I love traveling to places I've never been to before. And I love going to Huey Lewis and the News concerts. So when the band's summer tour schedule came out and I saw that they would be playing in North Dakota - a place I'd never been to before - it seemed like the perfect occasion to rectify that oversight and go see North Dakota.
North Dakota, you say? What's in North Dakota? Apparently not much. At least not in southeast North Dakota, where the concerts were. I flew into Fargo and drove about an hour south, practically to the South Dakota border (it didn't appear there's much over there either), where the Dakota Magic casino would be hosting the band for two nights.
I was told that the casino would be visible from the freeway, and it was. But at first I could hardly believe I was in the right place. It was a low building, a mere three stories at its highest point. And other than a convenience store/gas station in its parking lot, there was nothing else around at all. No restaurants, no houses, no nothing. There were no other structures as far as I could see, just empty fields rimmed by groves of trees. It made me wonder - and I think the band may have wondered this as well - where all the people were going to come from when they performed for not just one, but two nights. I've seen them at casinos before, even casinos pretty much in the middle of nowhere. But there were always visible bits of cosmopolitan infrastructure in the vicinity, or at least within 30 miles. And the hotels were usually high-rise ones, and not small low-flung motels.
But after I got over my initial shock, the place grew on me. I had expected there to be emptiness in North Dakota. And I'd really wanted to see what empty was like, since everywhere else I go (even the Nevada desert and Kansas) seems to have omnipresent signs of commercialization every couple dozen miles. Or at least more terrain features. But North Dakota is open and empty, and even open emptiness is something to see.
The hotel-casino also had its own charm. It sort of looked like it had been designed by people who had never been to one before and had just imagined what one should be like. In some ways it was typical, in others it was unique (for instance, while the restaurant served free sodas, it charged gamblers for their cocktails - even when they were just watery juice). But the people who worked there were clearly very proud of the place.
It was sort of funny: when I had ordered my concert tickets the clerk at the box office was amazed that I'd be coming from so far to be there. She asked me to come to the box office to say hi when I got there. So I did. I was so exotic... She showed me off to her coworkers as the woman who'd come all the way from California. And they all really wanted to know how I liked the place. I begged off the question at first while I was still unsure (saying something like, "I've only been here 10 minutes, but so far so good!") but later on I came to truly enjoy being there. It wasn't as slick as some other casino resorts, but in a way that was nice. It had a more homey personality, while still having enough necessary comforts to make being there pleasant.
(Of course, with only two restaurants (one being a buffet that made Sizzler look like a five-star restaurant) and a small casino and an even tinier swimming pool, had I stayed any more than the few days I probably would have been crawling the walls. But it was just fine for a weekend.)
Also, unlike the other Indian Casinos I'd been to, this one actually had real Indians. It appeared to be on reservation land, and many of the people who worked there seemed to be Indians. Indian gaming didn't seem to be just an excuse to have gambling; it really seemed like this establishment could be the economic engine for the community. It also might explain some of the unique architecture of the building. A North Dakotan explained to me later that the local Indians favored round buildings. While a round casino floor seemed less than optimum for a casino design, it may have been built that way to reflect the local cultural tradition.
And to be fair, the region isn't completely devoid of any sights to see. Apparently there are some historic forts, and up in Fargo is the Roger Maris museum. But I got there late on Friday, and Sunday was the day I left, so that just left Saturday for tourism. Unfortunately Saturday was pretty dreary, and I just couldn't bring myself to drive two hours up interstate I'd already seen just to visit these places. Instead I took a walk, taking in the ambience of nothing but the birds, the bugs, the wind and the rain. I even walked all the way to South Dakota (full disclosure: it was about 50 yards away from the hotel...).
But even though there was no neighborhood population to draw from, the concerts did attract people. Friday the theater wasn't quite full, but Saturday had a good turnout. The first night about 90% of the crowd was seeing the band for the first time. On Saturday it seemed like 60%, possibly because it included some veterans from Friday. Anyway, like moths to flame people converged upon the venue, some driving many hours to do it.
(I met one woman who lived 5 hours away. She'd stayed in the hotel the night between the shows, but she didn't have a room after the second one. So I let her crash on the spare bed in my room after the concert instead of driving all that way late at night and tired. Bars close down in North Dakota at 12:30 - even at the casino - and apparently everyone on the roads at that hour is probably drunk, so it was nice to save her from that. And it paid forward the favor that another fan had once done for me after an Atlantic City concert, when she let me stay on her extra bed when I had no hotel room and an hours-long drive ahead of me.)
As for me, maybe it would have been better if I'd gotten out to see a little more. (I did also manage to detour to Minnesota on the way back to the airport, just to get a superficial impression of what the place was like.) But it was a nice change to just hole up there for a few days, away from everything. There was no Internet at the hotel and only spotty cell phone coverage, so I was forced to relearn how to live without being connected 24/7. I really enjoyed my trip though, so it must have worked... I guess being in the middle of nowhere sometimes turns out to be the perfect place to be.