I didn’t cover many miles in Gahanna so I decided to go down Hamilton road into Whitehall for another 2-mile ride. The sidewalks were a little bumpy and I lost my balance three times. I was waving to two guys across the street and lost it, so I decided to stage a fall to the ground. They didn’t think that was too cool. You never know what will tickle someone’s funny bone.
Most people were very friendly and waved or honked. One woman passenger stopped at the light at Yearling asked if I was riding for the library across the street. Some days I wonder if I should start talking so I can tell people I’m trying to raise awareness for the Gift Card Donor program where you can donate gift cards to charities like the Buckeye Ranch, Central Ohio Diabetes, LifeCare Alliance (provides Meals-on-Wheels) and Operation Smile. I’ve decided to stay a mime – for now!
Two senior guys from Whitehall Yearling High School stopped me for pictures. Everyone loves getting pictures with the clown. Be sure to email me a copy or post one on Facebook — search for Mophe!
Posted in Pre-Tour by .
BAYCDA stands for Believe And You Can Do Anything!
I took a ride in downtown Gahanna by Creekside. The buildings were just beautiful and the people were very friendly — waving and honking as I rode by. I went by Bicycle One on Mill Street. I almost stopped in but I decided to roll on. I’ll have to go back sometime.
I rode up Granville Street and ran into four Lincoln High School girls. They yelled, “Hey clown, come here.” As I slowly approached they asked if I was crazy and I shook my head no. They asked if I could talk and I shook my head no. Then the main person talking said, “I’m starting to think you are crazy.” So, I started to ride around in circles. They all laughed. I gave them an “I am Mophe” card that told about my 1,000-mile journey.
SAFETY TIP:
I’m glad that you girls were walking in a group of four and you cautiously approached a clown on the street. As I’m sure your parents have taught you, NEVER approach anyone (dressed like a clown or not) when you are walking alone! I’d even suggest steering clear of strangers unless there are three or more of you.
Posted in Pre-Tour by .
PROOF Mophe The Clown has unicycled over 1,000 miles around America and continues to ride in charity races and parades.
I had a few minutes before leaving Cincinnati, so I rode for another mile down Montgomery Road by the Kenwood Town Centre Mall. I just love to see the looks on people’s faces when I go by waving. I’d guess that at least 80% of them waved back. Parents slowed down so their kids could “see the clown on the unicycle” and many honked.
SAFETY TIP: please make it a quick wave and then keep your eyes on the road ahead of you. I don’t want to cause an accident. And by all means, please nod your head instead of trying to wave while you are driving AND talking on the phone. Life is precious, so be careful with yours!
Posted in Pre-Tour by .
It was much cooler today, in the 40’s. Loveland is truly a beautiful city tucked into the northeastern part of Cincinnati – just outside I275. I waited for the other runners/walkers to start before I began my first “race”. A few people said I was cheating — they were just joking. I guess they have never ridden a unicycle before — you can’t coast! I had to pump my legs probably as often as someone taking a stride so I think it was fair.
I really enjoyed seeing the initial looks of the runners coming back our way and giving out “high 5s”. I finished in a little over 32 minutes, which I think is respectable since I was playing around some along the way. I passed a woman runner with about a half mile to go and gave her a “thumbs up”. She really appreciated that.
I cheered the next finishers for a while and then hopped on my unicycle again for another mile ride. Coming back toward the finish line, I didn’t want people to applaud me coming through again so I veered off and went around the building with the restrooms. I hopped off and walk around a corner only to find two girls anxious to give me “high fives” for finishing the race. Even the local policemen that rode bikes ensuring everyone was safe around the course smiled when they saw me coming. What a great feeling.
Mophe at Alzheimer’s March Madness Fun Run
This is the infamous picture I handed out to thousands of people along my journey! I posted other information and my current stats on the back of these “Mophe Racing Cards”. I also used this photo on the front page of BAYCDA.org and on the title page of a biography I started, which I still have not finished. Maybe some day.
Shad Ramsey from Red Door Photography in Bellevue, Kentucky took this photo along with several others. Thanks for letting me use it Shad!
Posted in Charity Rides by .
Almost 10% of all gift cards sold will "never" be used. Give your forgotten cards new purpose. Donate them to charity!
May 12
26
3/19/2009 Extra Thought
I have really been humbled by the mime experience. There are many times that people treat me different because I don’t speak. Not big things — mostly they just don’t know what to do since they cannot communicate with me in the normal way. They don’t know I am a mime and think I just can’t speak or at least can’t speak English. In those moments I get to feel what disabled folks must experience every day – and it hurts. I sure wish they didn’t act that way, but I’m starting to get used to it. I guess that is probably the normal progression to acceptance. I just have to remember that who I am is based on what I believe and not on how others act or in what they say. I’m also aware that most people have never been around a mime so they don’t know how to act and communicate with me — outside of waving and giving me high fives as a clown! I’ve started to carry a journal so they can write who they are and where we met. So if you’ve read this, please stop me and ask to write something in my journal.
