Fargo for Vacation? You betcha

Don't let North Dakota be just a "flyover state." In my quest to visit all 50 states, I took what I thought was a nothing trip and suddenly made it all feel worthwhile. I flew into Minneapolis on a Saturday and drove approximately 3.5 hours west to South Dakota, then up to Fargo.

I did a little research before I left, but stopped at the Fargo Convention and Tourist Bureau, amazed that it was open until 6 p.m. on a Saturday. That's where the Celebrity Walk of Fame is, with hand and footprints in cement of visitors to Fargo. It includes 120 actors, authors, musicians and athletes. The first was Louisiana's own, Al Hirt. I was the first to put a pin on their world map for being a visitor from Shreveport.

Inside, you can have your picture made with a wood chipper in a corner devoted to the Fargo movie. Afterwards, you can go to www.thewoodchipper.org to see your photo appear on Facebook. Thank goodness, because I didn't even bring my real camera.

There is also a Wood Chip Marge statue at the Fargo Theatre. Actually, the movie only showed two scenes of Fargo and was not filmed there. Residents don't talk in an accent as exaggerated as the movie depicted; in fact, it seems like I was asked to repeat myself a lot.

Another stop was the Roger Maris Museum in West Acres Shopping Center. Maris shattered Babe Ruth's 1927 home run record with 61 homers in a single season in 1961 on the final day of the regular season. The Maris record stood for 37 years. He grew up in Fargo and led the American Legion team to the state championship.

You can watch a video there on an actual Yankee Stadium seat. The film shows Maris and Mickey Mantle were nearing Ruth's record. Pressure and the media got to Maris and he actually asked to sit out a game while approaching the record. A humble man, when he broke the record, teammates pushed him from the dugout back onto the diamond. Maris did not want to go back to Yankee Stadium for former player days, feeling he did not leave in good terms, until George Steinbrenner asked what it would take and Maris asked for a donation for a baseball field. You can see Maris bats, balls, uniforms, awards and magazine covers. There is no admission charge. Maris is buried in Fargo.

At the mall, I noticed Fargo has a Macy's. It also has a Cinnabon's, zoo and Amtrak station. Three things Shreveport-Bossier does not. I drove by the Fargodome arena that seated 17,000 for the Paul McCartney concert that night. This town of 104,000 has an arena larger than ours and attracted McCartney!

The North Dakota State University Bison play in the Fargodome. The 14,000 students see colorful bison artwork around town and beautifully landscaped streets with hanging plants. In the downtown area, many people were out and about around 7 p.m. It didn't get dark until close to 10 p.m.

It was 84 degrees the day I arrived and 54 degrees the Sunday I left. I'm sure it is much different in the winter, but I actually thought I could live in Fargo in the summer.

Nothing against southeast South Dakota, but I spent the night in Fargo, so that is where I wandered around and became impressed enough to write this. If you don't want to visit, maybe you want to work there. The newspaper had 11 pages of want ads.

There is nothing Podunk about Fargo. Just like we don't want people to think we are all from the swamp or hunt ducks, don't judge Fargo from the movie. It is nothing like you think.

P.S. If you save North Dakota for last, there is an official club. Best for last!

 

 

Minneapolis Paper Gets Five Stars

I spent 1.5 hours intently reading the Minneapolis StarTribune on a plane ride home from there on Sunday, July 13. A gentleman in the waiting area at the airport said I could glance at his, but he was taking it home to his wife. I saw so many stories that I wanted to read that I went and bought my own.

With no affinity towards Minneapolis, I was mesmerized and fascinated by many of the stories, first off, the upcoming All-Star game being played there and reading that Major League Baseball booked 14,000 rooms for the event.

A former LSU AgCenter employee and being from Shreveport where the Haynesville Shale has changed the area, I next read about the rail backups that have put Minnesota crops in jeopardy because of the North Dakota oil boom using the trains. Very pertinent information.

While my New Year's resolution was to do something caring every week, I studied the panhandling story. There is a website, www.giverealchange.org, that has tips on how to deal with aggressive solicitation. Minneapolis has a campaign for people to stop giving, instead writing a check to a nonprofit, which is dedicated to long-term solutions such as housing subsidies, job training (many panhandlers have just gotten out of prison) and mental health programs. Food for thought.

Device dangers was on the front page. One of every four crashes in Minnesota is caused by drivers not watching the road. The story showed victims and quoted that in two or three seconds, drivers travel hundreds of feet, so texting is like driving blindfolded. The article noted that you can get pulled over six times and get the same fine, unlike Driving While Intoxicated. Statistics show 2,189 drivers were cited for texting last year, up from 1,718. I harp on Don't Text and Drive.

Now an assistant to a state senator in Louisiana, it stuck out that Minnesota was one of the last to mandate seat belt laws and lower the blood alcohol limit. There doesn't appear to be a groundswell of public opinion that is pushing their Legislature toward banning cell phones in construction zones and other areas.

Then there was a Jesse Ventura update that insulted me. Ventura was appearing in court to sue the estate of a book's author for defamation. The author, who was later murdered, said Ventura was knocked out in a bar fight after making remarks about President Bush and dead Navy SEALs. The writer says, So the guy who sang Werewolves of London while wearing a boa thinks his reputation has been harmed? I had not known the former governor made reporters (I used to be one) wear nametags that said "media jackals." In his own book, Ventura once intimidated some people who had on "Harvard Sucks" T-shirts. He was teaching there, but how? He didn't complete junior college, the writer said.

I never thought about the Hamptons' gap between rich and poor until I read the story in the paper. Nannies, gardeners and pool maintenance people are out of work there in the winter. Forty percent of students are on a free or reduced lunch. Doctors and nurses share homes owned by the hospital because they can't afford their own. People commute three hours because they cannot afford to live there. Never thought about that.

Other stories were about curfews for youth, facial features might determine the length of your life, a travel story about airport cancellations and one on how to be nice to newcomers. Apparently, Minnesotans are a tight knit bunch.

But their stories drew this outsider in. I am so impressed with the StarTribune. But I did think its insert to try to get subscribers that featured mosquitoes all over the place was dumb. We don't like mosquitoes in Louisiana.