The Royce Files

As I was planning my upcoming cycling adventure, I cam across a story about the largest pile of empty oil cans in the world located in Casselton, ND. Built in 1933, the pile has been a sort of attraction for the town for years. In April the current owner challenged the pile's existence and gave the ultimatum that it should be moved by May 29 or be destroyed. Folks in Casselton got moving and just made the deadline by moving the pile intact to a temporary location. Currently they are taking donations to find this specimen a permanent home . I should note I found a lot of other weird and wonderful attraction on Roadside America . This site is a hoot to peruse and despite the high fuel surcharges makes me want to see some of them. Hopefully on my bike trip I'll see a few and show them to you here. Slan.

I think I wrote a while ago about a fellow who went back to college in his 50s and played on the football (American style) team. Well the local paper put out an article about an even older player, 7o years old to be exact. Bob Bonawitz of Willmar dons the #44 jersey when he plays from the Liberty . He was in for only a few plays this past weekend when coincidentally the Liberty decimated the Willmar Mustangs 78-18 in the Fargo Dome. Yes, Bob, is playing for a foreign team but a winning team. He really want to bask in the glory since Willmar has yet to win a game this season. The Liberty are new edition to the sports franchises in town. They are a semi-pro football team. The first, to my knowledge, to play in the area. They play on the other side of the river and it appears they have used the internet to recruit talent. I wonder if any former XFL players are on the team? At work The Champ dismissed the Liberty outright sighting he knew 5 players on the team, one of which had never ...

I wonder if the marathon is stale news. Over 3 weeks have past since Eric Sondag out-foxed the competition to win the marathon. I tried to keep abreast of any news but haven't had any time to blog stuff that comes over the wire. However I did take a peak at Eric's blog entry about the race. It's in 2 parts, but I linked the 2nd part. Be smart and find the 1st on Eric's blog . In other Marathon results, about 40K was raised for charity. This is split between the Children's Museum and I think a particular children's hospital in town. The picture to the left is of Mark Knutson and partners running the marathon in the evening after the race in honor of Caroline Ruby Vetter. You can just barely make them out in the center. I was on top of the parking ramp waiting for them to pass. I nearly gave up. I didn't think the Moorhead portion of the course was that long. Well, I gotta run. And I mean it.