To the source (of the Mississippi)

Heading south of Thunder Bay we took the highway that has been part of the legend that is American Music.

U.S. Route 61 is the official designation for a United States highway that runs 1,400 miles (2,300 km) from New Orleans, Louisiana, to the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River, and is designated the Great River Road for much of its route. As of 2004, the highway's northern terminus in Wyoming, Minnesota is at an intersection with Interstate 35. Prior to 1991, the highway extended north on what is now MN 61 through Duluth to the United States-Canada border near Grand Portage. Its southern terminus in New Orleans is at an intersection with Tulane Avenue at South Broad Street. The highway is often called "The Blues Highway", because of the course it takes from Minnesota, through Memphis, Tennessee, and into Louisiana (through Baton Rouge and into New Orleans).
The route was an important north–south connection in the days before the interstate highway system. Many southerners traveled north along Highway 61 while going to St. Louis, Missouri and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The highway was also used in the title of Minnesota native Bob Dylan's album Highway 61 Revisited, and in the song of the same name, which imagines all sorts of fantastical events (including World War III) occurring alongside Highway 61.

Highway 61 is more or less the route we are following from Thunder Bay to New Orleans. To start with it follows the western shore of Lake Superior and the weather was very much in our favour with the grey skies that had followed us from Gravenhurst giving way to clear blue as we looked over the Sleeping Giant and headed south.

We left Highway 61 for a very important part for our Mississippi excursion. We wanted to go to the source and after a night at Walker we went to the start of the Mississippi. Lake Itasca.

I'm sure this won't be the last photo of us on the Mississippi but I am sure this is the smallest the river will be. It's amazing to actually be at the source of a river.... It would be interesting to investigate the  actual starting point of any of Australia's rivers