Emporia, KS to Newton, KS — 75.4 mi, 1737 ft
Snoozing an alarm is such an interesting concept.
On all of the alarms we set, we have this option to delay whatever is so important that necessitates its own reminder, merely for another 9 minutes (the default on an iphone). Yet those 9 minutes can feel like an eternity — or nothing — before the alarm goes off again and you are faced with the decision of delaying life just a bit longer again. I had never used the snooze button until coming to MIT. Whether that means I’m just more tired most days or don’t look forward to class is something I have yet to unpack.
Today was a snoozing day. We always agree on a time to wake up the night before, and we agreed on 7 am since it wasn’t forecasted to be as hot as the previous days that necessitated much earlier wakeups. That 7 am slowly became 7:40 am as each individual alarm went off, got snoozed, went off again, rinse and repeat. Finally, after 40 minutes of this symphony of alarms, I pulled myself out of my warm sleeping bag and hurried downstairs to get ready. Drew also took the chance to put his corn onto his helmet, since he didn’t get to meet Helmet Flair yesterday but took the uni-corn decoration for the road. After a long debate over the placement, he settled on a slightly askew orientation that suits him perfectly, in my humble opinion. It’s been the subject of many jokes ever since, as you might imagine.
We left the church at around 9:40 am, and soon joined US Highway 50, a road we would soon become very familiar with. Apparently it is a major east-west route that spans the US, and it seems that we will rejoin it in Nevada for the stretch that is “the loneliest road in America!” But to not get ahead of ourselves, the 50 will be our friend for a bit longer before we leave it, or at least for the majority of today. While I’m not a fan of large highways, this one has at least a massive shoulder (most of the time), which provides some protection from the semis that roar by and gives me some wiggle room when I inevitably swerve from the gusts of wind they produce. Additionally, most drivers are pretty respectful — many like to switch entirely into the oncoming lane, which is slightly comical but I appreciate the commitment to not hitting us. However, there is always a car who gets a bit too close for comfort, to which I inch a little more to the right and keep pedaling as fast as I can.
With how exposed we are on the highway and in tandem with the naturally flat and sparse landscape, wind is our biggest friend and foe. I learned this a couple of days ago with our rough ride into Kansas City, and discovered that the most important thing was to truly bike at my own pace. I think I challenged myself last time a bit too much early on, which led to a miserable experience in the second half. I went ahead of the group initially, pushing against a headwind + crosswind that seemed to follow us across Kansas. Carmen, Drew, and Nunu joined, and we biked as a group to our first rest stop. It was a pretty straightforward stretch, except for the brief scare when Drew decided to bike hands-free — on the shoulder, on a downhill, with a strong crosswind. I looked up to see him nearly swerve into the traffic after losing control, which prompted a slightly guilty look back and a “maybe let’s not do that here?”
For our first rest stop, we had the choice of a coffee shop or a park. So naturally, we chose the coffee shop. Many of you have probably read Drew’s laments over our coffee drinking tendencies in his blog, but objectively the coffee shop was a better rest stop in this case… not only are there other options besides coffee 99% of the time, it provides a break from the natural elements (mosquitos, heat, etc.), and we get to interact with locals. While I agree all things should be in moderation, I digress.
Right as we started biking to the coffee shop, Nate (today’s driver) pulled up behind us on the same road. As I’m biking, I look to my left and see the minivan pass me, but with Drew biking behind it with maybe an inch to spare. He yelled, “THIS IS THE BEST DRAFT EVER,” so of course I tried to catch up with Carmen in tow. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience the draft for long as I remember “ooh I’m blogging!” (a universal blogger experience) and slow down to take a photo. Please appreciate this super gorgeous amazing photo because I missed out on the best draft ever for this 😞
Outside of the 30 mph draft, Nunu and I biked the actual route to the shop, taking a pretty sidewalk through a park and across a cool water feature. The downtown of the town, Cottonwood Falls, is also super cute and has a beautiful courthouse!
We went inside the coffee shop, called HeBrews CoffeeHouse. It was both a place of worship and a café, which was pretty unique! I ordered a delicious smoothie and breakfast burrito to make up for our haphazard breakfast, and everyone else followed suit with their food/drinks of choice. While sitting there and relaxing, we were asked by another customer named Lola about our trip and our biking experience. As we were sharing our story as usual, Tatiana and Aarushi asked Lola about her experience with sports as a rising junior in high school. After briefly mentioning running, she casually dropped the fact that she does RODEO competitively.
For anyone unfamiliar (I sure was), rodeo involves several different equestrian events that are rooted in the practices of cattle herding in the US and tests abilities associated with ranching. Lola showed us a couple videos of her riding one of her horses and roping a calf, where the competitor is evaluated based on the time it takes for them to successfully rope the calf. Her average is apparently 2 – 3 seconds?? Unsurprisingly, these times are winning times. She had won $4,000 the night before and was traveling that night for another competition. Lola also showed us a video of her older brother competing in an even larger rodeo, to which we all crowded around her phone and got to watch him in the tie-down roping event. Our jaws were dropped.
