Life on the Mississippi

I was looking for a book today to bring on the trip. I had been considering Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" and ended up purchasing it. The year 2010 is the 175th anniversary of Twain's birth, the 100th anniversary of his death, and the 124th anniversary of the first publication of his book "Life on the Mississippi", first titled "Old Times on the Mississippi". The republication in 1883 was the first typewritten manuscript to a publisher. Part of the bike tour's itinerary includes an overnight in Hannibal MO where the young Samuel Clemens moved with his family at the age of four. The town has many festivities to celebrate these anniversaries this year. We have only 35 miles to travel into Hannibal, so I hope to see some of these celebrations or exhibits. The following opens the first chapter of his book:

"The Mississsippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable. Considering the Missouri as its main branch, it is the longest river in the world--four thousand three hundred miles. It seems safe to say that it is also the crookedest river in the world, since in one part of its journey it uses up 1,300 miles to cover the ground that the crow would fly over in 675.... No other river has so vast a drainage basin: it draws its water supply from 28 states and territories; from Delaware, on the Atlantic seaboard, and from all the country between that and Idaho on the Pacific slope -- a spread of 45 degrees of longitude....The area of its drainage basin is as great as the combined areas of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Turkey; and almost of this wide region is fertile; the Mississippi valley, proper, is exceptionally so."

I hope to include other quotes as I travel the route.

Cheers, Tom.