Ho Hum in the wet.

Yesterday wasn't a bad day for a technical hitch to suspend the blog.  The road from Devils Lake to Warroad proved to be no more interesting than the road to Devils Lake.  It's hard to believe that there can be so much flatness around.  I thought it might change when I got into Minnesota, but of course it didn't.  I did take a couple of pictures of a town on the border:

and of a rest area cum visitor centre which gets so few visitors I had a job getting away from the guy manning it.

There are many, many lakes in Minnesota, and this is fishing country.  All holiday and recreation seems to revolve around it.

I had headed north to almost the Canadian border since the Minnesota tourist website had made a big deal about how good the countryside in the north of the state was for motorcycling.  I had resolved to follow their advice and was heartened to see that my map also showed the route I was planning as being scenic byway.

It was drizzling when I left this morning and it didn't get any better for the first 100 miles.  Scenic in Minnesota seems to mean that there are trees on top of the flat bits:

It's nice enough, just not scenic or very interesting.  I was tempted to divest myself of rain gear since it seemed to have cleared up, but I didn't which was fortunate as the next hundred miles was plagued with sudden, quite heavy downpours.

The Mississippi starts somewhere in Minnesota, and I crossed it as a very little river.

It dried up and warmed up for the last miles into Grand Rapids.  Not much to see in town.  The old railway station, now a visitor centre:

An old hotel, now some boutique shops:

Downtown:

The old school building which is now also boutique shops:

Magnificent inside:

And City Hall, whose original inscription has it as Grand Rapids Village Hall.

It's been dry all day here in Grand Rapids, and was 86℉ when I arrived.  There is some thunderstorm activity about though and we've had a few warning showers.  I can hear thunder now.  I just hope it gets rid of it all tonight, so that I can have a dry day tomorrow.  I will persevere with the scenic routes, and since I am so near will pop into Hibbing.  I couldn't not do it.  Just see what gave rise to young Mr Zimmerman.  Off to read my book.

Ooh, the heavens have just opened.  I hope it lasts long enough to exhaust itself.

PS.  Hailstones, torrential rain, thunder and lightning:

Glad it wasn't like that on the road.