[LIVE Day 118] Itasca State Park

Hello everyone.

I have finally typed up "Day 79: A very special day", and it was a very freeing experience for me, as I hope it will be for you. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to copy the latest set of posts to my blog the way things are currently set up.

Tomorrow, which is both day 119 and October 18, I will set out on the Mississippi River, starting at its headwaters in Lake Itasca. The Mississippi meanders north for a couple of days to the first city, Bemidji, where I expect to be able to upload a number of posts.

It hasn't been my custom to talk much about the trip itself in these live posts, but given how the others are becoming increasingly post-dated I thought I would give you a heads-up. The last couple of weeks have been extraordinarily difficult. I spent several days paddling south, upstream on the Red River, and then more than a week towing my canoe behind my bicycle to Lake Itasca. The canoe trailer broke down many times. There was plenty of rain, but also plenty of helpful people along the way.

It is expected to reach more than 60 degrees (F) tomorrow, and the sky, which has been mostly overcast since Winnipeg, should be clear and blue.

In the first half of the trip, I was often quite limited when and where I could upload blogs and contact people. As you know, it was not unusual for me to go two weeks or more, only having an hour to try to catch up on the net before moving on. The Mississippi River is more commercial, and more heavily populated, so there is a potential for me to stay in more contact -- but I don't know for sure. It is always hard to achieve balance.

Thank you for reading.