Michigan to Minnesota -- Autumn Beauty

Oct 1 --- Sarnia ON to Iron Mountain MI

Got away from the mechanic's in Sarnia by 11 am on a beautiful sunny morning. Zipped through the border and headed north at Flint. The autumn colours just got better and better. Good roads and no traffic. Stopped for a picnic lunch at a rest stop

Autumn Beauty

Went over the Mackinac Bridge and onto Michigan's UP (Upper Peninsula).Camped for the night in the Iron Mountain Walmart --- it seems that my expectation that all Walmart's had free Wifi in the instore MacDonalds was based on limited experience in Canada so we are (gasp) "unconnected" -- have to resolve that problem. 

Oct 2 --- Iron Mountain MI to Bemidji MN

A warm place to take a dump.................

On the road early under once again sunny skies. Pulled over by Sunnydale Lake in Wakefield MI to take a few pics.

Zipped through Wisconsin and over the bridge into Duluth --- stopped at the Tourist Info place for another picnic.

More glorious colours.........................

The burning question we had for the tourist folk was, "Where can a poor little RV take a dump". I hadn't really thought how dependent we are on keeping the relevant tanks empty/full as the case may be. When you need to take a dump you really need to. Good things in a dump station are; not too far out of your way, free (I paid $30 once), and warm --- it takes 20 or so minutes of me being outside. God bless nitrile gloves. We were delighted to find there was a free dump station 3 minutes away. We went and did our business and were back on the road with a weight lifted from our minds and Peanut's shoulders. Walmart again for the night --- Linda made  a nice salmon dinner and off to bed.

Oct 3 --- Bemidji MN to Westhope ND

On the road early again and this morning we left the autumn colours for the prairies. I love how the terrain changes as you drive serious distances. Seemingly all of a sudden you're in a whole new type of landscape without being aware of a change. We'd spent 2 days in the the deciduous woods of the UP and now we were on the prairies. Linda asked if it felt like home to me and indeed it did.................

We pushed through to Westhope ND (8 minutes from the border crossing into Manitoba) with the idea of making Regina by noonish tomorrow to spend some time with my family there. Tonight's luxury accommodation was a rather scrubby looking RV Park with mostly permanent dwellers. Full hookup for $15 but no Wifi or hottub. Darn. We'd had rain that day and found that our bed was a lot wetter than it should be --- seems I keep hitting a rear window handle while sleeping and that this lets water off the road in if we don't remember to make sure it is latched. Oops -- we get things dry enough to sleep..............

Oct 4 --- Westhope ND to Regina SK

It was seriously cold last night and this morning. Bless the furnace in Peanut which keeps her interior at whatever temperature we desire with no fuss whatsoever. I was packing up outside before we left and I swore I saw snowflakes. Our uneasiness about the weather was fuelled by the border guard who asked if we were ready for the snow --- when we visibly blanched at this he allowed as how it was going elsewhere. He let us across the border and we sailed into Regina by 1 pm --- with a short delay to let these huge trucks go by.........Wide Load doesn't quite cover it..........they were also taking down hydro lines to let these things by......