As we spoke some more, we learned more about ranching, which is her family’s business. I learned about all of the different steps and businesses involved in raising cattle, as many are transported between many facilities at different stages of their life. We also learned that Vonda, our barista, and Lola are best friends! She was just stopping by before we had our conversation, and she soon had to leave. While we prepared to leave as well, Vonda generously donated a box of yummy pastries for us on the road.
On the way out of the town, we wanted to try drafting Nate + the minivan again to experience it. Even on his driving day, he’s still the one breaking wind for us… However, we quickly noticed a loud sound coming from the floor of the minivan, stopping to find that a part of the oil pan (?) had come loose and was dragging on the road. A kind lady from the house we stopped by came out and directed us to a nearby auto shop, which was thankfully just where we came from wasn’t even a mile away. Shoutout Dieker Oil for fixing it up for free!
The next leg involved the only bit that was close to climbing along our extremely flat route. We went up a hill that felt like the highest part of Kansas, as I saw endless green fields stretching from all around once at the top. Kansas is honestly the state that has surprised me the most in terms of its flora and fauna, as I have definitely seen some crazy insects and plants that I wouldn’t have initially attributed to it. I coasted down the crazy downhill, and hit some gravel before joining back onto our friend, the 50.
At this point, I was not feeling super well and slowed down a bit as I fought back some nausea. I took an advil from Aarushi, which helped a lot. We biked as a group to the next rest stop. I learned about Tatiana’s grandparents, Brenda and Tom, who are visiting us soon in Colorado! This stop was an old mill and abandoned town with many “property for sale” signs littered around. We had lunch for the first time in like 5 days under a large tree, slightly crammed onto our picnic blanket and enjoying the routine of making our sandwiches. After eating, several of us took a much needed power nap. I think naps are the cure to everything. Everytime I’ve felt slightly off, a nap has freed me of all ailments — any doctor reading, look into this. 👀
The next leg is… you guessed it, more Highway 50! But before that, I listened to the Hamilton soundtrack with Tatiana and Drew, achieved by all pressing play at the same time. Except we can’t all press play at the same time, so we were off by maybe 2 seconds between the 3 of us. This made singing together a bit more challenging but 10x funnier with the offset.
We all biked together along the shoulder, risking at most going 2-wide to talk to each other occasionally. As our last rest stop, Dollar General, loomed closer, Aarushi suddenly pulled over to stop. She said she had heard a pop, and following our trials and tribulations with tires yesterday, we were prepared for maybe some sputtering sealant or a slash to repair. What we weren’t prepared for though, was a GIANT nail puncturing her tire all the way through the rim. It was quite impressive. As Drew said, “you didn’t see the Washington Monument in front of you?” This is just the first of many tire issues for Aarushi, sadly…
Once at Dollar General, a grand discussion commenced. As a non bike-savvy person, I let the experts debate how to handle the potential repair and what to do for the last 20 miles. We wandered the aisles in the meantime, buying all sorts of junk and justifying it by the cheap prices. I snagged a Snapple Mango Madness, a Starbucks frappuccino, and a Naked smoothie, please don’t ask me about my sugar consumption.
We settled on switching Nate’s tire with Aarushi’s for now, and let Nate use his extra time waiting for us at our host’s home to use gorilla tape and a tube (our tires are originally tubeless) to work some magic.
Now, the final stretch of Highway 50 — for today, at least. In a rare event, we got everyone in the same jam to listen to the Book of Mormon soundtrack. Everyone on the team had been exposed to some extent thanks to Tatiana and Drew, but now we finally sat down and got everyone to listen to the whole thing. Drew downloaded Spotify just for this, so you know it was serious. Carmen and I then sped to the end, enjoying the sun as it lowered in the horizon and spared us from its harshest rays. At one point, to my right, a great blue heron flew out of nowhere and glided along me for quite a while, which was magical. As someone who is relatively interested in birds, every interaction or sighting of birds besides the common ones (red-winged blackbirds, European starlings, etc.) are something special to remember. It was there for so long that I decided to pull out my phone and get a picture, but I’m still working on my on-bike photography skills.
We pulled off the highway with a couple of miles to go and enjoyed some gravel to round out the ride with the side of another dog running out on the road. I got to practice my dog-shout since I missed most of Kentucky. Slightly worried about the dog, Carmen and I waited for the rest of the group, then arrived at our WS hosts for the night, Janet and Orvin!
For dinner, we finally had corn on the cob, something we’ve been craving after passing through a bajillion corn fields every day. We also had Janet’s AMAZING mulberry + rhubarb pie, which was the perfect balance of sweet and tart for me. For the cherry on top, all of the ingredients for this meal were sourced locally, as Janet explained where she got each fruit/vegetable used. It made me think fondly of home, where most of the vegetables in our meals are from our garden.
As the night wound down, I watched some pre 4th of July fireworks in the neighborhood with Janet, Orvin, and Aarushi. I’ve heard so many fireworks go off before the actual 4th that I’m excited for what the actual holiday has in store. For now, I’m grateful to have a full stomach, a mattress, and excitement for the days ahead, even if it is Highway 50 as far as the eye can see.
See you soon,
Caroline
MIT Spokes 2026 
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