Day 11: St Cloud MN -> Bemidji MN

Things I hate about the Pikey Old Beemer:

• The pre-flight routine is akin to starting an Airbus.  Select Driving Mode^[1], poke the touchscreen until Android Auto deigns to reënable diplomatic relations with the phone, poke the touchscreen again with crossed thumbs and pressed fingers hoping that VLC will start playing where it left off, start the engine, fiddle with the audio volume^[2] and optionally try to remember the incantation to reset the trip data.
• Every time you poke the button to reëngage the cruise control after for e.g. stopping to photograph a bridge or encountering a "STOP" sign, the display switches to showing you how far ahead the vehicle in front is.  If you want the trip data displayed, you have to press another button and frob the little control wheel wossname.
• The cruise control has normal and "Assisted Driving" modes.  Normal does what you'd expect from adaptive cruise control i.e. holds a steady speed and matches speed with any vehicle ahead even down to a standstill.  "Assisted Driving" looks at the lane markings and attempts to steer the car, though if you take your hands off the wheel for more than about ten seconds all sorts of blinkenlights start flashing in an admonitory manner.  However, it gets confused by:
• filter lanes
• crossroads
• traffic cones
• roads with too many corners
• cyclists in yellow jerseys
• So after the novelty has worn off, frustration sets in and off "Assisted Driving" must fuck.
• There was something else as well which I'll probably remember later.  It helpfully displays the current speed limit.  Or what it thinks is the current speed limit, because the most recent sign was part-hidden hidden in a bush.  Or it thought that the sign informing motor-ists that the next junction is Highway 30 is actually a speed limit sign.  Although it didn't do that when on IL-110 chiz.

Back onto the Great River Road, which in this part of the world mostly follows small county roads and sticks reasonably close to the river.  But woe betide the river-seeker who misses a sign, because then you end up doing an unguided tour of Aitkin MN and only realise you've started following the southbound route when the sun comes out.  But there are Nice Things to see:

Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Little Falls

MN-371 is sufficiently non-little to have a pukka rest area at Brainerd Lakes though, which contains this:

and this:

Small furry animal neither in a
cave nor grooving with a Pict

and this:

Yah, you betcha!

The very splendid and worthwhile Coen Brothers fillum Fargo was partially set in Brainerd.

More fiddly little roads running parallel to the river, which by now looks more or less like this:

The somewhat-less-than-Mighty Mississippi, Palisade MN

until eventually you work out that if you keep following the Great River Road you will do another hundred miles over and above the sensible route to the night's resting place, pull the pin and tell Emily to make for Bemidji without let or hindrance.

Staying here two nights so I can do a leisurely visit to the official source of the Mississippi tomorrow before hitting the road west.  And following this helpful advice next to the door into the car park:

1. It has "Personal", "Efficient" and "Sport".  So far this trip I have mostly used "Efficient".  Can you set "Efficient" to be the default?  No.  It can remember seat and mirror positions, but not that.
2. Can it be told to remember your preferred volume setting?  No.  No, it cannot remember that either.