With Tink’s A/C operating at full speed, we headed over to Jay’s hometown, Fairmont, MN.
Our favorite campground in Fairmont is The Flying Goose. It’s a 5-star RV resort owned and operated by our niece and her husband.Austin howled with delight on our leash-less walks through the tree-lined paths at the campground.
Unfortunately, Jay’s family had caught a rather nasty bug and were sick during our unplanned, few days’ stay in Fairmont.
Butt that turned out okay because we got to spend more time with our “other” family: the Bergs! Angie and Joe were our neighbors when we lived in Fairmont. Angie has come to visit us several times in Tucson.
Angie helped celebrate my 60th birthday in Tucson. Doesn’t she make a great looking cowgirl?!Joe and Gabe proudly showed off their gaming creations. They play an involved, mystical game with other neighborhood parents and their young sons. I have no idea what the games are called butt I was impressed with the amount of time and artistic effort they put into each game piece. No two pieces are alike since each team creates their own representations.This is Bailey and she’s holding one of the Bergs’ twin cats. Bailey calls me “Rose.” As a little girl, she watched her neighbor (me) plant flowers. She said I looked like a “beautiful Rose.” My nickname for Bailey is “Snapdragon,” because that’s the flower to which she relates. Not only is she fierce (snappy) and strong (like a dragon), but she’s also a graceful, delicate artist who just so happens to play multiple instruments (just like her talented mom)!Naturally, we brought the Bergs a few gifts from our travels. Gabe’s favorite gift is the honking rubber chicken! I think Gabe may grow up to play the lead rubber chicken in the New York Philharmonic.
After visiting with the family, Angie, Jay and I hopped on our bicycles to tour the challenging flatlands of Fairmont’s 15 square miles.
Angie loves to ride her bicycle around town. She showed us some of her favorite trails and Jay regaled her with tales (that he’s told her before butt she politely pretended like she didn’t remember) of his childhood in Fairmont, MN.While Fairmont is known as the pig farming capitol of the country, it also grows a respectable amount of corn and soybeans.
Growing up in pig country, Jay Hillmer learned a thing or two about pigs. One of his many talents is knowing how to castrate a young pig. Castrating an older hog, one that weighs at least 120 pounds, is one of those things Jay is smart enough not to do although you might see a young man in Fairmont try to do it right after he says the famous, “Here, hold my beer” line.
If you look carefully, you can see the confused deer in the distance. Jay tried to entice it to come over and check out our bicycles. It looked at Jay. And walked away.Fairmont is known as “The Chain of Lakes” because its five lakes are pretty much connected except for one lake which maintains its chastity by not sullying itself with water from nearby lakes. Speaking of sullying, I found two avid cyclists celebrating their breakneck speed record from the grueling Tour de Fairmont race.George Washington’s boyhood home is Ferry Farm. Jay Hillmer’s boyhood home is Albion Avenue. And just like George Washington, Jay and his friends used tennis rackets to chase bats from the attic.It was 4pm and we were hungry. Jake’s Pizza is a “must stop shop” whenever we visit Fairmont. As a teenager, Jay used to work at Jake’s. Of course, everyone in Jake’s (just like everyone in Fairmont, and everyone in Fredericksburg, and everyone Washington DC, and everyone in Oro Valley…) knows Jay Hillmer.Eventually, Jake’s opened their doors, invited Jay to make a few pizzas, and gave us the best seat in the house. We ordered lots of pizzas and lots of root beers! And then we went out for ice cream of course!
Getting to spend time with our “chosen family” The Bergs was a delightful and cherished event during our Fairmont visit. Thank you to Angie, Joe, Snapdragon and Gabe for welcoming us into your lives so many years ago! We love you all! And look forward to you visiting warm and sunny Tucson some cold, dreary winter in the not-too-distant future.
