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!