Sofa Surfing

Not a wood chipper to be found and the dialects weren't of the Yooper derivation.

And yet, Fargo, North Dakota's downtown area met, perhaps exceeded, my expectations - a very hometown feel, essentially two main cross streets, a signal light, shops that appear to come and go, with a staple of long-lived, established places, such as the Hotel Donaldson, or the Hodo for short, a hotel and restaurant, with sharp-witted servers and tasty burgers, mine being buffalo, a specialty.

Annie and Kevin were wonderful hosts, Annie being my buddy Hugo's friend, Kevin her boyfriend,and we walked the streets of downtown Fargo, discussing movies, Tom Cruise, Wolverine, Godzilla, and of course our common bond, Hugo Gonzales. There were many laughs, mostly at Hugo's expense, and I had my picture taken at the Hodo, next to the picture of the red snapper, a staple activity apparently within Hugo's entourage. The red snapper is an art piece of a naked woman holding a huge fish, ostensibly a snapper.

Annie had a test, statistics, in the morning and when we returned to her apartment, she wiled away the rest of the evening studying while Kevin and I bonded, watching the news - apparently there's a registered city, Vance, North Dakota, that has no residents, zero, and yet it's still a city here - and the History channel, part two of a World War II series. It was a low-key night and frankly a much needed return to normalcy, hanging out, relaxing, playing with Brutus and Eddie, the two pets, a dog and a chinchilla. A little Big Bang Theory and I curled up on the comfortable sofa, a pink quilt as a bed roll (that's okay - I'm comfortable with my masculinity) and slept well with the occasional interruption by the nocturnal Eddie who lived up to his namesake, Eddie Van, by partying most of the night.

Today will be a short trek over to Medora, North Dakota, yet another derivation from the original schedule. There's a loop through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park that is supposed to be a great motorcycle ride, roughly 30 miles in the badlands. It's not a technical ride, more gentle sweepers, with a decent road and I hope great views. The original plan had another eight hour day to Billings, Montana. At roughly 4.5 hours, this should be a nice, relatively short ride.