One Wheel, One Day, One Hundred Miles...www.rideforgary.com

[TheRhino]

I have been planning on doing a 100 mile ride to raise money for my brother's paralysis since March or April of this year, and finally things have all fallen into place to make it a reality.

On Saturday October 23rd, 2010 I will be riding my 36er (ungeared) on a 100 mile trek starting and finishing in Gwinnett County (Atlanta, Georgia). I'll be starting at 7 am, and riding until I'm done, including stopping for breaks at some designated fire departments along the route.

My brother Gary was a firefighter for over 20 years in the SW Florida area, and unfortunately was paralyzed from the chest down in a tragic accident in March of 2009. I have been helping take care of him ever since he got out of the hospital, and that's why I now live in this area. The main goal is to raise enough donations to help buy a handicap van, and pay for various expenses involved in his care.

Some of my brothers "Firefighter brothers" are coming up to help support this event, and they are driving up a refurbished classic American LaFrance firetruck to escort me on my route! I did warn them that they would be only travelling at an average speed of about 9 or 10 mph for 10 to 12 hours, and being as cool as they are, they were good with that.



We are having a pre-event party at Engine 11 in downtown Atlanta Friday night the 22nd from 8 until ??. Then, Saturday the 23rd after the ride we will meet up there again from about 9 until ??. Engine 11 was once an actual fire station, but is now a restaurant and bar.

I recently got a website up and running for this charity ride, and the web address is www.rideforgary.com in case anybody wants to check it out. I will be adding more photos, and some video, to the site soon. Just to further encourage unicycling, I also put a link to Unicycle.com and Unicyclist.com on the links page of my website. Thanks for taking the time to read this post, I don't normally start new threads, but I think this is a worthy cause.

If you happen to go to the site, feel free to join or post something in the guestbook. Have a great week everybody.

Take care,
Bill

[timekeeper]

This is a worthy cause and you're a fantastic brother for setting this up. I wish you luck on your century and I'm sure it'll be a breeze with all the support you have!

Hey everyone, let's help a brother out and donate!

Paul

[TheRhino]

Thanks for your help Paul! My whole family is originally from Los Angeles (Canoga Park specifically), can't wait to make it back to your state again for a visit. Also, I appreciate your encouragement!

[unireed]

good stuff, man

[muniing sam]

Awesome Bill, you are a great brother.

[jardz]

Hope your brother get better soon. Also expect your trip. i'll pay close attention to your show.

[ezas]

That is so awesome what you are doing. And what a great touch having the firetruck escort.

I wish you well in your endeavor and will pledge what I can. It won't be much, but I feel compelled to add to this thing you are doing.

[ezas]

"compelled" isn't the right word.

I want to help.

[TheRhino]

I can't tell you how uplifting it is to get such a great response from all of my fellow unicyclists. Now that the ball is rolling (should I say wheel? , I can see how everything is just coming together perfectly. My brother's firefighter brothers are helping with the details now too, and in less than 10 days I am going to have a hundred or more custom made shirts ready to go. I'll post a pic of the artwork/shirt soon.

My brothers wife Mary has tomorrow off, so I'll be doing 60 or 70 miles as another training run. Can't wait for 6am to come.

I found the Unicyclist.com forum not long after my brothers accident, and it has really helped to relieve stress on those difficult days. This is a great group of people from all over the world, and I'm glad to be a part of it.

By the way, it's fun to see the visits to the rideforgary site from all over the world. Today I saw The Netherlands, Spain, China, Germany, Poland, New Zealand, Canada, and the U.S. I only know because of the site analytics, didn't see any guestbook posts or members yet, but I'm glad you guys and girls are checking it out. I need to get video and more pics added soon.

Take care everyone,
Bill

[TheRhino]

Yesterday was great weather, and had an excellent ride starting in downtown Atlanta near Engine 11 (where we are all meeting for food and drinks on Oct 22nd and 23rd).

