Tubular Tim's Magical Journey into Sustainability Science : They See Me Rollin'

What's one to do on an overcast and possibly rainy day? Go for a bike ride!!! For those that don't know, the Swamp Rabbit Greenway is a paved, level trail that cuts through the back side of Furman University's campus and runs from Traveler's Rest to downtown Greenville. My task this week was to go on a bike ride on the Swamp Rabbit Greenway. Great! I thought, I've been on the trail multiple times and enjoy the heck out of it. Except one of my bike's tires was flat. Dammit... So I decided to ask my roommate if I could borrow his bike.

Of course being at Furman, my roommate's father is loaded and bought him a $1,000 + bike that he barely ever uses. Being the stand up guy that he is, my roommate lent me his bike for the day and said "Just take care of it." That line was very shocking to hear coming from him, because he hardly takes any care of the bike himself. For weeks, he had been leaving the poor bike outside uncovered and exposed rain, and was starting to rust from the lack of any it saw. I knew I would be able to show the bike a good time. Equipped with my Camel Bak and both of my cameras (I'm in introduction to photography) I set off for the trail.

Apparently something did not register with me when I asked to borrow my roommate's bike. The dude is 6'1". I'm 5'8". So when I set off for the trail with high hopes and a smile, I realized that this bike is wayyy to big for me. With 29" inch wheels and a massive body the size of a tank, I was raised further off the ground than my bike and felt like I had no control over the bike. Not to mention, my crotch was being destroyed by the overextended seat post. And of course, fancy bikes require a hex head wrench to adjust the height, so I was screwed (pardon the pun). Luckily, I was able to compensate for my short coming by standing up while I rode, which was good because I was able to ride faster and feel like Kate Winslet in Titanic with the wind blowing my hair back in a sexy way.

Being an overcast day and in possession of two very expensive cameras, I thought it best to limit my time outside and my exposure to rain, and chose to ride to Traveler's Rest rather than downtown Greenville. Traveler's is 3 miles away from Furman while downtown Greenville is 6 miles. Biking for pleasure rather than exercise is so nice. I road slower than I normally do and stopped to look at interesting things, such as the off-site composting piles that the manager of Furman Farm has and took pictures for my photography class. Since my bike has been on the disabled list for about a week, it was very exciting to go at a faster speed than 3 miles per hour for a change.

Once I arrived in the town of Traveler's Rest, I stopped and took some more pictures and got my hair cut in a really cool old-timey barber shop. The guy was really nice and told me I was parting my hair on the wrong side. He also told me that no one has perfect hair except for Jesus. Here's some of the pictures I took from my bike ride. I might try to post some of the pictures I've taken for my photography class on my tubular photos section of my blog. Later skater.