It was nice meeting you too, Gina.
Very nice meeting you, Gina!
Let us know next time you’re in town. A buddy who hiked Guana today said he saw Manatees AND dolphins. . .
A few pictures here, more in the “Latest Ride Pictures” thread.
Peripatet’s “Over-the-Shoulder” shot:
Stairs!!
Holy crap!!!
They used that footage of me on the news at 10:30!!!:D:D:)
Annnnnd, the two blonde anchors said they thought I made it look easy and they wanted to try!:p:p:D;)
EDIT: Damn. It won’t embed for me.
Go here and scroll about 1/2 way down and play the Video Forecast. I’m in two parts!!
:)
So cool! I wish I had turned the news on last night! Too bad school is out for the kiddies, or I’d show the footage to my class. The girls who have a crush on you would probably faint. 
Thanks for taking these pictures. I can’t believe you got such nice shots with that cute little camera. What is it? I want to buy something small and flat to take riding with me.
What an incredible ride yesterday! Even if the Acosta was too much for me this time. 
Now when I go back and restart my weekly rides there, I can practice the stair sets. You are such a positive influence!
That’s awesome!
The little pink one is a Fuji Z20FD. It’s a great little camera, as long as you remember to charge the batteries, and only costs ~$120. My wife has destroyed enough digital cameras that we discovered she NEEDS one that is: small, flat, has an internal telephoto, and has a big screen in the back. Curiously, these are also features that make a camera suitable for my 5 year old. . .
The camera yesterday was actually my daughter’s. My wife’s Nikon S6 (very similar camera, just a bit more $$) is in the shop, so I had to take the pink one.
I’m off for the summer starting today. Yeah… over the past week I’ve let 3 potential members of our group slip through my fingers. The two guys at the landing who were awesome trying our cokers (ok.. Coker and KH36 :p) and another unicyclist at the beach. I only managed to give one of these guys contact info and haven’t heard from him yet. So disappointing as he and his lovely wife supposedly live close by. I wish I had gotten his contact info when he offered it instead of just giving him mine.
I really want to invest some time this summer in expanding our group. How to go about it? Well
- We could establish some consistent meetup time and place say minimum once a month in the Jax area and one in the St. Aug area. Even if some of us can’t commit to that, I’ll be willing to be the anchor. The one person that shows regardless. (Unless the weather doesn’t permit.)
The ideal places should have potential for variety of rides. The Friendship Park area and perhaps the tennis courst near the St. Aug lighthouse? The tennis courts would provide space for new riders. The doesn’t have high traffic, there’s the small skatepark, access to the beach, Anastasia park right there, and a bit of light muni near the amphitheater and on the fireroads of the park (Peripatet, there were more trails between the quarry and amphitheater that we did not ride.) I know that newbies like a LOT of privacy and quiet when they are learning, but we’d have to balance that with just a bit of visibility to attract interested nonriders especially.
Friendship park doesn’t have convenient fence or rails (unless letting newbies run into pedestrians along the riverwalk could be part of the entertainment 
) but it does have those large poles placed around the fountain for help in mounting.
We should ride near the lighthouse to see the possibilities. I might swing by there this afternoon.
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A name for our group. Perhaps we are too small for a name just yet… so maybe after awhile. But a name would make it easier for us to stay organized.
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A contact email or forum. We could start with someone’s email. Mine or someone else’s. It would have to be someone who had time to respond which at the moment I do.
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A card. I hope you don’t think this sounds silly, but if I had a card for those 3 people mentioned above that had our group name, an email contact, and at least one place and time listed per month as a meetup I’m sure I wouldn’t have lost all of them.
Thoughts? Ideas?
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Sounds good. I like the idea of migrating our St. A location across the bridge, mainly for the ride variety, but also because it’s closer to the park.
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North Florida Unicyling Consortium Union
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Works. I volunteer you.
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I’ve been playing with this idea for a while, and just haven’t gotten to the point of pulling the trigger on it. Business card-sized with contact and meetup info. Maybe an FAQ on the backside, so I won’t need to answer the same questions over and over and over.
T-shirts!!!
+1
I actually made up a uni t shirt that had a picture and said “Not just for clowns anymore”, but I never actually had any made up. I may work on the design again.
Try Clearwater
Come out here on a weekend during the summer. We have the best beaches and a new boardwalk.
peripatet
I’ve seen dolphins when I used to live in Florida. I lived there a long time before I saw them though. I have never seen a manatee.
Thanks for posting the pictures. It sure was a great day. Too bad your camera died before I got a picture of you. I wanted you and Unibugg to ride over the bridge again just so I could get a picture.
That’s a great picture of Unibugg riding down her first set of stairs, and think I was there to see it.
