2025.08.25
My first stop of the morning was the Mark Twain Cave in Hannibal, Missouri. I've done the cave tour a few times over the years and decided to walk through it again. It is a "dry" cave, so not as much beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstone as you'll find in wet caves, but it has an interesting history and of course it's the same cave that appears in Mark Twain's writings. My route incorporated a lot of Muffler Man-ish roadside attractions that I mapped out on the Roadside America website, though there were still quite a few I skipped just to save time. Route 66, especially in Illinois, is loaded with roadside attractions.
Hannibal, Missouri has some great murals
Entrances to the Mark Twain Cave
It’s difficult to see, but this crack is the “lifeline” of the cave along its ceiling, and there is a small bat pouched up on the right side of the crack. There used to be thousands of bats in this cave but white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that came over from Europe, has largely wiped them out and they’re down to thirty-something bats in the cave this year.
My Goose with the Mighty Mississippi behind it
To celebrate my return to Illinois, I grabbed a dog dragged tru da garden.
The first real Muffler Man of the trip in Illinois.
A pink elephant and a goose walk into a bar…
This one was a Big John grocery display
A carpet viking turned spartan as a school mascot
And a Uniroyal Gal who moved on from tires and is now a pie lady
In Normal Illinois it’s normal to see a 15ft Carl serving ice cream and a burger
I had missed the bulk of the fiberglass giants along the route, which are in Atlanta, Illinois, but I did get to see the Gemini Giant, recently moved and freshly restored by American Giants.
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