The first time I visited Hannibal was when my sister CH came to St. Louis in the summer of 1996. We started our trip pretty late (around noon) since CH did not like to get up early and it took her a long time to get ready. After lunch at Mark Twain Dinette (I remembered the place was packed with tourists), we decided to tour Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum. We were told that we had 30 minutes before closing time but we could come back tomorrow with the same admission tickets. We decided not to tour the home and the museum and just walked along the landing.
This year, my husband and I agreed that our first get-away weekend would be Hannibal and we picked the third weekend in March. We thought the weather would be nice and the town would not yet be crowded with seasonal tourists. As luck would have it, the rain started late Friday evening. All day Saturday was a miserable day of light rain mixed in with snow flurries. We paid a few extra dollars to get a room with "beautiful panoramic views of the Mississippi River and walking distance to historic downtown and major attractions". These were all true, except when it was raining, snowing and freezing weather. The view from the hotel window included the dinette across the street with its spinning coffee mug, not much of the river and a lot of noise when the trains blowing loudly while carrying at least 50 railcars coming thru every other hour! 
There was no schedule listed for cruising on the Mark Twain Mississippi Riverboat. The rising water covered most of the parking area and flooded the boarding ramp. There would be no sightseeing while dining on the triple deck or dancing in the rain/snow! You could tell it was pouring from the photo below of Mark Twain statue by the Riverview Park and from the windshield as we drove toward Hotel Mark Twain. I started to wonder if there is anything in Hannibal not named Mark Twain or associated with the town most famous citizen! 
