As a newly transplanted undergrad art student in the midwest (and years before I embraced the bicycle as my studio medium of choice), I picked up this old barnyard Schwinn, and I went about creating an homage to my very first elementary school art assignment -by gluing macaroni all over it and spray painting it gold. As an experiment, I also decided to forego locking it up, as I knew it was quite identifiable by everyone in town. Complete strangers would approach me on the street, offering to drive me out to County J, or Hwy. 29, or some other rural ditch, where they’d spotted my recently abandoned, one-of-a-kind bike. Another young art student there at the time, Lance Wilson, took an interest in this eccentric activity of mine, and we soon forged a close friendship (he also introduced me to another art student fan of the bike -my wife). The bike’s thirteenth joyride however, turned out to be quite a puzzler. Then Lance called one day, and said I’d better meet him at a railroad trestle, below the town dam. When I arrived, he was staring into the river below. Peering down in the water, I could make out an algae-covered something, but I couldn’t get a handle on it. Then we both doubled up in hysterics. There it was... green, slimy, and BLOATED. Weeks of being underwater had swollen the macaroni so that the tubes were the size of sewer pipes! Ten years into our friendship, Lance was brutally killed by a hit-and-run semi truck, while completing a solo transcontinental bike ride. We had planed the trip together, but I was unable to participate. This artwork is dedicated in his memory.