Last Post of 2019

“We're leaving together, but still it's farewell."

These were the lyrics on our mind as my mom, dad, sister and I made our way onto Delta Flight 1277 bound for the great Pacific Northwest. It was the day after Christmas, and we hardly had time to digest the sensory overload of this major holiday. The plan was to spend a few quality days of rest and relaxation before parting ways for the next few months.

But before the departure we were hard at work. Pushing up against Christmas day itself, we did our best to make our arrangements, assemble my gear, and prepare for a year away from home. A year away from home. Hmm, a year away from home. That’s some heavy stuff. I was keenly aware of the slew of “lasts.” The last night in my bed for a year, the last time in my car, the last time snuggling my dogs, the last time hanging with my grandparents and extended family, the last time in my hometown. I’m about to know the true meaning of a year’s length.

But clashing with this sentimentality and sadness was another feeling, vaguely familiar and recently supressed. It’s a feeling of exhilaration, of travel and the unknown. This spark of freedom was having a profound effect at a dire time. A firestorm of possibility was opening the gates to my future, which have increasingly felt more and more sealed. After getting out of school, I’ve had this sensation of forboding, like reaching the tapering end of a cave system and knowing that my fate was defined and decided. The future was becoming more and more of a sentence and less of a gift. But out of the peripheies appeared this vision: the promise of potential.

So, with these thoughts in mind, I set about assembling the essentials. First and foremost was the need to modify the unicycle a tad to carry a bit of gear (and also to provide an answer for the ubiquitous “where will you put your gear” question). After an unecessarily long snafu involving a damaged shipment from Unicycle.com, I finally recieved a functioning t-bar touring handle set that my dad and I could transform into a long-distance luggage rack. My dad, with this enviable sense of mechanics and creativity, decided that mounting a small board on the back bar would be the best solution. Our materials? An old skim board, some bolts, a saw, and a drill. Here’s how it went down:

Surfin’ USA

Yin and Yang

Zen and the Art of Unicycle Maintenance

Final Measurements

And when we put it together, it looked a little something like this:

Who needs another wheel?

So now we had our machine. For those nerdy enough to be curious, here are the specs of my uni, The Battlestar:

-36” Nimbus Nightrider Tires
-Nimbus Stealth Wheel
-Kris Holm Moment Cranks
-Odyssey Pedals
-Magura tomac caliper break
-Nimbus Stadium Saddle
-Nimbus Shadow Handleset

The rig is a bit of a frankenstein, and I bought it used, so I am unsure about the source of the fork/frame and hub.

And here comes the obligatory gear list:

Equipment

-Osprey Exos 48 liter pack with waterproof Osprey cover
-Two Dry Bags
-Bontrager Solstice MIPS helmet in a visual assault neon yellow
-Padded Scope Case (waterproofed with Scotchguard)
-Vortex Viper 15-45X65 Angled Spotting Scope
-Vortex Summit SS-P lightweight tripod
-Phoneskope adapter
-Nikon Monarch 5 8X42 Binoculars with harness
-Crosstour 1080p action camera with several mounts
-iPad Mini with case
-iPhone X
-Geyes foldable bluetooth keyboard (which I am using now)
-Two pairs of headphones
-Two Apple charging cables with blocks
-Two Micro USB charging cables
-Spot Gen3 GPS Tracker
-Three liter Camelbak water bladder with cleaning tabs
-Iodine water tablets
-Black Diamond Revolt Headlamp
-Two Bontrager rechargeable daytime bike lights
-Bike Flashlight
-NEBO rechargeable flashlight
-Ink Pen
-Tiny Pink Pencil
-Rite in the Rain Birder’s Journal
-ABA Trip List
-Wallet
-Two tubes of chapstick
-Aleve
-Lightweight Medical Kit
-Bungee Cords
-Mitre Lightweight Pump
-Two 36’’ tubes
-Patch Kit
-Two Park Tool Alan Wrench sets
-Park Tool Tire Remover Tools
-Glucose Gel
-Microfiber Cloth
-Lens Pen
-Spare nuts, washers, and bolts
-Extra Velcro
-DIY mirror wristband
-Toiletry Bag with Assorted Toiletries
-One rock that my sister wanted me to take

Clothing

-One Pair of Boots
-One Pair of Crocs
-One snap-back hat
-One beanie
-One pair of pajama pants
-Two pairs of underwear
-Two pairs of compression shorts
-Longjohns
-Two pairs of Columbia socks
-One pair of Sealskinz All-weather gloves
-Ear-warmers
-One Bandana
-Three T-shirts
-Two long-sleeved shirts (one a turtleneck)
-Two pairs of lightweight shorts
-One pair of workout shorts
-One pair of lightweight pants
-One pair of heavy pants
-One cycling bib
-Two cycling leg sleeves
-One lightweight jacket
-One midweight jacket
-One heavy jacket
-One lined raincoat
-One rain shell

It’s really not as much stuff as it sounds like. In fact, it’s all that I need to survive, apart from shelter, food, water, and, most importantly, BIRDS.

In terms of spending, I really lucked out. I’ll keep a running expense list going to be totaled at the end of the year. I think that my backpack will be my new best friend. My buddy John Mark conveniently works for an outfitters store, and he got me a killer deal on that thing, so thanks, John Mark!

Also, you may have seen that in my before photo I was wearing my cycling outfit. Before this gig, I have never worn a cycling bib, and I do not tend to wear tight clothes in general. It is such an odd sensation! I’m not sure if it prepares me as much to ride a unicycle as it would prepare me to take a high dive or play polo.

Just as any programming goes, there is always a time for advertisements. I recently added another charity to my charity page. It’s called People for Bikes, and it’s an organization that promotes biking infrastructure in the US. I realized that my design for a Big Year really ought to highlight the need for safe biking space, and these guys are the foremost experts on that kind of thing:

https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/2020-the-vision-biking

Here’s a cool anecdote to conclude this post. I became so enchanted by Ed Pratt’s unicycling across the USA series that I paid up and became a patron. This enabled me to see an episode in advance, and, more importantly, reach out to Ed personally. You know fate is trying to tell you something when your inbox looks like mine did on December 20th.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful and safe Christmas season, and I look forward to reuniting with Augusta and all of its special inhabitants next Christmas! Happy Joe Stevenson Day Augustans!

Christmas in the Rearview

On my next post I’ll glaze over my first few days in Washington and share my feelings as this rocket prepares to launch.

I hope that everyone has a Happy New Year and may 2020 be a special and blessed year for you! If you have been touched in some way by my undertaking, please do consider giving to one of my charities. It may change someone’s life!