A Nice Surprise

Fargo, North Dakota
and Moorhead, Minnesota

The name Fargo used to make me shiver. The only picture I had of the area was of snow, frigid weather, pregnant cops, and murder (the movie Fargo). A good friend of ours, Curt Skredergaard, grew up in the area, and his descriptions did little to convince me that Moorhead and Fargo were more than ice cold. So, when we arrived here on a warm spring day, I was pleasantly surprised.


Driving through Broadway, Fargo’s downtown was fun. It seems to be the original downtown, but with striving businesses. Upon seeing a teapot advertisement for a bicycle shop/coffee shop, Adolfo and I decided to stop for coffee. The building was just as interesting as the teapot, it was an old train depot. Better yet, they had Italian gelato, so we skipped the coffee and went straight for the gelato. Yes, it is warm here.

A little later, we passed by a very busy skateboard park. Oh boy. It was way too busy to skate, but we decided to return the next morning. When we returned, the teens were in school, and Adolfo nearly had the park to himself. It was fun watching him skate, and I wasn’t terribly worried about him since the park was right next to a hospital—a very smart location for a skateboard park.

While driving through Moorhead, we came across an art museum. Out front were two of the areas painted bison. One was painted like a punk with a Mohawk. It was named: Don’t judge a bison by it’s cover.

The second bison was similar to the painted bull we found in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It was painted with several Van Gogh scenes, only this one had the face of Van Gogh and a bandage covering the missing ear. The artist named this one, Gogh-Bison-Go.


Also in Moorhead we found a Viking ship. Since Moorhead is nowhere near an ocean, it seemed this was an odd place for a ship. There are many people of Norwegian ancestry here, so there had to be a reasonable explanation, and we were determined to get to the bottom of this. Off we went to the Hjemkomst Cultural Center (no that's not the name of the volcano in Iceland). There we learned that the story was a bit more wild than I thought. Back in the 1970s, a very determined man in the area decided he wanted to build a Viking ship and sail it to Norway. In a nearby potato warehouse, he worked on this ship for a decade. Although he died before sailing his ship, in 1982 his children and several others set sail from Lake Superior. They sailed that ship through the great lakes and all the way to Norway! I guess dreams do come true even when they are a bit wacky.

The city, excited to have a Viking ship, decided it needed a traditional Norwegian church to accompany the ship. So, just outside the museum is a wooden church. The guide explained to us that it is popular for weddings even in November. The church has no heating, so the November brides have to wear long-johns under their dresses. Must make for an interesting wedding night.