Greenbrier River Trail

Soooo…a group of us decided to go swimming. The staff mentioned that although they used to actually have a pool on campus years and years ago, it died and was replaced by a library. :O There are rivers everywhere though, so it is a-okay.

After learning how to use the testing software/finishing a bunch of quizzes during orientation, obtaining a bunch of free things at the resource fair and stopping for bubble tea (!!! it opened in June :O!!! they are Taiwanese; I won’t be quite so deprived after all!), we drove down to the Greenbrier River Trail, parked off the road and trekked a couple miles down to the mile 5 marker to go swimming in the Greenbrier River.

This was my first view of the river (aside from the stretch I pass by every day while driving home).

However, that was where people went fishing or took their boats out, so we went a little further in.

From what I hear, the Greenbrier River Trail used to be where the train tracks would run, so it is, in essence, the flattest part of this area (in other words, if you have weaksauce endurance like me, you won’t die while running/biking it, unless you try to do the whole thing, which is approximately 70 miles). I probably haven’t mentioned yet that on Sunday, I had the bright idea of attempting to see how realistic it would be for me to bike to and from school instead of driving.

Let’s just say that 8 miles of back-road steep hills where I pedal like no other and seem to go nowhere is pretty depressing. I made it home, but I am not cool enough to be able to do this on a daily basis, particularly if I still want to have friends, because I was a pretty sweaty mess by the time I got home. There would be the option of showering at the gym, but that’d essentially mean that I’d have to get up before the buttcrack of dawn, and we all know how much of a morning person I am. :/

That said, downhill is super fun. :X I loved every second of that. The bike I rented is from Hill and Holler. Merrick helped me out in finding a bike that’d suit my needs (tis a GT Transeo hybrid bike; I love it to death, but it was a struggle trying to fit it into Cordelia’s trunk). I’d probably need to get a bike rack, and that’s…even more money. :[ I reallyyyy want it, but it’s definitely a want and not a need. :/ (By the way, is it terrible that I may sign up for accounts with two banks here because I’d make $150? >_>)

Anyway, this is where we went swimming!

It’s so, so beautiful here. When I came home last night and looked up at the sky, I was pretty amazed. The last time I saw so many stars in the sky was probably in May of 2010, when I went camping at the California/Oregon border. Watching the meteor shower here is gonna be pretty awesome.

Entirely unrelated (alright, maybe 0.1% related since it has to do with…the sun, which loosely translates to nature…), but after my epic bike ride (sigh), I stopped over at my neighbor’s place to say an official hello (because it’s kinda hilariously sad that I met him at a BBQ at someone else’s house even though we’ve been living in the same complex for…2 weeks now?).

He had this awesome sun tea jar that he got at Krogers for “dirt cheap.” Inspired (since I first learned of sun tea from Rachel and it’s really hot these days so I don’t exactly want hot tea :O ), I decided to stop by at Krogers and get my own. (Also because while I was over, I drank everything. He wanted it to be finished off and told me I should finish it. But still.)

But here it is! With my favorite color and favorite flowers along with 4 plastic cups…for $2.63. I kid you not. :O