TUM 2009 Recap – Shenandoah National Park

Well folks, it’s about that time of year again. Team Unicycle Max are in the planning stages of our next great unicycle adventure. It’s been a few years since we updated our blog, but rest assured, we have been very busy. Allow me to fill you in on our 2009 adventure.

After Ride The Lobster in 2008, the three of us decided to make this team uni ride an annual event. The first post-RTL ride for Team Unicycle Max happened in Shenandoah National Park, on Skyline Drive in Virginia. We rode, we camped, we hiked, we met a lot of really nice and generous people along the way. It was a huge success and we had a great time.

Stay tuned for a retrospective look at the 2010 adventure: The Grand Canyon.

-Kyle D

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Ready to Ride again

Team Unicycle Max is ready to ride again. It’s been over a year since Ride The Lobster and we’re all very anxious to get going. While this year’s journey will not be nearly as epic as last year’s 500 mile grueling trek through Nova Scotia, we’re hoping to at least capture that same energy and excitement.

The second annual Team Unicycle Max epic ride of awesomeness will be a scenic cruise through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Skyline Drive is famous for being one of the most gorgeous winding mountain roads in the country. We won’t be unicycling the entire length of the drive, but will cover at least half of it. This trip will come with the expert support of my wife, Chrissy. The plan is for 2 days of riding, 1 day of hiking, and 3 nights of tent camping.

We probably won’t have the connectivity during our camping trip in the mountains to update the site, but please follow @epluribusfunk on twitter for live on the road tweets. Stay tuned folks, Team unicycle max is back in the saddle and ready to ride.

-Kyle D

Don’t Hang Up Your Uni Just Yet

So just when I thought the unicycling season was over, here come the holidays and along with them, some unique opportunities to ride. Some opportunities are for fun, others out of necessity. Either way, it always feels good to get out and ride, no matter how cold or windy it may be.

The first opportunity came around Thanksgiving. The local Philadelphia rock radio station WMMR has a very funny morning show that I listen to regularly. Every year, on the day before Thanksgiving, the Preston and Steve show puts on their own parade of debauchery called the Spanksgiving Day parade. It features some local string bands for that authentic parade sound, truckloads of hot ladies, fire-breathers, pizza dough tossers, Jesus and Moses in an epic lightsaber duel, all centered loosely around an S & M theme. They basically take all the crazy local talent they can get and cram them into one little rogue party parade. So when they put out the call this year for unicyclists, I contacted them immediately.

Unfortunately, I was the only unicyclist in the Philadelphia area to attend, but I had a great time. I rode my trials uni instead of my 36″ just for maneuverability sake, and a luchador mask for weirdness sake.

The next riding opportunity came out of necessity. My driver’s license was set to expire in mid-December. I had my ticket to get a new photo taken and just had to find the time to get to the License Photo Center. They weren’t open late enough to go during the week, so my only option was to go on a Saturday. Unfortunately, the wife has class all day on Saturdays and therefore has the car as well. So my only choice was to unicycle to the photo center. It was only a 6 mile round trip, but take my lack of riding lately, the hills, the cold, and the wind, it turned out to be quite the ride. Of course it also meant that my new license photo was red-faced, sweaty, and with a bad case of hat-head. The ride was tough, but I felt great once I got back to my place. When you don’t ride for a while, you forget how good it makes you feel when you do.

Happy holiday riding!