The Royce Files

 The Red River had crested in Fargo at somewhere around 39 feet a week and half ago. The levees and dikes held back the angry waters of the Red for yet another year. However, there was at least one causality. A man sandbagging his home died of a heart attack. It wasn't in town. Someplace north of town. Oakport to be exact. That same weekend my room-mate and I were driving north out of town on I-29. We were heading to Grand Forks. However we were slightly impeded when the road just north of town became a flood-way. Nearly 6 inches of water covered I-29 north of Fargo to a little bit past Argusville. It was a scary drive. We could not see pavement for miles and miles. Plus it was raining and it appeared a current was pushing the water over the road. It took almost an hour to traverse 6 miles of flooded interstate. It was scary. I didn't have any ID with me nor my camera. I just prayed. We made it to Grand Forks. The road eventually closed a few hours after. The above picture wa...

T his year's solo bike adventure took my from my front door to the Sheyenne River Valley. Not wanting to spend much on gas money I loaded my bike and trekked southward from the Go on country roads. Some would say this was a physically challenging endeavor. Few of my peers have biked more than 20 miles at 1 time. This whole trip may have been near 200 miles. I didn't keep accurate data but I knew I was making over 40 miles a day. The challenging part of this trip was mental. The boring terrain of a large portion of the places I biked wore me out. In order to stay somewhat sane I stopped at country cemeteries and the read the stones. However, the Sheyenne River Valley is magically unlike any parts of Eastern North Dakota. I followed the scenic route from the Little Yellowstone Park to Lisbon and was impressed with all but the last 5 miles. Some frustrations of this trip also included a poorly vented bivy tent. This tent was like sleeping in a coffin. I'm glad I had a mini fan...