We had one last very important stop to make before leaving Fairmont…
Jay visited his last surviving Aunt; Aunt Marilyn, who is 87 years young. Marilyn is better known as “Snork.” Jay grew up calling her “Snork” just he grew up calling his mother “Butch” and his father “Spike.” It seems everyone in Fairmont had a nickname that became their persona or vice versa. We’re not sure how Snork got her name butt I think it’s one of the most endearing nicknames I’ve heard. I can’t wait to use it for one of the juicy characters in my screenplay.
Aunt Marilyn, thank you for taking time to visit with Jay. He loves every moment he has with you, including your phone calls and emails. You’re a blessing to the world and we’re so grateful you’re in our lives.
And soon, we had to bid a forlorn farewell to Fairmont. Frankie got in one last smell of the pigs, corn, and soybean fields.
Rather than head straight home to Tucson, we decided to take a bit of a detour.
A 300-mile, six-hour detour. North.
You see, there was one state in all of the United States in which I had not yet set foot.
Plus, there were some boobs we needed to see.
North Dakota!!!! It’s the state that’s famous for being the very last state that most people visit. In fact, my nephew Ian told me to be sure to visit the Visitor Center in Fargo because they make a very big deal out of welcoming visitors who have “saved the best state for last.”These are the boobs we came to see in North Dakota! We gifted the boob puzzle to Cousin Mona last Christmas. When we arrived on our Summer Tour, Jay helped her put in the last two boobs.Cousin Mona was so thrilled to get a Tinkerbell’s Summer of 2025 Tour shirt! She loves to tell her friends about the “nuts” (that would be us) who spent three months bouncing around North America in a non-sensical maze that defied all logic.Mona and Kerry have a spacious penthouse apartment with a patio that overlooks the skyline of Fargo.We enjoyed sunsets on the patio and laughed our butttts off sharing stories as old friends who haven’t missed a beat even though it’s been years since we last saw each other.
Cousin Mona spoiled us with homemade meals and sweet treats. Kerry graciously let us wash our extremely muddy shoes and clothes in their brand-new washing machine.
Nothing like wet grass in spongy mud to make for a great play time!
Everything was muddy because Fargo had just been on the receiving end of a ton of rain. We stayed at the Lindenwood campground, which was just a few miles away from the Penthouse butt was a quiet, deeply wooded, muddy oasis in the city.
Ziggy and I enjoyed miles of walks through the woods and around the soccer and softball fields. The park straddles both sides of the Red River, separating North Dakota from Minnesota. Jay said he remembers 10,000 years ago when the Red River Valley was under a large glacial lake called Lake Agassiz.
The Red River is one of just 48 rivers in the United States that flow north. It flows into Canada.
Because Austin blended in so well with the black chess pieces at the Park, he was able to quickly capture the white knight and queen while the poor perplexed pawns wandered aimlessly in search of the deceptively devious black chess piece on four legs.
And here’s a surprising fact: NoDak is the 3rd-highest crude oil producing state in the U.S. – it ranks right up there behind Texas (of course) and New Mexico.
We found riding our bikes around Fargo to be easier than driving of course. And Jay found a mid-century style home that made him drool with enjoyment. Naturally, he met the owner who invited him to tour the home during the upcoming Tour of Fargo Homes. We took Ian’s advice and went to the Fargo Visitor Center. We were honored with a certificate, a t-shirt, and a photo op. We are now officially members of the “Best for Last Club!”The visitor center also features the one thing for which Fargo is probably most famous: the woodchipper from the 1996 movie Fargo. I’ve seen the movie at least a dozen times – it is one of my all-time favorite Coen Brothers’ films. The movie wasn’t actually filmed in Fargo. Most of the movie was filmed in Minneapolis with a few outdoor snow scenes (without actors) filmed in North Dakota.We found a place to explore to which Mona and Kerry had never been: the Hjemkomst Center.
Our expectations weren’t that high. Butt, boy were we happily surprised!
On the grounds of the museum is the Hopperstad Stave Church replica.
