Brian, Hannah, and I all piled in the car on Friday morning and set off for Lafayette, Indiana. My sister lives there with her husband Cody and two boys. We filled the nine hours of driving time by singing folk songs, snacking on crunch 'n munch, napping (except Brian) and I did some reading for work. I had been to Ohio, Illinois, and Kentucky before but Brian had not. Hannah was in my tummy when I went to Ohio and Kentucky.
On Saturday Brian and I went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to run a panel about using comedy in teacher education. The panel was well-attended and everything went find after we found the Lincoln Theatre where we were supposed to present. It took 45 minutes of driving up and down one-way streets and feeling frustrated.
When the conferencing was done, we drove back to Indiana and Brian took a nap while my sister, her husband and I watched the kiddies play in the back yard. When we were all up, we ate dinner and went to Purdue to learn about what Cody does as a doctoral student. He is doing some really interesting stuff with orbits.
The next day we all went to church together in Lafayette's brand new meetinghouse and then we had lunch, packed the car and said goodbye. We had heard there were going to be storms in the area and so I found a $60 room at a historic brothel in Hannibal, Missouri to stay for the night to avoid the storms, break up the drive, and see something new. I should note that the place is no longer a brothel.
When we arrived in Hannibal, just about everything was closed so we bought a subway sandwich and went to bed. The next day we went to what I call the Twain village where Mark Twain's boyhood home is, along with his father's old office as a justice of the peace, Becky Thatcher's house, and the white fence that Tom Sawyer tricked other people into white washing for him. We also went to the Mark Twain museum and to the statue park where Tom and Huck are famously posed. There is a lighthouse one can climb 244 steps up to and so the Rice's hoofed it on up there. Hannah even did as many stairs as she could. When we go to the top, there was a nice view of the river and the ability to brag about having climbed very high with a small child.
Before we left Hannibal, we got some Huckleberry ice cream at Becky's Old Fashioned Ice Cream parlor, refilled our traveling cups, refueled the car and set off for home. On the way, we stopped at a Lowe's, since there are none in Lawrence to buy a new shower head for my master bedroom. There is no Lowe's in Lawrence and I had an 80 dollar gift card that I wanted to use to buy the shower head. We also stopped outside Liberty, Missouri and ate lunch. We didn't see see any of the other historic sites in Kansas/Missouri this time, but we made a list so we could plan some weekend outings.
On Saturday Brian and I went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to run a panel about using comedy in teacher education. The panel was well-attended and everything went find after we found the Lincoln Theatre where we were supposed to present. It took 45 minutes of driving up and down one-way streets and feeling frustrated.
When the conferencing was done, we drove back to Indiana and Brian took a nap while my sister, her husband and I watched the kiddies play in the back yard. When we were all up, we ate dinner and went to Purdue to learn about what Cody does as a doctoral student. He is doing some really interesting stuff with orbits.
The next day we all went to church together in Lafayette's brand new meetinghouse and then we had lunch, packed the car and said goodbye. We had heard there were going to be storms in the area and so I found a $60 room at a historic brothel in Hannibal, Missouri to stay for the night to avoid the storms, break up the drive, and see something new. I should note that the place is no longer a brothel.
When we arrived in Hannibal, just about everything was closed so we bought a subway sandwich and went to bed. The next day we went to what I call the Twain village where Mark Twain's boyhood home is, along with his father's old office as a justice of the peace, Becky Thatcher's house, and the white fence that Tom Sawyer tricked other people into white washing for him. We also went to the Mark Twain museum and to the statue park where Tom and Huck are famously posed. There is a lighthouse one can climb 244 steps up to and so the Rice's hoofed it on up there. Hannah even did as many stairs as she could. When we go to the top, there was a nice view of the river and the ability to brag about having climbed very high with a small child.
Before we left Hannibal, we got some Huckleberry ice cream at Becky's Old Fashioned Ice Cream parlor, refilled our traveling cups, refueled the car and set off for home. On the way, we stopped at a Lowe's, since there are none in Lawrence to buy a new shower head for my master bedroom. There is no Lowe's in Lawrence and I had an 80 dollar gift card that I wanted to use to buy the shower head. We also stopped outside Liberty, Missouri and ate lunch. We didn't see see any of the other historic sites in Kansas/Missouri this time, but we made a list so we could plan some weekend outings.
Playing with cousins
Hanging out at Purdue
Waiting to go to church
Meeting Mark Twain
Look out from the River
Sunset on the Mississip'
Swinging
View from the lighthouse
Painting the fence
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