Saturday, July 26, 2025

Missouri Girls Trip - Day 8

 We ae up with the alpacas this morning and it's a beautiful, hot day.  Once our space is cleaned up and everyone is dressed - we can wander around for bit until Liz makes an appearance.  Just enjoy morning on the farm with us.  I neglected to tell you where we were last night -- here ya go:  Salt River Alpacas.



These are Suri Alpacas.  The Suri is a breed of alpaca distinguished by its long, lustrous and slick locks that lie parallel to the body.  It is the rarest species in the Camelid family (llamas, alpacas, camels, guanacos, and vicunas) representing only 6% of the Camelid population worldwide.  Domesticated for over 5,000 years and found mainly in Peru, the Suri was revered by the Incas for its unique fiber qualities and reviled by the Spaniards who wanted to populate South America with sheep.  Suris endured years of attempted extermination, but eventually prevailed, and today, the fiber is prized by fashion houses around the world for its luster and drape.  Suris are a manageable size at 150-200 lbs  They are typically shorn once a year, although some may be shorn more frequently. 




Love this cat just enjoying life.



The entire farm is immaculate - truth here.  I'm so impressed.


We're off to the little shop again  and I get a chance to look around some more and learn about the fiber used here.  Suri fiber has no crimp, unlike Huacaya alpaca fiber (the latter most often just referred to as "alpaca"), and thus, no loft or bulk.  The fiber characteristics create a very finely spun yarn that works well for hand knitting weights from lace to sport, and for worsted counts no thicker than 3/6.  Knitting or weaving with pure Suri may result in a heavy fabric and the lack of crimp will reduce elasticity, which is important for hand knitting.  As such, we encourage people to consider adding a blending fiber with Suri.  Additionally, when knitting with Suri, an open stitch is encouraged for larger garments.  Suri is known for its drape and luster and when used in the proper applications, is breathtaking to behold.  This fiber comes in a wide range of natural colors including white, fawn, brown, black, and grey, but when dyed or overdyed, the intensity of the color is magnificent!


By the time we finish in the little shop, everyone has something new and we are ready to hit the road again.


What did I buy?  A pair of fingerless gloves for this winter.  They are crazy soft and I'm thrilled to have them.


As we're walking back to the car, I peek into the barn -- there's a cannon!!  Curiosity is peaked, for sure.


One last look at these wonderful animals - they have it VERY good here.


Onto to today's plan - first stop is The Mark Twain Memorial Shrine - a museum that houses his birthplace home.  Yep, you read that right.  Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was born in the nearby village of Florida, November 30, 1835.  His birthplace was given to the Mark Twain Memorial Park Association in 1924 and is maintained as a museum.  The two-room clapboard house was rented by Twain's parents upon their arrival here from Tennessee in 1835.  Before it was moved to this park in 1930, it had been moved once before and had seen use as a printing office, grain storage, and cow shelter.  Twain spent many summers on his Uncle John's farm near Florida after his parents moved, in 1839, to Hannibal, MO.  It was from his boyhood in Hannibal and here that he drew material for "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn."  In 1853, Twain left a job on his brother's newspaper to become a printer, a Mississippi River pilot, and a miner, writer, and lecturer in the West, where he adopted the pen name, Mark Twain (two fathoms -- a river measure).  


Unfortunately, it is not open and we are all so sad.  It is supposed to be open.  The hours are posted, but no one is here.


Off we go and spot this - picture taken so we can laugh that we were in Paris this morning and now Florida.  We travel quick.


We are in Macon, MO.  Just looking around.



There is a Ben Franklin here that we have been told is a "must see" and so we're seeing it.  The fabric department reminds me of Gibson's in Weatherford, TX.  It's wonderful.


There are a few items that catch my attention - look at these cute mice.  The is The Christmas Mouse Flannel Panel by Northcott.  So, so cute.

This sign is just wonderful - hmmmm.

I do find some treasures to take home.  Some absolutely beautiful Halloween fabric for my pillows and some dip  mixes.  Both are yummy.

Next stop is Hannibal.


We park near this mural - Hannibal has murals all over, most by a gentleman named Ray Harvey.  


