The Great Unicycle vs. Golf Cart Race

Brad, 11, spent last week at church camp in Decatur, IL along with 200
other Jr. Highers. The camp allowed campers to bring along skateboards
and rollar blades so of course Brad took a couple unicycles.
Evidently, his unicycling was quite a hit because it sprouted into a
major racing series all week between Pastor Bamba in his golf cart and
Brad on his uni.

Attached is a collage they included in Brad's yearbook sort of thing
from camp. The book has pages of pictures of parts of the camp like
worship, freetime activities, fun and games...all general camp stuff.
Then there's the Great Unicycle Challenge page featuring Brad and Pastor
Bamba racing. From what we've gathered, the little race challenge
turned into a full week thing with teams and alliances forming, trash
talk (fun-type) challenges at the evening get-togethers, etc. From the
kids we've talked with since, the races were one of the big highlights
of the week. Our pastor's daughters told their parents that they had
never laughed so hard in their lives. Must've been really something.

Pastor Bamba is evidently quite a character (and well over 300 lbs). We
hear it all started when Bamba walked up to Brad and said, "You're the
unicycle kid, right?" "I challenge you to a race." So they raced and
Brad beat him. Of course there had to be a re-match. That night, Bamba
accused Brad of putting a 50 lb. brick in the back of his golf cart. So
the next morning, they had an official inspection of the golf cart
complete with a striped-shirt referee. When the inspection team was
satisfied, they set up to race again. Again, Brad beat Bamba so the
whole camp picked Brad up and carried him around on their shoulders in a
victory march.

Finally at the end of the week, they had their final race. They lined
up for the start and took off at the gun. Suddenly, about three other
counselors ran out, grabbed Brad and stole his unicycle so Bamba could
win. At the end of the race, the kids tried to pick Bamba up but
weren't successful. That night, the counselors claimed that in the
interest of safety, they had rushed out and saved Brad from hitting a
piece of bark in the raceway that was sure to send him to his doom.
Bamba was not aware of Brad's experience in unicycle racing so I just
sent Bamba a picture of Brad holding his National Champion Racer plaque.


The Church of God puts out a video presentation advertising camp every
few years that churches play for their congregations. Pastor Dan from
our church was a counselor at the camp last week and said they're
planing on using clips of the race in future videos.

Sure wish we could've seen all the fun. But then again, it was Brad's
first time away on his own and he deserved to make the time his and not
Mom and Dad's. But in spite of all his fun and growing up, it sure is
good to have him home again.

Bruce


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yoopers - Bruce & Mary Edwards
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picture, please...


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yoopers - Bruce & Mary Edwards
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Though an enjoyable story, this thread is worthless w/o pics!

By the way, is Pastor Bamba any relation to La?


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bugman - Survivor 2004 Wolfman Duathalon
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Trying again...


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Bruce

I think this is an open door for a future unicycle week at the church
camp!. Big question would be, "Where would you find a family of
Christian unicyclists to lead the camp?"

Fun post!

Bill


--
billham

It's better to be thought a fool, than to say something and remove all
doubt.
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billham wrote:
*Big question would be, "Where would you find a family of Christian
unicyclists to lead the camp?" *

Try Utah. If you count Mormons as Christians, we've got plenty of
Christian unicyclist families here (e.g. the Hanson family).


--
paco - Co-Founder of the PacoGild Movement

"You could switch out the unicycles for badgers, and the game would be
the same."
-Sockmonster
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I just asked Brad about the counselor at the bottom of the picture with
the shirt that says F.U.G.F. The counselors all made up the shirts of
which the acronym means Federation Unicycle Golfcart Federation. Your
guess is as good as mine...

Must be a camp thing.


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