MIT Spokes 2026

Author: MIT Spokes

  • Day 42: mooooooooo

    Day 42: mooooooooo

    Colorado Springs, CO to Denver, CO — 82.5 mi, 3707 ft

    Today I woke up feeling a little scared. We’d been anticipating the Rocky Mountains the whole summer and we were finally surrounded by them.

    After a little bit of dilly dallying in bed, I went upstairs to retrieve my dried laundry so I could change into my bib shorts and jersey but when I got there and stuck my hand inside, the laundry was still damp. Carmen and I decided to spin it for a bit more and instead repack the car with all our many many things. It’s funny now 42 days in, we’ve unpacked and repacked the car probably 42 times so we know the exact place that every single item should go so that everything can fit neatly and our driver can still see out their rearview mirror. Packing the car is literally a jigsaw puzzle that we’ve mastered. For example, Carmen’s silver hardshell suitcase goes on the rightmost seat of the middle row and our cooler goes right on top, Caroline’s black softshell suitcase goes sideways in the middle seat of the middle row with the seat folded down, and our snack box goes in the leftmost seat of the middle row. It’s all very satisfying to think about.

    Still waiting for our laundry to dry, we sat down for one last breakfast and homecooked meal by Aarushi’s family. It consisted of delicious mango shakes with mangoes brought all the way from California, poha, halwa, omelets, toast, the largest cinnamon rolls you’ll ever see brought by Tatiana’s grandparents, and more.

    Nate and Erica (Nate’s girlfriend who was visiting) showed up a bit later and we finished up breakfast at the most packed dining table of the whole trip with a total of 13 people, almost double the usual size of the team.

    Soon after, we headed out and as Nate was driving today, Aarushi’s dad, uncle Sandeep, used Nate’s bike to join us on our route. Honestly, none of us including Aarushi knew what to expect of this because although we’d become used to this mileage, it’s not usually possible for anyone to just grind out like 80 miles.

    At last, after many photos being taken by every single family member and visiting loved one, we began our ride! Until 1.5 miles later we stopped at a neighborhood lemonade stand. We each bought one or two frozen lemonades for $1 and they were amazing.

    After scarfing down this lemonade, we continued our ride and very quickly I was stunned—it was so pretty.

    A couple days prior, in anticipation of Aarushi’s family visiting, I was telling the team about how the first time I met Aarushi’s parents and brother, I noticed they all walk in the exact same way. It’s really funny that you can get to know someone so well down to the way they walk and then realize that it just came from their family. As we kept biking as a group, Caroline Carmen and I noticed that Aarushi’s dad and Aarushi also bike in the exact same way! The same cadence, same posture, same side-to-side sway. We all smiled and laughed at this.

    The first few miles were on busy main roads going out of Colorado Springs which I would usually not enjoy but it was hard to be too upset because the views were seriously impressive. I remember it wasn’t even a couple days ago that the mountains looked like tiny specks in the distance and now I could see all the ridges and trees. Surprise surprise, it only got better from there.

    All I was thinking about for this first bit of the ride was how insane people just live here and can casually walk outside their homes to such insane views.

    We reached the first rest stop and the first thing I saw was a volleyball net!!!! Then a little further in the clearing of the lake I saw dozens of people swimming and floating!!!!! I told the team that we need to swim and play volleyball. Unfortunately, since we still had a somewhat long day ahead of us, I was left with blank stares. Nate had also initially parked a bit far from the nice shaded picnic benches so I called him to park closer so we wouldn’t have to carry the cooler and snacks so far. I went to find the only empty closer spot and stood there with my bike. Multiple cars drove by and told me to move but I shamelessly (actually very shamefully) stood my ground.

    Soon, all 13 of us were gathered under this pavilion eating as many snacks as possible. Tatiana’s grandparents brought us like three gallons of iced tea and Erica brought like 5 bags of dried mango and granola. We are very spoiled.

    Aarushi’s dad was the one to finally get us going again because (as we quickly realized) he’s more locked in than anyone on the team. In this second leg, we ended up doing some mountain biking! Caroline and I were biking behind Drew and Carmen (the two mountain bikers) and followed their lead going up and down these little dirt trails. At first, I was feeling too scared to properly enjoy the thrill of the ride. After each mountain biking segment, Drew and Carmen would ask, “did you have fun?” To which I would firmly respond “no” but that firmness slowly dwindled as I began to see the fun in it. It was kind of like a rollercoaster but your fate is in your own hands rather than in the hands of the rollercoaster mechanics.

    The trail went on and on through the hills and beautiful vast meadows. After each turn there was a new surprise that was both scary and fun once you’d successfully maneuvered through it. Eventually, Caroline and I fell behind Drew and Carmen as we approached obstacles more hesitantly and slowly. So as we navigated the trail, we reached a fork in the road and I went the wrong way but quickly realized my mistake. I turned around and told Caroline to go the other way but it was too late. She was barreling downhill toward me and couldn’t brake since this specific part of the trail was covered with sand and there was zero traction. It was straight out of a tom and jerry episode, I was screaming at Caroline STAHPPPP and Caroline was like AHHHHHH I CAN’T STOP. But it was fine we somehow managed not to collide and turn around to go the right way. Our next surprise, a pasture of cows! Instead of explaining just how fun this experience was, I’ll just insert this video here.

    After biking a bit through the cows, while simultaneously mooing at them and trying not to slip and fall in the sand, Caroline and I are startled by a loud mooOOAAAAAAAAAUUUH. I almost fall off my bike as we turn around and see Drew and Carmen racing toward us from behind. Turns out they made the same wrong turn at the fork in the road and ended up behind us.

    The four of us finish up the mountain biking portion together, every once in a while I scream aloud as I try not to swerve off the trail and all I hear is Carmen snickering at me from behind…

    Closer to our second rest stop, we pass by a Safeway and Caroline and I celebrate with each other because we both know that means we are officially on the west coast best coast. Our second rest stop was meant to be at a boba shop but we arrived 7 minutes too late. Despite my peering through the locked glass doors longingly, we were not allowed in by the employees. We ended up going to a tea shop down the street called Teaology which was, as Drew likes to say, the most “liberal” cafe there ever was. To paint the picture some more, I got a jasmine sparkling elderflower refresher, Caroline got a watermelon matcha, and we split with Carmen a spinach and sun dried tomato muffin and an earl grey blueberry muffin with lavender icing.

    After a much too long lunch break at this cafe and Aarushi’s dad having to usher us to get moving again, we continued on. This next leg had basically the only serious climb of the whole day. Right before the climb started I began to feel rain drops on my face and looked up at the sky to see where the clouds had come from. When I looked up however, there were no clouds. The rain drops was actually my front tire sealant spraying up at me because I had gotten my first puncture. Usually when this happens, the solution is to keep biking so the sealant can dry up and close the puncture (kind of like how skin scabs when you get a cut). So I kept on biking up this mountain. As we huffed and puffed up this hill, Aarushi’s dad mogged everyone and left us all in the dust. It was actually crazy.

    Our last rest stop was at Aarushi’s family friend’s house, Abhijeet and Roma. They made us some delicious protein smoothies and we shared stories about our journey so far. Before long we had to keep biking so we wouldn’t be stuck biking in the dark.

    As we got closer into the city and to our host’s house, we biked through many various parks and neighborhoods and wow I just fell in love with Denver. Every park was so beautiful and full of people enjoying being outside. There was also so much biking infrastructure everywhere, I think more than I’ve seen in any city ever. I daydreamed about moving to Denver and biking this same route every weekend because it was just the most awesome day ever.

    Half a mile from our destination however, a driver coming the opposite way down a narrow street yells out to me, “GET THE F*** OUT OF MY WAY YOU GODD*MN F***ING IDIOT.” I held my composure and kept biking but that was definitely a negative point for Denver.

    At our host’s, Kate and Manuel’s house, we are welcomed by the crunchiest, coldest, most refreshing grapes I’ve ever eaten and my favorite food ever, pesto pasta. Both of them are MIT alum and one Spokes alum so we debriefed our time at MIT/spokes. We then discussed the logistics of tomorrow for a bit. It was decided that I would take Aarushi’s driver day so she could take my bike, her bike, and Caroline’s tire (which was also struggling today) to Trek to get repaired. We then showered and went to bed. All in all it was the perfect day and, all of us agreed, our favorite route of the trip thus far.

    Until next time,

    Nunu

  • Day 41: Emmenez-moi au bout de la terre

    Day 41: Emmenez-moi au bout de la terre

    Rest day in Colorado Springs, CO — 0 mi, 0 ft (optional: 9.6 mi, 1117 ft)

    This morning was the first day we got the absolute privilege of waking up to a home cooked meal made by one of our families. It might have been the best breakfast I’ve had on this trip yet. Beautifully cooked omelettes with onion and cilantro and everything delicious, poha with cashews and sev, fresh berries, a mango smoothie, coffee. 

    Last night we had made a game plan: get to the Pikes Peak entrance at noon, spend three hours on the drive up and down, leave for the Garden of the Gods at 4, and make it back to the airbnb in time for the World Cup quarterfinal at 7.

    Inspired by the mountains surrounding Colorado Springs, and the fact that Coloradans are the fittest in the country, I decided to float the idea that we should go mountain biking. Drew and I have been meaning to this whole trip, and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity. We found this trail system in Red Rock Canyon, which by chance, was right across the street from the Garden of the Gods. This was perfect. A sign from the heavens, you could even say. 

