Back in Minneapolis, our host Waqar took us to a house party where we met a little firecracker by the name of Jen. After telling her what we’re up to, her fingers were all aflutter texting her brother who lived in Alexandria, about an hour and a half west of us. After hitting “send” she looked at me and said with a strong Minnesota accent, ““My brother lives in Alexandria, Minnesota. It’s on the way to Fargo. He’s gay, owns a gym, lives on the lake with his partner and is awesome. You have to meet him.” We obliged.

“Let’s try to just be here an hour. I feel like we should at least meet him since it’s on the way, get his story and then be on our way to Fargo.”

I’m often in a hurry, always trying to meet deadlines I make up in my head that don’t really mean anything. “Got to get to Fargo by 9!” “Have to leave by 6!” I’m a bit of a cross between the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland and a neurotic producer who has a schedule to keep. As we pulled into the driveway, my all-important schedule quickly became more of a suggested time line.

Marquise: “That’s a beautiful lake. We’ve gotta shoot that!”

Nick: “Dog! They have a chocolate lab!”

Me: “Several gays are here…that’s a lot of Video Stories!”

And then we met them. Perry was the first to greet us with a big smile, handshake, t-shirt tucked into Wal-Mart blue jeans (“No point in nice jeans working on a farm.”) and an explanation that he was sent out to welcome us because Jason (Jen’s brother) was on the phone. Before I knew it, we were bombarded with welcomes, smiles, laughter, beer, snacks and yes, a chocolate lab named Lincoln. Jason and Perry owned the house, Julie was their roommate and Dave and Tom were their friends.

Jason and Perry gave us a tour of their house, including their hunting room. They shared their story and we also got Dave and Tom to tell us how they met. It involves gum. Besides that, you’ll just have to wait and see when it’s up on IFD.

We arrived in Alexandria in a hurry and a few hours later we were leaving too soon, on our way to Fargo.