the rents still live in GF, that's near where I grew up. That was the Alerus center you saw. BIG metal shack. they play football in there. My all school reunion is there this summer. Rydell is where I buy my cars from (my dad's old boss' brother sells cars there). All GM brands sans saab and hummer under one roof.
I went to school in Fargo (college). It might seem modern. (where did you eat the thai by the way...was it mongolian?). But its misleading. Its all a sprawling mess of apartments and retail. Nice enough town. 3 colleges. There's is like over 20,000 college students there. Lots of college girls, if you are looking.
Lots of drinking in both towns. And its cheap to drink there.
Thing about North Dakota....the weather always sucks. And travelling the barren interstates in the winter is always a high risk proposition because the weather can turn at any time and you have the full monty....freezing ass cold, wind, ice, snow. One wrong move and you are dead.
Truthfully if I could make a half ass decent living I might consider moving back there and fading away into oblivion. But the state prefers to sit on its ass and concentrate mostly on ag. If they would diversify........There is a microsoft office in fargo. They probably pay those smart midwest work ethic kids half what they pay the douchebags in Seattle and probably get 3 times the work out of them.