September 12: Frost? Really? Already?

Sep. 12th, 2016 03:52 pm
mmegaera: (Much Ado in Montana)

According to the weather forecaster on a local Fargo, North Dakota, newscast (I’m almost 70 miles southeast of there tonight), the average first frost date is September 18th. And the forecast is for frost over the next couple of nights, with a high in the fifties F tomorrow. My word.  According to the Geyser Gazers FB group, it’s snowing in Yellowstone.  I’m starting to feel the need to get back over the Rockies soon, for some strange reason…

Oh, and I didn’t get a photo of it, but my habit of reading road signs the way I used to read cereal boxes and mayonnaise jars as a kid (when I ran out of any other reading material) paid off today. An adopt-a-highway sign was claimed by Wreck-A-Mended, a car collision repair company [g].

I got a late start this morning, and after a couple of errands that included picking up maps at AAA for my revised route, finally left Duluth a bit berfore eleven. It was interesting watching the thick forest gradually change to prairie with the only trees at low spots and along waterways, the farther west I went across Minnesota.

Other than that, and hitting a patch of mizzle (to use a Pacific Northwest term for a combination of mist and drizzle) this afternoon, that was pretty much the day. Well, and passing lake after lake after lake. This is Minnesota, the land of ten thousand lakes, after all. Although the AAA book says it’s more like fifteen thousand, and I have no problem believing that.

It was gray gloomy all day, which was fine (I didn’t have to fight my sunglasses [wry g]), and I stopped for the night here in the small town of Perham, Minnesota. A small town with an enormous quilt shop, actually, so that was fun. I suspect they do at least 75% of their business online, because Perham itself is only about 2500 people, and even if they attract a regional customer base, it’s still pretty huge for a place like this. I was good and bought only one fabric panel, a two-thirds yard-sized photo-like image of a double row of fall-foliaged trees.

Speaking of fall foliage, I saw a lot of birches just beginning to turn yellow today.

As of yesterday, Merlin has 14,000 miles on him, and I’ve been on the road for three and a half months. I suspect I’ll be home about the time I hit four months.

And the cold is improving. Or rather, I am. I’ve even got most of my voice back!

If this is a water tower, which I suspect it is, I need to add it to my collection of odd water tower photos. Too bad I can't remember which small town it belongs to.
If this is a water tower, which I suspect it is, I need to add it to my collection of odd water tower photos from this trip. Too bad I can’t remember which small town it belongs to.  ETA:  I’m told it’s in Brainerd, and that it is indeed a water tower.  Thanks, pmrabble (from LJ).
The last time I saw the Mississippi River, I was in St. Louis, Missouri, over two months ago.
The last time I saw the Mississippi River, I was in St. Louis, Missouri, over two months ago.
The river itself.
The river itself.
Heading out onto the prairie. I'll be on the Great Plains until I hit the Rockies in western Montana.
Heading out onto the prairie. I’ll be on the Great Plains until I hit the Rockies in western Montana.
Yet another Cool Sky Photo [tm].
Yet another Cool Sky Photo [tm].

Mirrored from M.M. Justus -- adventures in the supernatural Old West.

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