We had a little bit of rain over night that provided some soothing pitter patter. Fortunately we had put everything inside except for the outdoor mat. Another beautiful day.
We drove south towards Fergus Falls through more light rain with a double 🌈 as a reward. Minnesota is much greener than the Dakotas and more treed as we travel south and east. The trees are in full fall foliage, the oranges and yellows providing contrast against the blue sky. The soil is a deep rich brown-black. And of course the feature that MN is famous for – water. We are also back into soybeans and corn crops.
Bird and water bird sightings: cormorants, American White Pelican, unidentifiable ducks, Redtail Hawk, gulls,
So far MN doesn’t win any prizes for its roads.
We found a quilt shop in Fergus Falls but it wasn’t open yet and the area wasn’t inviting enough to go for a walk while waiting.
I did find another quilt shop in Alexandria so we took a slight detour off I94. It also gave us an opportunity to check email, make a couple of appointments and get gas. This quilt shop specializes in cat themed fabrics. I want to make at least one block of my now to be trip themed quilt to reflect the colors of the landscape in the Dakotas – deep yellows, oranges, brown, sage and sky blue. This shop had all those colors in fat quarters so I can now say I bought them on the trip even though we are in Minnesota.
This is a travel day so not much in the way of photography so far.
Electricity
Obviously I am interested in resources and we have been following a power grid all morning so back to the internet to find out how Minnesotans get their electricity.
Renewable resources, including wind, solar, hydropower, and biomass, generated the largest share of Minnesota’s electricity in 2020. They also use coal, nuclear and bio-diesel sources. Minnesota is one of the top five ethanol-producing states and accounts for about 8% of U.S. fuel ethanol production.
Minnesotans consume more electricity than is generated in the state, and, during the past decade, they received as much as one-fifth of their annual electricity supply from the regional grid.
The fall foliage is taking on more of the colors we are used to in the east as we add maples and sumac to the tree list. A storm was brewing to the northeast when we stopped for lunch in a very pretty MN rest area.
Mississippi River
The headwaters of the Mississippi River start at Lake Itasca north and west of Minneapolis.
The channel of the Mississippi as it emerges from the lake was bulldozed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, to create a more “pleasant experience” for visitors. The project included the draining of the surrounding swamp, the digging of a new channel, and the installation of a man-made rock rapids.
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 2,320 miles (3,730 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi’s watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains.
Read more about this amazing waterway at: Mississippi River – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River
We cross it in Minneapolis. I hope I don’t miss it this time!.. and I didn’t.
Having waged war with construction, the traffic and the rain around Minneapolis – St. Paul we have a lovely campsite surrounded by red sumac that provide privacy…and enough network so we can zoom with our daughters tonight.
The temperature is a comfortable 81F. Not to jinx anything but we left home 4 weeks ago today having experienced a tornado and 8″ of rain in a single day the night before. Since we have been on the road we have yet to get into camp in the rain in the afternoon or break camp in the rain in the morning. In fact, rain has been mostly missing for this entire trip.
Louise and Brian McLeod Travel Blog 
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