Pictures: Lyle Such
Words: Thu Buu
Camera: Canon 5D Mk IV
The Bridges of Madison County Somerset, Iowa
For an evening exploration, we headed out to see the bridges of Madison County at sunset. Unfortunately, we left a little late and took a couple of wrong turns. We arrived at the first covered bridge just after sunrise. There was still enough light for a quick picture. Since we were already there, we decided to see another bridge. Sunset was colorful, but twilight was magical. Getting out of the car, we were immediately aware of the buzzing mosquitos and the flickering yellow lights.
Lightning bugs were out dancing in full force. I had never seen so many fireflies in one place before. The trees along the river’s bank twinkled randomly as if they had been strung with strobing Christmas lights. The fields also sparkled with dazzling gleams oscillating off and on. One area would flicker for a few minutes than remained dark while another area brightened up. It was hard to predict where the next en-mass light show would be. We stayed out much longer than we had intended, but it was worth it, even with the mosquito bites.
American Gothic Eldon, Iowa
After saying our good-byes and promising that we wouldn’t let another 20 years pass before getting together again, the three of us piled into the car to our next destination, Hannibal, with a few stops in between. The first stop was at a small gas station in front of an old-fashion general store in Eldon. And look what Andrew found inside. A cap-gun! The best buy of our trip. Just a few curves away was the American Gothic house where Andrew got to try out his cap gun. We love to play dress up. This time, even Lyle got into the part.
Amish Country, Iowa
Our route to Hannibal took us through the small towns of Van Buren County in Iowa’s Amish Country. A couple of Amish buggies approached from the opposite direction, and I was quick enough to sneak this photo in from far away.
These sleepy towns along the Mississippi River once used to be bustling centers of social meeting points, trade and commerce when the Mississippi was still a prominent means of travel. An older gentleman walking along the bridge looked down at Andrew and greeted him, “Tom Sawyer.” Yes! Mission accomplished. It had to be the hat.
Tom Sawyer Museum Hannibal, Missouri
The Tom Sawyer Museum sits on the site of Samuel Clemens old childhood home. It felt a little strange to be walking in the real setting of a novel, not like on a movie studio set. So much of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was taken directly from Mark Twain’s life, from the characters and characters’ personalities to the settings such as the cave and the haunted house on the hill. Some events were even based on local history.
The museum does a fantastic job of portraying Samuel Clemens and the domestic and international environment in which he grew up and how they may have influenced his perspective on social issues.
Right outside of the house is the famed fence where we first begin to understand what a swindler Tom Sawyer can be. There are paint brushes attached to a paint bucket on the ground for visitors to re-live the whitewashing of the fence scene. Have you ever painted a fence before? I haven’t. And standing there holding the brush, I comptemplated which was the most efficient way to paint the fence...long strokes all the way up and down with my whole arm or shorter strokes relying more on the wrist. Hmmm...
After our hard work painting the fence and seeing the river, we were quite thirsty. A little ice cream shop was just a few doors down. We got ourselves some delicious rootbeer floats and ice cream scoops. This shop had a variety of old wooden toys to tinker with on the table. We got caught up in a small board puzzle with colorful pegs. By the time our floats were done, we still couldn’t best the game, so we bought it. At the counter, I spied another pop gun, this one was much fancier and made of metal. Now we have two cap guns. Andrew wanted the fancier one, and I got the orange plastic one, which was easier to load. These were exactly what we needed for the gun battles and duels Huck Finn witnessed further down South.
We’ve driven along beside it and walked on the bridge above it, but up until this point, we still had not actually touched the waters of the great Mississippi River. My depth perception was no good. It looked like the water was just below the platform. I had to really stretch to get my toe brushing the water’s surface. The Mark Twain Riverboat just happened to pass by right as we were about to snap a picture of the port in Hannibal. Just like we planned.
River Cruise Mississippi River
That evening, we had seats for dinner on the sunset cruise aboard the Mark Twain Riverboat. Our company was just as we expected, mostly older folks, members of the RV Club. Traveling up and down the river, we realized that Hannibal is the largest town around, and it is not large at all. There are just a few streets cutting perpendicular to the main road. If not for the tourism interests in Mark Twain, Hannibal’s fate would likely be similiar to those quiet towns we had visited along the way.
Is that the island Tom and Huck hid out on while everyone else thought they were dead?
This beautiful sunset on our return to Hanibal makes up for missing the sunset at the bridges back in Madison County. A nice, calm way to end a long day.
