One thing I thought was odd in Georgia while I was on Harris Neck Road driving to the refuge: it seemed just about every vehicle I saw was either a Volvo or some sort of a 4WD pickup truck. I mean, this part of Georgia is the boonies, OK? The trucks I can see in that part of the country, but WTF is with the Volvos? You’d think that area was total Dale Earnhardt Redneck Land and those people wouldn’t be caught dead in one of them there Yur-A-Peein’ cars.

The Interstates in Illinois are absolutely the worst I’ve experienced so far. Beat your brains out bumpy. Georgia’s were actually the smoothest. Florida needs to quit hiring people from Illinois (at least in the Jacksonville area where they are just as bad).

I’ve only seen one or two “W” stickers on cars in Minnesota. Nice being in a Blue State.

I have a habit of looking at “Adopt-A-Road” signs as I roll down the highway and a couple of them caught my attention: Rochester Area Freethinkers and (near Rice, MN) Minnesota Atheists. Rock on.

I had to think a little to figure out these signs in Minnesota: PUBLIC WATER ACCESS. The first time I saw one I thought that it was a location where people who didn’t have good wells could get drinking water. Then after realizing these signs were always near lakes I came to the conclusion that what they were saying was there was a public boat launch ramp available. (There, now all you Minnesotans can have a laugh at my expense.)

I’m currently staying in a campground near Grand Rapids, Minnesota. In town there's a coffee house called Brewed Awakenings. Is that a great name or what?

Grand Rapids is also the birthplace of Judy Garland. I found out for sure by asking one of the locals but had already put 2 and 2 together after seeing several signs for a local museum featuring the gang from “Wizard of Oz” on them and decided there must be a connection.

(Bemidji, which is where I stayed last, has some sort of connection with Paul Bunyan that I did not take the time to research.)

Which brings me to my GPS/Navigator system and the voice that tells me where to go when I’m driving. There are apparently some errors in the programming of the “text-to-speech” since it says some nonsensical things at times. The main drag in Bemidji is Paul Bunyan Drive and, for example, the text instructions on the screen might read “Turn right on Paul Bunyan Dr” while the voice (I’ve chosen the sexy sounding Aussie girl) will say “Turn right on Paul Bunyan ‘doctor’”. Oops. Hey Garmin, you charge an awful lot of money for that thing to have that kind of programming screw-up!

The campground I’m at now just outside Grand Rapids is the first place I’ve stayed that does not have WiFi available (not counting the system at the KOA in Forsyth, GA which didn’t work and according to them the problem was with my computers even though I’ve never failed to connect on every system I’ve attempted from Homestead, FL to Homer, AK). A little tough on an Internet junkie like myself but I’m managing. I’m posting a couple of entries and answering my email tonight from a placed called Caribou Coffee which has (pay to use) WiFi access.

In addition to the hoard of Robins throughout the campground I think every other tree has a male Red-eyed Vireo claiming territorial rights.

Speaking of Robins they begin singing - like it or not - around 4:30 in the morning when the coming sunrise is barely more than a faint glow to the East.

Lastly, can someone please tell me exactly which ecological niche ticks fill? Sorry folks, but between them, mosquitoes, chiggers, and probably a few others, there is no way some intelligent entity had anything to do with the appearance of life on this planet. No way at all. I hate having to constantly be on the lookout for those disease bearing little monsters. One got hold of me in Georgia and I’ve found two crawling on me here in MN (despite drowning my clothes and exposed body parts in repellents). And since we are on the subject of nasty insects, do they make an insect repellent for dogs?

Enough idle chatter for now. I’ll let you know if anything else comes up .