Trip to Lew-uh-vull

Somehow I got myself elected to the Board of Directors of the Cardigan Welsh Corgi Club of America. It seemed like a good idea at the time.  The job comes with travel several times per year to exotic locations. Like Kentucky.

The first meeting post the National Specialty was mid-June, only a couple of weeks after we returned to Oregon from the slow trip home from Missouri.

From PDX I flew Southwest to Denver then on to Louisville.

Denver airport. I thought I was done with tornadoes for the year, but at least there was good beer.

The flights between the west coast and Louisville are somewhat limited, and I ended up arriving a day early rather than late the next night. The board had been invited to another member's house for dinner Friday evening which I did not want to miss.

 View from hotel room window.

Since I had an extra day to kill, I met up with another CorgiAid person, Marty. She took me on an excursion to Churchill Downs.

No, I didn't bet. Which is a good thing as my mental picks didn't do all that well. 

 The bugle before each race

I was a little lax on other pictures. The drive through the countryside on Friday was lovely, Vivian's hospitality was great, and we had a productive day-and-a-half of meetings. And I came home with the new job of club webmaster (though the President Jeff also helps). There was originally a lot of cleanup to do which cut into my blogging time.

Flight home, leaving the midwest . . .

And through Las Vegas on the way back to Portland.

"Life on the Mississippi"

Hannibal, Missouri
"America's Hometown"

We took the opportunity to visit the childhood hometown of Samuel Clemens, The Mark Twain Museum, and we are ever so glad that we did. The museum includes several of the original houses plus an interpretive center about his life and works. Of course we've all read Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, perhaps Life on the Mississippi, but there is much more. The gift shop offers sets of his complete works which I longed to have. Researching shows me that all are available as free kindle editions which will be more practical for our lifestyle

A sample from the interpretive center:

Facts about Facts.

Huck Finn's House

Items seen at the Gift Shop

I bought this shirt

And Tom bought this one (in a different color)

Familiar sayings for which I did not know the source.

And more:

Her real name was Laura Hawkins

Tom and Huck Statue

From there you climb many steps to the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse and beyond.

The view from the hill up and down the Mississippi

After the walk up the hill and back refreshments were called for.

Mark Twain Brewing Company

"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company" - Mark Twain

Nice people, good beer and food.

The next day was rainy and gray but we started out with a drive up to Riverview Park.

"His religion was humanity". 

We drove across the river into Illinois to see Hannibal from the other side.

You can see the lighthouse on the hill.

A short drive up the river leads you to Quincy Illinois, a lovely old town full of interesting architecture.

River views at the mouth of Quincy Bay.

A dirt (mud) road along the river north of Quincy.

And that's as far as we went.

The next day we crossed back into Illinois again and drove north to Davenport Iowa.

We made it a point to take some back roads rather than staying on the Interstate.

"We've all come to look for America . . ."