Better late than never: Part Four: The End: The Return of the King

[lapacifidora]

Nah. The King doesn't really return. I'm just getting loopier as I get closer to actually being done with this.
***
 

Ah. Missouri in the morning.



It was actually dry, though still overcast.

We left the hotel and headed to theMark Twain Museum. (That's not it's exact name, but that's how I think of it.) Again, this is another place we hadn't been to since 1996, so quite a bit was different.


The Becky Thatcher House

There's about three or four buildings in one area, then you go two blocks down and cross the street and there's an old department store which is now the gallery and interactive part. (The interactive part isn't that interactive. Sadly.)



What I learned this time that I did not know about Mark Twain is that he was an animal person, and in particular, he was a cat person. He even managed to train his cats. (Or maybe they just liked him, so they listened to him.)

   

I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. It is so distinctly a matter of feeling with me, and is so strong and so deeply-rooted in my make and constitution, that I am sure I could not even see a vivisector vivisected with anything more than a sort of qualified satisfaction. I do not say I should not go and look on; I only mean that I should almost surely fail to get out of it the degree of contentment which it ought, of course, to be expected to furnish.
- Letter to London Anti-Vivisection Society, May 26, 1899

Short story: Mark Twain loved animals. Mark Twain was funny. Mark Twain was awesome. 
***
When we left Hannibal, we headed across Ol' Muddy, which was up a little higher than it normally would be, due to the flooding farther north. (We were going to stop at the Molly Brown Birthplace, but it was closed for "maintenance." I was unreasonably disappointed.)

We made it to Indianapolis and checked into a Comfort Suites in Brownsburg, which is to the northwest of the city. Neither of us was really hungry, so we didn't go anywhere for dinner.

The next morning we headed onto the ring road around Indy, got lost, figured out where we were going and continued on to Columbus. We decided to stop in Dublin, which is a northern suburb of the city. 

And it turns out, Dublin is kind of awesome. I'm not sure if it's a Main Street community, but it's very nice and it's been renovated sometime in the last 10 years. We had lunch at the Dublin Village Tavern, then we had dessert at Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, and we looked in at Temptations Yarn Shop.

And then we came home.
***
I love to travel, and I hate to travel. I love going places I've never gone before, meeting new people and trying new things. I hate leaving a place I like; I hate living out of a suitcase; and I hate the feeling that the adventure is over when I come home.

This was not the best trip I've ever been on, but it also wasn't the worst. 

I'm happy that everything with my sister and her baby worked out well, but I also feel sort of like a failure because I still haven't found a job, which is becoming ever more of a necessity.

But I had a bunch of awesome experiences, I tried some amazing food and I have a new nephew to look forward to seeing again sometime in the near future.



But it is nice to be home again.
***
See y'all on the flipside.

 
 

Comments

[eleventhimpala.livejournal.com]

Mark Twain was indeed awesome. (Although, those statues kind of creep me out. They remind me of the Weeping Angles, sort of.)

I'm glad that you had a good time! (Even though I don't know you, but, still! Yay!)

[lapacifidora.livejournal.com]

Oh good grief. I hadn't even thought of that correlation. Dude. That is freaky. Now I'm going to be freaked out by those statues if I ever go back and they're there.

Eh, you know me about as well as most people do. You know I like to travel, I live somewhere in the midwest and I have a love/hate relationship with my family.

Also, that sarcasm is my natural state. :7

[igotthepants.livejournal.com]

yes! creepy white plaster history ghosts! I love those!