More quarantine confusion, and a visit from the police

Saturday morning, we drove into the small city of Saint Cloud (pop 68,000). No ambition to hang out at all... we were only there because it was directly along our route and there was a Walmart at which we could do our weekly grocery shopping.

A couple of interesting things we noticed. A much higher population of Muslim residents shopping in that particular store. In fact, I doubt we have seen that many obvious recent immigrants in total over the last three and a half months as we saw at that one Walmart yesterday. Might be because we are so close to the big city of Minneapolis.

The other thing was mask usage. As of Monday, all Walmarts in the United States have a new policy that everybody has to wear some kind of face covering. There have been signs recommending it for weeks, but as of Monday it is mandatory.

Yet even yesterday, there were probably only 50% of people wearing masks. We found that really surprising.

The only reason I go in is to refill our 5 gallon water jug. So I am in and out really quick. Ruth does the actual grocery shopping on her own.

In yesterday's comments, we were asked a few more questions about our upcoming quarantine. Just to get the exact facts, I went to the Canadian government website at https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/latest-travel-health-advice.html#_Travellers_without_symptoms:

On that page, it specifically says "go directly to your place of quarantine, without stopping anywhere, and stay there for 14 days."

And yet they link from that page to another one that says...

"Do not make any unnecessary stops on your way to your place of quarantine.
Avoid contact with others while in transit:
Remain in the vehicle as much as possible;
Avoid staying at a hotel;
If you need gas, pay at the pump;
If you need food, use a drive through;
If you need to use a rest area, put on your mask and be mindful of physical distancing and good hygiene practices."

So... which is it??!

I found a Canadian Government "Corona Virus Hotline" and I called the number. I actually got through to a live person on a Saturday! I explained the conflicting information and where I found it. He put me on hold for a couple of minutes and came back saying that his paperwork says that we are in fact allowed to stop for fuel, and we are also allowed to take rest breaks along the way. Of course this is particularly easy when traveling in a motorhome because we don't even have to leave the rig (except for gas, of course... which we shouldn't need anyhow).

But when I asked him if our rest breaks could include an overnight stop (again, without leaving the rig) he said that I would have to ask the border officer when we cross.

Once he understood there was conflicting information on the website, he explained that they are really wanting to make things clear and he thanked me for pointing it out. But, he said that I had to let them know by sending an email to a certain email address that he would give me. You would think that would have been his job, no? Anyhow, I went ahead and did it.

Filled up with fuel at $1.94 USD per gallon ($0.70 CAD per liter) Probably the cheapest we will see for the rest of this trip. Then we got out of the city and headed to a small park in the town of Foley (pop 2,700).

It was such a quiet spot, and the parking area we were in was totally empty. Sherman was parked in the shade, and we hadn't seen more than 5 vehicles come by all afternoon. There was a sign at the entrance to the park from the parking lot that said the park was closed between 10pm and 6am. But there was no sign at all entering the parking lot itself.

So we decided to spend the night.

Around 11:00pm, I'm drifting off to sleep, and Ruth was still reading. A car drove up, and Ruth woke me up. She heard a voice that made her think it was the police. Sure enough there was a knock, knock, knock at the door and a voice that said "Police".

I threw some shorts on, and went and opened the door.

Young police officer just checking that we were okay. Nice guy. Had a little conversation with him about our story, and he said that technically we weren't supposed to be parked here for the night, but since we were all set up he didn't think it made sense to make us move to the street. He said if anybody called to complain the police would be able to say they're already on it. He took the info from our driver's licences and wished us a good night and a safe drive.

Whenever we have ever dealt with the police, we've learned that if you are nice with them, you get treated the same way in return.

Then, it took me forever to get back to sleep!

Today... another drive east. Beautiful day today. Clear skies, and the humidity has disappeared. High of 77F (25C) and a nice strong tailwind!

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