Life (Well, 2 Weeks) Sans Uni

We're halfway thru our stay in Martha's Vineyard, and tho we're having fun, I'm still sore about leaving behind all of my unicycles.

Literally sore.

Today we missed the hourly beach bus by two minutes. Knowing that it's only a few miles from our hotel, I decided to run to the car so that I could come back for the rest of the family. The run took me 18 minutes and turned out to be a bit over 3 miles. I guess that means I ran 10 mph. The road was fairly flat, with a few soft up- and down-hills, and was asphalt the whole way. I was running, sockless, in the Keen's sandals that I'd brought to the beach. When I got to the car, my legs were sore and the ball of my right foot was heading for a blister.

The last time my legs felt like this was after I'd run down Masada. That's the natural fortress in Israel where my early ancestors defended themselves from a Roman siege for two years before finally committing suicide to avoid slavery. Shirra and I visited the spot with my mom's friends Yakov and Alma about 12 years ago, and despite their invitation to take the tram car up and back, we decided to hike up. It's about 30-60 minutes' trek, depending on your fitness and how well you deal with the blazing sun. Because our friends didn't wake up in time, we arrived not at 9 am, as planned, but at noon, when it was 115°. After viewing the site for a couple hours, Yakov and Alma had had enough and took the return tram, along with Shirra. But I chose to time myself as I ran down the rocky, winding path of the mountain. I made it down in 9 minutes and hopped right into Yakov's highly air-conditioned car. There wasn't much legroom, so my gams stayed in a fixed posish for the two-hour ride back to Jerusalem. The next morning, my leg muscles were so tight that Shirra had to push me out of bed. I spent the rest of that day slowly regaining movement and thinking about the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz.

Last year I drove us to this same beach (the Lucy Vincent, for which our hotel no longer has a pass), but I had my unicycle. It's an easy ride to the beach and back...but not an easy run.

Seeing the World thru Muni-Tinted Glasses

We closed on the house last week, but before we had signed any papers, we drove to the house for a 'walk-through.'

The previous owners were landscapers, so they had no trouble putting five big boulders together near one of the entrances of the house and surrounding the rocks with plants. Shirra was happy when she saw that we have a pretty garden just steps from the house. My view of things was different. I saw a bunch of lovely obstacles surrounded by some flowers that I'll have to be careful not to land on. Shirra saw the flowers, and I saw the rocks.

I haven't hopped on too many rocks, but I can recognize a good 'line' when I see it. These rocks start off nicely with a little step-like place that will be easy to hop onto. From there, it's a short jump up to the top of that boulder. The remaining rocks are close enough to either ride or hop to, tho hopping seems the better option. It all ends in a two-foot drop back to the soft ground.

Now that we finally own the house (and property), we're here in Martha's Vineyard for two weeks. We won't spend our first night in New Paltz until late August. I'm happy to be on vacation, but I can't wait till we get back home so that I can play with my new toy. I'm really glad that I have a mountain unicycle and that I have a lot of places to use it. I can't believe I left it in New Paltz.

Maintaining Your Unicycle Collection

As I just discovered, I own 23 unis. I've also discovered that there is a great bike shop in New Paltz that is affiliated with Unicycle.com. It's finally time for me to get all of my unicycles in top shape.

* Cokers: I have two Coker wheels (only one frame), and both need new tires. Both need new cranks and maybe new pedals. The one that has a frame needs a new seat post, and I don't think I can take out the old one because it's rusted stuck.
* Trials: new pedals and maybe new cranks
* Kids' unis: All needed new pedals, which I took care of yesterday.
* My 20" freestyle: new tire
* Guni: new innertube
* 29" Semcycle: innertube
...And some of the older unicycles need their seats replaced.

It will be nice to have all of these unis in perfect shape again.

Unicycling at the Mohonk Preserve

Today was the Mohonk Preserve Unicycle Show, 11am-1pm.

We made it to New Paltz at the last possible moment thanks in part to the extremely flat tire on the car I was hoping to drive up there in. Later I discovered that I'd driven over a nail and that the tire had lost all its air during the following night. The good news is that I have two cars and that they were parked back-to-back, so the setback only meant that I had to transfer most of my unis from the Odyssey to the Aztek, which cut out our Starbucks visit. It also meant that I had to leave behind my giraffe, my Coker, and my guni.

