We had an unscheduled day trip today to Fargo. My iPhone was
really old and out of the blue T-Mobile stopped supporting it. When we were at
the last RV park I noticed my carrier said AT&T and not T-Mobile. My
computer was basically unusable since I use my phone as a hotspot. I had used
up all my roaming data since it was defaulting to the wrong carrier. (it
couldn’t be forced either). Greg has a newer phone and he was getting the correct
carrier. He had a useless call with T-Mobile about why we were having the
problem. She said they were working on a tower. (then why only one of the 2
phones?) She kept asking are the phones in the same place? Yes, right next to
each other. The call went on for over an hour with no resolve. The next night
he called again and got someone that was more helpful. They told us that my
phone was not being supported in quite a few states. (the last one, this one
and the next 2 we are going to). Long story short, the closest T-Mobile was in
Fargo an hour and a half away. So, we got up early and drove to the mall in
Fargo and I got a new phone. That took all morning. When we got there, the only
person working there was trying to help a lady that didn’t like any of her
options and just kept insisting that she get a new phone for free. Finally, it
was our turn and it took a while to get my data & aps copied to the new
phone. Success! Then, we went to Best Buy to get a new case.
It seems we can't leave Minnesota, since today took us right over the border again. Actually, the metro area is known as Fargo, Moorhead & West Fargo.
It was now lunch time and we checked out blackbird
BRICKOVEN. It was pretty good. We started with Cheese Bread (which really
turned out to be a cheese pizza) and had a Poblano Chicken pizza for the main.
YUM!
main street Fargo
Blackbird Brickoven
Our next stop was to visit the Hjemkomst Viking Ship museum &
Hopperstad Stave Church. The Viking ship is the real ship and the Stave church
is a replica. There was a 30 minute film about the Viking ship which was very
well done.
The Hjemkomst was made to look like a 9th century Norwegian burial
ship, which may seem out of place in landlocked Moorhead, Minnesota, where the
only body of water is the narrow Red River separating the town from Fargo,
North Dakota, actually sailed from New York to Norway in 1982, and has come to
represent the seafaring heritage of much of the population of Minnesota, which
has the largest number of Scandinavian Americans of any state.
The ship was constructed beginning in 1974, by Robert Asp, a
guidance counselor at a local middle school, in a local potato warehouse. Asp
was captain of the ship on its maiden voyage from Duluth out onto Lake
Superior, but died of leukemia before he could realize his original dream of
sailing the Hjemkomst all the way to Norway. Two years after his death, Asp’s
children finally did, departing New York City and arriving a month later in Bergen,
Norway. In 1983, it was finally shipped back to Minnesota, where it is
currently housed in the Hjemkomst Center, alongside a replica of a medieval
Norwegian wood stave church.
the bathroom - one was for washing hands
There were also other exhibits in the center featuring WWl’s
affect on Moorhead Minnesota.
We have seen Stave churches in Norway & Sweden and this
was a beautiful replica. It was all built by hand with local wood. Stave
churches are built using vertical wood posts known as staves and date from the
end of the Viking Age in Scandinavia. This one is a full scale replica of the
Hopperstad Church built circa 1140 in the town of Vic, Norway.
replica of a Celtic Cross which stands in the Churchyard in Nordfjord, Norway
the door to enter the church
On the way home we stopped at the Fargo-Moorhead Visitor’s
Center to see the actual Woodchipper used in the movie Fargo.
Fargo - Moorhead Visitor's Center
"stunt double" of the woodchipper
the actual woodchipper used in the final scene of the movie Fargo
interesting Grill & Bar
We also had some birding stops for the way home, but all the
lakes/ponds were not accessible so the ducks we saw were too far away. After
driving some back roads to find any that may be close we gave up and had 1
place left that had an access road right next to it.
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk with a Red-winged Blackbird
Blue-winged Teal
Blue-winged Teal
Blue-winged Teal
Spotted Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Mallard Duck - male
Eared Grebe
unknown Sparrow
We got there only to find the access road was gated and was
no admittance. We parked and got as close as we could, but the ducks were still
pretty far away. Ah well, we’ll have better birding opportunities over the next
couple of days.
Finally home, we had a very late dinner. It stays light from
about 5:30 in the morning until after 10:00 at night.
Tomorrow we are headed to Arrowwood National Wildlife
Refuge.
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