Day 60: An Ode To How Spokes Ended Up In Vegas

Rest Day in Zion National Park (or Las Vegas) — 0 mi, 0 ft

Today real early I awoke
To the sound of Tatiana who spoke
It’s time to get up
But I was fed up
To wake up at 6 everyday is some sick joke

At least today we’re going on an epic hike
A million degrees in Utah, it’s just not right to bike
So we head to the Visitor Center
With Caroline’s family as our mentors
Who know everything about Zion, shuttles and hikes alike

We stand in line for the shuttle
30 minutes we await, befuddled
On what we should do
Carmen and I need to move
We have a long day ahead full of trouble

Recall that right now, Drew’s bike is at the bottom of a cliff
Carmen and I volunteer to road trip to find him a new whip
So we must finish the hike by ten
Which is only an hour away by then
It seems like Angel’s Landing will be summitted another day, RIP

We decide to still hike as much as possible
Ascending up Walter’s Wiggles*, the scenery seems impossible
How can red rocks be so pretty
To have to turn back is such a pity
So we instead decide to do something irresponsible

Carmen and I race up, rock scrambling the ridge to the summit
Dodging slow families left and right, to our death we hope we won’t plummet
We take jumping photos at the top
Then we run down, no stops
By 11 we’re back on the bus, glad we didn’t kick the bucket

I drive back to the Airbnb to get Drew
And call lots of bike shops, hoping one will pull through
With a bike ready for pick up today
So Drew can get back on the road without delay
Finally Trek in Las Vegas calls me back, “WE GOTCHU!!”

So this turns into a story about how MIT Spokes goes to Vegas
A coffee, an iced tea, a 44 oz Pepsi, and three hours it takes us
After a pit stop at In-and-Out
We show up and check out
The pink bike Chadd at Trek has all ready to go for us

Drew takes it for a joyride, his first order of business
Around the parking lot he goes, full of impulsiveness
Grinning ear to ear,
Forgetting yesterday’s fear,
Drew looks like a little kid opening his presents on Christmas

With the mission accomplished, we then decide to do
What anyone who comes to Vegas decides to do
We hit the club
Ready to pull up
In sports shorts and flip-flops, lookin’ too fly to be true

Except then it takes us an hour just to drive down the whole strip
And another hour to find reasonably priced parking for the whip
Now Drew’s feeling tired
But Carmen and I are still wired
We promise him just one hour for our worldwide trip

At 6:58 we start in Lake Como, watching the Bellagio fountain show
We then walk to Paris, where slot machine after slot machine is aglow
Drew takes a souvenir off the streets
Carmen gets called fine by a guy rappin a beat
At 7:58 we’ve looped back to the start, on the dot because I’m just like that, yo

All summer in a day*, all Vegas in an hour
In the City of Sin, imagine the willpower
No money was spent
Our temptation zero percent
Only pavement we pound, only climbs we devour

We make our last pit stop a photo by the famous sign
With no parking in sight, we leave our van on the curb, misaligned
We sprint up real quick
Ask a stranger to take a flick
We’re back within a minute, thank god our fender has no fine

To Arizona’s Favorite Mexican Food we go, Filiberto’s
Drive-thru burritos so hyped up by Carmen that we must go
Didn’t eat anything on the strip
In promise of delayed gratification, but RIP
The only Filiberto’s in Nevada is temporarily closed.

I wish I was home for the feast Caroline’s grandpa had cooked up instead
Instead of picking yet another fast food place on Google Maps, I pled
Curry Pizza House, I said
Let’s go there instead, but
Drew still bought fried chicken and bread.

Finally it was time to head home sweet home
Carmen drove this time; I was coming down with some syndrome
Suddenly ill in the backseat
I needed to take a couple beats
And when I wake up, it was 1 am, we were home.

Biked a century yesterday, then hiked Angel’s Landing today
Road tripped to Vegas, got a bike, walked the strip, pretty eventful, I’ll say
In four hours we’d be up again
Hiking the river of the Zion Canyon
It’s hard to believe so much can happen every day,
But that’s the story of how Spokes went to Vegas today.

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*21 famously steep switchbacks up to Zion’s famous rock formation

*All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury is my all-time favorite short story