-go”

This particular trip we did not do all of the museums because we had already been through them, but we did go check out the “Unsinkable Molly Brown” childhood home and museum because they were not open on our last trip.

The Molly Brown Museum is a smaller one, but it has a lot of information still and quite a few unique and interesting pieces inside. I particularly enjoyed the schematics of the titanic, did I know how to read them? No, definitely not, but they were interesting to see nonetheless. I recommend checking it out if you are in the area.

On the first trip we took we of course had to check out the Mark Twain Museums—There is a lot that goes into these museums and can be an all day or even a two-day activity depending on how much information you want to soak up.

The best part about Hannibal though is not the Museums—it’s the people! Let me share a story about an interaction my mom and I had that we definitely were not expecting.

My mom and I almost always go to Finn’s for food and it is always the catfish we get, do not ask what else I recommend unless it is an appetizer I have not eaten anything else besides the catfish—they also have Cajun style which is amazing as well.

With that being said, we wanted to try out a new place that we had not been to yet—we were walking and we heard a saxophone playing down an alley and echoing off the brick walls of the surrounding buildings. We stopped mid step and looked at each other with raised eyebrows and a curl of a smile forming on both our faces. Knowing exactly what the other was thinking—we followed the music because we love a good saxophone playing.

It was the middle of the day in small town America before you get all judgy about going down an alley by ourselves—it was not sketchy in the slightest.

We thought we found out where it was coming from, we walked around front and went inside a sports bar and as we went in we both knew this was not where the sound was coming from because why would a sports bar have a saxophone player. Anyway, my mom’s philosophy is you never know if you don’t ask and we had already walked in, so we didn’t want to be rude, we asked—he answered—we decided to have a drink anyway because why not?

We got our beer and went and sat on their “outside” patio. The patio was surrounded by four walls and no ceiling. It was as if they simply popped the top off the building and said that’s our patio. It sounds a little funky and mom and I thought the same when we first experienced it.

We were almost done with our one drink that we were going to have and then leave. Three people were standing at the doorway, and we assumed they wanted a seat. I told them, “we are about to leave, you guys can have our seats” and they replied back with “oh we aren’t sitting, my daughter has never been here and our friends own it, we are just showing her around” Now I don’t exactly know how it went from that short interaction with mom and I about to leave to all of a sudden it’s 4 hours later and they joined us. We were all having a great time together, sharing stories and laughs. I made a new friend Brittany, and my mom had made a new friend or two as well.

This is why I love Hannibal; the town is adorable—I just love their downtown Main Street area, and the people are just amazing—I have had way more awesome interactions with people there than I have had negative ones.

As of right now this is a yearly trip for me and my mom, we enjoy the simplicity of everything there and the kindness of the friends we have not yet met and the ones we have. The lifelong memories we have made here do not take away from the grief of losing my dad, instead we are honoring him in the process and in every moment, we spend traveling.

Hannibal was one of the last trips that my mom and dad made together before his passing and he absolutely loved it and all of the Mark Twain museums. He wanted to take me there and unfortunately did not get the opportunity to, therefore, my mom took me at about the 6-month mark of his passing, and I can see why my dad wanted to take me there. I get sad when I think about him not being able to go with me and take me himself; I got teary eyed just writing this—however I am glad my mom took me and I am also glad that it is a yearly trip for us, I look forward to it every year now.

In Hannibal, the sadness of losing my dad does not disappear, but it softens. It becomes something we walk with instead of something that weighs us down.