Mississippi River Flight - September 2020

Anyone who follows my blog knows I like to fly rivers.  The big one, the Mississippi River, has long been on the list.  I had wanted to fly to Alaska in July but like so many things in 2020:  cancelled!  By September, I felt motels and restaurants had opened up enough for a long cross-country in the U.S.  I decided to fly the Mississippi River.  I am retired now, so when the ten-day forecast showed good weather from Minnesota to Louisiana, the trip was a go.  My research showed that the head of the Mississippi River is Lake Itasca in northwest Minnesota.  I would fly to northwest Minnesota and start the trip there.  From experience, I knew I would fly four to six hours a day, throttle back to 150 mph, and do a lot of weaving while following the rivers turns, twists and doublebacks.  I estimated how far I would go in a day, figuring it would take four days to fly the river.  It ended up taking only three.  I planned my overnight stops at airports that had the lowest gas prices along with a courtesy car.  Things pretty much went as planned although I had to stop 100 miles short of New Orleans for weather.  Other than that, the trip went well and I greatly enjoyed flying the great river.

The Mississippi River can be divided into three sections: the Upper Mississippi, the river from its headwaters to the confluence with the Missouri River; the Middle Mississippi, which is downriver from the Missouri to the Ohio River; and the Lower Mississippi, which flows from the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico.
   

Click on the following links to see what I saw:

The word Mississippi itself comes from Misi zipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Algonquin) name for the river, Misi-ziibi (Great River).
 
Here is my flight path, courtesy of SPOT.
   

 
   
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