Roadtrip with a Raindrop

90 Days Along the Mississippi River

Non-Fiction - Travel
240 Pages
Reviewed on 11/30/2014
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Author Biography

Gayle Harper has been a travel photographer and writer for more than two decades. Her work has taken her to exotic places around the world, but nothing has ever captured her heart like our own Mississippi River.
When she learned that a raindrop falling into the headwaters of the Mississippi in Minnesota would travel for 90 days to reach the Gulf of Mexico, she knew she had met her project of a lifetime. She would make a 90-day roadtrip following the entire river, while keeping pace with an imaginary raindrop called "Serendipity."
"Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River" takes YOU on this adventure. You will see the beauty of America's greatest river, discover its history and place in our very identity and meet some of its most colorful, open-hearted people.
Grab your road snacks and come along!

    Book Review

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River is a non-fiction travel book written by Gayle Harper. Harper is a travel writer and photographer who's had a lifelong love of the Mississippi River. While she always had the inkling of a thought about a full-scale adventure on the river, it wasn't until she saw a factoid on the National Park Service's website that her thought bloomed to its full potential. The site said that a single drop of water falling at the headwaters of the Mississippi travels for 90 days to reach the Gulf of Mexico. Harper calculated that that drop would travel about 27 miles a day on its 3-month long journey; then she decided to call that drop 'Serendipity' and to travel along with it, and her project was born.

I settled into an easy chair with a cup of tea and Gayle Harper's non-fiction travelogue, Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River, and found myself falling in love with the headwaters of the Mississippi and the marvelous natural settings of Minnesota. I had to keep reminding myself that it gets very cold there in the wintertime, and then I continued reading on, and studying one stunningly beautiful picture after another as Harper and her raindrop continued their journey south. There were so many places to see and stories to hear; all quite new for someone who's only ever lived on a coast and barely seen the arch of St. Louis flash by on a road trip. Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River is an exceptionally good travel book that reads as smoothly as fiction and is filled with history, nature and the warmth and kindness of strangers soon to become friends. It's a splendid read, and it's most highly recommended.