Posted in Pre-Tour by .
Hi there. It’s me, Mophe.
It was a really nice day – high of 74 degrees and sunny so it seemed like everyone was outside. I started in downtown Columbus, Ohio at lunchtime so there were many people walking around. It’s great to see the reactions the first time someone notices me. Some are hesitant to wave back. Some wave before I do. Some give you the head nod. Some give the thumbs up. Many people cruise along think of other things until I jolt them into a smile. I just love that feeling when people smile. I feel like it gives them that one fraction of time to forget about all their worries.
So, I’m unicycling along High Street and all of a sudden I hear, “Clown! Clown!” and this woman comes running up to me. She asks if I would go visit someone. As we’re walking back down the street, I realized she had run after me for a block and half – wow! She slipped and told me the person she wanted me to visit is afraid of clowns so I didn’t want to go. She tried to cover it up and said the person likes clown. I went along with the gag. We went to see Pia the owner of Europia on High street in Columbus. She was flabbergasted and asked, “Where did you find this clown.” Pia ended up being a good sport about it and took some pictures (see below). Pia even got my name right! Carli was the name of the joker from Chase across High Street who put me up to it. It was all in good fun. Pia even acted like she was chasing me out of her store and down the street to the laughter of the folks at Europia and Chase. All in all we had a good time.
Mophe and Pia in Europia. I forgot how windy it was that day, riding up and down High Street. Just look at my hair all over the place. Looks like I need a cut.
Hi there,
It’s me Mophe.
Wow – what a great day! I’ve clowned around before — dressed up and road my unicycle — but I’ve never been a mime. It adds a whole new dimension to clowning.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. On the way to the parade a car zooming passed me on the highway. All of a sudden it slowed down right next to me. The two ladies in the car laughed hysterically at the clown driving a car.
Before the parade started I had a great time with the people waiting to be in the parade. Several asked if they could ride my unicycle but I declined. Some had pictures taken with me. I gave a real show to a group of majorettes — the old “acting like I can’t ride a unicycle”. It was a blast. They were encouraging me to keep trying until I succeeded. There was also a group of leprechauns trying to pelt me with bouncy balls. Be nice guys!
The best time was with a couple of girls who around 10 and 12 years old. The older one did all the talking and she was amazed that I did not speak a word. She said she could never do it. Later they came back with their Mom and other young ladies. They were all trying to get me to talk. It was a riot. They thought they had me when they asked my name, but I didn’t speak. I spelled out “MOPHE” on my shirt but that didn’t completely work. They called me “mop”, “mop head”, “Moephee”, Maaph”, and many other things until their Mom got it right — Mophe (it rhymes with loaf).
Pretty soon the parade started and I followed a row of Cooper cars. I was going from one side of the street to the other giving “high fives”. One guy said he wanted me to teach him how to ride. I took a spill on purpose and looked back at him. He said, “maybe not!” Further down the street I walked a little way and then acted like I didn’t know how to ride the unicycle. I got to the point where I was riding erratically and all of a sudden a guy ran on to the street saying, “I’ll save him”. I cut to the right and left again and just missed him. Whew! With all the playing around, I fell behind the Coopers by at least a half block, so I sprinted to catch up. To those of you watching the parade during the sprint, I’m sorry you didn’t get to see much of the performance. Next time I’ll keep my own pace. Everyone really enjoyed the clown with the blue hair and striped socks on the unicycle and got many pictures. If you find your way to my website, please send me a couple of your pix.
I really had a great time in Memphis and hope to return there someday.
May 12
12
First Post
Hi there,
Okay, welcome to the 20th century. Yeah, this is my first post. I just copied my journal pages when I moved everything over from GiftCardDonor.com and stuck with the same format of adding to those pages. In hindsight, it’s a lot harder to search for stuff, so I’m finally creating a real blog.
I plan to re-post ALL my journal entries, so I think this is going to take a long time, but I’m sure it will be worth it. The other thing is that I have TONS of pix to add too that I never had time to do while riding. The 1,000 miles of unicycling in 9-months (923.5 of it in 6-months!) around the whole country (except Alaska and Hawaii) didn’t leave time to manage/crop the thousands of pictures I took. In hindsight, I wish I would have taken a lot more video, but I quickly burned through data cards and kept running out the battery so I decided to stick with pictures. The other thing is, since I was the camera man and I didn’t have a filming crew following me, many of the pictures are without me. Oh well, better luck next time.
Thanks for following my journey.
Mophe
EMAIL
Mophe TheClown
Alzheimer's March Madness 5K Fun Run
Loveland, OH
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Photo by Shad Ramsey,
Red Door Photography, Bellevue, KY