The Royce Files

Visited the San Francisco bay area back in July and enjoy plenty of rides on tracks. From the Airport I took the BART Train to the Embarcadero and later got on a street car much like the one pictured above. The next day I rode more BART and street cars and topped off the day with a ride on a California Line cable car. All the street cars in the Market Street and Wharf areas are historic and either restored to original livery or given a paint to honor a certain street car line from elsewhere. The Pacific Electric car above is one such repainted. It originally served the city of Philadelphia. Pacific Electric was a line in southern California with some connections to the Southern Pacific Railroad. The store of the line is no unlike others in America. Rapid growth as people moved outside the city centers and then some ebbs with automobile use increases until finally became uneconomical to maintain the service. Really it is hard to understand how we let these modes of transport die a...

Experienced the 2nd Streets Alive ( http://www.fmstreetsalive.org/ ) event this weekend. I rode the entire route with my friend. I wasn't sure what to expect for an event of this type. However, I was surprised. The only drawback was the few kids who got in the way on Broadway otherwise Streets Alive was like a leisurely tour around the community. Afterward, Cindy, my roommate, and I made the most delicious hamburgers I have ever made. They were the most delicious morsels we had ever had. The memory of them lingers on as does the roasted corn on the cob, guacamole, and beer. So far on the blog, I am right in the beginning stages of detailing my annual bike trek. I just left off as I went to sleep in a park in Walhalla, ND. A real street party had been going on with a live band and it made trying to sleep a little harder. The next morning we would hit a remarkable natural feature that would prove challenging. But I'll leave that for the actual post about the trip. However, if ...

This is the continuing saga of my 300 mile bike tour into 3 states I completed in the beginning of July. I spent a good part of the day in Morris with my friends. After a few shopping stops for supplies and a bite to eat (Willie's still has the cheapest sandwiches around), I head west on MN 28 towards Graceville somewhere between 2 and 3 PM. There wasn't much excitement from Morris to Graceville. I think there may have been a wedding in Chokio but most of the time it was flatland fields. I stopped in Graceville and looked around. I didn't see much open. Seems small towns close up early on weekends. I went to the covenience store to stock up on water, then continued down 28. The topography did not change much. It still was flat but there was an occasional slough and lots of ducks. Nearing Brown's Valley brought the most remarkable changes. It was a valley! At last there was something different. I rolled through the deserted town at 8PM and found the city campground and ...

In the midst of the stress leading up to the radio show , I have been reading some and listening some. Red Moon Rising - An intriguing book detailing the emergence (or more like re-emergence) of round the clock, everyday prayer. Is it a coincidence that others from other places around the world were beginning the same devotion to prayer? So far much of the story takes place in North Western Europe. I've only heard of maybe a half dozen places where there is a 24 hour prayer room in the States. Then again it seems that it is more an underground movement rather than a program. It wasn't "thought up" but just seemed to grow out of urgings of the spirtual kind that began to unite others with the same urge. Inspirational and occasionally challenging without glorifying the "practice." Everything Christmas - At first I borrowed this book from the library. I then thought it had such useful stuff concerning Christmas (stories, history, songs, recipes) that I went ou...