    We’d almost convinced Tatiana and Caroline to come join us, but they really wanted to see the godly rocks. Even so, I’m still working on converting them. I am in charge of the route after all…

    After breakfast, we had to unpack the car to fit the bikes, take off the camper top so it wouldn’t blow away off of Pikes Peak, and just make every modification we can to the minivan so it was less janky. 

    The mountain bikers (Drew and I), Caroline, and Nunu all decided to take the minivan, while Aarushi would drive with her family, and Tatiana with her grandparents. We all attempted to leave for Pikes Peak at the same time. But 10 minutes into the drive, our group ended up 3 miles ahead of the others, which translated into being 30 minutes ahead once we reached the top. Separated by the waves of traffic and time, I began to see the four of us as our own little subteam, conquering windy roads and miles of elevation to get to the top. 

    I, for the first time, was put on aux. Since only half of the team was in the car with me, I felt less pressure to “curate the perfect vibe” or something like that. Caroline and Drew gave me French song recs, which we blasted for several minutes and tried to sing along to in our own French accents, all acquired from a varying number of years taking the language in high school. I then played songs by my favorite French artist, the wonderful Charles Aznavour. Every song of his is filled with so much emotion. Emmenez-moi might be my absolute favorite. So I played it for them. It’s about a longing to escape a monotonous life, to search for and find somewhere more colorful, more free.

    Emmenez-moi au bout de la terre,

    Emmenez-moi au pays des merveilles,

    Il me semble que la misère serait moins pénible au soleil.

    Or:

    Carry me to the end of the Earth

    Carry me to the wonders of other lands

    It seems to to me that misery would be less painful in the sun

    I do enjoy a song that yearns. 

    After I serenaded them with the most beautiful French accent I’ve ever heard, I put on Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, the Beatles, Electric Light Orchestra, Paul Simon, Pink Floyd, etc. and tried to capture that “road trip into the mountains” feeling. At least what it’s like to me. 

    Once we reached the tree line, the switch backs got serious. No guardrails, just trust in your driver and your breaks. Thankfully Drew is not a reckless driver, and we made it safely to the top. 

    We got out of the car and set out for the edge of the peak. There were chunks of rock strewn about the top, probably relocated blasted bits from where the switchbacks were carved out (according to Caroline, I think it’s genius). I led them along what looked like a trail, which devolved into rock scrambling, until we reached the edge. 

    Nunu had the genius idea to scream into oblivion. There were tourists hundreds of feet away on an overlook, so we initially thought we might disrupt their peace. But then again, it’ll only last a few seconds. So we screamed, “AMAZING” at the top of our lungs, followed by an “OHHH LAAA!!” inspired by Nunu and Aarushi’s friend Ria.

    For several days before, Aarushi has been trying to convince us to listen to the Heroes of Olympus series, and while I’m waiting for it to no longer be on hold, she has been telling me the plot. The one thing that stuck out to me was that the author chose to have the main characters fly on a golden dragon to the top of Pike’s Peak. Looking out from the top, it made sense. I finally understood why people obsess about the Rockies, it really is majestic, almost godly. The end of the Earth. The trees that fall away from the peak, reservoirs that even when low appear impressive, a candyland-like landscape in its perfectly imperfect features.

    Eventually, Aarushi and Tatiana arrived with their families, we met up, had photos taken of us almost like we’re celebrities, and then the original four of us left to start the drive back down the mountain. 

    We stopped along the only part of the road with a shoulder to take more pictures of our beautiful selves. Drew first ran down until this cliff’s edge to pose for a picture, despite the wind that was threatening to blow us off the side. We all got some awesome looking photos. I especially like the ones of us pointing in random directions, that capture us talking about performatively pointing in random directions. 

    The rest of the drive down was utterly stunning. I really admire this man’s commitment to capturing the view in 360. 

    The four of us were on a mission: to go to Freddy’s before we met back up with everyone else at the Garden of the Gods. Colorado Springs has one of the most scenic Freddy’s I’ve ever seen. It’s also so American. Beautiful mountains in the background, with rows and rows of fast food chains and gas stations lining the valleys. After biking though rural towns, large cities, and everything in between, seeing an Applebee’s next to a Wendy’s next to a 7 Eleven feels like home.


    In my opinion, the burgers were good but overhyped (and overpriced), with not enough toppings, no burger sauce, and fries too tiny that forced me to eat like a newborn, licking my fingers between each bite. In N Out is still superior. 

    Us four then dropped off Nunu and Caroline at the Garden of the Gods, while Drew and I headed over to the trailhead. As we climbed out of the car, quickly got ready, and pulled our bikes out from the back, I was reminded of how I used to feel preparing for a mountain bike ride: slightly nervous, anticipatory, excited, and ready to suppress my fear.

    Trying to navigate mountain bike trails on a Garmin is nearly impossible. The turns are incredibly hard to tell apart at a five way intersection. It’s almost always a gamble, bike for a bit and see if you’re going the right direction. I had to turn around many times and awkwardly shuffle my bike 180 degrees, until halfway into the ride Drew, the genius that he is, learned the language and was able to decipher what trails to take.

    The first mile in I was met with smooth, windy single track, and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to call what we were doing mountain biking. But then we started the climb, and ran into this huge rock feature with horizontal ridges. I sized it up. I went for it. It felt euphoric. I scaled that huge rock, leaned all the way forward, gripping the ends of my hoods, in my lowest gear, half standing up and pedaling like a maniac, and rather easily made it to the top. Fantastic. I wasn’t completely sure I could do that on a gravel bike, but managed to anyway.

    Riding trails on a gravel bike is incredibly different than doing so on a mountain bike. You feel faster with a bike 10 pounds lighter, slightly more unstable as you break and your tire skids, shaky since the only suspension is your arms and legs, but also more connected with your surroundings. You’re lower to the ground on a smaller bike frame and are positioned less upright, leaned more forward and more aerodynamic. I used to think that those who rode gravel bikes on mountain biking trials were just stubborn idiots with no sense of self preservation, but now I can understand the hype. Even though we had to walk several features, half of which I probably could do with the right bike, it was such a singular experience. The instability enhanced the ride, and led both of us to become far more comfortable balancing on our bikes. 

    The first flowy section allowed us to go insanely fast. I was slightly fearing for my life, going over bumps and rocks I was unsure if my bike could handle. It was mainly a straight path, and so we shot down the trail. When the next turn was coming up I had to break so quickly that my back tire fishtailed in the dirt. Instinct took over as I tried to overcome the fear of losing control, kept my balance as I gained traction once again. These small rushes of adrenaline from conquering something you are 85% sure you are capable of handling are what, to me, make mountain biking so fun, and so much more different from these long endurance rides. This is why Drew and I chose to spend our rest day back on our bikes.

    The second rock feature was insane, a 5 foot drop utterly impossible to do on a gravel bike (for someone who has to be in one piece the day after). We had to scoot our butts down the side.

    This eventually led into some loose rocky climbs, another flowy downhill with fast, tight turns, which spit us out onto a beautiful vista, with fields of native grasses, red rocks, and a view of the city below. We could even see the Garden of the Gods from where we were; didn’t miss out on it after all.

    The next feature was even more impossible, a vertical wall of rock that neither Drew or I was about to attempt. So once again we walked slowly up this >20% grade hill.

    There was another sketchy downhill with smaller rocks that I could feel every single one of, each shaking the bike and causing my forearms to cramp up with how tightly I was holding onto the hoods, to both break and just not fall off.

    But this led us to the last gorgeous downhill with a rolling trail along the side of the mountain. It had single track that required my full concentration, since the other side was a steep drop off that could send me tumbling into some shrubs and cacti (admittedly only small prickly pears). But by looking where I wanted to go and not where I didn’t, I survived. The thrill, the landscape, the sprints up and down, this is why I chose to bike on my rest day. Why we both did. It was incredibly fun. 

    We drove back to the Airbnb and were met with the most delicious dinner made by the Mehrotras, this heavenly indochinese cauliflower dish.

    The rest of our team had been camped out on the couch intensely watching the Argentina v. Switzerland quarterfinal game. Caroline has the most important job of exiting the No Wifi screen every time the connection was lost (her reaction time was insanely impressive). When we arrived, it was tied 1-1. Argentina obviously just needed the support of us two, since they then scored two more goals in overtime, securing their place in the semifinal. It was quite fun to watch everybody yell at the screen in shock.

    After dinner, the day ended like it always did: we made the route, blogged, and went to bed. 

    I always enjoy our restless rest days. Maybe sometime in the future, we’ll actually learn how to take a break.

    – Carmen

  • Day 40:🌵✈️😁⛰️🌦️🌈

    Day 40:🌵✈️😁⛰️🌦️🌈

    Fowler, CO to Colorado Springs, CO — 87.4 mi, 3174 ft

    💤 The night before a century is a tense one. Even if we have 95 mile days, nothing quite gets you as excited or as anticipatory as the big scary triple digit number. Thus, we agreed to enforce our strict wake-up routine that worked extremely well for our first century back in Missouri — wake up at 6 and leave by 7 to conquer the day.

