I've been saying that I needed a different tool to change my wheels/bearings to skate outside. Today, my husband urged me to go to Vertical Urge to buy the Utilitool so I could change my wheels. He thought it would be fun to find a park for us to skate in....me in my quads, him in his ooooolddd in-lines.

Funny thing is that the nice guy at VU showed me how to pop the bearings out without a tool. Nifty, huh? So we went out the car and started the business of changing the wheels. During the process, it dawns on my husband that there is no reason to pop the bearings out. I purchased bearings at the time that I bought my outdoor wheels. Therefore, all that we needed to do was change the wheels. Duh. Very easy.

We went to the park across the street from our house where we found some fairly flat surfaces. Unfortunately, while Andrew was strapping on his old in-lines, the old plastic ankle fasteners broke on both skates! He took the shoelaces out of his shoes and tied them snugly around the top of the in-lines...which seemed to work just fine.

Meanwhile, I put my skates and my pads on, and I realized really quickly what it was like for the CRGers that skated in the St Patty's Day parade. (I walked, carrying the banner.) The wheels were slick as snot and took a bit to get used to. I felt like I had spaghetti legs.

"Do you want your helmet?" Andrew asked.

"Nah", I said. "I'll be fine."

Nonetheless, we left the car and set out for the park. Well, the first hill we came through wasn't too steep so I got in good derby form and coasted down it.....only at the bottom I wasn't sure how to stop. In a flash, somehow I did a "banana peel" and landed on my butt. Thankfully, I didn't smack my head on the concrete sidewalk. Hopefully, I got a cool bruise. Andrew was being much more careful on his in-lines so he used the grass to get him down hills.

We found a tiny parking lot with a median in the middle that provided somewhat of a "rink". My confidence grew the more that I skated, but I was surprised at how different it felt to skate outside.

I'm really excited because now I'll be able to skate before our next practice on Tuesday. Usually, I would have 2 1/2 hours of practice tomorrow, but it's canceled due to Easter. I think that I would die if I couldn't skate until Tuesday's practice!!!!!

When we got home, I skated down our street and back which was a lot smoother than the park had been. However, I still have to figure out how to stop. T-stopping wasn't happening.

Andrew's in-lines turned out to be a little on the small side, and, with the ankle fasteners broken, he went online and ordered some new ones from overstock.com. Yay....more outdoor skating with my hubby in my future.