Off to the capital of North Dakota

Well, It is Saturday morning and we are in Bismarck, North Dakota for the weekend. We usually head out of Ellendale once every couple of months to spend the weekend in either Fargo or Bismarck. We sort of jump back and forth between the two cities. Fargo, the larger of the two, and popularized by the movie "Fargo" is about 2 hours and 15 minutes from our home. It is home to North Dakota State University, the Red River Valley, and some good restaurants and shopping. One unique place to shop there is Scheels, which is one of the largest sporting goods stores in America. The store has a restaurant, candy shop, children's play area, and most notably a monstrous ferris wheel that shoppers can pay to ride. Bismarck on the other hand, is out in the middle of the prairie in the heart of North Dakota. It is the capital of North Dakota and home to about 50,000 people. The city lies right on the clear flowing Missouri River, which is largely fed by snowpack from the Rocky Mountains. In Bismarck, there are great bike paths and walking trails that run along the Great River, where Lewis and Clark once landed their keel boats. This is also the part of the west where Native American influence and culture is very visible and evident in everyday life. Bismarck is a very friendly city that is also the home to a few colleges. There is a great public zoo here and a variety of things to do.
On another note, the countdown is on for my trip to Finland later this month. I will be leaving in less than 2 weeks to head over and hold a short training camp for the team. We have now signed over 40 players and should have over 50 when the season starts in May. I got word yesterday that we may have the chance to hold some practices and even a scrimmage against the Finnish National Football team during my second week there in May. This should be a great opportunity for our team to get ready for our season opener.
I have one other bit of exciting news to report. I just received an opportunity a few days ago for 2 more paid writing gigs!! I will be writing 2 articles that are mostly geared to inexperienced golfers or those interested in taking up the sport. I am working with an editor and a publicist on this project and my other job is to help promote a new book on Golf, which will be hitting the stores in less than a month. The pressure is on. If the articles are to their liking, they will be printed in some internet media outlets and the larger article will appear in National magazine/newspaper publications. Needless to say, I am really excited about this chance to add to my portfolio. I am optimistic that this experience will lead to some open doors when I start pitching my ideas for writing my own books. My book projects are on the horizon and they will come more to the forefront once I finish my full-time teaching responsibilities here at the college. I will keep posting updates as I find out where these articles end up. (Hopefully not in the trash bin!!) I have some real tight deadlines with this project, so I will be doing alot of writing this weekend into the wee hours of the night. Lights out.