The Royce Files

This is a section of the continuing saga of the Tour de Valli, a solo journey on 2 wheels in North Dakota that was taken in early July 2009. Stage 5 begins in Valley City. I am unsurprised to learn that the previous evening I slept on a railroad bed. This certainly explains the difficulty in trying to stack out the tent. However, for $7 I am not arguing since it included a decent shower. Valley City is noted for its bridges and so after grabbing a bite to eat at the grocery store I set out exploring on foot. Of the 8 bridges (pdf file) I saw about half. The photo above is the bridge unto the Valley City State University campus (Alma mater of The Champ.) I poked around the empty campus and then pack through the city park. Later in the morning I packed up and discovered another grocery store (Lever's) which was closer than the other. Then looked through the library to find a North Dakota map gazetteer. The overwhelmed library did not. At noon I decided to take lunch at the Pizza Hit...

This stage turned out to be the longest and hotest. Due to not being a direct paved route from Mapleton to Valley City, I needed to head north to get on a western route. It did not prove to be easy as you will see. Got up early. About 7ish. No problems in Mapleton. I suppose the train traffic could be thought as being a problem as it was about 300 yards from my tent. However I have found that to be a sound of security. Still, train traffic was plenty high the course of the night. I found the actual city park on the other side of town. It was tucked in the middle of a residential development. Soon, I met up with the first sign of route problems. The road heading north out of town was closed for construction. And it was impassable. I searched for another road north to no avail. Reluctantly, I headed south to the Interstate in hopes of finding a westbound road. Providentially, there was a paved frontage road on the south side of the Interstate which I took all the way to Casselton. I stop...