Frankfurt eBook Award Nominee! The Mississippi River flows through this book, interlacing with the bicycle adventures of Barb and Ted. (Ted, a Minnesotan, didn't want to go at first). Cycling at the same pace as the river traffic, the travelers pedal their silent machines in harmony with the Mississippi Valley and its people. New Orleans jazz players and Illinois hog farmers, ancient Indian civilizations, historic floods and an earthquake that once forced the river to flow backwards--seem real and present. A constant surge of water-power pushes the cyclists toward their goal--the river's source at Lake Itasca, Minnesota. This insistent energy, majesty and abundance of the river became a metaphor for the explorers who see what they missed before--their roots from New Orleans to Minnesota. The willful river's meanders encourage them to sample pecan pies, spend time with a mortician in Missouri (Barb's home state), cheer barges through the river's many locks, and overcome seven broken spokes.