As we approached the landing, a towboat going the other direction had the right of way so our vessel stopped and waited. We watched as this huge contraption slowly made its way past us pushing triple rows of five barges tied together.
The amount of cargo being pushed is the equivalent to that of a train three miles long or a caravan of trailer trucks 35 miles long. The prominent use of tugboats to transport cargo died out with the expansion of the railroad tracks after the Civil War. We wanted drinks. Our smoothies were very icy and lacking in flavor but very expensive. We were stuck with these souvenir glasses.
Rockcliffe Mansion Hannibal, MO
This beautiful mansion sits on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi and the town of Hannibal below. In the course of its history, this place was abandoned and left in ruins after its owner passed away. In its derelict state all alone at the top of the hill, it was the origin of many fanciful ghost stories and a source for curious kids in search of a thrilling adventure. It’s reminicient of the haunted house on the hill where Tom and Huck went to dig for treasures only to inadvertently overhear a telling conversation from the thieves who were hiding out there.
Like Andrew said, we stayed in a museum. Ownership of this mansion has changed hands many times, but in recent history, private owners have worked to restore it to its original turn-of-the-century opulence. During its hayday, it was considered one of the most magnificient residential structures in this part of Missouri. Many of the furnishings, linens, and lace in the mansion were the orginal, which was carefully saved, stored, and returned by one of the original owner’s daughters. Tours begin daily at 10AM, so we had to pack our things and check out early. But that also meant that we had a private tour of the mansion.
Mark Twain Cave Hannibal, MO
Since we’ve seen many many caves before and were short on time, we decided to skip the cave tour. Instead, we found this giant walking stick and spent quite a bit of time playing with it. Poor guy didn’t know what happened to him. Apparently his camouflage didn’t work very well.
St. Louis Arch - St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis was The Big City in Tom Sawyer’s day. Since 1965, on the bank of the Mississippi in St. Louis, the Gateway Arch has been famously greeting visitors to this big city. It is the world’s tallest arch and tallest stainless steel monument. It was built to commemorate the westward expansion and to celebrate the spirits of those pioneers and settlers. The arch is exactly as wide as it is high, although it doesn’t look like it. The basement is a very impressive and comprehensive museum, which we didn’t have too much time to explore. While waiting in line for the tram ride, Andrew taught us entertaining tricks with the panoramic feature of the phone to help pass the time.
Every year millions of tourists visit the Gateway Arch, and about a million of them, including us, make it to the observation deck at the top of the arch. Visitors crowd the narrow waiting hall, duck into spherical capsules containing five plastic swivel chairs anchored too closely to its neighbors for an intimate four-minute ride up to the top of the arch where we had to squeeze our way through the crowd that had amassed waiting to fill the capsules for a three-minute tram ride back down. On the observation deck, uninterrupted views of the “Wild Frontier” stretching for miles in all directions can be enjoyed through narrow rectangular windows.
Up to this point, we had enjoyed beautiful summer weather, but upon leaving the monument, the skies turned angry and began pouring. We waited for a few minutes then decided to head back through security to the gift store for a couple of umbrellas. They became perfect props for a few fun rainy day photos at the base of the arch. The rain was a welcomed change in scenery.
Graceland-Memphis, Tennessee
We pulled into our Airbnb apartment late after a long day of travel from Hannibal, Missouri through St. Louis to Memphis, Tennessee. The next morning, our first stop was of course, Graceland, Home of the King of Rock ‘n Roll, Elvis Presley. I certainly don’t know how to describe this mansion. The exterior and grounds are nicely kept and groomed. But the interior is a hogdepodge of unusual interior decorating styles. Each room had its own theme that didn’t need to cohere with any other rooms in the mansion. The stairway of mirrors is interesting and confusing. I’m sure there have been many injuries on these stairs.
Unlike the crazy gaudiness of the mansion, Elvis’s collection of cars was extensive and neatly displayed.
Even more impressive are the awards Elvis received. His awards literally covered wall to wall from ceiling to floor. And those jumpsuits! The details are incredibly complex and intricate.
Lorraine Motel, Memphis TN
Less than ten miles away from the lavish lifestyle of Graceland is the humble Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while there to help organize a strike for better working conditions for the city’s sanitation workers. The social inequality represented by these two historic locations are so striking. The Lorraine Motel has been turned into the National Civil Rights Museum. Room 306 where Dr. King Jr. stayed and the adjacent room where civil rights leaders met have been memorialized. The museum looks deceptively small, but in fact it is so full of meaningful content and visually powerful exhibits that pull at your conscience, question your values and assult your beliefs that by the time we reached the 1960s I was psychological worn-out and emotionally spent. To do this museum justice, you really need to give yourself at least two days or a few sessions. We didn’t think it would be such a visceral and immersive experience.
