Day 26: Best Driver Ever

Jefferson City, MO -> Sedalia, MO — 69 mi, 3250 ft

Our Spokie Sarah kindly offered to take my place on my previous blogging day because I was injured and couldn’t participate in MIT Spokes’ first century (100 miles) ride (a future sneak peek: I eventually completed my first century on day 27). Sarah asked if I had blogging pride to decide if she should take over my scheduled blog or if we should switch blogging days. Initially, I thought I had zero blogging pride. One less blog to write! But alas I realized I had too much pride, and therefor I wrote the day 26 blog.

I thought today would be my recovery bike ride after a couple of days of being a passenger princess, but it turns out that Charles’ birth hospital was on the route of my next driving day so Charles and I switched driving days. Now, we have another rare driver’s blog, from me!

We woke up today to amazing berry-filled oatmeal courtesy of our host Sarah. She is honestly everything I want to be. She is artsy, even-tempered, calm, and reads the room very well. She also gave us a gift that we will pass down to the future generations of Spokes as an heirloom. While I ate breakfast, I started packing up all the food boxes and the cooler. I don’t believe that a driving day is all that restful on Spokes because you become the morning cleanup crew and the evening meal planning crew (if we need dinner). I aspire to be the kind of driver who can get everyone on the road as quickly as possible, but I cannot be bothered to boss people around at this stage of the trip.  

Just as we were getting ready to leave, our host Sarah gathered everyone for a group picture. I double, triple checked the rooms to make sure we didn’t forget anything. My biggest fear is leaving something behind that someone cares about. Oops, mayo and otter pops from my last driving day. The devastation in my fellow Spokies’ voices is something I don’t want to deal with again.

After pulling out of our host Sarah’s driveway, my first task was shopping at the supermarket. I spent an ungodly amount of time in the supermarket because there was so much going on. I get overstimulated in supermarkets and my brain gets so confused. I visited 4 supermarkets on this driving day because I kept forgetting ingredients and I had to pick up bananas for Charles which he doesn’t even want lol. I also got into an accident in the parking lot of a supermarket, but to not incriminate myself, I shall not delve into the details.

I missed the first rest stop due to grocery shopping and dinner planning. I met everyone at the second rest stop at a cute coffee shop where some of us had lunch. Joseph always seems to be the last one to leave, including from this rest stop, because he enjoys taking his time. Still, I am astounded by his ability to always catch up with the team. Good for him.

The third rest stop was Dollar General, and I was able to share some strawberries I bought with the crew. We were waiting for Charles and Greta to show up when they arrived with bright red blood on Charles’ leg. Turns out, they crashed into each other which left Charles with multiple wounds and Greta with a painful pinkie and bump on her leg. Luckily, I pulled out all the medical kits earlier this morning so I was prepared to give our wounded Spokes members everything they needed.

Greta’s hand hindered her biking so she joined me in the van at the fourth rest stop. We made our way to the Kingdom Life Church, where we would sleep for the night. We met Pastor Steve and his wife Anne who took us on a tour of the church which had comfortable chairs set up like pews in their sanctuary. Needless to say, my sleep was heavenly.

A storm was brewing in the distance and the church had no showers. I turned on my logistic brain and sent our first bikers, Greta, Joseph, and Sarah to shower first in Pastor Steve’s home. Greta also planned to go to urgent care to check for fractures in her hand (there are no fractures yay). Pastor Steve and Anne also offered to do laundry for us! The rest of the team pulled up and helped unload the car in record time before the rain started. The rest of us then all got shuttled by Anne to her home and finished our shower lineup. But wait, I was still in the shower when some Spokies got shuttled back. How are we going to cook dinner? I sent some instructions for dinner in the group chat after I got out of the shower, fully not expecting any meal prep to be done. To my surprise, when I returned to the church, almost everyone was in the kitchen. I had help preparing red Thai curry with salad and leftover pasta from last night. I smoked the whole kitchen because I cranked the heat up. Ramona’s rice became porridge because we didn’t have a lid. All in all, dinner was served and the curry turned out well.

While dinner was getting cleaned up, Ishaq and Ruth were cooking up a storm with the drums on the stage of the sanctuary. Driving days always mentally exhaust me, but I am happy I won’t have to do it for a while. I snuggled into my sleeping bag and wrapped up another great driving day.