I was laying in bed thinking, "I hope it is sunny. I hope it didn't snow
again. Please let it be sunny out!" And about 10mins later, I finally
crawled out of my bed, and stumbled over to the window. The moment of
truth was coming. I opened the blinds and couldn't see, the sun was
blinding me!!! Once my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I realized it
was a perfect sunny day, and the snow has melted off the roads and
sidewalk. So far so good!
I got dressed, called some people to let them know I was leaving
today, and looked over my route again. The route was only about
20miles, and it followed the highway. I thought it would be a perfect
and relaxing way to get to Jackie's (Goats on Unicycles) house.
I wanted to leave early, but I couldn't. I had to wait forever
for my mom to get ready, so that she could take me done to my friends
house first. I waited, and waited, and waited some more, then finally,
she was finally ready. I put my coker into the back, and climb on in
the car. Off we go!
We get to my friends (Donnie) house, and I take all my stuff out
of the car. I mainly wanted to stop at Donnie's house just to eat, pick
up a couple more snacks for the road, and get a big glass of water
before riding. None of that should of been more then just a few
minuets, but when I finally looked at the time, I was at his house for
an hour. I had to leave and start pedaling.
Off I went, directions in my pocket, camelbak filled with water,
a lunch that Sera made for me , and the extra clothes I was wearing to
stay warm. Nothing could stop me today, it was too perfect of a day to
not ride.
The route so far has been easy, it has just been a gradual
decline along heavy traffic. This lasted about half a mile, then it
went into a 9% percent grade going down. I was hopping the whole ride
would be like this. I make it down the 9% grade with plenty of
momentum, I take my first left. After taking this left turn, a car
stopped, and started to back-up, and watched me while I sped off on my
straightaway. He did stop for long though, because he was on one of
busiest streets in that area, surprised he didn't get in a wreck.
After that first left, the route was amazing. Off to my right
was a nice river that I followed for about 5 miles. To my left were
trees and bushes, combined with the river, it was a really calming
stretch of road, specially because there were no cars, and the trees
provided a bit of shade, which felt nice to ride through. I keep
following this road until I came to a bridge. Crossing the bridge I
noticed the road started to become a hill, I thought it would just be a
little hill then more straight and flat roads, I was so wrong.
I start up the hill, it wasn't too steep, but it just kept going
and going and going. After a few s shaped turns, it got steeper, and
steeper. I finally took my first little break to get some water and a
little snack. While finishing one of my granola bars, and making sure I
was still on the right road, a large red truck pulls up and just stays
there. I mount my coker and start to pedal up the steep hill, then the
guy in the truck sticks his head out of the window and asks about my
uni. I guess he used to ride about 20 years ago and was interested in
it again. I told him where to buy new unis, and what kind he would
want, so maybe we have one more of us, and one less of them.
I finally can mount again, and start up the hill. I keep going
and notice, for the last hour, I have been riding up a hill, hopefully
the rest of the route wont be so hilly. Standing up, hands pushing down
on the knees, I tried everything to help get me up the road, and none
of it helped, but I didn't want to give up, I didn't want to get off
and walk. I took a sip of water, took a big breath in, and gave it my
all for about 20mins and finally made it up the hill. Yes!!! But now I
am sweating like a pig!
I get off and take off my sweater, I had two shirts underneath
that, one being just a regular T-shirt, and the other an under armor
shirt, the kind that is really thin and stretchy, but keeps you warm.
It reminds me of lycra, but I wanted it off. Stripping off all my
shirts, I hear a noise. I look behind me and see a dog running at me,
but luckily the owner was out and she called the dog back. It made me
chuckle. I put my regular shirt and my sweater back on, I could already
feel the improvement of removing that one shirt.
Remount and keep going. The road looked flat, but it was still
slowing climbing in elevation, but luckily I had one small stretch of
down hill, but it only lasted for 5mins. At the bottom of my small
hill, I take a left to get onto a road named Monroe. A two laned road,
no shoulders, and a speed limit of 60. Yet again, this road looked
flat, but it was also just a long steady climb that lasted an hour.
Luckily the scenery was nice. ON my right you could see a beautiful
snow capped mountain range. On my left, just acres and acres of snowy
fields, and beyond that, rolling hills with trees scattered along them,
and with the effect the clouds had on the sun, both sides looks like
wonderful paintings. I kept watching the scenery as I road, and would
stop looking when I had to move to another side of the road to let a
car pass me, then back to looking at the mountain range, but that
didn't last too long either. I had my first encounter!
Along Monroe street, none of the houses had fences or anything,
which meant, if a dog wanted to chase me, it was gonna chase me, and
that's exactly what happened. The dog was a tiny little fat, furry dog,
and I realized it was scared of me on my coker. It would bark and bark
and bark, but never get close to me, and when it did a little, I
swerved at it, and it would run back off the road. The little dog
chased me for only a few minuets before it decided to give up and trot
back home.
After my little dog encounter, I took a right on my next road.
Again, this one was flat, but still a gradual incline. By now I was
realizing that my tire felt sluggish, and that when I pedalled, it felt
like I really had to push to keep the uni going. I looked down, and see
that my tire was pretty low on air. Not too bad, but it was bad enough
to slow you down, and I was almost tempted to go to a random house and
ask for a tire pump, but I choose not to.
Along this street, there some really nice, big house to drool at.
I hope to live in a house that nice someday, maybe I should start
saving up now. 🙂 Also, along this street, a lot of school buses were
coming up and down the road. Each one filled with kids, and when they
drove by me, everyone in the bus was waving and smiling at me. I bet
none of them seen a unicycle that big before, or somebody riding one
out near that area. =p
At the end of this stretch of road, it became rolling hills, a
short, steep hill down, followed by a short steep hill going up, then
back down, and back up. It was like a little roller coaster ride, just
not as fast, and kinda tired my legs out. Luckily the roller coaster
ride stopped and I too my next left.
This left put me on a road called wild rose, and it was actually
kinda flat!!! I rode on this road for a long long time. It had the same
scenery as my other roads, with the mountain ranges on the right, and
the rolling hills and fields to my left, only thing different about
this road, was that there was the smell of animals and manure, and the
roads were covered in snow in most parts. Riding along, I got used to
the smell quickly, and the coker was handling nicely on the packed snow
and ice.
Near the end of this very long stretch of road, it started to
incline again, which I didn't mind, because it wasn't that steep of an
incline, not like on the other roads. I keep riding, then my 2nd
encounter happens. To my right, there is a fenced off field, and a
black dog barking like made behind the fence. I keep riding, and the
dog keeps barking, but I didn't know the dog could get out of the
fence, but she proved me wrong once she did. She slowly started to get
closer to me, and at that exact time, another dog came running towards
me. So now I have two dog barking and coming close to me. I got off my
coker, cause I couldn't out run them going up a snowy hill.
I thought for sure the dogs were gonna attack me, or attack each
other, but once they got rather close to me, they stopped barking, and
became really friendly. I tried telling them to go home, or to just run
off, but they didn't listen. They started to follow me on my ride, one
was pure black, and the other was black and brown. The black one would
keep jumping off the road and dig his head into the snow, then run back
along side me on the road. These dogs were actually really cool.
I finally get to the end of wild rose, and take a right. Here it
turned to a dirt road, but covered in snow. It was all down hill, with
lots of sharp turns. I speed my way down the road, flying as fast as I
could, just rolling over the pot holes and having both dogs running to
keep up. I slowed down so I could check if I was still on the right
road, and I was, but I noticed the black and brown dog was no longer
with me, just the black dog.
--
Jerrick
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