The Funny Things about Fargo

Today, it rained!  As we haven’t had much of that here lately, this was a much-welcomed event.  While the humidity hasn’t dropped much, the temperature has, and I think that our area is supposed to be out from under the heat dome by this evening.  Hallelujah!

Yesterday, I got in my very first 14-miler, the longest distance that I have ever run.  Beyond being a milestone for that reason, it is also a distance over halfway to the goal.  While 26.2 miles still seems like an awfully long way to run, being over halfway there feels pretty good.  My running partner and I started around 5:30 a.m. and wrapped it up about two hours and 20 minutes later.  Given the heat, we were pretty happy with our time.

After the run, Jeff, Jeremy, and I jumped in the car for the three-hour drive to Effingham, IL, to pick up Charlotte and Elijah from Jeff’s parents.  They were kind to give us the shorter drive this time, which was nice.  So, now, we’re all back home, for at least the next week or so.

Back to the Road Trip…

We arrived in Fargo, North Dakota, late afternoon on Monday, July 4.  We were staying for the next two nights at an Expressway Suites, a hotel close to the Fargo Moorhead Visitors Center.  We were pleasantly surprised with how new the hotel was and how beautiful of a swimming pool it had, complete with a big waterslide.

We quickly discovered that the hotel was as nice as it was because the hotel powers-that-be know how truly little there is to do in Fargo.  I guess the hotels themselves need to be places of entertainment.

In any case, we checked in, at which time the desk clerk informed us that Minnesota State University in Moorhead, right across the river, had the best fireworks display around, if we were interested.  I briefly toyed with the idea of sending Jeff, Charlotte, and Elijah and staying at the hotel with Jeremy, it would be 10:30 before the fireworks even started (it’s pretty far north up there—lots of daylight hours!), and just the thought of dealing his being up that late made me tired.  But, then, I remembered that we were on a FAMILY vacation and that one late night wouldn’t kill any of us.  Thus, we had our evening plans.

Shortly thereafter, we headed out for supper.  The kids had seen this on our drive in and begged to eat there.

Against our better judgment, we agreed.  After all, Jeff and I had been doing most of the restaurant picking this trip, so we figured the kids could choose tonight.

Upon entering the space portal, we immediately figured out that the Space Aliens Grill and Bar was a Chuck E. Cheese’s-type place.  That in itself wasn’t a deal-killer, but the not-great, expensive food was.  The portions were small and deep-fried all, and I think that we paid more for this meal than we had for any one up to this point.  Ack.  But, since we ordered dessert, we were given 10 free tokens, and Elijah managed to win 80 tickets at one game!  The kids pooled their winnings, and both left with a cheap prizes that made them both very happy.  So, I think that Jeff and I were the only ones who didn’t like this place.  At least, we were able to get Jeremy a relatively healthy smoothie for his supper.

As we still had tons of time before the fireworks show, we next visited the Fargo-Moorhead Visitors Center.  It was closed, due to the holiday, but there were plenty of things to see outside, including the world-famous Fargo wood chipper.

I’ve never seen the movie Fargo, which made this wood chipper famous, but the city Fargo seems pretty proud of it.  (We found out the next day when we stopped back that the REAL wood chipper from the movie is inside, along with a copy of the screenplay.  This one is merely a replica.)  I thought it might make a funny picture to put Jeremy in the wood chipper, but no one agreed with me.  In hindsight, they were probably right.

The center is also home to the Fargo Walk of Fame, which has a surprisingly high number of famous people represented, and this colorful bison.  We‘re not sure what makes the bison special, but the kids kind of liked it.  Well, except for Jeremy, who was a bit leery.

After that, we went back to the hotel for a little bit before leaving for the fireworks.  However, shortly after we arrived, the lightning and thunder started, then the downpour.  Jeff checked on his iPad and discovered that a huge bad weather system was coming through.  We decided that the fireworks were off of our agenda for the evening, as, even if they weren’t canceled, we really didn’t want to be out in a strange place in a thunderstorm.

We got ready for bed, and, then, the tornado sirens started going off!  We headed down to the lobby for instructions from the clerk, thinking that we needed to take shelter.  He laconically told us that the tornados weren’t anywhere close to us, so we didn’t need to be worried.  We went back upstairs, and the sirens went off again!

I don’t know about where you are, but, where we live, the sirens don’t sound unless a tornado has actually been spotted.  Jeff scoured the weather websites to find out if there really was a tornado and couldn’t find any reports of one.  The weather reports on TV kept saying that conditions were ripe for a tornado to form, but that was about it.  We went downstairs and sat there for awhile, but, eventually, the rain let up, and we headed to bed.

And that ended an exciting first day in Fargo.  Tomorrow, we were determined to see all of what Fargo had to offer.  Little did we know…!