The governor and the legislature in Michigan agreed to extend the existing budget by 30 days. The governor initially said that she would not agree to a budget extension. But apparently there was enough progress made so she agreed to the extension at 4:15 AM on Monday.

With out a budget, the state can not operate. Nor can it pay its workers so they are laid off until the budget is reached. So, technically, the state was closed for 4 hours and 15 minutes.

Unfortunately, those of us who stayed up late to see if the budget would get passed, went to bed thinking that we could sleep in. When we finally got the news, it was too late to get to work on time so most of us just stayed home.

Now, the state doesn’t think like normal people so the state has some pretty strange ideas. So when the state closed, so did all of the state parks and state rest areas.

Park rangers literally went to occupied camp sites and instructed the campers to leave immediately. I imagine that most of those campers will go camping in a different state the next time that they are on vacation. I know I would.

Likewise, they closed the rest areas because there would be no one to clean and restock the bathrooms. But, the WiFi at the rest areas still worked. I guess they figured that people could use the internet to locate a restroom.

But, now we have a budget extension so everything is opened again. However, if they don’t reach a budget agreement by the end of October, everything will be shut down again.

So, if you are traveling in Michigan around the end of October, you just might want to bring your own toilet paper just in case.