July 21 - Northern Minnesota

If someone had been watching us from afar yesterday night, they would have been in stitches.  Once we made camp in a secluded spot behind a casino in northern Minnesota, right around sunset, we were beset upon by a swarm of mosquitos the likes of which neither of us had ever experienced.  We had screens on all the open camper doors and windows, but none the less, these persistent creatures were finding a way inside and filling the thing with swarms.  We doggedly destroyed as many as we could catch, thinking we'd get ahead and be able to relax before bed, but despite how diligent we were, the bugs were finding another way in.  In frustration, we fired up the cab top A/C and closed all the windows in hopes that would staunch the flow, and indeed, either the lower temperature inside, or the lack of screen edges did succeed in stopping the influx.  After another 30 minutes or so, we had killed off the remaining bugs inside but there was no way we would ever be able to sleep with the noisy compressor of the air conditioner spooling up every 10 minutes.  After 30 minutes of indecision, we turned off the noisy contraption, kept the windows sealed tight and fell to a troubled sleep, tormented the loud buzzy of bugs  just outside the windows. As it returned out this night were the worst bugs we were to experience on our entire journey.