Two thousand nine hundred twenty days.

Awoke early today, slept ok but seems I am sleeping better in the truck, odd.  We had a nice big breakfast at the restaurant attached to the motel (Tillies I think) we found last night, Granite Falls Best Hotel as the sign says.  We packed up and headed across the street only to find the Laundromat did not have a change machine.  With most quarters this trip being reserved for Tyler’s 50 States collection, we had too few for laundry.  We have plenty of clean clothes to last a few more days, I think. 

We made it clear across Minnesota today and it seems the last act of business was to remove any sign for State Forest camping areas.  I was willing to try to camp at one since it probably would have been free with no one around to collect the fee.  Minnesota’s loss, as that would have been one more day of gas and food in their State.

It was oppressive from the get go today and Tyler must have told me so at least three dozen times. 

 

The truck continues to run well despite the heat and my unfinished projects concerning the cooling system.  It also is consistently better than 23mpg and have come close to breaking 24mpg.  It definitely needs an alignment though as all the telltale signs are there;  tire wear on right front, vibration at certain speeds, slight pull to right and squealing tires on the slowest of turns.  I found a place early today but they were booked.  I will try again on Monday.  Yesterday our plastic gas “skid” plate let loose and I was under the truck, in the mud and rain “freeing” the rest of it.  It serves little purpose but to slightly deaden the blow of small rocks ricocheting below us.  

Today I transferred our reserve fuel to the main tank to lose some weight over the rear of the Jeep.  I will replenish it with a gallon or two, as I don’t see the need for five gallons in reserve yet.

Even the camera feels the heat...

It was oppressive from the get go today and Tyler must have told me so at least three dozen times. 

 

We did some food shopping today also and transferred another four gallons of water to the tank as we were running low.  It is 7:30PM and we have just started our fire, not that we need one.   Also, it has just dropped to 89 degrees in the truck from a high of 100 earlier this evening.

I will have to camp with Tyler more when we get home as it is apparent he much prefers the destination to the journey.  Left to him we would be at our next campsite by 9AM each day.  We’re not going to see much of the country that way.

It was oppressive from the get go today and Tyler must have told me so at least three dozen times.

 

Tyler had a good 8^th birthday today, I treated him to a push-up ice cream and an electronic bug zapper (one of those tennis racket type things).  He was very happy and felt his day was special.  I also entertained (with some negotiation) his choice of campground for today.  That resulted in at least three u-turns today.   One of which was due to an ignored road closed sign.  I guess they meant it as we found the road to be under two feet of water.

It was oppressive from the get go today and Tyler must have told me so at least three dozen times.

 

Our campsite at Lake Louise S.R.A. (that’s State Recreation Area for the uninitiated)(44.62430,-99.14706) was a mess.  I spent the better part of an hour cleaning up after less courteous campers before we even unpacked the truck.  The park employees were friendly and didn’t charge us the entry fee typically charged in addition to the camping fee.  Plus thanks to those careless campers Tyler found $0.35.  There is a constant drone in the air here, a mixture of jet-skis on the lake and the invisible, winged hoard hovering nearby.  That bug racket was a good investment.

Birthday Boy