Wisconsin looks like a good place to race!

We left Portage La Prairie about 11 after stopping in to the McDonald’s to post and were happily going down the road almost to Winnipeg when we saw the flashing lights on the sign indicating that all trucks needed to pull into the truck scales (plus something we have never seen before, a provincial car sitting at the edge of the entrance so he could quickly take off to chase any vehicle that didn’t pull in!) – now you may remember that we have had our share of bad experiences with the Canadian truck scales personnel over the last 5 years – especially those in British Columbia – so needless to say, we were apprehensive going in…………well that apprehension proved to be warranted!  We were there an hour and surprise, surprise-  the guy found $3000 worth of stuff to fine us for!!!!  This is the list 1) no back up lites on the trailer 2) the registration on the truck was stated as being less than the sticker on the door 3) the registration on the trailer sticker lists the weight allowed as much less that what the axles are rated 4) no DOT inspection on the truck or trailer 5) no covers over the off road lites 6) no “not for hire” sign on the truck -  !!!!!!!!  he also wanted to see Randy’s medical certificate for his CDL which he doesn’t even need to have a CDL to drive this truck with hydraulic brakes!!!!!

The saving grace was that this guy was by himself (he said he had to hurry up and finish before his partner came back from lunch – implying he could not be as generous with his partner present), he had volunteered at the The Pas dog sled race several years and he was 64 years old so felt an “affinity” for Randy – the end result is that he didn’t ticket us at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  In fact he asked which way we were going and mentioned that there was another scales south of Winnipeg on Rte 75 (which was the way we were planning to go until then…) – so he was a really great guy but it left Randy’s stomach tied in knots!

We took a different route around Winnipeg on a not-as-good road but didn’t  have to cross any more scales!  We ended up taking highway 59 south, a two lane that went thru the town where Dave Hochman lives, St. Malo –(we remembered it was where he lived when we drove through the town and they have a sign that tells you all the notable people that are from the area and Dave was listed) we didn’t make plans with him to stop and visit and were thinking we wanted to get farther east so we didn’t call or stop.  The road was fairly good most of the way and we made it all the way down to Grand Rapids, MN (the birth place of Judy Garland  which I saw  on a sign this morning) and stayed in the grocery store parking lot that we had stayed by on the way west  a week and half ago.  Went in and bought fried chicken for dinner after feeding dogs (since it has been so bitter cold we have started feeding the dogs in their boxes – Randy stands at the back door and fills the bowls and I put them in – they eat better probably because they are not freezing their feet off while they are eating!!) and thought we had wifi from the grocery store, but couldn’t get it to work.

Up this morning with -10 F (and crazy enough, that felt warm) at 8am and some guys that are laying pipe in the area stopped to visit.  Loaded up and got on the road and made a 10 mile detour accidentally – which luckily allowed us to go through Colraine with has a ski jump that we saw – I don’t know how tall it is but it looked like10+ stories!!!!!  That would take a lot of guts to go down!!!  I wonder if any of the people over at the olympics used that for training – there’s one in Ishpheming in the UP but I haven’t actually seen it.  So now we are back on track and closing in on Duluth where we will find another McDonald’s and post and look up to see where some Michigan and Wisconsin dog races are scheduled – Randy decided that with the problems we had at the truck scales yesterday we best not go to Quebec until we get the issues resolved.  We called Doris Lovrine in Wisconsin last nite and they have a race this weekend but we have to register by Thursday so we will see if we can do that today and hopefully find someplace to train yet this week.