Fargo, ND
This was our day of rest and we were very grateful for it!We went to "services" last night - it was in the rabbi's home and there wasn't a minyan (the requirement of at least 10 men in order to recite certain prayers). Mitch joined the men and I helped the rabbi's wife to set up the table. It turns out that I was incorrect in thinking that Fargo has a large Jewish population, although I guess "large" is a matter of perspective; there may only be about 50 Jews in the entire city!!! That's 50 more than in Bismarck. The next 4 months will leave us hungry for community, but we will still find ways to keep our spirituality. Either way, it was a very enjoyable (and tasty) dinner. Mitch was invited back to join the rabbi for prayer and then have lunch, but we opted out -- deciding to pray at home and open the nice package of lox we bought in Peoria.
Today, we slept late. We thought it was about 10:00, and were very surprised to see that it was 12:00 noon!!! I guess our bodies and minds really needed that sleep. We had cereal for breakfast, prayed, read a little, took another nap around 2:00 and had a nice lunch at 3:00.
We ended our observance around 5:30 (otherwise it will be near 10pm). We saw a billboard for one of Mitch's favorite restaurants (he got really excited when he saw it), which he discovered in Raleigh - Noodles & Company (turns out they have 3 locations in Fargo), so we went there for dinner. When we returned, we hitched up and filled the 10 tires. Now going to watch a little tv, and then go to bed. The goal is to get up around 6:30-7:00 and hit the road as close to 8:00 as possible, after making a nice egg/lox breakfast and then putting everything away and locking the cabinets, and disconnecting the electricity (we decided that since we still have enough fresh water in the tank, and the gray & black tanks aren't full yet, we could go another day without hooking up to water & sewer, even though we're paying $30/day at this campground for the privilege).
My thoughts about Fargo, ND, from the little bit that we've seen: worse than Raleigh!!! I'm not sure what the city looked like up until about 10 years ago, but currently there is nothing but HUGE shopping strip/mall after mall, after mall. You name the store, it's here. Seems there are more stores than there are people. Thrown in between are a lot of new townhouse developments. "They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot."
The only other thing I have to add is that this has not been a good week for things mechanical. Besides the problems with the truck, my tablet died (it's been on it's last legs for a few months), the GPS died, and yesterday Mitch's cell phone died (which we were using for a backup navigation system). To get to the rabbi's house, to get to dinner tonight, and to get to our final destination, we had to resort to the old fashioned way -- looking at a map (actually used Google and printed it), and calling for directions! The only problem I foresee is how Mitch is going to get around Bismarck for his work (when he needs to be in many different places and doesn't know until the morning) without a GPS. Perhaps his boss has an extra one he can borrow until he gets that and his phone replaced.
We lived in Fargo for 45 years. It is a beautiful town. The downtown area has seen a revitalization lately. The reason that there are so many stores is because of a population explosion in North Dakota. It is called progress. Also there is nothing to do 9 months out of the year but go out for dinner or shop. You must not have had much time to look around driving through there.
ReplyDeleteHi Dino. I didn't mean to offend you (or Fargo). I confess that I didn't spend enough time there, although I wish I had. I was just stating my first impressions based on the limited area I had been to. Never even got near the downtown areas; just basically on the outskirts where all the construction is going on and where there seemed to be more stores than people! I'm sure that doesn't accurately represent Fargo at all.
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