For me, the museum experience began even before entering the parking lot. Just reading the signage posted outside the hotel sent goosebumps up my arms. An unexpected wave of sadness and loss washed over me. I couldn’t contain the strong sentiments. Perhaps it was the current toxic political and social atmosphere that our country is undergoing right now that is so reminiscent of this time of turmoil and struggle when bigotry, discrimination, and hate was unapologetically loud and legal. It reminds me also that progress is like walking uphill on a mountain made of sand during a storm. I’m eternally grateful for every hard-fought step forward, for the sacrifices of millions of ordinary unsung heros whose persistence have allowed me to be happy and secure in my current status as an Asian immigrant with a successful profession as a public school teacher married to a Caucasian man.
Andrew was independent and well engrossed in his own learning. Thank goodness, because both Lyle and I also needed private space and time to connect with the content. A lot of times, all three of us were lost in thought in front of different exhibits. A powerful moment that stood out to both Lyle and me during our visit was when we saw an African American mother pull her young son who was about 7 or 8 years old towards a display of an African American that had been lynched. A white sign with red painted letters was hung around his neck. It read: He dared to vote! She told her son, “Look at that! Look at that and remember!” The interactive exhibit on the other page can also easily shock a visitor. Once we stepped onto the bus, the booming voice of the bus driver commands Rosa Parks to get up and move to the back of the bus immediately. She quietly, defiantly refused, marking the beginning of the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott ,which eventually lead to the desegregation of public transportation. The building below sits across the street from the Lorraine Motel where the perpetrator, James Earl Ray, pulled the trigger that assassinated MLK, Jr. on April 4, 1968.
Immigration and the Civil Rights Movement were such big encompassing units of my social studies and literacy curriculum when I taught upper-grade that I mistakenly believe most kids Andrew’s age should have decent background knowledge of these important social and historical issues. However, after hearing Andrew muse out loud about some of the shocking information he was learning, I realized, that it was not so. Indeed, it is the opposite. Plenty of teachers are uncomfortable with these issues and afraid of parent scrutiny, especially in more conservative-leaning communities. How can we progress if our children are not taught the ugly truth so they’ll see a better way and forge a brighter path forward? In Germany, there is no shying away from the ugliness of the Holocaust and the Jewish genocide in their curriculum. We need to be more delibrate in educating our youths and our citizens about the long, sad, unjust history of slavery, of the Jim Crow South, of discrimination and systemic segregation that has and continues to marginalize minorities, especially those of African descent, keeping them within a cycle of poverty that is so hard to climb out of. A surface celebration of Dr. MLK Jr.’s birthday once every January is not enough.
Peabody Hotel Memphis, TN
We were in Memphis, which meant that I had to go see “John Philip Duck”. I knew about these ducks from one of Patricia Polacco’s books from years ago. I guess it was such an interesting subject that it stayed filed somewhere in my memory. We had tried to reserve a room at the Peabody, but it was all full. So I made sure that we got there extra early, early enough to grab a table close to the fountain. We ordered our root-beer floats and waited for the show to begin. The ducks did not disappoint. They dutifully swam around the fountain until the duckmaster directed them up the stepping stool out of the fountain. They waddled down the red steps and marched on down the red carpet that was laid out just for this procession. Younger duck fans were allowed on the floor on either side of the red carpet to admire the ducks as they made their way onto the elevator that would bring them back up to their living quarters. In the book, it was on the roof of the hotel. It was a fun show. So, I guess you can say, we took a detour from the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn books into John Philip Duck.
Beale Street Memphis, Tennessee
Another place we had to see was Beale Street, Home of the Blues, as the neon sign proudly proclaims. It was bright and loud and full of people with alcoholic drinks in their hands. We perused through a souvenir shop but didn’t really find anything interesting. After a quick stop to watch the street performers do a series of backflips down the street, we decided it was not our scene. Just minutes earlier, we had enjoyed our fruit smoothies on giant sofas at a dimly-lit, deceivingly large lounge upstairs of a boba shop. For a while, we were the only customers there, and we preferred it that way. After a few obligatory pictures, we headed back to the apartment and called it a night.