I need to get some business out of the way. Tomorrow I will be describing an event that started from the campus of Furman University. I am thankful to Furman for allowing the 2010 Wheels for Meals ride to leave from that location. However, I would like to point out that it might be a good idea to put a certain employee through some public relations classes.

After riding for 66 miles, feeling hungry, and fighting off cramps; I headed around the front of campus to go out the west gate. As I did so, I came upon a plethora of cones and signs. There were also a good number of cars going around the circle in front of McAlister Auditorium. It was very confusing and I wasn’t exactly sure what I was supposed to do.

So, I tried to stay out of the way of the cars and rode on the other side of the cones. That unfortunately led me into a lane that was intended for people dropping passengers off in front of the auditorium. That is where things went wrong.

A man with an orange vest yelled at me. “Hey, don’t you know you are in a pedestrian lane?” I replied, “I had no idea.” “Well you are, now get over there where the cars are.” I paused because I was incredulous that he would talk to me with that tone of voice. I guess because I did not act right away, he lit into me.

Finally, I just worked my way over to the road and started on my way. People who were getting out of the cars paused to take in the scene. Frankly, I was embarrassed. I am sorry to say that as I started to ride away, I couldn’t resist saying with much irony, “Well, Furman is such a wonderful place!”

All the way up the first repeat of Paris Mountain I was fuming about it. In the heat of the moment I was determining to go confirm whether the guy was an employee or not and ask his name. It was offensive enough behavior to me that I was that upset. I’m certain the fact that I was tired, hungry, and cramping had something to do with my dark mood.

By the time I finished my second repeat and started to return to campus, I was over it. I glanced over and saw that they were still there, but I ignored them. However, I did determine that I would write about it here and I hope the Furman PR department will read this and talk to the guys who were… I’m not even sure what their purpose was… out in front of McAlister Auditorium around 11:30 AM Saturday.

I’m a 42 year-old member of the Greenville community. I had just ridden in and given money in support of a Greenville charity. I was a guest on the campus. Unfortunately, I unintentionally ended up in the wrong place. The actions of this employee(?) left me feeling far from welcome on the campus.

My guess is he just thought to himself, “There goes one of those cyclists who think they can go where ever they want.” He may have even thought I was a student. I’d like to think that I look that young! Whatever the case, there was not reason for him to act in such an offending way.

 

Tags: Furman

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.