 Good morning everyone. This winter has been something else so far, or should I say this fall? It's not even winter yet. I'm here near Brainerd, Minnesota. Last night we drove down here, I got hooked up to the trailer, we came down here. And as soon as I got to Fargo, or around that area, because I came down I-29, right, because I was at home, hit this big snowstorm again. And it seems wherever I go. The snow keeps testing me. It's not so bad here. I believe this town is called Pillager, Minnesota. Just down the road from where I got to deliver this freight. But it is snowing. I guess I better just get used to this, eh? As you can't believe it, I actually had more snow on this trailer than what you see here. I read some of it as we went down the road, but it's definitely been an interesting start to the season. I'm about to do my pre-trip here, clean off all the lights, get ready to go deliver. And hopefully from there we go anywhere where it's not snowing. Hopefully it's not snowing at home. Just, look at this. I cleaned off those tail lights four times yesterday. What? What can you do with that season? Rolling, rolling, rolling. So as we're rolling into Brainerd here, we have a light snow falling on us. We're at minus 2 Celsius, it's about 30 Fahrenheit, maybe high 20s Fahrenheit. Roads are good, just a little wet. Things will just improve. I have a reload that's waiting for me in Duluth, Minnesota, it's taking me back home. I'd like to get that loaded today yet, but with the weather and the weather last night which delayed me into today, I may be loading it tomorrow morning. We'll see. You have asked me why I have such a high shifter, stick shift in my truck. I bought the truck like that, so the owners before me did that. It's mostly for looks. I think it looks cool, but for me I actually find it more comfortable. I like it there. It's easier to reach and it doesn't get in the way. It's just a preference I guess. You can get these extensions at any like Chrome shop, like in Sock Center, Minnesota. They sell them. You just put the extension on here and then connect the airlines, got to extend the airlines a little bit. You're good to go. Paul Bunyan again on that sign, tell you what, Minnesota's obsessed with Paul Bunyan. It's got to be a part of the history. You guys explained it to me in my comment sections a little while ago. I'll have to go back and reread them again. Every time I hear that turbo spool up, it's just, yeah, that's what you live for right there. It ends up ahead. I'm going to get in this lane right off the bat, so I don't have to worry about people not letting me in a block up there. American small towns, small cities, I just love them. They're exactly like, like I've said many times, they're exactly like the Canadian ones, like very small differences. There's just so many more of them, like there's so many small towns in the US. Unload my trailer inside at this location. So that's a bonus. Let me take my tarps off inside. Sweatin'. I appreciate it. I love that. They helped me fold up my tarps so it goes like more than twice as fast. There's so much snow on it. Most of it melted off, so that's good. We've got everything cleared off. I've got my riser taken down and strapped down, secured properly. My tarp secured properly. In an empty trailer, we're headed to Duluth, Minnesota. It's going to be fun. We're picking up a heavy load there. So, well, some good traction on the way home. Please, no more snowstorms. The shipper or the other option, which I'm going to take, they offered me that I could park on their property. Well, it's on a little access road that goes to the property outside their gate that I could park right there and be first in line tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. when they start loading. So I got enough food and water in here. I don't need to stay here. The weather isn't too cold outside, so I'm not too worried about all of a sudden my truck shutting off. I've got a bunk heater that's working well. And it's right in town where I'm going to, so I'd be able to walk somewhere and have a cell phone as well. If it was minus 50 outside, I'd probably want to stay a little closer to a 24-hour facility like this. Just in case if my engine decides I don't want to run anymore and my bunk heater stops working, I need to go keep warm somewhere, right? I'm going to go sleep at the customer and be there for the first thing in the morning when we get loaded up at 6 a.m. Hopefully be out of there by like 7, 7, 7.30, depending on what it is. It usually doesn't take too long to tie down this stuff. It's very, it's big, heavy pieces of steel that are very low. So now with that is that my straps are really pretty long. I got to roll them up. That's like a non-issue. So if we can get out of there by 7.30, we'll be back at our yard. I'm just bringing it to our yard in Manitoba later that afternoon, and I can either run home for night or they can send me somewhere for another reload to keep me going. We'll see what happens. I'm going to go park myself there before anyone else does so that I'm first in line. So if it wasn't for that snowstorm last night, I could have been at my receiver this morning a lot earlier, been unloaded and possibly even gotten reloaded here before they closed. Shipping department at this place where I'm going to closes at 2pm. Extremely inconvenient, but that's the way it is. So I couldn't make it there by then. I've been taking my time, but it's the 4 o'clock right now. What have been nice to have been reloaded and I could have been back home tonight yet, but it's just another snowstorm, right? Becoming just the expected. My neighbor Tony always tells me to expect the unexpected and be prepared. I'm going to tell him next time, you know what? Maybe I should start expecting the expected. A snowstorm every day. It's just what I come to expect and I'm not surprised and upset about it. I was just another like 15, 20 minutes down the road or so. I've got some food cooking in my truck here already. It should be nice and hot by the time I get there and shut the truck down, have some nice chicken noodle soup and then relax. I guess for a bit. I mean, it'll be about 415, 430 and I've got to be awake. Probably about 5am, so I'm ready for six. I can turn left from here, right? Yeah, there's no sign saying I can't. As long as that pickup truck waits for me. Oh, he's not going to wait. No, he's going straight. Okay, I should have gone. Now I've got to wait for those guys. And then once those guys are passed, I'm going to have to wait for this guy. Coming over here. Always way too nice. Okay, this might be my chance after this, after this truck. As long as that guy waits there. Nice. I've stayed here before a couple of times. I'm familiar with that truck stop there and I've even stayed in this truck stop. Remember that, that abandoned truck stop? But there's still lots of parking in the back there. It's just kind of dark. Interesting going to places that you think you've never been to before. And then you pull in, you're like, oh, I remember this place. Carlton, Minnesota, another small town. There's so many. I wish I had all the time in the world and perfect weather every day and just go explore every single small town in Canada and the US. I've been to all the big cities. I want to go and see every single small town. Each one of them has their unique character. I love when I have time to go visit a local restaurant in a small town that I'm visiting. Like a little paid tourist. Always stopped. Always stop. Left, right, up, down, in front of me, behind me. It's my turn. Like, isn't this cool? Wonder who lives here. I'm like, what do they like? What is their life stories? What brought them here to Carlton, Minnesota? How long have they lived here? Have they been living here for generations? Or did they move here recently? Or maybe they were born here. Beautiful homes. They're tucked into the bush. Nice. A little close to the road for me and close to the neighbor here. But that is the sound of the end of the day as we wait here until morning. And just a little heads up just here at the end of the blog. If you guys are trying to get ahold of me, please stop trying to reach out to me through my wife's social media posts by posting comments toward me or questions for me or asking her to ask me something in her comment sections. That's not my pages. It's just going to get ignored there. Those are her social media pages. If you want to get ahold of me, I have a ton of my own social media pages where you can get ahold of me. Just a heads up if you want to get an answer from me or get a message to me. It wouldn't be, it won't work if you go and try to comment on her page. Hey, can you tell Josh this? Hey, what about this? Hey, can you ask Josh this or that? Just so you know, that's her posts. Keep your comments related to her post in that case. Public service announcement. I'm just getting ready to start editing here and relax at about 6pm. I have 12 hours until the gate in front of me there opens. And guess what? Guess what? It's snowing. So have a good night everybody. I'll probably wake up covered in snow again.