Last week, Mike and I covered over 1,000 miles in four days. with adventures in each town.
Our Trip:
A. Mike’s house (Minneapolis, MN)
B. Mike’s parent’s (Alexandria, MN)
C. Fargo Billiards (Fargo, ND)
D. Samsara & Lee’s Bar (Rugby, ND)
E. Shooting Star Casino (Mahnomen, MN)
F. Fargo Billiards again (Fargo, ND)
G. Back to Mike’s house (Minneapolis, MN)
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Our journey began with a quick pit stop in Alexandria, then a sneak preview of Fargo Billiards & Gastropub before their official grand opening (today). Mike took some amazing photos on this day. I’m still working on the complete writeup/review.
I love their logo!
The beautiful billiard artwork is a collection of 16 pieces (one for each of the balls) entitled “The Rack” by an NDSU art professor called Kim Bromley.
There’s a unique story for each of the pieces. More details in a follow-up post.
Next, we headed Lee’s Bar in Rugby where Mike recovered a couple 8-foot Valley barboxes. I didn’t even know such a thing existed. Since Vegas couldn’t make it on this trip, we let Frank come along. He made a new friend and also helped us count all the old chalk we found in the two tables. Eek!
After the job was done, Mike and I went through and separated all the good, bad, and the ugly pieces.
Take a guess at how many pieces of chalk we found in those three paper trays. [Answer at the bottom of this post.]
Next stop, Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen, Minnesota where we worked out some details for our 8-ball tournament on Labor Day weekend. While driving through Grand Forks, I snapped this photos. It’s not exactly something you see everyday.
When we got to the casino, we enjoyed a wonderful meal at the fine dining 2one8 restaurant. Check out these cool light-up menus! I’ve never seen such a thing.
The next day, we were back to Fargo for the friends & family grand opening. That was nice of Mike Page to include us on this evening. We got to town a little early, so Mike and I stopped into Billiards on Broadway for a few games of pool. In our first game of 10-ball, I unknowingly pocketed the 3 on the break. I got perfect position for, what I thought was, the 3 ball, shot it and Mike called foul and took ball in hand. Man! He’s cut throat!
Seriously! Without both balls on the table, it was really tough to tell!
The Fargo Billiards & Gastropub grand opening was just as grand as the pool room itself!
Everyone there was just as excited as we were to play on the tables and to see the doors open. Mike Page made a touching speech. We even got the meet Kim Bromley himself and ask him all about his artwork.
The food was wonderful! There were samplings of many of the menu items including some special surprises. There was even a trick shot show.
I can’t wait to get back there again!
Here is the complete photo album from our trip:
August 11 - 14, 2009
84 Photos
[Answer: 102 pieces of chalk]
That’s amazing how much chalk ya’ll found!!
Great article!
I guessed 67!!! WOW – that’s a lot of missing chalk!