The best $5.50 I spent all July was a butter pecan cone, eaten on a bench by the Mississippi River while a barge pushed slowly upriver and Tyler tried to work out how many semi loads it was carrying.
That was last Saturday in Hannibal, about an hour east of us on US-36. We'd been talking about a summer day trip since spring, but July got expensive. Tyler's truck needed a $1,380 repair this month, and even though that came out of the emergency fund and not the house fund, I wasn't in the mood to spend much on fun. So we set a cap: $60 for the whole day, gas included.
Getting there and back
We took my CR-V. It gets better mileage than the truck, and the truck had already had its own expensive month. Macon to Hannibal and back is about 140 miles, and at roughly 28 miles to the gallon that's five gallons. With gas around $3, our fuel came to about $15.
We left at 7:30 to beat the heat. Moose spent the day at my parents' place out in the county, lying under the porch instead of sitting in a hot car. By two in the afternoon it was 93 degrees, so the early start was the best decision we made all day.
What we did
The riverfront. We found free parking a few blocks from the river and walked along the riverfront for most of the morning. If you grew up in northeast Missouri, you've seen the Mississippi before, but it still gets me every time. It's so wide and so brown and so busy. We counted three barges in two hours. Free.
The old downtown. Hannibal is Mark Twain's boyhood town, and the historic downtown leans into it, with brick storefronts, old painted signs and a little bit of Tom Sawyer on everything. We walked every block. We read the signs outside the historic buildings and skipped the paid museum this time. We'll save that for a cooler day when we can give it a whole afternoon. Free.
An antique store. Now that I flip furniture, I can't walk past one. I found a wooden crate with old stenciling on the side for $6 that I'll clean up and resell. Tyler found an old hand plane for $40, held it for a long time and said, "Let me think on it." In our house that means no, and he knows I know it.
Lunch. Packed from home: turkey sandwiches, grapes, chips and water bottles I'd frozen the night before so they'd still be cold at noon. We ate in the shade on a bench by the river and watched the boats. $0 extra.
The ice cream. Our one real splurge. Two cones at $5.50 each from a little shop downtown. I'd do it again tomorrow.
The whole day in dollars
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Gas, about 140 miles | $15 |
| Parking | $0 |
| Lunch from home | $0 |
| Two ice cream cones | $11 |
| Wooden crate for a flip | $6 |
| Casey's pizza on the way home | $18 |
| Total | $50 |
We stopped at Casey's on the way back and got a large pizza for supper, because neither of us wanted to turn on a stove after a day in that heat. Even with the pizza, we came in $10 under the cap. When we got home, the $10 we didn't spend went in the jar on the counter as two $5 bills. It's a little silly, but it felt like the right way to end the day.
The crate should sell for $25 or $30 once it's cleaned up and sealed, which means the day trip may end up paying for its own ice cream twice over.
A few things I'd tell myself before going again. Get there early in summer, because the riverfront has stretches with no shade at all and the afternoon sun off the water is no joke. Pack more water than you think. Wear real walking shoes, since downtown has some hills and old uneven sidewalks. And if you're going to do the paid museum, go on a day when you aren't watching the clock or the thermometer.
We're already talking about going back in October when the bluffs turn. Same cooler, same cap, and this time I might let Tyler think on that hand plane a little longer.
