Day 1 in Fargo

Having caught three separate flights, visited the ‘Prince Shop’ in Minneapolis/St Paul Airport, I landed in Fargo after some 12 hours of traveling and contacted the hotel where I would be staying to request the shuttle bus to collect me. They duly turned up and I checked into the hotel and then tried to keep myself going despite it being early evening but just after midnight in terms of my body clock.

I fell asleep watching the USA losing to Turkey (oops) and then woke up at 2.30am in the morning. Eventually I fell asleep again and woke up at 6.00am, the time I was hoping for as this is likely to be the time to rise and shine on the bike ride. I will be interesting to see what happens tonight with my sleep patterns.

Having grabbed myself an uninspiring complimentary breakfast I then walked to a nearby mall but spent over an hour keeping myself amused as none of the shops opened until 10.00am. Nevertheless, there was plenty to see and some of the facilities were rather wonderful or rather daft!

Another feature in the mall was small museum to celebrate a local sporting hero, Roger Maris who hit 61 home runs in the 1961 season for the New York Yankees baseball team, surpassing Babe Ruth’s record. However, in 2001, Barry Bonds set the new record with 73 home runs.

It was wonderful to see a local lad being celebrated in such a public space but you get the feeling that Fargo is hardly a hot bed for celebrities and North Dakota has to borrow its sporting teams from nearby states. Not a great deal of action or news takes place here. Even the landscape is flat and rather boring. The guy who collected me in shuttle bus told me that there are some nice places to go in North Dakota, including the ‘Badlands’ but the name doesn’t exactly inspire me - sorry. The main part of the Badlands National Park is actually in South Dakota!!

Hopefully I will have more scenic pictures to share later on this tour!!!