    🐐 However, you might have noticed that the first line says 87 miles, not 100! That’s because we woke up to find out that Aarushi, our route queen, was able to shave off several miles with some magic and work into the night. The news worked slowly from person to person, as it usually does, and as each person was informed of our shortened route, the urgency in which we got ready slowly dwindled. Usually I am all for full urgency, but we were able to enjoy our morning a bit more and savor the breakfast the church had generously provided us. Notably, the new Arizona Iced Teas that are my new favorite drink. Thanks Aarushi for sacrificing some sleep to make the rest of our lives a bit easier 🙂

    🌵 We set off from the church at around 7:30 am, and hit a pretty desolate stretch of highway surrounded by arid prairies and shortgrass growth, which is also where we started seeing more and more cacti. I had the feeling of being home once again. While I’m not necessarily from an area that looks like this in California, seeing such wide and desolate landscapes really remind me that we’re finally fully entering the west and leaving the midwest. Having spent most of my summers traipsing around the western states with my family, from this point on, it’s much more familiar territory. We also saw the Rockies on the horizon! After so much talk of crossing them, it was a bit surreal seeing them appear, knowing that we would take on the challenge soon. 

    “Blogger behavior,” aka trying to take photos on the road + the Rockies in the distance! ⛰️

    🚂 This stretch was mostly parallel to a set of train tracks, so we were able to see a couple of trains go by with long chains of cargo in tow. While I wasn’t paying super close attention to them, one was apparently carrying the deconstructed parts of a windmill much like the hundreds we had seen in the days prior. A little of the “behind the scenes” action! They were super loud though, and the sound carried around us all the way to our first rest stop 24 miles in. This was a longer stretch than usual since there was literally nothing else inhabited on the way there, but at least this was a produce place we could finally stop at!

    🥐…Except this wasn’t even an actual or open store, testifying to how sparse services are out here. Thus, our rest stop was of the picnic-blanket-on-the-ground-next-to-the-car flavor, which is also a vibe as well. Another thing to make it better was that Grandpa Tom and Grandma Brenda bought us HUMONGOUS cinnamon rolls from a local bakery that I happily chowed down on.

    🏛️During this stop, Aarushi mentioned the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum about 10 miles away, which she had found when scouring for stops the night before. She didn’t end up picking it because of the awkward mileage and the fact it was slightly off-course, but Drew’s ears pricked up at the mention of aircraft. As our resident Course 16 (Aerospace Engineering), he was immediately determined to go and the rest of us were also interested! Thus, to the aircraft museum we went.

    🛫As we sped into the museum area, we were simultaneously following signs to the Pueblo airport since they were right next to each other. I had the fleeting thought that in another completely non-realistic universe, we were a group of bikers racing to catch our flight. I don’t know what the context of that would be, but it was a fun scenario to ponder about — checking in our bikes, decked out in our gear… 

    🛬The museum appeared before us, and we all headed into the first hangar absolutely PACKED with planes. One of the workers there led us in and gave us a quick overview of their most famous plane, the B-29. We also learned more about it from Drew, who is a never-ending encyclopedia on planes. 

    B-29: The B-29 is most famous for being the first mass-produced bomber with a pressurized cabin, which allowed it to operate at much higher altitudes than rival planes (namely the Japanese air forces). They were the model of planes that dropped the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, proving to be instrumental in the conclusion of WWII.

    🇻🇳 As we wandered around the hangar, Drew acted as our trustworthy tour guide and told us all about each plane that caught our eye. I learned how the Soviet Union and the US developed competing planes based on different philosophies in the Vietnam War: the US prioritized speed, the USSR prioritized maneuverability. Apparently the US’s bet didn’t pay off, and the USSR emerged victorious in this development battle. It was really cool to learn more about the technology that dictated the outcomes of different wars, since as someone with a very surface-level understanding of these historical events, these aspects of conflict are often glossed over and understated. 

    The hangar 

    We then all chose a plane that we felt most connected to — up to you to judge if you feel that they are accurate 😉

    Nate, Grumman F9F Panther: The first jet-powered fighter aircraft to see air-to-air combat with the US Navy. It was also the first jet fighter manufactured by Grumman, known now to many as part of major defense company Northrop-Grumman.
    Carmen, Lockheed F-104 Starfighter: Deployed mostly as a fighter-bomber in the Cold War and is widely produced by other nations outside of the US.
    Nunu, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17: Saw most of its success in the Vietnam War, nearly a decade after development by the USSR. It was initially meant to combat slow-moving US bombers, but it was surprisingly successful against the US’s faster fighters that were designed for speed and long-range combat.
    Tatiana, Lockheed P-2 Neptune: Developed as anti-submarine warfare in WWII and was famous for its incredible range + mixed-engine design.
    Drew, Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II (Warthog): The only aircraft in the Air Force developed primarily for close air support (attacking enemy ground forces)!
    Aarushi, F-86 Sabre: An iconic, transonic jet-powered fighter that defined early Cold War aviation. Most famous for countering the Soviet MiG-15 in high-speed dogfights over “MiG Alley” during the Korean War, it remains the most-produced Western jet fighter in history.
    Caroline (myself), RA-5C Vigilante: A highly advanced, carrier-based supersonic aircraft operated by the U.S. Navy. Originally designed as a Mach 2 nuclear bomber, it was later converted into a premier reconnaissance aircraft that played a major role in the Vietnam War. I just liked the shark face on the side!

    😉 Alongside these deep and riveting history lessons, we also noticed that many of these planes’ facades would resemble certain facial expressions. Although almost certainly unintentional, they gave the planes so much personality that Nunu recreated them beautifully (+ a cameo from Drew and Aarushi, which is also why Aarushi is making a face in her plane photo for context).

    • 😮
    • 😦
    • 😶
    • 😛
    • 😝

    🧑‍🚀 Grandpa Tom also gave us a quick history lesson about the development of space suits! There are so many details that go into its creation that I never thought about, including being able to adjust the temperature of the suit and how the gloves are the area that need to be heated the most. The labeling on the suits must also be mirrored since the astronaut is using a mirror to see the front of their own suit, so the actual text must be mirrored. 

    📖 We left the aircraft museum enlightened and with a lot more knowledge of planes + Pueblo, or at least I did. This was honestly my dream stop and what I had initially imagined more of what this summer would be like — going to museums/visitor centers and learning more about the local history through these places. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve learned a lot from all of the people we’ve met and the other places we stopped, but nothing compares to a relatively unknown museum run by a small team. They often have the coolest bits of history and information that you’d never know otherwise, except for your decision to cross paths at this moment. 

    ⚠️ On the next stretch, we hit some gravel and a desert-y area with some unique houses (a watermelon-shaped abode) and quirky decor (a giant 8-foot tall skeleton and a sign that said CAUTION: Corgi territory). Very uniquely western. We followed the gravel until we had to merge onto I-25 for a little while to reach our next rest stop, which was an official freeway rest stop. Unfortunately, the stop was closed and boarded up, so we spent a while debating what to do: to move or not to move, that is the question. We also made extra sure Tatiana (the driver) knew about the situation.

    I was the first to sound the alarm + how it felt

    ☕️We ended up deciding to just have the rest stop in the unblocked exit of the rest stop, so Tatiana just backed the car up into the driveway and we had our stop on the side of the freeway. The picnic blanket is very clutch in elevating the vibes of the stops and allowing us to pretend we’re having a picnic somewhere not by hundreds of cars whizzing by! Brenda also brought some of us coffee, which was also very sweet.

    😷 During this time, Aarushi finally pulled out the face mask her mom had got her for face protection, wanting to at least give it some action before she reunited with them later today. She put it on with some hesitancy after seeing Nunu rock it, but it ended up not fitting due to the limited real estate around her ear (where the mask hangs). For context, we have a LOT of gear around our face. Most of us have our sunglasses and shockz (sport headphones that go over your ear), so there’s already 2 things hanging off our ears… yeah the mask had to go. 

    No pictures 📸

    🚵 We also had to decide if we wanted to stay on I-25 as well or not. During our brief stint on the road, several of us felt unsafe with so many cars going 80 mph past us. We decided to go on this small trail that ran parallel to the road for a couple of miles, and it was actually really fun! I’ve found the off-road stuff to be more and more fun after being initially scared of it, but after the long highways of Kansas, it’s much more mentally stimulating to be just a bittt worried if your bike will slip in the dirt or not. However, the fun was short-lasted, and soon we were back on our highways and streets. I biked with Aarushi and Carmen, helping Aarushi summarize the plot of the first Heroes of Olympus book (an ongoing conversation topic) whenever we could. However, the cars don’t seem to like it when we go 3-wide and take up the whole lane… it’s kinda rude, especially when we’re trying to have an important conversation. 

    🍧 Our last rest stop was Colorado Sno-Balls, a snow cone shop! I split a medium blue raspberry + cherry combo with Drew (which was good, since a medium turned out to be a good 5 stories tall) and it was AMAZING. Normally snow cones seem to have an issue with the top part being desaturated in syrup relative to the bottom, but this one was perfectly saturated at the top and had an amazing texture. $2.00 well spent.

    🥪 Aarushi’s family, who had flown into Denver in the morning, met up with us and brought us a lot of delicious fruit. We had lunch outside on a bench before the skies opened up and brought a downpour, forcing us to evacuate under the narrow overhang. Aarushi’s parents were discussing Tatiana’s bad luck with mayo (see Day 17 blog) and Tatiana promptly drops her mayo-covered slice of bread into the cooler facedown — the universe works in funny ways.

