The Wheelmen

So lets play where in the USA am I this week?
Answer: Dover, Delaware. Riding antique highwheel bicycles, during the 41st annual Wheelmen Meet.

It's been a really fun and exciting week. We left Monday afternoon and drove up I-95, stopping in North Carolina for the night and arriving Tuesday afternoon. We had no trouble finding Wesley College, where we were staying, because downtown Dover was much smaller than I expected. As my mom unpacked the bicycles, I roamed around the college, discovering where everything was. I found the Rec-Room, Amphitheater, and most important of all, the dinning hall. That night we walked into town for dinner and then went to a talk by Joff Summerfield about his on-going trip around the world on a highwheel bicycle. It was really interesting to hear all about his experiences and where he is going next. To read his around-the-world journal, click here (P.S. many of the photos here were taken by Joff Summerfield(because I was too lazy to carry my camera around a lot))
Wednesday morning we left the college on our highwheels to ride over to Museum Square. We visited the Johnson Victrola, Small Town Life, and Archeology museums. I think the most interesting was the Johnson Victrola museum, because it contained a large collection of antique music players and radios. We even got to hear an old record of Stars and Stripes Forever played on one of them. After lunch we took a bus to go visit Dover Air Force Base. It was unbelievable seeing the size of some of those airplanes. They seemed so huge compared to my mom's Luscombe. After we returned to the college there was the Youth Formation Riding practice, dinner, and then to bed. I wanted to get a good night's sleep because the century was the next day.
I got up at 5:00 and went down to the century rider's breakfast and then was out on the road. We were to do two laps of a 50 mile course that meandered through the countryside and was flatter that flat. The roads were beautiful, occasionally tree lined and the weather wasn't extremely hot, but I still got a major sunburn. The only problem I had was that highwheel seats aren't the most comfortable to sit on. But my mom and I made it, arriving back from our first lap at around 11:00. It was all I could do not to just leave it at 50 miles. But I did go back out on the road and did much better than the first lap. We had to stop for an Amish homemade pie at the second rest stop and it tasted soooo good. We finished around 4:45 and went to dinner at Olive Garden. I can definitely say that I slept well that night.
The next morning, Friday, I woke up refreshed but still a little sore. After a quick breakfast, I ran back up to the dorm room, I forgot to mention that our room was on the top floor (why are we always at the top) and got into my Wheelmen uniform/costume for the OHWT (Official High Wheel Tour). This year we had the privilege to ride on the Dover International Speedway, A.K.A. The Monster Mile. You never really understand the size of the track on TV, the stands themselves were huge, enough to hold 135,000 people. The thing that really got me was that the banking of the turns was much less that I would think. Only 24 degrees while Brian Piccolo Velodrome is nearly 30 degrees. After riding the track, we went out to take a picture in front of the Monster (photo coming soon) and then rode back to the college. We had another Formation Riding Practice and then on to the games! This year there were only three competitions, the slow race, thread the needle race, and a team race. I got disqualified in the slow race because I went out the side but absolutely flew in the thread the needle race getting first in my category. In the team race, they wouldn't tell us what it was beforehand but we got a team together anyways. Ryan, TJ, Andrew and I made a team and named ourselves the fast and the furious (for lack of a better name). In short, it was a crazy race, involving taking off both pedals to run around the bike and put them back on, pinning on a number with tiny safety pins, and the rider eating 5 saltine crackers (do not try this...). Like I said, crazy. After dinner, there were two seminars but I just spent the hour in the rec room playing (and losing) games of pool.
There was basically nothing for me to do Saturday morning so I went back to the rec room to wait until lunch. We again dressed up in our uniforms to take the meet photo and then rode downtown for the parade. The parade ended at the Legislative Mall where a large group of people had gathered to watch the formation riding and demonstration. First off was the youth formation riding which we had been practicing all week for. After that was the demonstration on mounting, dismounting, and riding the highwheel bicycle. The history of the bicycle followed, from the hobbyhorse to the geared safety, and then it was time for my favorite part, the trick riding. I had fun showing off some of my best tricks and trying a few new ones. Videos from the 2006 meet: Formation Riding or Races and Tricks. We then rode back to the college and got ready for the Victorian Tea. This year they had a costume contest so my friends and I all decided to enter. You had to tell a panel of judges about your dress and why you thought it was Victorian. It was rather hard standing up there talking about the dress I got from the Salvation Army but I ended up getting 3rd in the under 18 category. After the tea was the banquet in Dulany Hall. I won't go into any detail but it was really fun. The next day after an early breakfast we left Delaware and made it back home at midnight. It's been a long week but I can't wait until next year!

Side Story: My mom has this singing flamingo and we brought it with us to the meet and put it outside our dorm room. Of course the next day it disappears. We heard all off these reports of which floor, 1st, 3rd, 2rd... We never really knew where it was. And in it's travels it acquired a entourage of objects: Two neck ties, a cup of water with a quarter in it, an empty bottle, a crouton, a burnt cookie, a ribbon, two fake flowers, and a sticker. The batteries had also died from it singing every time someone went past. On the last day we had to go on a search for it to take it home, but I know this is just the beginning of the traveling flamingo.