Rest day in Afton, VA
Following my coincidental bike-rest-bike-rest pattern (I hitched a ride with Aarushi on day 3 as the only non-driver’s-license-bearing-individual), today was our first REST DAY!! We intended to watch a movie together the night before since we had no responsibilities the morning after, but we were truly so tired that we conked out pretty quickly. I finally reunited with my one true love — 8+ hours of sleep — and had the lovely gift of Pam’s breakfast casserole waiting downstairs with a cup of OJ. I’ve always been an apple juice person, but I may soon be convinced.
Speaking of Pam, let me provide some more background on Shannon Farm, the intentional community (IC) that she has been a part of for decades and where her amazing home is located! As she shared with us, it started as a smaller group looking to live together and share ownership of the land, which is over 500 acres in the beautiful woods of Virginia. It’s grown since then, and most people/families living there provide support for each other with community gardens and with various skillsets. It reminds me in a way of my living community back at MIT (House 4), so I definitely resonated a lot with their values and the method in which they try to be there for each other while maintaining some independence. Even if it seems that Shannon Farm is extremely cohesive as a whole, there are many more ICs that share even more resources. I learned about how other ICs contribute their incomes into a collective pool and how some all work in the same several businesses owned and operated by the IC. It’s a whole other world I have never thought about or been exposed to, but I can understand the appeal for certain groups of people from all different walks of life.
After breakfast, Tatiana and Aarushi headed down to the community center with Pam to blog and conduct meetings since her home doesn’t have WiFi. The rest of us played card games inside on a picnic blanket — our initial outdoor picnic vision was thwarted by a tick spotting and the constant threat of mosquitos 😨. We tried Stab Your Friends (passed down from Spokes ‘25), which I never won, but got to eliminate Nate beautifully after being pretty terrible and getting stabbed from all over. Nate took some more L’s in Durak, a russian card game, and got “cursed” after losing 3 times in a row as per Nunu’s house rules. Whether the curse is real or not, we’ll have to wait and see…
I also did some quick sketches of some of our recent views!
We had leftovers from yesterday’s dinner for lunch and headed down to the community center to meet up with the rest of the team still working to also catch up on some tasks. I finally got to call my mom for a bit (hi mom!) since it’s a bit difficult to coordinate calls with a time difference with back home. After working for a bit, we decided to all head to the lake on Shannon and make use of our floatie — our specially purchased 7-person floatie all the way from Boston — in the warm weather. At the lake, we met a bunch of students from JMU also enjoying the lake. Two of them actually grew up in Shannon and shared a lot of interesting insights into how it was growing up in the community, as well as the general area! Shoutout to them for letting us use their paddle and generally being an awesome group to talk to 🙂 In the meantime, Nunu and Aarushi blew up the floatie with their lungs since the pump of course failed (shoutout again!), and we were soon all on the floatie that truly did fit 7 people as advertised (I had my doubts).
On the floatie, we just chatted and traded stories while balancing sunbathing and staying cool. I found the half-body position the most optimal, as my torso could stay warm and my legs staying in the water ensured I didn’t get cooked alive. We got to learn a lot more about one another (one might say too much…), and ended up practicing our teamwork when we had to direct our floatie back to the dock at the end of the day. Kicking like my life depended on it, I had flashbacks to swim and kickboarding days — especially with Nate and Nunu watching and laughing from the attached paddleboard, offering only words of encouragement as the rest of us struggled — Carmen ended up pushing them away to fend for themselves.
Alas, adrift in the lake and phoneless, we lost track of time and had to rush to Pam’s potluck she hosted specially for us, arriving about 10 minutes late. There, we were treated to Pam’s DELICIOUS mac & cheese, the cheese having been grated by yours truly + Carmen + Nunu + Nate. There was also a delectable peach cobbler, eggplant dish, and watermelon with mint that I had way too much off. There, we chatted with other members of Shannon and learned more about it while they learned more about us. There are a shockingly high number of people here that are recreational/serious cyclists! In particular, there was someone who had JUST (as in literally 2 days before) come back from a cycling trip around Scotland with his son. He also did a cross-country trip from Boston to SF. Everyone we’ve met on this trip have such interesting hobbies and insights that I couldn’t have ever predicted, even as we get further from D.C. and into more rural areas. I’m starting to think biking across the country isn’t as rare as I thought!
After dinner, we finally fulfilled Nunu’s dream of volleyball and played a couple of games with mixed teams. By pure chance, we had self-selected into our 4v3 basketball teams from 2 days ago. Our team won (go wolves!), but we had to switch it up because of the tension between our two groups. It sounds like a joke, but I fear this sports rivalry may tear us apart. I don’t think we’ve argued more about anything else on this trip so far…
Regardless, I floundered around in my slides for a bit longer until we decided to have a quick team meeting before it got dark. We then headed up in two groups, one to the community center once again for WiFi to make AirBnb arrangements and the other back home. We also had to make some final preparations for tomorrow’s learning festival, our second of the whole trip. The grand shower line commenced, and the boy’s cabin experienced everyone’s worst nightmare: a spider in their bed. I’m not usually too bothered by bugs, but anything in my bed has crossed a line. Drew performed an amazing reenactment of Nate screaming and freaking out that I wish I saw in person.
In short, there will be some bed-sharing happening. But looking forward to our learning festival!
See you soon,
Caroline
MIT Spokes 2026 
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