    🌦️ Once it stopped raining, we packed up for the last segment into Colorado Springs, and experienced my favorite weather. I love when you’re somewhere that was freshly rained on, with the rain still continuing on nearby and patches of clouds still lingering in the sky. It made for some great views that my phone camera can’t capture, but trust me when I say it was gorgeous, especially as the Rockies grew larger in the background. We also saw our first rainbow!

    🍔 We biked on a nicely paved trail that followed a creek for the next couple of miles with a crazyyy headwind. The city also decided to become the hilliest it’s been the whole day, so suddenly the 10 miles to the end felt much longer than face value. We chugged through, and were soon rewarded by a sudden gift of… In N Out. A true oasis after many Wendy’s and McDonald’s. Right along our route, Nate and Drew, who were ahead of us, had also stopped and were planning to head inside. Aarushi kept going to meet up with her family, but the rest of us got a small thing to eat just for the joy that In N Out brings, rather than an actual meal since we wanted to leave room for the real dinner coming up. It was also Drew’s first time at one as well, so we needed to be there to witness history. I reunited with my beloved animal fries and got extra sauce on the side. 

    • Click through quickly to see how he felt
    • ???

    🍉 After leaving In N Out, we powered through the last climb of the day and reached the airbnb that we were sharing with Aarushi’s family (thank you!!). It was a beautiful house that we had all to ourselves for the next two days. They cooked up a delicious dinner of Indian food, and it was so nice to have some flavors in my mouth that weren’t just tomato and cheese. The watermelon was also very yummy, and slightly resembled the Rocky Mountains. 

    ⛰️🍉

    ⬆️ ⬇️ To round out the night, Aarushi’s dad asked us to share our highs and lows of the trip so far. We all went around, and it was an amazing conversation about our experiences. It was cool when we shared highs and when highs + lows were on the same day, showing just how much happens in a day. I shared a lot about my dog-bite experience (suprise surprise, my personal low), which was nice to get out. We moved the conversation to the couch after eating. It was a great reflective end to the day, and we went to bed excited about our rest day tomorrow! So many things to do, but so little time…

    See you soon,
    Caroline 🫶

  • Day 39: The Spokes Routine

    Day 39: The Spokes Routine

    Lamar, CO to Fowler, CO — 86.3 mi, 1566 ft

    Lately it feels like our team has found its balance. The wide spectrum of speed demon to leisurely biker we talked about in our first week has condensed as people make compromises on the days we should focus on reaching our destination fast vs days we can reststopmaxx. Team meetings have become less frequent, the communication between team members becoming implicit and intuitive. After more than a month on the road, we all just know what to do: what it takes to get out of the house in the mornings, the list of team tasks before bed, how long each day’s route will take us and therefore how much dilly-dallying time we have at each rest stop. Everybody has implicitly-assigned tasks they take on, but also everyone quietly picks up slack wherever it’s needed. It feels like the seven of us are some fluid blob of force moving in sync across the country. Of course, there are days where the team splits, where we have wildly different opinions on the team’s next move that warrant an hour of circular discussion that usually concludes right back where we started, but it’s all part of the glorious fact that we are seven college kids spending 24/7 together. So what exactly is this “balance”, this “implicit routine” I speak of?

    Today I would like to take you all behind the scenes and walk you through the accurate actual 100000-step daily routine of a Spokes day—-most of which is never notable enough for the blogs. 

    THE MORNING (~2h):

    1. Wake up and get out of bed within five minutes of Tatiana’s alarm (a novel feeling as a recently reformed 20-minute alarm snoozer on campus)
    2. Roll up and pack sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and camping pillow
    3. Switch my headphones charging with my bike computer (I only have 1 USB-C charger)
    4. Brush teeth, wash face, pee
    5. Put a seemingly-ridiculous amount of chamois butter on the entire surface of your butt that touches the bike seat
    6. Wear bike bib, jersey, sun sleeves, socks
    7. Pack up all our belongings and put personal bags in the car (the faster I get at this the more intensely I feel like a true nomad)
    8. Write thank you card for host
    9. Do a few of the following communal tasks:
      1. Re-pack the car’s overhead orange bag with the camping sleeping equipment 
      2. Put the team face wash, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, detergent, and extension cords in the toiletries bin and back in the car
      3. Re-pack the cooler with our food and ice that was stored in the host’s fridge overnight
      4. Fill the six team water jugs
      5. Re-organize everyone’s personal bags in the car
      6. Last sweep of the host’s place for forgotten belongings
      7. Close the car trunk and attach the car’s bike rack and mount the driver’s bike 
    10. BREAKFAST! Which, when we don’t have a Warmshowers host that kindly cooks something for us, looks a little like shoving random things in your mouth from our “pantry” box: think bars, GoGo squeeZ, CheezIts…
    11. Clean and fill personal water bottles
    12. Load the day’s route onto the bike computer, which is a little screen mounted onto our handlebars that beeps to alert us where to turn and if a climb is incoming, so we don’t have to constantly check our phone maps to know where to go
    13. Sunscreen
    14. Wear gloves, earbuds, sunglasses, helmet
    15. Say a teary goodbye to the driver for the day (Drew) and pedal off!!
    PERFECT DRAFT LINE ON HIGHWAY 50!!! AGAIN!!!!

    THE BIKING (~5-7h):

    1. Clip in and pedal: our bike shoes are literally stuck to our pedals (“clipped in”) to maximize the force transfer from our legs to turning the wheels
    2. Constantly rotate your hand position on your handlebars—-on the horns, the corners, the middle, the dropdown bars, or the very cool and sexy no hands flex—-to minimize hand cramping
    3. Constantly shift your butt position to minimize butt soreness
    4. Draft if windy, where you just stare at the tire of the person in front of you so intently you get tunnel vision
    5. Listen to a rotating assortment of:
      1. Music:
        1. Carmen: pop music, especially on big climbs
        2. Caroline: 2010s pop e.g. The Chainsmokers, French pop
        3. Tatiana: listening to Adele recently, lots of EDM, Russian and Spanish playlists (her only two downloaded playlists)
        4. Drew: country and K-pop
        5. Nunu: her daylists, and she loves to share them with the team by doing a spotify JAM, which is a feature where anyone joining the jam can listen to the same synced up music
        6. Nate: country
        7. Me: my all-time favorites and road tripping playlists
      2. Podcasts:
        1. Tatiana: Explained (where they explain to you Time, The World’s Water Crisis, Sugar, and many other topics)
        2. Caroline: stopped listening to podcasts once she got annoyed thinking about how she could also just be sitting and yapping instead
      3. Books:
        1. Drew: Project Hail Mary, The Secret History
        2. Nunu: on the first day of Spokes she started the first Harry Potter book and never listened to it again 
        3. Me Caroline Tatiana and Carmen (soon): The Heroes of Olympus series (I felt like a lunatic re-telling the story of heroes fighting monsters to save a goddess from a giant to convince my 19-to-22-year-old teammates to listen to this with me, but it’s been the best brainless timepass)
      4. Musicals (these are funnest as JAMS too):
        1. Joint Hamilton listening session on July 4th (could feel my chest swelling with patriotic pride)
        2. Joint Book of Mormon listening session (a very funny and absurdist religious satire)
        3. Other notable musicals: Heathers, Dear Evan Hansen, Mamma Mia, High School Musical
      5. Calling friends and family
      6. The voices in our heads
        1. Just Nate

    When we’re not doing any of the above, we’re resting. And it’s fair to say that there are days where we spend the same amount of time resting as we do biking…

    THE REST STOPS (~5-7h):

    1. Unclip and lean your bike against the nearest leanable surface (the car, a pole, a wall, or just on the ground)
    2. Find the nearest sittable surface (picnic bench, the curb, or just on the ground) and stuff your face with snacks, just a steady constant stream of eating regardless of the length of time we spend at the rest stop. Make sure that while you eat your current snack you plan the next snack you will reach for
    3. Fill your water bottles up to the brim with ice from the cooler (don’t be shy, no matter how dirty your hands are just reach right in; no matter how frozen-into-a-big-block the ice is just keep bashing the bag against the concrete)
    4. More sunscreen

    The rest stops are planned the night before by Carmen and I, set at every 20-or-so miles, rounding down when the day’s mileage doesn’t evenly split in 20s. The summer started out with churches being the go-to typical rest stop, since they were always available regardless of how rural we were, and always had at least a parking lot we could eat out of, if not a picnic bench outside. Lately we have been experimenting with increasingly absurd(ly lit) rest stops. Today’s were particularly good:

    • Valley Grocery at 21.1 mi: We all bought Arizona Iced Teas, shamelessly ate our new snacks from Drew’s amazing Walmart haul (Rice Krispies and Nature Valley strawberry wafer bars and Mr. Beast beef sticks and oranges) in the convenience store that sells snacks, and discussed plans for our big end-of-spokes-summer BBQ/picnic in SF without any concrete resolution. Caroline successfully checked out the first Heroes of Olympus audiobook via Libby, Carmen placed a hold for it, and Tatiana failed to log-in to her Audible Amazon account (pictured below)
    • Dairy Queen at 37.2 mi: A mile before pulling up to DQ, Carmen and Caroline stumbled upon Tony’s Fresh Fruit Stand!! Tatiana and I quickly followed suit, of course, and we all bought heaping portions of mango, watermelon, pineapple, and cantaloupe. This genuinely felt like a mini-oasis amidst the fast food joints and Dollar Generals and coffee shops we had been stopping at, the unbeatable refreshing juiciness of fresh fruit that nothing can truly imitate. Carmen and I got ours with chamoy and tajin, the only right way to do it, and the best way to avoid the team tax. We shamelessly ate our fruit at Dairy Queen while only having bought 1 cookie dough blizzard and 1 bizarrely neon lemonade. Nate and Nunu, having reached DQ before us, biked back to the fruit truck to buy a deliciously perfect amount of mangos. A common theme of the summer is the seven of us pulling up to some establishment, loitering around while just a few people order, bringing our own snacks from the team car, talking extremely loudly about freaky things, overstaying our welcome by at least 30 minutes, telling random strangers that we’re dressed in matching outfits because we’re biking across the country, and then leaving. Today for the first time the stranger we were talking to was actually biking across the country too!! He had started around when we had, but had taken a route that dipped below DC and then went back up to Ohio. Yet with all the extra mileage he had reached the same Dairy Queen in Las Animas, Colorado at the same time as us! After retiring, he has done some crazy adventure every summer—like being the 39th person ever to raft the entire coastline of Florida. Very very cool.
    • La Junta Swimming Pool at 57.4 mi: When I first put a pool as a rest stop four days ago, I envisioned the team saying something along the lines of “bruh you’re always trying to waste as much time as possible.” To my surprise, everyone thought I actually had a great idea, and so I thought I would repeat it today in order to feel the same high of everyone liking my rest stop. We immediately changed and launched into the pool via the diving board, then made sure to hit both kinds of water slides, then spent a couple minutes debating whether or not we would get yelled at if we tried to chicken fight, then settled for attempting to launch Nunu off of Nate and Drew with some kind of cheerleading lift technique, then threw around our small foam football with a bunch of local kids, before Tatiana and I ended pool time with a front flip off the diving board. But of course, it wouldn’t be a proper rest stop if we didn’t tell at least someone that we are biking across the country. Apparently when Nunu, Nate, and Drew walked in, a lifeguard asked what they were up to dressed in bike bibs and all, and when they said that they were part of a cross-country bike team, all dozen lifeguards (all girls) flocked to them for a group photo. It was like real-life Baywatch. 
    • McDonald’s at 58.4 mi and Wendy’s at 60 mi (unplanned): As soon as we left the pool, I suffered yet another flat tire (my fourth one?), which killed all my chances of making it to the next rest stop before the farm market closed at 6 pm. As I grumbled back to the car and as Nate helped me replace my tube, we started to see the signs of a big storm. Sand whirling in the air, crazy wind gusts, thunder… so we biked a mile forward in the craziest headwind I’ve ever experienced to take shelter at McD’s, while Carmen, Tatiana, and Caroline were a mile further at Wendy’s. Driver Drew promptly declared that we needed to wear our big boy pants and he wouldn’t SAG anyone, Nate, Nunu, and I promptly took a mini nap in various locations around the McD’s; and Tatiana ran into her awesome grandparents, Brenda and Tom, who were visiting us for the next couple of days!! The storm passed in thirty minutes and we continued on with a nice tailwind.
    Storm
    • Knapps Farm Market at 69.7 mi: We were chasing sunlight at this point, out of hope that the elusive farm market rest stop would still be open. But as they say, hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all. So with a heart full of hope, I tell Nunu and Nate, the two biggest skeptics on how rewarding this market would be, that we should pull over and check it out anyway. Lo and behold, the woman running the market was still there and was kind enough to let us look around even over an hour past closing! I had noticed that the literal mascot of the town we had just biked into was a melon (The Rocky Ford Meloneers), so with high expectations we bought one of every kind: watermelon, yellow watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew. I don’t even think I’m exaggerating when I say this was some of the best melon we’ve had in our lives. We looked like a pack of vultures in matching bike jerseys the way we descended upon and devoured these four tubs of melon. Grandma Brenda and Grandpa Tom even kindly bought us a couple extra tubs for the road!!

    I realized recently that biking from east to west means we get to always end the day biking into the sunset. That’s exactly what we did as we pulled into Trinity Lutheran Church, where Pastor Josephson was waiting to greet us.


    THE NIGHT:

    1. Find some place to park the bikes (a garage if Warmshowers, a room or hallway if in a church, tied to a tree if camping) and grab all your chargeable devices (bike computer, earbuds, portable charger, occasionally headlight) in preparation to spend the rest of your evening running some schedular algorithm to rotate charging everything you own with just 1 USB-C cable
    2. DINNER! Our lovely host Pastor Josephson had prepared us a true feast: taco bar, limitless Arizona tea and other yummy drinks, corn on the cob, and chocolate pudding. A huge huge thank you for all the effort it took to prepare and clean this up!!
    3. Depending on when we arrive at night, step 2 and 3 get switched
    4. Shower line: there’s usually only one or two showers for the seven of us, so getting undressed promptly is key. Today we went to the local high school, where Pastor Josephson’s friend was waiting for us in order to unlock the locker room where we could all shower at once (they’re actually called gang showers)
    5. Brush teeth, wash face, pee
    6. Unpack sleeping bags/pads/pillows
    7. Charge all devices 
    8. Carmen and I make the route and route stops for the next day (this took two hours and I slept at 1 AM in order to cut 14 miles from tomorrow’s expected distance)
    9. BLOG BLOG BLOG BLOG (we hope you appreciate the blogs because many hours of sleep have been lost over them)
    10. Sleep.
    No photos of the food spread, but here’s the spread of the drinks Pastor Josephson bought us and the snacks Tatiana’s grandparents bought us 🙂
    Funny photo of Nunu out of the high school locker room shower

    And then we do it all again the next day. Super awesome….

    I hope this blog lifts the veil a bit about the logistics of the trip and what our day to day biking actually looks like!! Comment any lingering questions and I pledge to resolve them diligently next week, my dear readers. 

    Sending loooooooooove from coast to coast,

    Aarushi

  • Day 38: So… steak for dinner?

    Day 38: So… steak for dinner?

    Learning Festival in Lamar, CO — 0 mi, 0 ft

    If I had a nickel for every time I have woken up in a sleeping pad circle on the floor of a church, I would have two nickels! Honestly, it is less than I would have expected, considering how often we stay at churches and how much our team enjoys sleeping pad circles.

    For those who aren’t familiar, a sleeping pad circle is when we lay out our sleeping pads in a flower formation, with everyone’s heads facing the center and legs facing outwards. There is no functional use for this method, but it definitely makes our team happy and may have some aesthetic appeal. 

    We were all also pleasantly excited to sleep in for a little extra time, as we had a Learning Festival planned at the Lamar Community Building. For us, these Learning Festivals have become routine, especially since this would be our seventh, but I realize that we have not gone into great detail on our actual teaching or process for setting up these workshops, so I hope to shed some light on it in this blog.

    I am responsible for planning out the Learning Festivals for the summer. In the months leading up to Spokes, this involved tons of emailing with directors of libraries, jails, and community centers, providing rough dates that we thought we could host a Learning Festival in the city. When the hosts confirmed availability, we began to work with the route team to finalize the days we would arrive in each city and lock in the date for the Learning Festival. Especially due to changing weekend dates, holidays, routes, and reading periods, it is virtually impossible to keep all of the same festival locations year-to-year, so this year we had to schedule two new locations. Once the locations had all been determined, we worked with each host to determine the infrastructure they have to host us, the food they are able to provide the students, the marketing support they need from our team, the registration forms for students, and the photo release for all participants. As you can imagine, this takes hundreds of emails to coordinate.

    Leading up to this Learning Festival, I was personally a little bit worried, as it would be our first time leading a Learning Festival at the Community Building (we had led a Learning Festival in the local library a few years ago, but the library was on its reading period and was unavailable to host us). The director was extremely communicative, but there were no student registrations until two days before. I had worried that we would not be able to get enough students to host the workshop, but when I checked the registration form on the morning of the workshop, there were 30 students coming, ranging from 4 to 15 years old! We were ready to roll 🙂 

    To no one’s great surprise, our first order of business was visiting a coffee shop with delicious paninis and a billion coffee flavors. Did it make us a little late to our Learning Festival setup time? Yes. Was it delicious and worth it? Yes. Did we finish all our setup and start the Learning Festival on time anyway? Also, yes!!

    Once we arrived at the Community Building, the Director, Ethan Settles, was beyond helpful in getting the tables and chairs set up for the workshops. We ended up settling on two rooms with two workshops being run simultaneously in each. We decided that Aarushi and Carmen’s chem/bio workshop would split the room with my electronics workshop, and Nate and Drew’s electromagnetism workshop would split the room with Nunu and Caroline’s design workshop. We transport all of our Learning Festival gear in two huge grey bins that Nunu was magically able to arrange, allowing us to stay organized from Learning Festival to Learning Festival. Shoutout “orga{nunu}zation.”

    When the kids arrived, we performed roll call and then began with our now tradition of playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, Rockstar (shoutout to my awesome boyfriend, Noah, for the idea of having the losers of each match join the winner’s “fanbase,” leading to significantly more hype, hence the name, Rockstar). All of us tensed in suspense, waiting to see if Caroline would win the tournament for the THIRD time and crush the hearts, souls, and minds of 30 students.

    To everyone’s great relief, the students were spared, and Caroline suffered her first and greatest defeat at the hands of the one and only Nathan Mustafa. For a bit, Nate kept winning, and we worried that the curse was passed on and that he would become the next RPS terrorizer of students, but alas, he was defeated, and a student won the tournament.

