Today, driving along Rt. 20 into Charlottesville, Amber and I passed a man on a unicycle.
This is not the sort of a thing that is commonplace along Rt. 20. I think I can safely say that it’s a first. The two things that were obvious were that a) the guy was pretty hard-core and b) he was in it for the long haul. His faded jacket said something about “coast to coast.”
I’ve done a pretty good bit of unicycling in my time. For a while, it was my means of transportation around downtown Charlottesville. I have occasionally dreamed of buying a nice one and souping it off for off-road use. Admittedly, it’s never occurred to me to construct a road unicycle, as was being ridden by this gentlemen, though I’m rather stricken with the idea now.
This evening, I did a little googling. It didn’t take a minute to find out that we’d passed the one and only Lars Clausen. He’s the author of the book “One Wheel – Many Spokes: USA by Unicycle,” the story of his fifty-state unicycling trip from the Pacific to New York City and back again. He rides a cycle with an enormous wheel that leaves him towering over traffic. A Lutheran pastor, he’s become particularly interested in matters of gay/straight relationships, and so he’s recently embarked on another trip.
Clausen is spending a month on the road, exploring “gay America”. He started in Burlington, and had somebody to meet on his first night. The first guy connected him with somebody to meet the next day. And so on. He’s been doing this since June 14, and is presumably wrapping up his trip shortly. He’s maintaining a journal, which has an entry from today:
It’s July 6, I’m in Charllottesville, Virginia tonight. Weather today is thankfully a bit cooler than yesterday when I felt on the verge of heat exhaustion once again. Dave Twedt, seminary friend, drove over from West Virginia last night for an evening together in Culpeper. Tonight a friend of Mel White’s will pick me up from here at the library for an overnight stay. Tomorrow I’ll reach Lynchburg. 800 miles pedaled so far. 200 more to go. These last 100 carried a high price tag.
Rt. 20 is a tough road to drive — I’d hate to be a unicyclist on it. I hope his remaining 200 miles are without incident.
My unicycle, which I used for so many years, was actually a long-term loan from a friend. He asked for it back a couple of years ago, and I haven’t been able to unicycle since. I hope to find another one before too long. It’s a fine way to get around.