Check your Rand McNally Atlas for Christine - you'll find a huge town of 150 along the banks of the Red River. There seems to be a little larger city called Fargo about twenty miles north. We're staying with Vi's niece's family - Ken and Melanie Knudsen.
Started out from Grand Rapids, MN this morning and crossed the Mississippi River twice before heading south toward the lake country of Minnesota. As we were driving through Remer (probably about the same size as Christine), we noticed a lot of trees down along the highway. Seems like they had a storm with 90 mph winds come through recently - so recently that they haven't had a chance to dispose of all the downed trees, they just cut them back to the shoulder of the road. Must have been a scary storm since some of the damaged trees were good size.
As we passed through Walker, MN, we noticed a huge building to the right. Would you believe a casino? Northern Lights is a 40,000 square foot casino at the foot of Leech Lake - I think it's the Ojibwe Indian tribe which runs it. We thought that perhaps we would stop and let them help offset some of our trip expenses - instead we ended up contributing to their building fund. Oh well, better luck next time.
Continued through Detroit Lakes and hit US 10 into Fargo/Moorhead. Arrived a little after 1:00 p.m. and went to visit the Holy Cross Cemetery where Vi's parents and brother are buried.. A sad occasion, but we always pay our respects to them.
On a happier note, we arrived in Christine in the midst of Celsey's school picture operation. I think D-Day might have had a little more forethought, but it's close. Neat to see her as young woman about to graduate from high school. Karen, Vi's sister-in-law, came out and we had good time catching up while Melanie helped with the photo op. I took a walk around the farmstead and out to the Red River. Got my exercise not only by walking, but also by swatting the mosquitoes which Melanie said had just arrived in great numbers the day before - talk about good timing for our visit!
That evening we went into Fargo where they had a huge welcoming party for us. Oh okay, it was actually Reilee's 21st birthday party and Russ and Melinda hosted the family and her friends for dinner at Paradiso's Restaurant. Reille will be a senior at NDSU this coming year, graduating in May (same month as Danny, but a little earlier). It's going to be tough next year planning our trip around the various graduations. Afterwards, we stopped by Shotgun Sally's Saloon for a drink. I gather it's named after the song (look up those lyrics someday), but nobody who worked there was sure where the name came from. We were just going to have one drink, but a rainstorm moved through Fargo while we were there, forcing us to stay a little longer :-).
Back to Christine where Connor graciously had given up his room for our stay. Connor is at NDSU and his twin sister Carley is at UND - always a friendly rivalry, well, maybe not always friendly! Carley had arrived at Paradiso's late, but she was easily forgiven because she had been on a fishing trip up at Garrison Dam and brought back the legal limit of walleye's. Maybe not so legal since they had miscounted and had eleven fish, not ten - but who's counting. I hope the North Dakota Fish and Game Commission don't subscribe to this blog.
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