    When we started the Learning Festival, we split the kids into four age groups, and I took one of the older groups first. My workshop centers around understanding circuits and powering components with electricity. The goal is for each student to build their own “magic circuit” using copper tape on a piece of decorated cardboard, where rotation of the circuit causes the circuit to be open or closed. This is done through a tilt switch, which connects the circuit when it is vertical and then opens the circuit when it is upside down. 

    It is always so fascinating to see how the different age groups approach my circuits workshop. The end result for the 5-year-olds is almost identical to the end result for the 15-year-olds, aside from the 15-year-olds implementing an additional buzz motor in their circuit. With the older kids, we dove into the chemical reactions that drive a Lithium-Ion battery, how electrons relate to electricity, how a diode works, and what terms like current and voltage mean. Both of the older groups demonstrated immense problem solving and creativity, creating unique circuit designs and figuring out how to attach the motors to the circuits themselves to make them buzz. It is always quite interesting to notice the level of understanding and knowledge that students have as they age through the school system, with words like electron and ion becoming understandable. Even the two older groups, which was just mostly a split between 6th/7th graders and 8th/9th graders, have noticeable splits in their characters, attention spans, interests, and interactions with the material.

    After teaching both older groups, we had our pizza lunch break, aided by the great serendipity that the community building has a gym. This meant that the students could shoot hoops and play a game of Knockout with Drew, even if it meant that some of the five-year-olds physically could not toss the ball high enough to make it into the hoop. Other, less basketball inclined students, played some of the puzzles that Aarushi had brought back from India during our joint visit to the Center for Creative Learning at IIT Gandhinagar. Nunu also made a quick pit stop at McDonald’s to get our thirsty team some cheap fountain drinks.

    We also got to chat with some of the parents during lunchtime, who shared their perspectives on the Colorado education system. They described the new schedule, where many students in southeastern Colorado go to school for 4 days a week, rather than 5. Though this eases the financial constraints on the school systems, it adds burdens to the parents, who must manage their work and childcare. 

    After lunch, I switched to teaching the younger students, and with this came a complete vibe shift. Suddenly, our group was holding hands to explain how electricity flowed through a circuit, I was painstakingly helping many students with the copper tape because they had not yet developed the required finger dexterity, and half of our group (including me) was doing cartwheels. The last one had no educational purpose, but I think it did keep the kids engaged!

    One of my favorite things to do with the little kids is to have them “trick” one of the other mentors whenever they finish their projects. They excitedly ran over to Aarushi, with their circuits upside down, lamenting that their projects weren’t working. And then BAM!! They flip it right side up, turning on their circuits, and Aarushi feigns great excitement that their circuit is magically working! Thank you, Aarushi and other teammates, for always going along with the tricks and letting the younger kids feel the magic.

    With the younger groups, we tend to stay at a higher level on the project. We discuss batteries, lights, motors, and electricity, with more exploration-based activities rather than teaching content. I always use “challenges” to let the students identify how components work rather than lecturing on each one. For example, to understand the LEDs, I hand each student an LED and a battery and challenge them to turn on the LED without any explanation. Usually, it takes a bit of time for the first student to figure it out, and quickly, the rest of the group follows. This strategy naturally lets the students figure out that the LED only works in one direction, prompting discussion on the positive and negative terminals of a battery. I do a similar challenge with the tilt sensor and motor, allowing the students to compete and identify their purpose.

    What strikes me the most is that every single student, regardless of age, completes my workshop and finds something new to learn. I think that often, I notice younger children are underestimated in what they can accomplish. Though I do see them struggle with physical dexterity, I believe that the amount of information that a student can understand is only limited by my ability to simplify and explain it.

    After teaching all four groups comes the dreaded end of the day: goodbyes and cleanup. The students and parents are always extremely sweet at the end of the day, giving us hugs and saying thank you for our teaching. It makes me happy to see the students excitedly demonstrate their projects to their parents and reminds me of how proud they must also feel to have accomplished multiple projects in a day. 

    In terms of cleanup, my workshop is usually a quick ordeal, but Aarushi and Carmen have to clean up the materials from two workshops, including the Monster Genome project, which they run for the younger groups and has small scraps of felt EVERYWHERE, as well as the Iodine Clock project, which has individual beakers of chemicals for every student. Their cleanup is far more intensive, so the whole team locked in to help them finish up.

    On our way out, we passed our deepest gratitude to Ethan for his help in setting up the wonderful Learning Festival and for feeding the kids pizza. We also noticed a huge sign on the rotating marketing TV that said there would be Zumba that evening at 6 pm!! If you know me outside of Spokes, you know that Zumba is right up my alley. Of course, I immediately started rallying the team to join Zumba that evening, and quickly got Aarushi on board.

    At this point, it was still only 4 pm, so our team separated to take care of some individual tasks. Carmen and Drew went on an adventure to do the laundry and cut off the the pesky bike lock that was wrapped up around Aarushi’s tire, Caroline spent some time blogging and working on finances, Aarushi contacted upcoming hosts to confirm our stay, Nunu put in our next Amazon order for team supplies, Nate spent time blogging and going to the gym, and I began to call restaurants for dinner for that night.

    This entire trip, every time I call a restaurant to get us a meal, Nate makes a joke about having steak donated to us. Though he is fully being silly, I decided to take him up on this challenge. I called the local steakhouse, and they told us that they would happily give $20 in credit per person for our meal! The team was ecstatic, and with this exciting upcoming dinner in mind, Aarushi and I rallied Nunu, and the three of us set out to Zumba.

    The Zumba class was extremely lit even if the three of us were terrible, and we enjoyed getting to move our bodies in a new way that doesn’t involve the same repetitive leg motion for 10 hours a day. Many comments were exchanged regarding our perceived cardio fitness, and how we all felt that it was easier than expected. To be frank, the targeted audience of the class was also a few decades older than us, so I am not sure if the credit goes to our physical fitness or to the content itself. See the video below for Aarushi’s demonstration of striking a few poses.

    We were extremely inspired during the class by a mother with her 11 month old daughter, who joined halfway and eagerly passed her baby from hip to hip while hitting the dance moves with the group. Huge kudos to her and her extremely adorable baby, who had a smile and giggled the entire time. The full rainbow outside really helped lock in the awesomeness of the day 🙂

    After Zumba, we rode our bikes back to the wonderful church hosting us and were given a huge surprise: Aarushi’s tire was newly cable-free!! 

    As it turns out, the fire department could not help Drew and Carmen due to “liability,” but JJ at the local Tractor Supply was happy to lend our team a couple of wire cutters.

    I also noticed that our car was completely bare, with no bike rack or camping top, which made our car nearly unrecognizable.

    With the dilemma resolved, our team finally changed and went to our long-awaited meal at the steakhouse. Nunu, Aarushi, and I spent a copious amount of time negotiating a 3-way split of 3 meals (to the bemusement and possibly slight annoyance of the team, who watched us go back and forth endlessly until we all compromised a little and settled on a Steak Diane dish, a BBQ Mac and Cheese, and a Salmon plate). Personally, I think sharing food is 100% optimal, as you get to try a little bit of everything rather than having to only pick one meal. Some of our teammates may not agree…

    After filling our bellies, we headed back to the church and began our night routine of shower line and route preparation for the next day. Nate decided to play a prank of sorts on Aarushi, having her enter the subpar-smelling men’s bathroom to get the bath supplies (the women’s was painted pink and smelled like Vanilla), causing gagging from Aarushi and a LOT of laughter from Nate. I wasn’t there, but I heard it was pretty funny!

    Finally, it was time for the team to turn in, excited for a full day of biking to come.

    With lots of Learning Festival love,

    Tatiana ❤

  • Day 37: welcome to colorful colorado

    Day 37: welcome to colorful colorado

    Lakin, KS to Lamar, CO — 80.1 mi, 1487 ft

    When I type out that we woke up at 8:30am in our hotel bedrooms and then went to eat our continental breakfast, I feel like we lose a lot of credibility when claiming that we are on a “difficult” bike trip. We are certainly very spoiled.

    We must’ve decided to not include the “get fed in bed” and “have your bags and minivan packed for you” options in our luxury vacation package because we had to do all that ourselves after eating – life sure is hard :/

    Some people take the shampoo and soap bottles from hotels, not us. On the way out, we made sure to drain all the water from the water dispenser in the hotel lobby to fill our water bottles and water jugs, and all the ice in the ice machine to fill our cooler. 

    Having milked the hotel of all water-based substances, we headed off for our ~80 mile ride at 9:30am.

    After biking a couple of miles setting the group’s pace at a leisurely 10mph pace, Drew informed me “I think we can go a bit faster”. Say less Drew, you never have to tell me twice. 

    I sped up to a 12mph pace and saw that everyone besides Drew immediately fell behind. No shade to them, we’re at the end of a 7-day stretch of straight biking days and have done a total of 1,155 miles with only two off days (one rest, one teaching) in the past 2.5 weeks. They’re certainly entitled to take the ride at their own pace, and taking it easy is definitely the logical strategy. 

    Drew and I are particularly singularly-minded when it comes to biking though, and we share a telepathic connection in times like these. Without saying a word to each other, we sped off. 

    The first leg of our route today, from the hotel to the Mountain Time Zone border line, was a bit hilly (by Western Kansas standards) – which was unfortunate for Drew. Drew is a very fast biker but, at the end of the day, he weighs ~20-30lb (of pure muscle 💪) more than me – meaning he has to put in a lot more work to climb. 

