I went out for a ride on my 29er after work last night. It was a beautiful evening and life was good. I have been pretty focused on riding my DX24 lately, working on some of the basic skills that I’m still not overly good at like idling and hopping and I’ve been making noticable gains. But, last night I just wanted to go for a cruise so I got the 29er off the hook, dusted it off and nailed the first mount. I kind of careened down the street for about the first hundred yards or so. My balance felt a teeny bit off but I pretty quickly got the feel of the bigger wheel. I was having a pretty good ride and cut through the parking lot of the church that’s right around the corner from my house. This church has a big lawn and some of the neighbors sort of use it as a park. There was a woman with 3 or 4 little kids sitting on the grass and as I rode by I heard cries of, “look, mom, look. A man on a one wheeled thing!” I rode on, smiling and went off the curb and on to the street without the half expected UPD. I took a quick spin around the neighborhood (about a mile to loop through) practicing quick turns and zig-zagging having been recently inspired by some of the coker footage in “Inner Balance.” I need a lot of practice. I swung back through the church parking lot and there was a group of young boys hanging out practicing their skateboard moves. One of them said to me, “you’re getting pretty good at that.” Then his friend nodded towards him and said, “he rides,” so I stopped to talk. I told him I wished I had an allen wrench so I could adjust the seat and let him try my 29er. He said, “I’ll try anyway” and proceeded to try to mount the thing. It was way too tall but I told him I’d start carrying a wrench with me and if I ever saw him there again, I’d let him have a go at it. I rode off to do another lap around the neighborhood. This time I saw an acquaintance of mine in his front yard with two attractive young ladies. I stopped to talk for a minute. He introduced me to his fiancee and her friend. They were rather impressed with the unicycle and my ability to ride and asked a few questions. I bid them farewell and went to ride off. Now, one constant in the world is that, no matter who or where you are, if you’re a male, you never, ever cease to want to impress pretty girls. I’m an old guy and married but I still can’t escape that inner need to impress girls. I was ready to leave and was thinking to myself, as both of the lovely young ladies were watching me, “if ever there was a time to not screw up my mount, this is it.” I tried to stay very focused and relaxed and…Nailed It !! “Yes!” I said to myself and rode on down the street feeling rather pleased with myself. So, referring back to my title, sometimes it the little things, like nailing your free mount when it most matters. I rode home having done about 3 miles around the neighborhood without a UPD and having (at least I assume) impressed a couple of pretty girls.
impressing the ladies is fun. did you have sex with either of them after that?
EDITED
Sounds like a good ride. I know what you mean about the ‘little things.’ I love the cheers you can get from simply hopping on or off of a curb.
Tsk, Tsk! I did say I was married, and faithfully so.
Sounds like a great ride! It always feels like a huge accomplishment when you return from where you started with no UPDs. And congrats on any eyelashes that were batted in your direction. It’s certainly a true statement that men will always want to impress pretty girls. Heck, my grandfather, age 85, always cracks jokes to just about any little looker he sees.
Nice ride and nice write-up.