Long before the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico, it travels 2,500 miles through the heartland of America. We will follow this river by bicycle -- south to north -- across the country. We will meander through the blues-singing south and the farmland of the great plains until we reach the River's source deep in the woods of northern Minnesota.
With any luck, we'll have the wind at our backs the entire way. We will bike through ten states, cross the river several times by bridge and by ferry, and pedal along parts of the National Great River Road, the Millennium Mississippi River Trail and the historic Natchez Trace.
Leaving New Orleans, the terrain is flat and we'll make our first ferry across the river at St. Francisville, once a flourishing port before the arrival of the railroad. We'll stop in Natchez and enjoy a stay in an antebellum home before picking up the Natchez Trace to Vicksburg. There, we'll be reminded of important Civil War battles. The gentle rolling hills give way to flat farmland as we enter the Mississippi Delta. We'll roll past seemingly endless fields of cotton, soybean and corn, and quite pools filled with catfish.
A stop in Memphis will give us a history of the blues and a taste for ribs on Beale Street. Farmland becomes filled with sugar beets, wheat and sunflowers as we bike further north. In St. Louis, we'll stay across the street from the welcoming Arch.
We'll begin to understnad that the Mississippi has always been a "working river," still providing hydropower and an important transportation route for the country. A series of 26 locks and dams from Minneapolis to St. Louis continue to maintain water levels for safe navigation. Just the mention of "Mississippi" brings forth Mark Twain images of paddle wheel steamers, barges, and youngsters floating down the river on rafts.
We'll reach some hillier country with steep bluffs as high as 500' before they give way to gently rolling terrain and the flat territory of Minnesota. The glaciers of the last ice age carved the many lakes of Minnesota and flattened much of the terrain. Some of the last part of our journey will be on bike paths, like the Paul Bunyon Trail and on routes marked just for us. We'll celebrate our expedition with a farewell banquet on our last night together.