    It was a tough day to not be able to keep up because I was feeling incredibly inspired by a back to back bike + run Strava post by my friend from the previous day, and so I decided to not wait up so that I could keep pushing through the hills to the rest stop at mile 18.

    This stuff is kinda crazy. He didn’t take any break while biking and then went immediately into the run without a break.

    After arriving at the rest stop, the rest of the team trickled in individually every ~5 minutes or so until we were all seated around the picnic blanket eating snacks and comparing the automatically updated timezones on our phones. 

    Sitting at the border of the Central and Mountain Time Zones. 

    We sat around at the rest stop for ~45 minutes before heading out for a short 10 mile leg to a Dollar General. 

    Singularly minded as ever, Drew and I decided to utilize the light tailwind and lack of hills on this leg of the route to speed off to the next rest stop. When we got there, we both exclaimed to Nunu (today’s driver) about how great the wind was and how little work we had to do while biking. 

    We perused around the Dollar General for a good 30 minutes waiting for people to trickle in and bought some snacks and a small toy football in the meantime. 

    Shortly after everyone had made it into the rest stop, Drew and I once again headed off towards the Colorado border.

    We sped towards the border without anything too eventful happening, just using a very generous tailwind to keep up a fast 21mph pace all the way to the border. The only notable thing was somehow some sort of bug flew directly up the thumb hole of my glove and stung/bit me three times. But speed waits for no one, and so we quickly got back up to pace and forged onwards. 

    We sped by the “Welcome to Colorful Colorado” sign as Nunu cheered us on from the side of the road, claiming first into Colorado, and then rolled back to the car where Nunu was waiting. The rest of the team was ~30 minutes behind us so we decided to kill some time by recreating a video of us crossing the border, and then waited in the car’s AC until the rest of the team rolled by. I found it interesting that every one of us biked past the car to cross into Colorado, and then proceeded to do an awkward turn on the highway shoulder to come back to the car.

    We spent the next ~30 minutes taking various pictures at the Colorado sign, and then crossed over to the other side of the highway to take a picture with the Kansas sign since we didn’t get a chance to in Kansas City.

    Good thing Carmen and I didn’t jump…
    Let’s pretend we took this when we entered Kansas.

    In order to take these pictures, Carmen and I spent a good couple of minutes precariously climbing the Colorado sign – I think partially because the 2025 team has an iconic picture with them standing on the sign, and we didn’t want to get shown up. 

    Getting down from the sign was much worse though, and Carmen certainly took a large aura loss1 in the process. Since there are no pictures proving otherwise, I got down gracefully and seamlessly 🙂 

    Sorry Carmen.

    As we were heading out, a family stopped by to take a picture with the sign. Notably, the family had a white dog named Max, and I got a picture of Caroline petting Max. This felt significant or something, like a full circle moment arranged by the universe. 

    Caroline and Max making amends.

    After a bit of talking with the family, we biked an extra 0.5 miles past the sign to get to a nearby rest stop along the highway for lunch. 

    It was here that we encountered our newest foes of the summer: flies. 

    When I say these flies were vicious and relentless, I mean it. These flies were not scared of a waving hand, they would land on food we were actively eating, and they came in full force. Worse of all, it seems that they weren’t only interested in eating our food because they started biting us! I know flies are detritivores (i.e. an important part of the ecosystem) and I’m all for well balanced ecosystems, but I don’t understand why if they’re supposed to eat rotting/dead things they feel the need to eat us (living). I think the fact that we’ve seen so much roadkill with flies around them also makes me hate the idea of them landing on our food even more. 

    After finishing our lunch, in which a few of us fled the picnic table to get away from the flies, we somehow all ended up laying in the grass. 

    I think we all know where this is going. 

    We woke up 1.5 hours later. 

    I don’t even know why we decided to sleep here because the flies chased after us and were buzzing around + biting us (again, we’re not food). It was truly the most miserable nap I’ve ever taken… but we still took it… 

    In my attempt to hide from the flies, I ended up covering myself with one of our blankets and the picnic blanket we were sleeping on. While it looks insane, it actually wasn’t that hot and it was certainly much better than having the flies buzzing around biting all the time. 

    Assorted attempts at hiding from the flies.

    The fact that we were in 95 degree heat and I was covered in blankets and didn’t feel that hot is a great demonstration of how great the dry heat we transitioned into is (as opposed to the humid heat from Missouri and eastward). 

    As the nappers groggily woke up and got ready to ride, Carmen and Drew (who didn’t sleep) decided they had been waiting long enough and left 5-10 minutes ahead of us. 

    With nothing better to do with myself and feeling in a speedy mood today, I decided that I needed to remind Carmen and Drew how things work around here by catching up and passing them. Queue “Burning Heart – Survivor”.

    This ended up being pretty anticlimactic as I passed them somewhere around 10 miles into this leg of the route. I was hoping for some kind of reaction as I passed them but they kind of just stared at me… 

    If you pause the video at the right time you can see how done they are with me. 

    So that was a waste of time, but I was too deep into it now and so I kept up the pace to the next rest stop. Along the way I passed a guy who looked like he was on a backpacking trip and stopped to talk to him. He’s currently walking from Austin to Montana, which is pretty cool. 

    I arrived at the last rest stop at mile 63 of 80, at the Amache National Historic Site, and waited for maybe 5-10 minutes before Carmen and Drew arrived, and then Nunu shortly after. 

    Nunu had bought us popsicles and lychees at a local store (how did she even find lychees in the middle of eastern Colorado???) as a surprise, which was great and we made quick work of our allotted 2 popsicles and 3 lychees. 

    Some of us worked a little more gracefully than others…

    I think around now we really started to notice the shift in vegetation and climate. Even just this morning we had been biking in fairly green farmlands, but now we were surrounded by a super dry, arid, borderline desert-looking climate. 

    The left is Drew and I biking around mile 40 vs the landscape at mile 63. 

    After eating our snacks, we decided to take a look around the Amache site. Amache was a Japanese internment camp used by the US during WW2. The site itself didn’t have much remaining – there were only 4 buildings in the ~410 acre site (a guard tower, a recreation hall, a water tower, and a barrack) and they were all replicas. Nonetheless, I think it was still great to remind ourselves about a somewhat forgotten part of US history and better appreciate how bad the conditions were (tiny living areas with no furniture, climate control, or privacy). Seeing the site also sparked some discussion amongst the team after Tatiana asked if we “thought anything like this could happen again in the US”.

    Amache rec hall on the left and barracks, water tower, and guard tower on the right.

    After wrapping up our rest stop, we biked the last 17 miles to the church that was graciously housing us for the night: Lamar Christian Church. We once again were able to take advantage of a large tailwind, as Drew and I sped to the church hitting speeds of up to 29mph, prompting us to appreciate the fact that we made it across Kansas with more help than hurt from the wind. 

    We arrived at the church a bit earlier than they were expecting us, so we had some time to spare. My watch was showing the ride at 78.5 miles instead of 80, so I made a plan to bike an extra 1.5 miles in the meantime to get a nice number on my Strava post. Conveniently, Drew wanted to go to a McDonalds 1.5 miles away. 

    Drew, myself, and Carmen, who had arrived shortly after us, biked over to the McDonalds where they got some sodas. I didn’t get anything, I just appreciated the nice round number on my watch. Somehow, Caroline got roped into biking over to McDonalds, and she arrived just as we were biking back to meet Tatiana and Aarushi for dinner. I don’t think she appreciated the extra 3 miles that got added to her route. 

    We biked back to the church and then biked a couple of blocks over to Lucy’s Tacos, who had kindly offered to donate the team 7 delicious burritos for dinner. 

    They gave us 3 beef, 2 adobada, and 2 chicken burritos and obviously everyone wanted the beef ones. We ended up generating random numbers to assign who would get the beef burritos, and then did the same with the adobada burritos. I got stuck with the chicken burrito, but it ended up being a fan favorite, so I really can’t complain. It was also free food, so I REALLY can’t complain. Seriously, that was a great burrito. 

    About to devour a great burrito.

    There wasn’t really much reason to do this though since we proceeded to be very on brand and pass all the burritos between each other in what I can only describe as a fully connected graph. 

    We ate burritos like K7 with everyone passing burritos across each other’s hands. 

    You’d think this blog was already long enough, and I agree, but Aarushi doesn’t. 

    As we were biking out of the restaurant to head back to be let into the church, Aarushi somehow got our bike lock cable wrapped up and knotted in her front tire axle. We deemed there was no way for us to get it out and so we left resolving this as an issue for after our learning festival tomorrow. 

    Look how proud she is of how tightly she wrapped it around her tire. We ended up having to bolt cut the cable…

    In the meantime, we all unpacked, showered, and did some blogging. The rest of the team decided to watch Superbad on one of the big TVs in the church, but I was SuperTired and went to bed as fast as I could. 

    – Nate

    1 I’m too old to be describing this, and if you’re reading this looking for a definition you’re probably too old to be using this vocabulary anyways. 