The above mural graces the side of a candy shop.  We pop in to check it out and I'm in and out in a few minutes.  They didn't have what I was looking for and no need to just hang out.


While everyone else shops - I wander a bit.  Here is a mural on the VFW building.


Some crazy characters are discovered.  I just can't analyze this one too much or it goes places I'd rather not be.


A small butterfly garden graces a downtown corner.




What a GREAT mural.  Time to find the others.



Look who is walking down the street - Becky Thatcher and Tom Sawyer.  How fun is this?


Another Rail themed mural - I love them.


One unusual long wall features portraits and bios of six unusual people with Hannibal connections. They include the first woman to vote after the 19th Amendment was passed, the man whose felony trial established the right to counsel, and more.  I've only managed to get 3 of the portraits today.



Another famous person from Hannibal is The Unsinkable Molly Brown.


What era is this representing?


We have made a loop on Main Street and are back near the car and the quilt shop.  While others go into the shop, I make a quick dash for the lighthouse on the hill.  It looks like rain, so I'm moving very quick.  First point along the way is this statue of Tom and Huck at the base of Cardiff Hill.  "Erected in 1926, it is one of the earliest known statues erected to honor fictional characters.  Tom and Huck look out over Historic Main Street and offer a great place for pictures.  The statue of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn was conceived by Mr. George Mahan.  He engaged Frederick Hibbard to sculpt the representation.  The statue was dedicated on May 27, 1926.  For some time, there was a house on the property and a caretaker dwelled there and took care of the property.  Eventually, the house was removed, and care of the statue and grounds was turned over to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum.  The property begins at North Street and extends up the hill to the State right of way.  The steps are part of the city property.  The property extends behind the building immediately to the east of the statue.  In 2009, the masonry background for the statue was beyond repair.  The original walls were removed, and a new rock structure was installed to stabilize and set off the statue grouping."


Off to my left as I climb the stairs is a tree that has surviving down to an art.


Station 2 along the way has me at the Veterans Memorial and Freedom Bell.  "The Hannibal Parks & Recreation Department and the Veterans Services Commission commissioned the Veterans Memorial and Freedom Bell monument to honor veterans.  The memorial, built in Cardiff Hill Overlook, allows a beautiful view of the Mississippi River.  The pathway consists of memorial bricks which have the names of service members.  The memorial includes a bell from the U.S.S. Hannibal ship, which the U.S. Navy built in 1898.  The craft was used in World Wars 1 and 2 and the Spanish-American War.  The ship was decommissioned in 1944 and sunk off the coast of Virginia and made into a reef.  Even though the ship was named after the general, not the city, the Navy sent the city of Hannibal the bell in the late 1940s."


At this point is also the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the original bridge in 1936 with more than 75,000 people in attendance.  Missouri U.S. Senator and future president, Harry S. Truman was among them.  This bridge was designed solely for the use of automobiles.  Previously, trains, automobiles, horse-drawn vehicles, and pedestrians used the Wabash Train Bridge located to the north.  A toll was charge for the first four years the bridge was in service to cover construction costs of the project.  The bridge spanned 2,636 feet across the Mississippi River and contained 5.3 million pounds of fabricated structural steel and 645,000 pounds of reinforced steel.  A recurring summer problem was the swarming of mayflies attracted to the bridge lights.  At times, the pavement was covered 2 inches thick by the insects, causing it to become extremely slick.  Snow plows were necessary for their removal.  The bridge was closed during the flood of 1993 from July to September as water covered the approach on the Illinois side.  The bridge closed to traffic on September 16, 2000 after the dedication and opening of the new Mark Twain Memorial Bridge and demolition began January of 2001, taking seven months to complete.

Unfortunately, I can't really see the bridge from here.



At this point, I'm not going to make it to the lighthouse as it is really starting to rain.  Back down the stairs and to the Hickory Stick Quilt Shop.  Gwen (she had been clothes shopping) arrives as I do and we meet up with Jen and Cindy, who are already inside.  This shop is super cute inside.



I'm package-less once again, but okay with it.  Look at this adorable fire hydrant out front.


We drive down to the ferry area real quick, just for a look-see.


