If alive today, Mark Twain would be cruising around the world and barnstorming in a motorhome, across the USA.... At least in my dreams as 2023 unfolds.
If I could only write like Mark Twain :) It's not his real name you know, in riverboat pilot lingo "Mark Twain" means "Mark Two" or two fathoms, or 12ft. The minimum depth required for safe navigation on the Mighty Mississippi, his life's storyboard. Surely, I need a new name to capture the imagination of a nation if I were to write a great novel, something just like "Mark Twain" Sadly, I think my writing alias would be "Scratch" or "Ding" or even worse "D'oh" "D'oh Damn Fuggit" would absolutely be my pen name :)
There's a long and damaging story behind the name. I'll leave the literary greatness to Mark Twain and others.
As child growing up in a household of eight kids in San Diego California, our reading materials were Bibles, Encyclopedias, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Mark Twain and Hans Christian Andersen. Many volumes of the encyclopedias and book series were missing....if you grew up in a large family you can understand this.
Mark Twain and Hans Christian Andersen were of course my favorite writers and wanderers.
How fortunate am I today, to be able to wander and wonder with the best of them :) An absolute life blessing.
Before we started our journey in January of 2023, Julie and I had our sights set on traveling along the length of the Mississippi, from its headwaters in Itasca Minnesota, to the gulf of Mexico and Lake Pontchartrain. To see and experiance the Mighty Mississippi from "head to toe,"The Mississippi, truly the headwaters of the USA's economic birth.
The last two days Julie and I have visited and walked the storied grounds at the Field of Dreams In Iowa, and then today in Hannibal Missouri, the birthplace & childhood home of Samual Clemens, AKA, Mark Twain.
Pinch me, on second thought.... no don't. Just leave me in the cornfield.
Play toss with your partner, take a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi, and strive to live with the imagination and the creativity of a child....
Go wander and wonder... and cheers to adventure, baseball, Mark Twain and Hans Christian Anderson.
D'oh Damn Fuggit
AKA Peder
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