Stave churches are the most famous medieval buildings in Norway. They are named after the “staves” or “masts” that hold up the main structure of the church. Of the more than 1,000 stave churches that used to stand in Norway, today only 28 remain.
The churches were constructed between 1100-1300. They are built from wood and feature intricate wood carvings, especially of dragon heads. The foundation of the churches are usually built of stone.
After touring the Stave church, we made our way inside the center. By the way, Hjemkomst is actually in Moorehead, MN, which means we had to cross the bridge from Fargo, ND. It was a quiet adventure that didn’t require passports.
What brought us to the Center was not the Stave church (although that was interesting and we learned a lot about medieval churches). What brought us here was the genuine Viking ship that was built by hand in 1974 and sailed with a crew of 12 (one woman!) across the Atlantic from Duluth to Oslo.
A high school guidance counselor named Robert Asp, of Norwegian descent, had a dream of building and sailing a Viking ship across the Atlantic. I have a dream too. My dream, however, does not involve sailing a far-from-luxurious wooden craft with a horned head of a dragon named Igor across 4,000 miles of open ocean. I’d call that a nightmare.
God bless Robert Asp though. Because he had a dream and a vision. And because he had the help of his neighbors and friends. And because he had more than 100 trees from which to build the vessel. And because he had more than eight years of gifted labor from his community. Because of all of this, Robert Asp’s dream of a genuine Viking ship (with a bucket for a toilet) was not only built but was successfully sailed from the midwestern US to western Norway.
Unfortunately, Robert Asp died of leukemia before he could take the voyage. In 1982, his children and a few professional sailors guided the Hjemkomst (a Norwegian word which means Homecoming in English) on the two-month journey celebrated worldwide.A love story for the ages: Mona and Kerry have been married for 50 years. They met as college sweethearts in St. Paul, MN, have two adult sons and they have the best cousin in the whole wide world (the famous Jay Hillmer). By extension, they also have a loving “lil sis” (that’s me) who plays daily Wordle with Mona (she’s a tough competitor because she’s such an avid reader!) Soon, it was time to say our goodbyes. Ziggy took his goodbye in the form of a belly rub from Cousin Mona.Kerry and Austin howled in baritone while Mona and Ziggy hit the high-pitched notes. Tinkerbell and Leap sat patiently while we said our sad farewells to the funniest, happiest couple in all of Fargo: Mona and Kerry.Goodbye Mona and Kerry! We hope to see you in the sunshine of Tucson while Fargo is buried deep in several feet of snow. Remember to keep those boobs warm! The Norwegian art of wood carving isn’t just to make horny dragons named Igor. Although, truthfully, if you’re building a menacing Viking ship that’s going to smash through waves of fierce tropical storms, an angry-looking horny Igor dragon with razor-sharp teeth would be my choice at the bow instead of a sweet old gent with a wart on his nose.
Stay tuned for our next Tour Stop: Salt Lake City!
5 responses to “Puzzling Boobs in Fargo, Butt Goosed in Fairmont”
jillrenkey
Ha, that would be fun! I do love a good roasted marshmallow and wild dreams of writing the next Great American Novel! Probably not next year…we’re just trying to get our daughter through college over the next year-and-a-half, and we might visit her in Italy next semester. I think the roadtrip will come when she’s on her own, and we really feel more like true empty nesters! We will definitely let you know when we make it out to Tucson next!
Thank you Jill! Whew! I can’t believe we did it :)! Are you guys gonna hit the road for an extended trip next year or 2027? Let us know! We’ll meet up and roast marshmallows while co-authoring the Great American Novel 🎉
And thank YOU and JK for being such patient and kind hosts to two truly weary travelers. The carefully curated NoDak bag of gifts, the home cooked meals, and the hours of fun conversation on the patio made the 50th state one of the warmest memories of our travels ❤️ BTW, the NoDak puzzle turned out to be one of Jay’s favorites- he loved the challenge!
Thank you so very much for coming to North Dakota. It was so special. Our time together is always fun. I love the howling picture with Austin and Ziggy.
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