I first came out to Cando, ND. partially due to where a dart landed on a map, the cost effectiveness of living and the high speed Internet connections. This became my headquarters for living, although I didn't have too many visitors it still felt like home. And the time here was productive, the scenery was gorgeous and the town people were very welcoming and nice.
I've learned a lot about patience and relaxing in my time here. Coming from a fast paced life it's a shock how laid back things are here. At first it was frustrating -- the lack of competition and the schedules but once you figure it out life is good again. I'm thankful the town of 1200 people had the folks to assist with everything though and they did excellent work.
Food choices… Again I'm spoiled, living in all these great cities with places open at all different hours. I got to start eating healthier again and making my own meals always surprising myself with how awesome the food turned out. I saved so much money, explored my culinary skills again and took a lot of fun photographs of meals . I had plans on opening a coffee shop in town, but work kept me too busy to expand in this field. I hope someone does, a nice place for the kids and adults to go to.
Amazon Prime became one of my best friends while out here. If you do not upgrade your account to Amazon Prime (80$/free if student for year) you end up paying for rural delivery charges, plus if you upgrade everything is 2nd day shipping. Bob the UPS driver was a staple to my living out here with his daily deliveries of necessities and goods from Amazon.
Now onto the water, with Minot currently risking flooding as mouse river overflows I hope all the folks make it out and without too much damage. One thing North Dakota has is a lot of good people, folks who volunteer to keep each other safe. When Grand Forks and other areas were flooding people stepped up and helped with sandbagging and everything else. It's good to see people step up and help out. North Dakota is a helping and caring community. Hearing the news coverage saying Red Cross has enough volunteers helping out with food distribution and such and will keep people in the loop for what is needed next.
I'm not going to miss the mosquitos though, I don't know if it was my unique flavor, but the ND mosquitos really liked me. And with all the still water around the area… Yah…. bye mosquitos!
