Long Lost Relatives

Harvest Hosts

Our first stop out of the beet harvest was a place to stay near Fargo, where we had a dinner date seeing cousins and relatives we have not see in 40+ years. We decided on 4e winery just east of Fargo, in a town called Mapleton ND. As always this Harvest Host winery was scenic and tasty, and we have not been disappointed yet.

Dinner at Boston Pizza

My last memory of most of my cousins was when we were little kids, visiting Fargo/Moorhead and Ada MN. Lori had actually come to visit the Pacific NW a couple years before, and we had a nice although short time with her and her husband. The prospect of touching base with all of them, plus whomever else they invited made me excited, and admittedly a little anxious. But I could not leave the area without reaching out.

We arrived at a restaurant that I cannot remember the name of, and waited about 2 minutes in the lobby. Then suddenly behind me I hear “that looks like a Jenkinson!”, and turn to see my cousin Debbie! I hadn’t expected that. We hugged, and admittedly it took me a second to figure out who this was. I said “Debbie?”. “YES!”. What a blast. Soon the rest filed in and much warm greetings around.

My cousin James brought me a very thoughtful gift, a small canister of spices in a mini canning jar.

As you can see writing this a few months later, I’ve put it to good use. The dinner was very fun, talking about what we’ve been up to. My cousin Debbie and her husband were so gracious to pay for everyone. It was great chatting with her husband too as I’d never met him. We unfortunately did not think to take a pic before they left. I really regret that one. We had dinner without Doug as he got hung up somewhere somehow, I can’t remember why, but he showed up just as we were leaving, and it was better late than never. We did get to snap a pic at the end of dinner in the parking lot.

James’ Massive Pepper Factory

In our conversation at dinner Lori wanted us to come to James house and see his pepper operation. I was very intrigued because I had tried growing peppers and had various levels of successes and failures myself over the years, and canning some of them as well. However James growing skills are in another league entirely. I was quite impressed.

Lori said she was chipping in on the canning operation. What a great family endeavor. He gave me a few jars upon our departure which was so generous and gracious. He mentioned everybody gets together bowling and eats peppers on chips weekly. I thought that was nice.

The Pepper Tasting

His hospitality was so great, as he set us up with a pepper tasting. I was about to learn where my pepper pain threshold was, which I thought going into this was pretty high. I was mistaken. Fresh peppers on chips, with the right peppers, will blow your socks off, I don’t care where your threshold is. James was gracious to have every beverage imaginable to stop the burn. I took Jame advice, and used the beer to sooth the pain. The beer disappeared pretty quickly.

I actually had to stop due to some gastrointestinal distress, and Kathy got quite the kick out of that. It felt like something was going to explode in my belly for about 10 minutes, kind of like on the movie Alien. I was ok after about 10 minutes, but it was touch and go there for a bit.

James then invited me to his basement so I could check out his drum set and bass guitar setup. It was cool he has this space downstairs, I imagine being underground dampens the drums a lot. He plays for his local church which I thought was inspirational. Perhaps some day I’ll strum guitar for the local church wherever we end up buying property again.

Our time at James house wound down, we went to dinner at Applebees, which happened to be right across the street from the Harvest Host we had moved to that night, called The Fargo Air Museum. Due to prior commitments James understandably could not make it to dinner, but Doug and his wife were there, along with Lori, and we had a great time catching up.

Was a great time in Fargo. Next, on down the road towards Washington, with a snow storm approaching…