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No one shouted “Bye Huck,” when citizen journalist Neal Moore pushed his canoe away from the boat ramp in the Hannibal Marina early Tuesday afternoon, but there were those waving goodbye who likened him to a modern day “Huck,” intent on exploring for positive stories along the length of the Mississippi River.
While only in Hannibal for a few days, the story stringer for the Cable News Network (CNN) readily admitted that leaving was not easy.
“It’s going to be hard. It’s always hard,” he said. “I’ve been here now for four or five days. It might sound sort of funny, but I hop on the river, I take off and I cry. You leave these towns behind. You’ve made friends, folks have influenced you and you’ve hopefully been able to influence them as well. It’s sort of tough to say good-bye.”
Moore didn’t have to venture far from the river to find a “good news” story worth telling.
“I wasn’t sure what the story was going to be and the story ended up on how the town is rallying together, right here on Main Street. It’s a sort of renaissance ... a rebirth,” he said. “I see a future in an old town like this where folks come together, put their best foot forward and really there’s a future because the youth are excited about Hannibal and excited about this downtown in Main Street America.”
Before departing Hannibal, Moore was given an opportunity only one other person in roughly the past century has had - spend the night in the Mark Twain Boyhood Home. What was that like?
“It was incredible. It was quite literally the time of my life. I just had an incredible time,” he said, estimating he slept five hours. “It’s one thing to read the books, but to actually read the book inside that (Samuel Clemens’) bedroom... I read for a good hour last night from Tom Sawyer. Came the witching hour, I snuck out back, walked over to the Huck Finn home just to sort of try and visualize the footsteps of young Sam Clemens and Tom Blankenship.”
Moore promised that Hannibal has not seen the last of him.
“Absolutely. Absolutely. One thing that’s really difficult with this trip from the start to the finish is that once you leave a town on this particular trip you can’t go back. It’s really difficult to paddle upstream. I’ve made so many friends along the way, I’ll most definitely come back again and again in my lifetime,” he said.
Moore left Hannibal, bound for St. Louis. He hoped to reach it in four days.
No one shouted “Bye Huck,” when citizen journalist Neal Moore pushed his canoe away from the boat ramp in the Hannibal Marina early Tuesday afternoon, but there were those waving goodbye who likened him to a modern day “Huck,” intent on exploring for positive stories along the length of the Mississippi River.
While only in Hannibal for a few days, the story stringer for the Cable News Network (CNN) readily admitted that leaving was not easy.
“It’s going to be hard. It’s always hard,” he said. “I’ve been here now for four or five days. It might sound sort of funny, but I hop on the river, I take off and I cry. You leave these towns behind. You’ve made friends, folks have influenced you and you’ve hopefully been able to influence them as well. It’s sort of tough to say good-bye.”
Moore didn’t have to venture far from the river to find a “good news” story worth telling.
“I wasn’t sure what the story was going to be and the story ended up on how the town is rallying together, right here on Main Street. It’s a sort of renaissance ... a rebirth,” he said. “I see a future in an old town like this where folks come together, put their best foot forward and really there’s a future because the youth are excited about Hannibal and excited about this downtown in Main Street America.”
Before departing Hannibal, Moore was given an opportunity only one other person in roughly the past century has had - spend the night in the Mark Twain Boyhood Home. What was that like?
“It was incredible. It was quite literally the time of my life. I just had an incredible time,” he said, estimating he slept five hours. “It’s one thing to read the books, but to actually read the book inside that (Samuel Clemens’) bedroom... I read for a good hour last night from Tom Sawyer. Came the witching hour, I snuck out back, walked over to the Huck Finn home just to sort of try and visualize the footsteps of young Sam Clemens and Tom Blankenship.”
Moore promised that Hannibal has not seen the last of him.
“Absolutely. Absolutely. One thing that’s really difficult with this trip from the start to the finish is that once you leave a town on this particular trip you can’t go back. It’s really difficult to paddle upstream. I’ve made so many friends along the way, I’ll most definitely come back again and again in my lifetime,” he said.
Moore left Hannibal, bound for St. Louis. He hoped to reach it in four days.
