Saturday 6th May – Fargo and Minnesota

I keep waking up in the early hours and not being able to get back to sleep for ages before then finally passing out and waking up late.  It means I am missing out on my morning alone time when Simon is still asleep! So I didn’t get to go for a walk around the lake this morning despite it being a beautiful sunny day.

But no worry.  The plan today is to reach the next State park nice and early this afternoon giving us time to go out on the bikes. And to do minimal mileage as we need to do our second gas fill of the week already.

Fargo-Moorhead Visitors' Centre

So, first stop a Costco fuel top-up.  Secondly, Fargo Visitors’ Centre to re-live a classic movie moment. We re-watched the original 1996 film Fargo again a few nights ago.  This is a dark comedy written by the Coen brothers about a kidnap gone wrong.  It stars some great actors (Steve Buscemi, William H Macy) and has since been developed into a television series, the third of which I think is currently airing in the UK and stars Ewan McGregor.  Anyway, no spoilers, but a famous part of the film involves a wood-chipper being used for human body parts in the snow so the effect is quite dramatic!  The actual wood-chipper, complete with prosthetic be-socked leg, is on display here at the Fargo-Moorhead VC and even has its own Facebook page! The staff were exceptionally helpful, providing extra props and their photography skills to help us get the necessary shots: 

Like the hats?!

The Directors' autographs on the chipper

Fargo memorabilia... including some of the 'ransom money'

There was an extra display of movie memorabilia from Fargo and the Coen brothers even autographed the chipper.

We headed east out of Fargo and the border line into Minnesota was so ‘blink and you missed it’ that we failed to get a photo.  Maybe we were too busy looking for a truck wash to give the RV a well-deserved clean up, but sadly we failed to find one that he would fit in!  About 10 miles east we arrived at Buffalo River State Park and selected a dry camping spot for the night in plenty of time to go for an exploratory bike ride before it was time to start another fire. 

Bridge over the Buffalo River

 

Neighbourhood chipmunk

The outdoor pool?!

One thing I didn’t budget for was the amount of firewood we would require – we are going through two bundles a night at the moment!  But I’m not complaining – you can’t NOT sit outside and enjoy a fire in locations like this. It was so hot that I was slightly disappointed that we are only a couple of weeks early for the outdoor swimming pool.  It’s currently looking a little dry…..