Looking back on the town - 


From here I can see the lighthouse I was attempting to visit.  The Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse sits on 10 acres of park atop Cardiff Hill, a favorite play area of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and the gang.  Cross streets are E. Rock and E. Cardiff.  Parking is available near the top.  There is also a rear entrance from Cardiff Hill Drive, offering handicapped accessible parking.  There are 244 steps leading uphill to the Lighthouse from the north end of Main Street in historic downtown Hannibal.  The area around the Lighthouse offers a panoramic view of Hannibal and the Mississippi River.


AND - I can also see the bridge.  That's our time in Hannibal - back on the road again.


We're in O'Fallon with a stop at O'SewPersonal.


This quilt hits me and I know I have a ton of Kim Diehl fabrics, so the pattern is found.  It is Sparkling Cider.


Dang, I knew my downfall would happen - and it did.  I spotted a quilt on the wall that had to go home with me - kit and all.  The name?  Hocus Pocus, sticking with my apparent focus on fall.


The St. Louis Abbey made my list of stops when I first started planning this trip.  I had always believed that nuns were in an abbey and monks had a monastery.  Appears I was crazy wrong on this bit of information.  Nuns are in monasteries as well as convents.  So, just what is this building?  This building is used by Christians as a place of worship.  It is a Catholic church, specifically a monastic church, where monks worship together and are joined on many occasions by others who chose to worship with them.  The circular structure of the Abbey Church and its wide umbrella-like roof provide a space uncluttered by pillars or walls.


The sanctuary arrangement emerged from close collaboration between the monks, the architects, and the builder.  The altar is a block of Georgia granite and weighs nine tons.  Hanging from the clerestory ring beam are twelve candle holders which mark the consecration crosses and also serve to define the central area.



The glass screen's function is to provide a measure of privacy for the monk's choir and to emphasize the axis of the church.  Each of the random vertical panels consists of plate glass to which is laminated delicately tinted sheets of Bavarian handmade glass.  It was designed in this form to provide a visual barrier which would still reveal the structure of the building and not destroy the essential unity of the enclosed space.


The organ is a classical "tracker-action" pipe organ and built into a carefully designed case of stained oak which not only enhances the appearance, but also acts to harmonize the ensemble; since it has also a soundboard-like function, the case is an integral part of the instrument.


The choir stalls that the monks use during the celebration of Mass.  Though modern in form, the choir stalls preserve an unusual medieval feature.  The seats are hinged and can be lifted up to provide a resting place for the monk to lean while standing.  In former times the monks would stand for long periods of time.  





While looking for the statue of Our Lady of Grace, I'm wandering the grounds and come across various structures.  I hit the monastery first.  This is where the community of Benedictine monks who run the Saint Louis Priory School, a boys' school for grades 7-12 reside.



Outside the building is this statue - 


View of the walkway leading to the Monastery from the Abbey.



The Statue of Our Lady of Grace is outside the church and was commissioned in October 2005.  It shows the patroness holding the Child and sheltering with her cloak representatives of the Abbey family.  The sculpture is six feet, two inches tall and weighs about fifteen hundred pounds.


That was a fantastic stop, although very, very hot wandering around outside.  Whew.  We are off to our very last quilt shop stop for this trip.  Yes, it finally happened.  We are at Jackman's Fabrics.


This looks like a simple, quick baby quilt idea.  Holding onto this pic.


I added a few more Halloween items to my purchases and am calling it done.  I did sooooo good on this trip - held back and stuck with what I can actually get done when I start sewing again.


We are off to our brownstone for the next two nights.  It is a second floor apartment and THAT is a beast, but we pull it off.




There is another bedroom that I didn't get a picture of - oh well.


We ae just a couple of blocks from a great little spot in St. Louis and that means we can walk --- dinner is at The Gin Room and is very yummy.


After dinner, we walk down the street a bit on the hunt for ice cream.


It does take a few blocks, but we are successful. It's DELICIOUS and I'll take the suffering later very willingly.


Yep, I'm holding two cones as Gwen has stopped to shop next door and misses out on the pic.  Well, that's our night -- we walk back to the house to just relax and sleep.  Tomorrow is a big tourist day.

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