The elevator at Fargo Raddison Blu is high tech. 

The control panel is on the outside. 

You press the floor you want. 

Isobel (the elevator, yes I named her) tells you which car to step into and which side – “Proceed to car 1 to the left front’. When you step inside there is no control panel. 

Damn if you chose the wrong floor. 

We started our day with caffeine at TwentyBelow as recommended by stepsister Kelly.

Not a bad little coffee shop. Thanks Kelly. 

Then we headed to MoDs old house. He commented on how tiny the house looks now he is all grown up. Three stories including basement MoD – that really isn’t small – even though from the outside it does look it. I love this whole idea of a house with a basement.

On their street corner was, and remains, a Fraternity house (Frat house). I heard a rumour that some young men, who shall remain nameless, may have done some dumpster diving for playboy magazines. Regularly. This of course, is totally unconfirmed. 

We then took a driving tour of North Dakota State University (NDSU)- MoD’s former uni from 1978-1981. 

Went past the Presidents house.

That would be the President of NDSU – they aren’t called Chancellors here. 

Headed up the highway towards Grand Forks. 

The highway speed limit is 75mph, converts to 120.7kmph. Quite cruisey in Bessie. 

MoD tells me that he used to ice skate up the drainage ditch from Fargo to Harwood, a mere 11 miles or 17.7 km.

It’s farming country all the way to Grand Forks, soy beans, corn and sugar beets. Super rich soil, very flat land and some of the best farming in the world. 

Everyone knows that says MoD. 

They harvest the sugar beets in the fall, cook them up in fall/winter. MoD says it can be quite a strong smell – when they cooked it in northern Moorhead an easterly wind would blow the smells into Fargo. Not an offensive smell apparently – a cooking food smell. Would that be similar to the McCain factory in my hometown of Ballarat I wonder? Or worse, the smell of the kitchens from the Queen Elizabeth Centre. Depending upon what they were cooking of course. I have an aversion to strong smells…..

Once we got to Grand Forks we headed to Starbucks for a soy latte (I have converted MoD) and a light lunch – eggs and Gouda – relatively healthy all things considered.

Then off to our destination for a 1.30 tour.

The Ralph Englestad Arena. 

The great Wayne Gretzky, ice hockey legend, claimed ‘It’s one of the most beautiful buildings in North America’. 

I will be the judge of that Wayne. 

This totally amazing facility came about due to the realisation of the dream of Ralph to build the finest ice hockey arena in the nation for his team, the University of North Dakota.

He donated $109m. Yep that would build it.

Those figures are from the year 2000, it would of course be significantly higher in today’s dollar. But that’s a hell of a lot of money to donate.

Ralph’s team used to be called the Fighting Sioux but once America became a little more politically correct, the Sioux was no longer ‘appropriate’. They are now called the Fighting Hawks. The story is that Ralph, just to make sure the Sioux were never forgotten, added the Sioux logo to everything. More than 2000 logos in fact. I am talking everything. He did a mighty fine job of making sure the Sioux would never be forgotten. The ends of seats, the stairwells, the tiled and carpeted floors. 

The granite logo in the floors (there are 25 of them) cost $7m alone. Pretty impressive. 

The Ralph Engelstad Foundation runs the facility so this isn’t going to change in the short term. Mind you, if they have to replace the carpets they can’t include the Sioux logo, so our tour guide told us.

The carpets are very well maintained. As is everything there. 

The facility seats 11,644 in the main arena, there are 50 suites seating 6-30 (with a grand view) and they cost between $30-$50k per year to sponsor.

There is $6m in brickwork alone. 

Apparently there are around 100 players from UND who have made it to the National Hockey League.

There is an Olympic size rink for practising when playing other teams, as it is wider. 

So much information to digest!

So many photos.

Post our visit we headed back to Fargo to rest before a lovely evening with the rellies.

And a bike around the block on step sister Kelly’s two people roadster. 

And yes, that would be a NoDak ice hockey t-shirt I am wearing. Gotta get with the programme.

Another good day. 

Just to finish the night off, I need to tell you that I love the fact you can go to most public toilets and you don’t have to touch the flusher. Upon arising it just flushes. Which does have a tendency to scare the you know what out of you if you ain’t expecting it.  But still a good thing, given our current aversion to germs.

Tomorrow we go to Bismarck.

It will be 33. On Thursday it will be 37.

That’s hot.