Dean Klinkenberg, the Mississippi Valley Traveler, is a freelance writer with an incurable obsession with the Mississippi River. He’s driven over 120,000 miles along the Great River Road, hiked to the tops of bluffs, paddled on the Mississippi River in kayaks and canoes, and floated in luxury for a few days as a guest lecturer on the American Queen, all to get to know the diverse people and places of the Mississippi Valley. Some of the stories he uncovers appear in his Mississippi Valley Traveler guidebooks. Other stories find a home in mysteries that are set in places along the Mississippi that feature hard-luck travel writer Frank Dodge. He has also written for publications including Smithsonian Magazine, The National, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.