Thanks to her excellent directions, after reaching New Paltz, we had no trouble meeting up with Betty Boomer, who heads these sorts of events for the Preserve. The unicycle show-and-tell took place in a lovely, open gazebo nestled in a gorgeous setting. A man named Saul helped me with some of the unis, and he was quickly joined by a family of four as well as a mom and her 5-year-old son and the main park ranger of the area, Hank. I demonstrated all of the various unicycles I had, briefly discussing each one and occasionally showing a trick, and by noon, everyone who could ride a unicycle was zooming around under the gazebo, including Emmett, who has gotten really good (and who kept trying really hard skills), and Fiona, who managed 7 revs backwards and about 20 half-revs of idling. The family of four included sons Wyatt (15) and Cody (17), both excellent riders. Wyatt had an old Jugglebug that was seemingly held together by rust, but that didn't stop him from pulling off uni-spins (where you jump up, spin the uni half-way around, and land back on the pedals). He and his brother rode off the 5-step staircase and bounced right back up, and they also worked on wheel-walking and other tricks. They showed me their giraffe (I was hoping someone would bring one), and I demonstrated a running jumpmount onto it. Their dad, Keith, said that he'd like to learn soon, and their mom, Linda, later told me that it's time she learn, too. Hank, the park ranger, told me that he hadn't ridden a uni in 31 years and then proceeded to ride around like he'd never quit. Saul, who learned recently after buying himself a uni for his 50th b'day, looked pretty solid as a rider and worked on freemounting and idling.

Afterwards, we spent some time at The Bike Rack, a local shop that happens to be affiliated with unicycle.com. The guys there were very interested in my uni knowledge and in seeing the weird unis I still had in the car after we'd dropped off a few of the large ones. I rode my BC wheel down the hill outside the shop, and later one of the guys cut down 2" off my new muni's seat post (it was a bit too long). We headed home shortly after, several minutes after Shirra had finally hit that Starbucks!

Unicycle Show in New Paltz

Tomorrow I'm putting on a unicycle show in New Paltz at the Mohonk Preserve. The forecast is for pleasant weather and a high probability of unicycles.

I'm bringing my brand spanking new muni, mainly as part of the show-and-tell. At this point, I'm not even sure my legs are long enough to reach the pedals comfortably -- I may have to cut down the seat post an inch or so. In all, I'll have these unicycles in attendance:

my new muni
my 6' giraffe
my 46" Godzilla (one of the largest unicycle wheels in the world)
my 20" freestyle
my 26" ultimate wheel (uw)
my BC wheel
my 20" fat-tired trials uni
my geared 29" Schlumpf uni
Fiona's 20" freestyle
Emmett's 16" uni
a 12" uni
my 'Spin Cycle' with the spinning seat post
...as well as one of my three Super Trick Cycles
...and, room permitting, one of my Cokers

I guess this is a good time to keep track of what I'm NOT bringing. On top of all of these unis, I have:
my 24" racing uni (currently doing time in Memphis)
two other STCs
a Torker 24"
a Semcycle 26"
a Semcycle 29"
a 24" uw
another Coker (missing its frame)
Fiona's 20" trials/mountain unicycle

I guess that means that I own 23 unicycles, tho a couple of them aren't complete (like one of my Cokers).

At the Preserve, I'll mostly be demonstrating these different unis, and then I'll do some tricks. Afterwards I'll allow some of the people to try out a unicycle. I heard that as of yesterday, 13 people had already signed up for the event and that the organizer is expecting even more. Should be a fun time!

Muni en Route

After years of postponing the inevitable, I have finally ordered my first mountain unicycle. It's a KH 24" Freeride with a 3" Gazzalotti tire. In terms of price, it's only about a third of what the big guns cost, but when I asked around, almost everyone recommended a Freeride, and that made the choice even easier.

The other co-founder of the New York Unicycle Club, Joe Merrill, is very big in East Coast muni circles these days. He has a fantastic muni, tho it's very heavy, and its 7" cranks allow him practically to ride up walls. He has organized mountain unicycle weekends as well as "Motorama," which brings together trials unicyclists in a contest to see who can complete the most, or most difficult, obstacles. It all sounded fun, and I wanted to join, but I knew that realistically, I had little use for a muni: I worked most Sundays (so no muni weekends for me), many of my weekends were taken up with my kids, and there is nowhere to practice mountain unicycling in Manhattan. Well, nowhere LEGAL, anyway. Had I gone and bought a muni when Joe did, I'm sure I would have found time and place for it, but I have a feeling it would have languished in my garage most of the time. Alternatively, I might have made time by riding it around late at night, but then my marriage might have suffered. I'm glad I waited till Monday before ordering one.

My impetuses (impeti? impetus (is it 2nd or 4th declention?) were twofold. Firstly, we are just about to move to New Paltz. I'll have nearly 8 acres all to myself, where I can build a fun course and just ride around for fun (and poison ivy). I also won't be working on weekends, but that's beside the point. Secondly, I'm going to be demonstrating unicycles near the Mohonk Preserve this Saturday. Since a mountain unicycle is just what I'll be using up there, it seemed silly to want to put on a unicycle show-and-tell without a muni. Now I'm just hoping the shipment arrives in time.

8/4/ 06 update. It arrived an hour ago! Unfortunately, I didn't have time to put it together, but it looks gorgeous!