The Itinerary
Arrive Bemidji,MN in June and find transport to International Falls (about 160k) on the Canadian border.
Purely to pass  the front wheel over the border and visit small towns in this northern part of Minnesota.
Then commence cycling to Lake Itasca, the origin of the Mississippi River.

The front wheel will be symbolically bathed in the essence of this defining geological feature of the US.
Exploration of the Paul Bunyan Trail is planned. A 160 plus k cycle path passing alongside 21 lakes.

Then on down the river to Memphis for a well earned break with a special friend who is coming up river from New Orleans on boat to join me on a vehicular road trip through Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvannia and upstate New York to the Niagara Falls and on to NY and then to Washington DC. to check out some music, museums and art galleries.

An extended visit to the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi is also envisaged once back on the leather seat. This is a 730k ride with reported superb scenery steeped in Native North American history.

Then  on  through the rest of Mississippi and Lousianna to the journeys end at the most southerly point in Louisiana, Venice. (romanticism at journeys end!!)
From here 600 miles to Houston along the Gulf coast to stay with family friends from New Zealand.
Then by air to San Diego around December.
From here, cycle to La Paz down through Baja California and then by ferry to Mazatlan in Mexico and fly to Guatemala City and ride to Granada in Nicaragua to take up a volunteer position teaching young rural children from February to July.
The South American summer will  see me reach Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego in March 2013.