I parked my motorcycle, and before I could even unstrap the 36er, a homeless guy saw the energy bar in my cupholder and started growling, "I'm hungry man! I'm Huuuunnnnggry!" He was nice about it, he didn't try to take it or anything, just stood there, about ten feet away and stared at the Clif Bar with a crazed look in his eyes. Needless to say, I believe he was hungry, so of course I gave him the Clif Bar. If I had more, I would have given him those too, because holy cow did that guy enjoy it. He chowed it down as he walked down the sidewalk in front of the MARTA building, then turned around and gave me the biggest smile. I think I got more out of it than he did for sure. I wish nobody was homeless...but I digress.

It was about 7:30 am, and after a chilly 45 mile trip to get there on my motorcycle, I was ready to get moving. I jumped onto my 36er (I really need to name it!), and headed off down Peachtree Street SW. By the way, I think there may be more things with the name Peachtree or Peach in Georgia than there are peach trees. It seems like 82% of the women like to describe themselves as being a Georgia Peach, etc. Not that there is anything wrong with that, hey I like peaches too, but what can you do?

I soon discovered that you really have to watch the condition of the sidewalk you're on in downtown Atlanta. There were some areas where wheel swallowing holes appeared out of nowhere, but luckily I didn't fall into any of them. It's fortunate the 100 mile ride will be on the road.

Met some really nice people throughout the ride, and covered a lot of ground that I had never seen before. I like midtown Atlanta.

Met one of the owners of Engine 11, and we worked out the details to have them as a sponsor and to be on the shirt. Sent the logos to the artist last night, and should have shirts in a week. I'm psyched about this whole deal. Gary's firefighter friends are keeping things rolling in SW Florida, and are also getting a banner for the back of the firetruck for the ride.

Thanks for everyone's support of this endeavor.

[timekeeper]

Maybe that Clif Bar would've pushed you up to 70 miles

Sounds like you had a great training run despite the road conditions. We'll be keeping track of your progress!

[TheRhino]

That's funny Paul, and maybe true! I did get to have a great double cheeseburger with bacon at The Varsity though,(The Varsity is evidently an Atlanta institution. It's basically fast food, but it was unique, and it tasted amazing - although I was extremely hungry, so that may have influenced my opinion).

I plan on doing 75 miles this Saturday, so I will make sure I take pics and some video this time. I will post my ramblings in this thread, and hope that my storytelling digressions are not too distracting.

Here is a pic of some of Gary's firefighter brothers. They are all great guys. There are tons of hilarious stories connected to all of their antics.



I just got word from one of them that it looks like the Marriott is going to provide some accommodations to a bunch of the firefighters that are coming.

I just got a Facebook message from another one that offered his expertise in nutrition and b*ke mechanics if I could use it (he's done two Ironmans, etc).
Just great people...

[TheRhino]

Had a really busy day yesterday promoting rideforgary.com
First there was the Abilities Expo at the Cobb Galleria, there were a lot of great products for people with disabilities there. My brother got to try out a wheelchair that lets you stand up at the touch of a button, very useful device.



Met this pro pool player, so we got a picture of our wheel(s).



While getting ready to leave the expo, I met this cool dude Travis, aka Alfa T. He does special events and is re-opening a nightclub not far from where we were at. He saw me promoting the rideforgary, and came over to let me know that there was an airshow just a couple miles down the road that was going to have over 100 thousand people in attendance. He said I could park at his club and then do my promoting around there.

I'm glad he introduced himself to me, because I was able to tell hundreds of people about rideforgary.com as I rode up and down Cobb Pkwy during the airshow. In between planes flying overhead (which was of course awe inspiring with the Blue Angels and other jets and planes), there are extended periods of inactivity when these hundreds of people sitting all up and down Cobb Pkwy on the grass are receptive to a unicyclist promoting a charity event. I stopped for pictures with a lot of people, handed out laminated promo material for the event, and had an advertisement for the rideforgary on the back of my camelpack that I know got a lot of exposure. The event is on again today, so I'm definitely there. I need to finish this post and get the promo materials generated. Things are rolling at rideforgary.com!

These two little ones were so excited to see the big unicycle when I was taking it through the inside of the attached mall.



I could have prevented this UPD (un-planned dismount for those friends of mine that are here at unicyclist.com for the first time reading this).



