Bemidji, MN is the closest point of civilization to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Cindy, Doug, and Wendy drove up from Iowa. Flying into Bemidji is the other viable option that I chose. My flight plan took me to Minneapolis first. Here is a shot of downtown Minneapolis situated on the Mississippi River. We should be riding through here in about a week. It took an hour for Delta Airlines to find a pilot capable of flying a 737-900. A pilot flying the Connecticut route got voluntold to get us out of Detroit air space and on our way to Minnesota.
Upon arrival in Bemidji I had a 1 mile hike to the hotel where I had a reunion with my disassembled bicycle (in box). My other gear came with me on the flights out.
I had alot of the bike reassembled by the time Wendy, Cindy, and Doug arrived but still had some fine tuning and organizing to do before our planned ride to Itasca State Park and the Mississippi headwaters tomorrow.
