Manitoba

Yesterday I finished up with Minnesota, through North Dakota and into Manitoba for a visit with the folks at CFS in Winnipeg (thanks for the tour and info). Then it was on to as far west as I could get before dark. Turns out it was almost to Saskatchewan.
First without getting into politics I heard an ad on the radio about how the Governor of Minnesota had pretty much shut down non-essential services to save money. This became rather apparent to me as I drove by closed rest stops one after another. There were NO open rest stops along US2 in Minnesota which is apparently why I got a hotel room for the night in Bemidji MN. Hampton Inn on the lake, beautiful scenery, nice new building and very pleasant staff.
The thing they are doing right in MN is that the farmers hay the median. The pictures below may look like hay bales that fell off a truck but they are actually there in the process of being collected. Brilliant use of otherwise wasted land. Good job Minnesotans!
The border crossing was a little faster this time. He just asked me a bunch of questions, like nobody has ever taken a vacation before. When he asked if I bought anything I said just food, gas and an atlas. He asked why a computer guy doesn’t use GPS. I told him not to trust computers for information.
Another early morning, it was getting light at 4:30 so I woke up and the sunrise was at 4:50AM. Now I’m sitting under a tree in Wolseley SK getting the WIFI from the visitor info hut. On the road in a few minutes, gotta get to Calgary today so I can be trampled in a stampede trying to see the prince. 🙂
PS: I tried panning with the train pics, can’t really tell how they turned out sitting here in the sun but I hope the one posted is OK. Enjoy.