The crowd had me pretty pumped, I could put about a dozen quotes into the "quote of the day from non unicyclists" thread, so I was going too fast down a hill when I went to make the transition from road to a sidewalk on-ramp. Man, I must have gotten some air as I came off that dip, and I couldn't help but get bucked-off. I went into an instant in air tuck and hit the ground rolling like a roly-poly bug! It was actually a fun fall, because other than this minor knee scrape there was no other injury. Life is good. I don't usually wear pads because the long miles in pads just is not comfortable.
I should have used my custom disk brake set-up (courtesy of www.Mountainuni.com - they sent me the Sinz dual hole cranks, mount, and custom rotor at no cost in exchange for some feedback about how well the brake performed). The brake works flawlessly, but you have to use the brake for it to work, you have to pull the lever



More updates to follow...maybe tonight if I have the energy. Thanks for checking in on this thread and reading about the rideforgary progress...

[TheRhino]

Back at the airshow again today. It was even better than yesterday. One couple that I met yesterday, named Ken and Barbie believe it or not, were back today and this time Ken had his high-end camera with him. He took a bunch of pictures for me and I thought that was really nice. I'll post the good ones once I get them, I know the file sizes are probably huge so I probably have to wait for him to mail a disc.

One thought that occured to me as I was cruising down the road on my 36er with the Blue Angels flying overhead was the interesting juxtaposition of one extremely simple object (the unicycle), and one extremely complex awe-inspiring object(s),(the F/A-18 Hornets overhead). It was a great moment, because at the time I was headed downhill with the airfield on my right (just grass and a fence, and no people) and on my left was a two-mile stretch of thousands of people. The booming of the breaking of the sound barrier made it even more impactful. You probably had to be there. Glad I was.

[Mountainuni1]

Originally Posted by TheRhino

Had a really busy day yesterday promoting rideforgary.com
First there was the Abilities Expo at the Cobb Galleria, there were a lot of great products for people with disabilities there. My brother got to try out a wheelchair that lets you stand up at the touch of a button, very useful device.

Attachment 44307

Met this pro pool player, so we got a picture of our wheel(s).

Attachment 44308

While getting ready to leave the expo, I met this cool dude Travis, aka Alfa T. He does special events and is re-opening a nightclub not far from where we were at. He saw me promoting the rideforgary, and came over to let me know that there was an airshow just a couple miles down the road that was going to have over 100 thousand people in attendance. He said I could park at his club and then do my promoting around there.

I'm glad he introduced himself to me, because I was able to tell hundreds of people about rideforgary.com as I rode up and down Cobb Pkwy during the airshow. In between planes flying overhead (which was of course awe inspiring with the Blue Angels and other jets and planes), there are extended periods of inactivity when these hundreds of people sitting all up and down Cobb Pkwy on the grass are receptive to a unicyclist promoting a charity event. I stopped for pictures with a lot of people, handed out laminated promo material for the event, and had an advertisement for the rideforgary on the back of my camelpack that I know got a lot of exposure. The event is on again today, so I'm definitely there. I need to finish this post and get the promo materials generated. Things are rolling at rideforgary.com!

These two little ones were so excited to see the big unicycle when I was taking it through the inside of the attached mall.

Attachment 44310

I could have prevented this UPD (un-planned dismount for those friends of mine that are here at unicyclist.com for the first time reading this).

Attachment 44309

The crowd had me pretty pumped, I could put about a dozen quotes into the "quote of the day from non unicyclists" thread, so I was going too fast down a hill when I went to make the transition from road to a sidewalk on-ramp. Man, I must have gotten some air as I came off that dip, and I couldn't help but get bucked-off. I went into an instant in air tuck and hit the ground rolling like a roly-poly bug! It was actually a fun fall, because other than this minor knee scrape there was no other injury. Life is good. I don't usually wear pads because the long miles in pads just is not comfortable.
I should have used my custom disk brake set-up (courtesy of www.Mountainuni.com - they sent me the Sinz dual hole cranks, mount, and custom rotor at no cost in exchange for some feedback about how well the brake performed). The brake works flawlessly, but you have to use the brake for it to work, you have to pull the lever

Attachment 44311

More updates to follow...maybe tonight if I have the energy. Thanks for checking in on this thread and reading about the rideforgary progress...

Great Deed and a Great Cause Mr Mueller! Yes the disc is just a hunk of metal without the caliper engaged Wishing you Sunny Skies and Smooth run outs moving forward!