I am guessing that there is (somewhere) a road building school specifically for engineers that build secondary roads in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Today we got extensive exposure to roads that displayed the signature feature of this school. The roads are laid down in 20-30 ft sections, between each section is a small gap filled with pitch. Since this inter-section gap is slightly lower than the main sections a very consistent wash-board effect is produced. I was very pleased to encounter these road sections as they provided the perfect shake test for the truck and camper. Anything that did not break on these roads is unlikely to break anywhere. Other overlanders looking to subject their vehicle to a similar trial by bumps can get the exact route by sending me a message from the contact page of this site.
Over the past couple of days the landscape has changed substantially, North and South Dakota were pretty flat, with wide expanses of cultivated land mostly corn and (what we took for sugar beat). Into Minnesota this pattern continued but with more distinction between fields with small stands of trees separating each plot.
The Minnesota landscape clearly displayed consolidation in the farming community. We passed many farming homesteads today, some are clearly abandoned though still used for equipment storage by the new owners. Those that are not abandoned (presumably the survivors) are generally well manicured and prosperous looking.
Farther into Minnesota the land of a thousand lakes landscape, became evident. Traveling here is like driving down a green tunnel as the road is bordered by forest (or should I say woods). Many small lakes and associated dwellings are passed. The entire landscape seems to be private property and places to get off the road are scarce. These lake side dwellings vary between well tended and "out and out" trash dumps, but even the well tended do not seem to exhibit the affluence of the farm houses we saw earlier.