Is this really Fargo?

Here I sit on Main St. in Bozeman Montana! I finally made it to Montana I’ve been looking forward to this for 36 years! I’m sure I’ll have lots to say about this state soon. But first…..

My Midwest tour from Madison WI to Montana:

I headed due west through some pristine farm land and rolling hills that reminded me of Vermont! I hit Route 35 north which shadows the mighty Mississippi River up to Minneapolis/St. Paul. The sun was shining and every couple of miles you would get a vista of the big river! The stretch of road was scattered with little towns and many Harley Davidson! I went as slow as possible and pulled over whenever a fellow driver came upon me.

Minneapolis: One of the Twin Cities, a manageable and clean city with loads of punks, hippies, squares, yuppies and other genres of humans. I hung with some good folk at a little bar and we scowled the local arts paper for the best option for music. We decided on the Kitty Kat Club and a blues folk rocker from Duluth named Charlie Parr. An except from his web site:

*A confused and shy individual, Charlie Parr plays original and traditional folk and Piedmont-style blues, accompanying himself on National resonator guitars, 12-string guitar and sometimes a banjo. Charlie Parr has failed at most things in his life. Music seems to have rendered him unemployable and is the only thing he’s ever done with any confidence. A lot of folks have been saying nice things about Charlie, despite the lingering odors and indecipherable comments he makes.

The man was wearing a flannel shirt a pair of boots from the 50’s and could have easily been mistaken for Paul Bunyan’s meek little brother. But he put on a great show with both middle aged yuppies and college aged hippies giving him loud applause and wanting more. It was a great club in the heart of Dinky town, on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Sorry about your loss Minnesota, welcome to Bean Town Mr. Garnett!!!!

From there I headed north to check out some of those 10,000 lakes you hear so much about. And they don’t disappoint. I tuned down a random dirt road at about 11pm at night, I drove for about 10 miles and found a little place to park/sleep next to a lake, right across the road was an entrance to a bike path, the Mi Gi Zi trail. After breaking my fast I hoped upon my bike and road bike paths for about 3 hours around lakes and through woods, basically amazing.

Then I cruised over to Grand Forks, North Dakota to check out the old stomping grounds of my good friend Chad “I know longer am that cool since I don’t drive Big Red anymore” Tomforde, it was friggan hot and honestly a snoozer. Then south to Fargo, the movie is one of my top 7 movies of all time. I expected a little sleepy mid western town, but to my surprise it is a city the size of Portland Maine with a growing central business district, a decent music scene. I was craving pasta and I found a little place serving all you can eat pasta night. For 7 bucks I got all you can pasta and bread and the unlimited soup and salad bar, I closed my eyes and for minute I was transported to Bob’s Chicken on Islington St. in Portsmouth New Hampshire. I miss Bob’s so much it’s hard to explain but you should check it out!

I woke up in Fargo I did a little phone in to Tim Stone’s radio show on WSCA and we talked about traveling, ethanol and my encounters with prostitutes. I decided to b line it to Montana, I did stop in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the western edge of North Dakota which was beautiful and reminded me a bit of the canyons of Utah. A lasting image from the road in North Dakota was the massive fields of sunflowers and the share lack of human activity except for the occasional farmer on his tractor!! I’m ready to hit the infamous mountain bike trails of Montana, then I’m going to hit the Bozeman Co-op later..... every town should have a food co-op and more bikes then cars.