Greetings from Brainerd, Minnesota

Hi! We've changed our itinerary somwhat and we are now traveling west through the US rather than Canada. We will go as far as the Rockies in Montana, then head up north to the Canadian Rockies and the parks there. Hence, we find ourselves in the unappealingly named Brainerd. It's your standard large town , although this is really the center of the lake resort area (Minnesota's motto is something like Land of 10,000 Lakes). We've been traveling mostly on state roads rather than interstates, it's a little slower, but you see more of the towns and the 'atmosphere' that way.
We have been on the go doing one-nighters for the most part (very draining) and worrying about whether we'll have successful communications connections (even more draining). We did stay for a couple of days in Mackinaw City, Michigan and took the ferry over to Macinac Island where there are no cars allowed, only bikes and horses. We saw a UPS and garbage truck driven by horses, so they really take it seriously up there. It was quite nice and quaint but a little crowded. Oh, and the horse poop! It was everywhere. Some poor guy had the unfortunate job of sweeping it up.
When we were in Michigan we kept seeing signs for "Pasties." My first thought was "What the ....?" Even "Grandma's Pasties," now that's just weird. It turns out that pasties are meat filled pies. What a relief! Little bit of culture shock. Another somewhat amusing episode occured in Wisconsin. We stopped in a bakery for breakfast and ordered croissants with butter. They had no butter. This is the heart of dairy land and the only thing they could give us was that fake "I can't believe it's not butter" stuff. What's next, no cheese or milk?
Well gotta go it's getting close to check-out time. I don't have my act together yet with the photos, but I will try to start posting them soon.