Midwest Photos 10

Since there wasn't anything too time consuming to do in Hannibal (or at least that I could think of), I decided to take a trip across the river to a couple of towns in Illinois. This is Carthage, where Mormon founder Joseph Smith and his brother met their demise.
I just wanted to see the jail where the Smith boys were killed, but I walked into the welcome center and was met by a pair of nice old Mormon men. They asked if I wanted the tour and I said yes. One of them mentioned that it would take about 45 minutes and it was at that point I figured out it that a lot of it would probably be a Mormon sales pitch which I really didn't want to deal with.
So I kind of ducked out and walked around the corner to at least take a picture of the building before leaving.
Since I drove all the way up here, I at least went to the town square to get a shot at the courthouse. I do enjoy a good old small town courthouse square.
I passed a whole lot of corn but few opportunities to capture a photo, so I stopped along a road and took a panoramic shot.
AAAAHHH! IT'S THE ATTACK OF THE GIANT GRASSHOPPERS!
A farm house in a corn field. Almost all of the corn fields I saw were dry and brown like this. Must be the end of the season.
From Carthage back down to Quincy. In this park was held the sixth Lincoln-Douglas debate in 1858.
I had never heard of Maid-Rite restaurants, but there are several of them in the Midwest. This one in Quincy's claim to fame is that it was featured on Alton Brown's show on the Food Network in 2007.
Among other things, they are known for their loose meat sandwich. It was pretty good, too.
Another farm photo, this one on the Illinois side of the river across from Hannibal.
There's that riverboat rolling past the Hannibal riverfront.
The Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse is atop Cardiff Hill. It's only 244 exhausting steps up the hill to the lighthouse. Phew, I am out of shape.
And we close the trip with a view of the historic district of Hannibal at sundown. After this it was back to the Quality Inn to watch Doctor Who on my laptop and ignore the FSU-Clemson game.