Places I Have (NOT) Unicycled

I have ridden a unicycle in a few different countries - but not enough for my taste.

I wasn't able to take a unicycle to Israel, Italy, or France when my family went on holidays back when I was a teen, but my brother and I were fortunate enough to take our Schwinn 20" unis to sleepaway camp, so I have ridden in Maine. And when I went to Europe for nearly 5 months in 1987, I thought (correctly, it turns out) that a unicycle would get in the way of my loosey-goosey travel plans, so I missed having a unicycle in France (again), Belgium, Sweden, and Germany, though I did manage to ride a tiny unicycle when I met a girl riding one in Denmark. Her English was no better than my Danish, so about the only thing I conveyed to her was that I could ride, which she could have figured out anyway. About the only thing she could tell me was that she was 7, which I probably could have figured out, too.

Two years later I spent two semesters studying in and traveling around Australia. As I had already graduated, my time there was not truly 'two semesters' but could be thought of instead as '10 months of following a girlfriend and not joining the real world.' Whatever view you take, I decided not to bring my 24" Schwinn (I had moved up to a 24" by then), but this time I was wrong about it getting in the way. It would have been a hoot riding around the beautiful campus of Sydney's university. They even call it Uni Sydney; I kicked myself about this every day. So, I missed riding in Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia.

My next extensive traveling came shortly afterwards when I met Shirra. On our honeymoon to Club Med Playa Blanca, I managed to find a uni that I rode around a bit, but I would hardly say that I have ridden around Mexico, any more than a goldfish living on the Upper West Side can say that it has swum along the Hudson River.

Shirra and I globetrotted a bit in the 1990s, and we also took a few 'baseball trips' to see some of the old parks before they were torn down. But the unicycle stayed behind until our recent trip to Wales and England.

I have, however, gone to all the North American unicycle conventions since 2001, so I have ridden in Toronto, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, and Bowling Green (OH), and I look forward to riding in Tennessee this summer.

I also hope to take a unicycle on our future international trips, or at least to meet up with a rider in whatever country we visit, and I'll certainly be taking a few unis on trips we make as we drive around the US.