My August 19th departure from the White Earth Reservation turned into one of the more memorable social chapters of my road trip, thus far. I had been traveling through northern Minnesota and western Minnesota, and now I was pushing into North Dakota, with Fargo serving as both a practical stop and a wonderful reunion.
I woke up on the White Earth Reservation and headed west toward Fargo, North Dakota.
There was a practical mission waiting for me in Fargo: getting my 2020 Ram 1500 HEMI serviced at Firestone. After thousands of road-trip miles, that was an important piece of expedition maintenance. My truck isn’t merely transportation on this journey—it is carrying my rooftop tent, camping equipment, refrigerator/freezer, solar system and essentially my entire mobile life. The real reason Fargo became memorable was waiting after the service appointment: Amy and Mark.
I originally met Amy and Mark in New Orleans in April, and now, several months and many road-trip miles later, our paths crossed again. And, as often happens on my journey, one friendship brought another person into the story: Sara, whom I also met with Amy and Mark in New Orleans.
I met Amy and Mark at their home, and the evening quickly turned into a genuine reunion rather than simply another stop on my itinerary.
Mark, Amy and I went out into Fargo for dinner and drinks, catching up and enjoying the city together. Sara joined us, making it a particularly nice little New Orleans reunion transplanted hundreds of miles north. It is one of the things that has made my 160-day journey unusual: not just collecting places – but reconnecting with people I’ve encountered along the way.
After dinner we visited a cool pop up art showing in a hipster gift & nicknack shop. Then the evening really got started. We met Sara at a cool speakeasy along with some other bars where I met interesting locals. Eventually, we returned to Amy and Mark’s place.
Mark, being the sensible one, recognized that sleep was necessary as he had to wake for work at 5:30 am. But Amy, Sara and I apparently had other plans. The three of us broke out the good bourbon, got into the hot tub, and somehow turned the evening into a combination of bourbon tasting, conversation and Connect Four.
And we kept going. And going. And going.
Until suddenly it was: 4:45 a.m.
That’s the sort of time that seems perfectly reasonable when you’re sitting in a hot tub with great friends and fantastic bourbon. It becomes considerably less reasonable when you remember that you have to get up in a few hours. At 9:00 a.m. I needed to be up and out for my morning mission. Drive to Bismarck Airport to pick up Annie Farrell and to continue on to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
While in Fargo I learned some things. Fargo is North Dakota’s largest city and the center of the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area, which straddles the Red River of the North and the North Dakota–Minnesota border. The Census Bureau puts Fargo’s 2025 population at about 136,275, up more than 8% from its 2020 census population of 125,990.
Fargo has some serious frontier history. Fargo was founded in 1871, when settlers established a community where the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed the Red River. The city was named for William G. Fargo, a director of the Northern Pacific and co-founder of Wells Fargo Express Company. Fargo’s early reputation was decidedly less wholesome than the city I encountered. The city describes its early years as a rough and rowdy frontier town, complete with saloons and bordellos. In 1876, Fargo had only about 600 residents. By 1892, it had grown to more than 8,000. So perhaps my 4:45 a.m. finish wasn’t entirely out of character for Fargo.
Today, Fargo has a surprisingly lively downtown. Modern Fargo’s downtown is known for its restaurants, bars, murals, boutiques, arts and nightlife, centered around Main Avenue and Broadway. That made my evening out with Amy, Mark and Sara a particularly fitting way to experience the city-not as a passing highway stop, but as a place where people actually live, socialize and have fun.
At 4:45 a.m., the Fargo chapter finally came to an end. I had roughly four hours to sleep, get myself moving and make my way toward Bismarck Airport to pick up Annie Farrell.
As I went to sleep I realized the morning was going to hurt. But that’s a small price to pay for one of those nights that doesn’t happen because you planned it. It happened because friends were together and nobody wanted the evening to end.
Fargo may have been a maintenance stop for the Ram.
It turned out to be a maintenance stop for my soul, too.