Minnesota Rest Area Closures.



Closed Rest Areas now mean Minnesota's queers will have to drive out of state for a pee.



____Day 1: A load of oat animal feed, presumably for horses, going to Grinnell in Iowa; booked in for 08.00 monday morning. The familiar route of Interstate 29 through North Dakota; then Interstate 94 in Minnesota. The rest areas in Minnesota are now all closed for the second week; as the state government tries to cut costs. A big safety issue in my mind, as tired drivers now have to push on through. Also they are a handy and economical piss-stop that saves precious diesel with an easy-off, easy-on short detour. I stop the night at the Iowa Rest Area at Ames; which is, not only, open but has free WiFi Internet.



Mid-west's year of severe weather continues.





Loading at old style warehouse in Mason City, Iowa.

 ____Day 2: Woken and shaken, by a violent thunderstorm, during the night; I don't realise the severity of it until driving the one hour across country to Grinnell in the morning. Trees and power lines down and structural damage to farm buildings and homes. My delivery point is intact and I am soon unloaded; then up to Mason City for animal feed going to Manitoba. This time, 18 big bags of whey powder. Straight back to Canada, with a  night at Sauk Centre's Trucker's Inn. It's vast parking lot fuller than I have ever seen it before; due to the lost spaces at the Rest Areas.

____Day 3: With the hope of getting home for the night, I am up and away early. Back through Canadian Customs by midday and over to the New Rosendale Feed Mill, west of Portage Le Prairie, south of Highway 1. A Hutterite Colony enterprise; whose good work ethic always makes for a quick turn-round. They insist that I am Australian and only stop going on about it when I admit that I arrived from New Zealand at the end of Febuary. Which is true. Then, empty, back to the yard to complete a short trip.
____Overall Distance: 2876 km.