Mississippi River Tour ’23

Tuba, Tricycle, Trailer, Travel – from sea to source!

InnerTuba trike and trailer on the road at Port Sulphur, Louisiana.

InnerTuba did it – 150 days of travel, with a tuba, a tricycle, and a trailer, between 19th April and 15th September ’23.

Me, Jon Hodkin, and  my supporters raised $7,000 for US based, small scale, not for profit organisations along the entire length of the Mississippi River.

Map of the United States outlining the course of th InnerTuba Mississippi Tour of 2023.

How did we do this?

By pedalling, performing, and receiving donations along the 3,000 mile itinerary of this ambitious tour.

This was only made possible with generous support from many people and organisations, most notably:

Inspire Cycle Engineering logo, suppliers of the InnerTuba trike.
Logo of Connecticut Yankee Pedaller, friends and sponsor of InnerTuba.
Logo of TerraCycle of Portland, Oregon. InnerTuba sponsors and supporters.

(Click on image to visit websites)

Some days the miles just rolled by. The folks I met were friendly and encouraging, a gentle tailwind blew me along, and the accomodation at day’s end was welcoming and comfortable.

Other days I was beset with the challenges of extreme heat, extreme humidity, extreme storms, extreme terrain, extreme difficulty sourcing water, and very occasionally extreme ‘tricky to negotiate diplomatically’ social situations.

Despite this, my 100 plus musical performances were always delivered on time to very appreciative audiences.

InneTuba performing with the Big River Brass Band

Experiencing highs and lows is built into the nature of slow, solo, human powered load lugging travel over many many miles… it’s not for the faint hearted, believe you me!

It stands as the most epic journey of my life – so far! I’m truly proud of my achievement.

Celebrating at the Headwaters of the Mississippi River, Lake Itasca Park, Minnesota. supporters of InnerTuba Nick White and Dave Hendrcks of www.cypbikes.com joined me for a few final miles !
Celebrating at the Headwaters of the Mississippi River, Lake Itasca Park, Minnesota. supporters of InnerTuba Nick White and Dave Hendrcks of www.cypbikes.com joined me for a few final miles!
Everything along the Big River is big ! One of the many petro-chemical plants between New Orleans, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana...
Everything along the Big River is big ! One of the many petro-chemical plants between New Orleans, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana…

InnerTuba pedalled and played along two Adventure Cycling Association routes:

The Great Rivers South route runs from from New Orleans, Louisiana to Muscatine, Iowa. It included a detour from the Mississippi to ride 405 of the 444 miles of The Natchez Trace…

Natchez trace map by the Adventure Cycling Association.

I then joined sections of the Northern Tier route. From Muscatine, Iowa to Bemidji and Lake Itasca, (the Mississippi River’s headwaters) in Minnesota.

I visited and performed in tiny rural settings, and detoured into towns and cities which lie close to the Adventure Cycling Association routes.

These included:

  • New Orleans
  • Baton Rouge
  • Clinton
  • Cape Girardeau
  • St. Charles
  • O’Fallon
  • Keokuk
  • The Quad Cities
  • DeWitt
  • The Twin Cities
Fire departments up all along the way were unbeiievably kind and helpful. Thank you all so much ! Here stand the fine men of Station 1, Kosciusko, Mississippi.
Fire departments up all along the way were unbeiievably kind and helpful. Thank you all so much ! Here stand the fine men of Station 1, Kosciusko, Mississippi.

Next up? InnerTuba is aiming bigger and better for ’26…

Please consider pledging or donating money now in support of this proposed journey – The InnerTuba Tour from MidWest to NorthWest USA, 2026.

Thank you, Jon!

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