thirtysixer
Practice, practice, practice. It seems unicycling has led to a small bloom in my estranged social circle. First, the Undercover Unicyclists have become a regular group. Hard to get everyone together at once, but we’re making plans for a Beer Dinner/Double Birthday Party. The concept begins with everyone dressing as a Zelda character. With them they will carry a bottle of rare/expensive beer to share and savor. We will hike to the top of a sixth thousand foot mountain, and Michael has requested we have a fish-fry.
I’ve found myself at a handful of festivals lately. In just a few short days, me and the crew made our way to Hot Springs, NC. The first night we split to find our individual camps; Donno and I walked across the French Broad River via the Appalachian trail, which runs right through the center of town. We set up camp with some section hikers on the beach. Then we rejoined our group + one non- unicyclist whom I’d been wanting to get to know. We split again, and retired.
In the morning, after cooking breakfast over the fire, we entered the French Broad River Festival. I spent the day meeting other unicyclists, reconnecting with thruhikers from 2009, and getting to know Bethany Adams, the creative mind behind Rhetorical Factory. Music and lights everywhere, me and Bethany retired to the hammock, woke, packed up, and drove back to Asheville. With no time to spare, we rebuilt the Rhetorical Factory vendor tent, and sought breakfast. The Green Sage was closest, so we got carry out and brought food back to the tent which was attempting to blow away. We hung out all day, selling clothing to tourists, intermittently distracted by food, music and art.
The following day was nothing but hiking around and eating tasty ice cream, getting some time alone.
I met up with Bethany the day after and we spoke of everything from our pasts to why she likes running with her arms in the air.
We met, had breakfast, and went trail running at bent creek. Often running just became sitting at a vista, appreciating the view and eachothers company.
At some point we decided we wanted to return to the car. We were both dehydrated and tired. After walking three miles in the wrong direction, we got a hitch from a passing pickup truck back to the parking lot.
And there was no better way to celebrate than getting more ice cream of course 
