Cando Shirts - Duck Hunting Capital of North Dakota

Cando is such an awesome little town and it has a real community to it. I saw some old bar t-shirts from small towns and thought that Cando could use a shirt for itself. These shirts depict a hunter in Cando, ND taking aim during duck hunting season featuring the population and established date of the town.

Do you have Cando pride? Love to hunt or just love the design then these are for you. These are crowd sourced and available for a limited time. There are only a few days to buy them before the chance is over so be sure to grab yourself a Cando T-Shirt.

The Unexplained of North Dakota

Over the last few years of driving cross country I have often thought about the unexplained... yes, the aliens and ufos of the world. Much of the thoughts fueled by Coast-to-Coast syndicated radio show (Art Bell).

I have wondered about what sightings and unexplained events have happened throughout North Dakota so I turned to the web to do research and got connected with Undercover Files - Forum About Government Conspiracies, Misinformation, UFOs, Aliens and the Unexplained. Because I didn't grow up in North Dakota I think I'm missing out on a lot of history. I've heard about government bases, bunkers and facilities which if now abandoned would make great doomsday preparation facilities.

How the mind can go wild and think of all different things. What are your thoughts on the unexplained and the end of the world?

Coffee in Cando

I had plans to open a coffee shop in Cando, a place that specialized in coffee and offered a great environment for hanging out but allowing you to get in and out quickly! I even spoke with my real estate agent Amy Nikolaisen about possible locations but atlas, time being the factor I just didn't have much of it to spare!

I always thought Cando could use a coffee shop. While I was surfing Facebook I noticed a new local Cando business pop up in my feed -- Cool Beans! Now I haven't been to this coffee shop but I'm happy to see a new business sprout life in Cando and it being a coffee shop! My next time in Cando I will be sure to check them out. For the time being I will keep reading up on Espresso Forums - Coffee Forum for the community.

Traveling into Devils Lake, North Dakota

Devil's Lake was a 30 minute drive from Cando, Nd.
This shot was taken during my drive to the local Indian casino -- Spirit Lake Casino ( http://spiritlakecasino.com/ ). A storm was just passing and the sky and reflections were just perfect. Made me see real beauty in the landscape despite the mosquitoes during the humid summers.

The drive was always longer than it seemed. Especially coming from a city where the roadways are connected in every angle having to drive in straight lines is less direct than diagonal :) Add on the extra time with the snow during the winter and the construction fixing the damaged roads from all the plowing in non-snow time -- sometimes thing's took a little longer than expected. But I don't ever remember being in too much of a hurry in the first place ;)

Remembering the Winters

I'm told that the winter I moved to Cando in 2008 was one of the worse in many years. I had just moved into town relocating from the west coast, I had made it right before all the winter storms had moved in covering everything in snow. The house I moved into was older and was heated by an oil furnace which became rather costly at the peak of gasoline prices but it worked well keeping me warm! 

Let me tell you that I love the snow and I don't mind the cold as long as I'm well prepared. Sitting inside the house looking out at the snow is one of the most peaceful feelings you can have watching the flakes and flurries cover every inch of earth. And this is exactly what I did all winter long. Each morning waking up I would pour a cup of Cafe Du Monde coffee and sit down at my desk in the living room to start my day connected to high speed Internet. Every now and then I would take breaks and pace around the house looking outside the picture window in the living room feeling blessed.

I never felt distracted in Cando and I was very productive. You see… the cold weather kept me indoors most of the time. Once a day I would venture out to the post office down the street to pickup mail and drop off letters sometimes picking up groceries from the local store. When I started to get stir crazy a 30 minute drive to Devils Lake would be in order with larger stores, restaurants and a multi-picture movie theater.

Anything I couldn't find locally I would order via the Internet and I was thankful of the UPS and Fedex drivers who would take that trek to  do a rural delivery. 



Cando is a perfect place to reconnect with life or get work accomplished .

Farewell Cando

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!

Internet Speeds in Cando, ND.

When I first moved to Cando one of the deciding factors was that there was decent Internet access. Upon driving into town I noticed the telco box with fiber dropped to it so I knew it would be suitable. Most all of the wireless APs were locked down.

The cable modem company serving Cando is Midcontinent Communications. With a quick call I had someone out installing, setting up and turning on cable. For a fraction of the costs in other states I get better speeds than some of the higher paying packages. A few speed tests are shown below. Nothing too fast for uploads but decent download speeds.

Server: Grand Forks, ND.
Download: 18.39mbs
Upload: 1.88mbs

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1212145341.png

Server 2: Grand Forks, ND.
Download: 18.44mbs
Upload: 1.86mbs

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1212146147.png

Allegiant Air adding new routes to North Dakota

AllegiantAir.com is adding new routes to North Dakota. For people looking to visit this great state you can get here for some great prices. AllegiantAir isn't listed on travel discount search sites so its important to go to the site directly when looking for flights.

Currently Allegiant Air offers the following routes to North Dakota:

Grand Forks, ND -> Las Vegas, NV & Phoenix-Mesa, AZ
Bismark, ND - > Las Vegas, NV & Phoenix-Mesa, AZ
Fargo, ND - > Las Vegas, NV
Los Angeles, CA
Orlando, FL
Phoenix-Mesa,AZ
Minot, ND -> Las Vegas, NV (Coming Oct. 2010)

Cando Businesses

What is Cando missing from its realm of businesses and things to do? I have been tossing around ideas for the last year about what the town of Cando needs. Does Cando already have everything it needs, or does it need something more, something new?

Traveling to Cando

You have two choices for airports that are about equal distances.

- Minot, Nd
- Grand Forks, Nd

Depending on where you are flying in from really determines which airport you choose. Personally I prefer Grand Forks, Nd when I fly in and out of Las Vegas, Nv because allegiantair services non-stop service from this location. Keep in mind that smaller towns/airlines don't fly all the time, generally allegiantair flys two days a week in and out of grand forks to las vegas. Once you land it is about a 90 mile drive to Cando, so plan on two hours depending on your speed.

If you are up for a scenic trip I would suggest driving (not during winter), coming through Montana and Wyoming are just some of the most perfect scenery. Amtrak is also a solution that is relaxing. I took Amtrak from Wisconsin to ND and had such a scenic trip. I paid a few dollars extra to get my own room and plugged in my laptop and worked while watching the world pass by.

Tip for Amtrak to Cando, it arrives super early, or late however you may see it so have someone waiting for you or your car ready. I believe it drops off around Devils Lake and is an unmanned station at that time.