You’ll need poster size cards to fit all those questions. 
I like the T-shirt idea. Not sure about the name you picked.
I visited the tennis courts next to the light house. As long as no one is on the courts it will work. There are two courts, both double. A section of one is quite bumpy up against the fence area as tree roots have lifted it a little, but the rest is smooth. There’s a clean public restroom between the courts and the Yacht club. Hours for the restrooms are 8-5. There is a portapotty down the road near the skate park if someone was there really early or late.
Lots of shaded trees cover the park and play ground. I rode a section from the parking lot to the courts it was quite firm. No stairs here that I saw. I did see some uneven skinnies that a daring unicyclist might try. Not me though.
There is a short steep boat ramp that I rode down and back up. At the end of it is a small boardwalk with handrails. You can reach both sides easily while seated on the unicycle. Ok,.. maybe I have monkey arms. Anyway, if it’s not busy it could be a spot for a newbie to just rock back and forth to get the feel. There’s also a short pier. But no skateboards or bicycles allowed.
We should probably keep an eye on this area to see how much use it gets during the weekend and weekday evenings. Dschmitt, are you close by to keep us informed? Or are you on the other side near Vilano?
Oh, Divebomber, I passed the equestrians on the beach as they were headed back. They were as interested in my unicycle as I was with their pretty horses. Keep practicing! Practice practice practice.
I’m riding the Acosta tomorrow evening. Of course I’m also going to try the steps again and ride around the park. With or without company, I’ll be riding, so if interested send a PM.
Hey thanks, Florida. I just might take you up on that someday.
Rats! I’m working the late shift tomorrow. Next week. . .
I like the “not just for clowns anymore” quote. Get to work boy!!!
Cool!
Unibugg
Let me know how the stairs adventure goes. Wish I could be there to see your progress.
Stairs stairs stairs… progress so far is the 2 set. I really really want to start jumping stairs but the AX29 is not built for that especially with my weight. And because the spokes will have to be replaced someday.. thanks to all the beach riding and neglect, I need to take it easy on Hobbes. So.. does that mean I’m in the market for another uni.. probably.
Peripatet… you are such a bad influence! I never would have tried the stairs without your encouragement and now… I’m ever deeper into the dark side.
Wednesday I’ve planned a 30 mile ride in the morning with some bicyclists and a uni clinic session with Divebomber in the evening. Buuuut, I should have enough time to recoup Thurs morn to attack the Acosta by Thursday evening. I welcome company either riding the bridge or riding around Friendship Park afterwards. No guarantee I can keep up even under the best of circumstances but will try.
Bug
Jax-Baldwin Rail Trail
A short video of part of the trail put on youtube recently by members of the North Florida Bicyclie Club.
Notice how straight and flat the trail is. There is an incline at the east end of it (Imeson) but you couldn’t really call it a hill. When I first rode this section bicyclists asked me how I handled going up the “hill”. Hill? I honestly hadn’t noticed any hill and had to look for it my next trip.
It’s 15 miles from end to end. There are plans to expand it on each end. Hopefully even connecting it to the downtown area. This trail is really ideal for distance training as there are very few distractions/ obstacles. It crosses roads with automobile traffic a few times but only one of those roads are you practically guaranteed to have to dismount (or idle) while waiting your turn to cross. As it is straight and smooth and flat and long, its not ideal by any means if you are looking for excitement or challenge (other than the distance). When I rode the 30 miles last week I had zero UPD’s. I hadn’t even realized that until returning home.
There are trees along each side of most of the trail that provide shade and mounting spots if you can handle the grass/ incline to the pavement. However some spots the ditch is so steep you are better of not dismounting unless you can freemount or have a shoulder nearby to “borrow”. (I did have one mounting issue. My foot had fallen asleep and though I tried to keep riding looking for a decent place to mount, I was forced to dismount in an area with a steep ditch.)
There are two nice spots for a picnic. Milton Civil War Camp and the old railway depot. The camp has an old farmhouse to view and long boardwalk into the woods (mosquitos can be a problem in certain seasons). The railway depot has shaded picnic tables, playground, and small outdoor skate park. Both the camp and railway depot have water fountains and restrooms. (There are portpotties at each end of the trial (Imeson and Brady Branch) no water.)
Wildlife? I’ve seen deer, armadillos, variety of birds, rabbits, squirrels.. As you pass a few farms you’ll also see/ hear/ smell cows, horses, roosters, peacocks, goats, donkeys, …
It’s used frequently by the bicycle club Wed mornings and some weekends. Other than that I haven’t noticed it being too crowded. You’ll ride past joggers, walkers, bicyclists, skaters, and who knows maybe someday another unicyclist (as there have been a few).