  • Day 36: life is still a highway (50)

    Day 36: life is still a highway (50)

    Dodge City, KS to Lakin, KS — 79.0 mi, 1265 ft

    A tailwind, compared to a headwind, can cut the amount of time you spend on the bike in half. I think all of us have gotten to the point where the limiting reagent in determining how far we can go in a day is not our physical capability, but rather how long we can tolerate being hunched over as our butts are pressed up against the saddles. This is why the most wonderful gift you can receive biking from east to west across the US is a tailwind. Prevailing Westerlies driven by Earth’s rotation and the jet stream result in such a gift being painfully rare. 

    Today, we reaped the benefits of a massive tailwind departing Dodge City. Considering that “Dodge” is one of the windiest cities in the world, nestled in the great plains with no trees or geology to stop wind, I’m especially grateful that the wind was behind us and not in front of us.

    The only thing that went wrong this morning was Aarushi’s first flat tire since installing a tube in her punctured rim/tire. The tube-change went smoothly on the side of highway 50.

    Everybody told me Kansas was this flat expanse of nothingness. This is the part of Kansas they were talking about. 

    I sent a picture of what I saw as I was biking to my roommate, Jonas, and he responded, “This looks what they show when I get an eye exam.”

    We biked through this huge field of wind turbines that seemed to go on forever. I’d never seen a wind turbine up close before, so I was very surprised by how big they were. I was even more awed as we biked past a factory where they assemble the turbines and saw the massive blades on the ground up close.

    For the last several days, we have been biking on U.S. 50. And considering that we will continue to be biking on highway 50 until we get to Colorado Springs, I try to push for us to take every chance to take an alternate route whenever it makes sense. U.S. 50 has it’s pros and cons. The main pro is that it has a massive shoulder which accommodates us very very well. The cons are that it feels kind of demoralizing as trucks blow past you at 70 mph all day and you’re stuck on your little contraption peddling for eternity on the same road. One more con is that you bike past cattle feedlots which smell horrendous. Imagine the most packed concert in the world, except, instead of people, it’s cows. I promise I’m not that sensitive, but I almost had to yack on the side of the road today.

    We decided to take an alternate gravel route which was really really fun. Occasionally it would turn from gravel into a bit of a more sandy texture that presented an added challenge in the midst of geography that is rather understimulating.

    Aarushi’s back tire popped again. Nate says that this is just part of the life of running tubes as opposed to tubeless. This is my first time being in the proximity of somebody cycling long-distance using tubes, so I accept Nate’s opinion as fact and mentally prepare for many more roadside stops.

    The best part of the day: The POOL! I’d been begging the team for the past several days to go to a pool because it sounds like the best thing ever after a day of biking in 100 degree weather. We spent an hour or two at a public pool outside of Garden City, Kansas for our final rest stop. After judging each Spokie’s diving form we moved on to draining the pool concession stand of everything they had. We are very hungry, all the time.

    The day concluded with dinner at Victory Baptist Church in Lakin, KS with several church members. They were very kind and fed us homemade sloppy joes and homemade ice cream, and a ton of other stuff that was very tasty. They also, out of extreme generosity, provided us with rooms at the local inn as our sleeping accommodations. This was the best place to sleep I could ask for, considering I have to wake up and…

    Do it all again tomorrow.

    – Drew

  • Day 35: The Wickedest Little Bugs in America

    Day 35: The Wickedest Little Bugs in America

    Macksville, KS to Dodge City, KS — 62.6 mi, 957 ft

    Have you ever woken up to the feeling of your entire body itching from the very top of your head to your smallest toe? Well that’s how we all woke up this morning—everybody except Tatiana because mosquitoes don’t like her.

    Last night our team went to a local park to celebrate July 4th. We ate from a Mexican food truck and played a little bit too intense game of ultimate frisbee. Our team is very competitive. Unfortunately, despite drenching ourselves in bug spray and then also using a kind stranger’s entire second can of bug spray, the bugs still got to us. Here’s a rough estimate of how many mosquito bites everyone on the team has now. Nunu: 25, Caroline: at least 30, Drew: 20-25, Aarushi: 20, Tatiana: 0, Nate: like 10000000000000.

    So, we all slowly got ready and complained about our aches, sores, and itches more so than usual this morning. Also for some reason, we decided to spread out across different rooms of the church basement to try and hide from the sounds of the fireworks that had gone on past our bedtime the night before.

    Nate sleeping in a supply closet with no windows

    We had our alarms set for 8 and almost everyone was out of bed by 8:30ish but we had to be completely out of the church by 9:30 because Pastor Russell was hosting a breakfast then and guests would be arriving. We rushed to clean our mess and were done by 9:28.

    We then shared an amazing breakfast with the Macksville Christian Church community full of so many fruits, pastries, and the fluffiest biscuits and gravy. We stuffed ourselves and I of course went back for seconds. Drew then serenaded everyone with some piano and we said our goodbyes around 11.

    Recently, our group has all been biking together in a sort of blob which ebbs and flows, stretching close and then far apart. We’ve also been biking on highway 50 for the past two days so even if I’m a couple miles ahead or behind, I can see the rest of my team because we’re literally biking in a straight, flat line for the entire 80 mile day.

    Our first rest stop was at the same park that we had gone to the night before to watch fireworks. Aarushi, our driver for the day, sarcastically exclaimed, “doesn’t this look familiar?” Me, not catching the sarcasm, moments later told everyone, “wow it’s the same park we were at last night!” Everyone on the team seems to think that I do this a lot and don’t pay attention to what people are saying but I genuinely just believed that Aarushi thought the park looked familiar…

    Anyway, we continued our ride and made it to THE HALFWAY POINT OF THE US!? Or so we thought. It actually was not the geographic center, just the center between New York and San Francisco—which is still pretty cool. It’s crazy to think that we are basically halfway through our trip both in terms of distance and timeline. When I think about it too much I feel sad because I don’t want this summer to end. Our first bike day feels like so long ago yet also like time has just flown by.

    We also stopped by the museum associated with this halfway point which had a bunch of old furniture, technology, and clothes. Most interesting to our team was this old bike that someone had ridden basically the same distance as us thus far. The only difference was that it was a single gear, no brakes, bare bones road bike—something we all agreed would be impossible for us to have done.

    As we kept biking, we began to see hundreds and hundreds of… windmills! Not only that but they were facing us. This can only mean one thing… tailwinds!!!!!! We later found out that in this county alone they have 700 windmills.

    We continued biking suspiciously faster than usual until we made it to our third and final rest stop of the day, a pool! But, unfortunately it was closed. Instead, Tatiana and Nate decided to jump through the sprinklers that had gone off across the lawn. Here’s when I noticed Nate’s back covered entirely with mosquito bites.

    We then sat and ate our usual overpacked sandwiches as well as more snacks than you could ever comprehend. I chose this moment to take inventory of everything we’d finished eating after Tatiana and I had just gone grocery shopping the day before.

    • 30 pack of capri sun
    • 11 oz box of nilla wafers
    • 90 slices of pepperoni
    • 3.5 lbs of grapefruit
    • 2.25 lbs of gummy worms
    • 24 pack of gogo squeeze
    • 2 trays of watermelon
    • And probably much more

    We had an extremely long lunch break, I think starting from 4PM and ending at 6PM. The more we sat, the more I ate. We also realized that our biking to rest time ratio for today was becoming a whopping 1:2. Just extreme bums eating extreme amounts. Eventually, we decided to depart on our last leg to our hosts, Lindy and Warren’s house. Because we’d eaten such a late lunch, we decided to switch up the order of our usual night routine of dinner first. Everyone showered first. Then while some people blogged, Drew and I went outside to pump tires and oil chains. This took maybe 30 minutes and within that time I think I got bitten at least 10 more times by mosquitoes. I came inside with a mosquito bite on my forehead and on my cheek!

    We sat down for dinner around 9PM and had some amazing lasagna and iced tea! Lindy and Warren told us all about the history of Dodge City and why it’s called the “Wickedest Little City in America.”

    We ended the night by doing a popcorn reading of Nate’s blog. As a team we also love when a new blog is posted and enjoy laughing at them together. We also know that we’ve been behind and we really appreciate all of our friends and family that keep up with them despite that.

    Goodnight from three nights in the future,

    Nunu

  • Day 34: the semiquincentennial

    Day 34: the semiquincentennial

    Newton, KS to Macksville, KS — 92.6 mi, 1120 ft

    250 years ago to the day, half of Britain’s colonies seceded from King George III’s grasp and the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, creating a permanent separation between the American and British people. 

    We have reinforced this separation, through the creation of rather distinct cultures. There are some things that are uniquely American; the Brits would agree, and so would everyone else on this tiny globe.

    To celebrate, here is my own version of the most American things we’ve seen and done on this semiquincentennial.

    The day started as early as we now normally do, at 5 am, afraid of the humid 95 degree weather we’d have to face at noon. After saying goodbye to our hosts Janet and Orvin, we set off on our first leg of the day.

    Today, only four of us were biking: Nate, Drew, Aarushi, and I. Tatiana was driving, Caroline was taking her rest day, and Nunu was going to urgent care to address the ever present issue of chafing. 

    This first 18 mile stretch went by quite quickly. We drafted the entire time (beautiful), held a 17-20 mph pace (amazing), and just tried to go fast, since that’s the only entertainment this ride along highway 50 can provide.

    1. Hundreds of miles of a long, empty, flat road with a shoulder as wide as the driving lanes

    Until about halfway through we had an ugly headwind, which then turned into a tailwind, and then into a diagonal ish crosswind. I could barely draft the last mile as I had to keep bobbing left and right to try and oppose it…

    Our first rest stop was at a gas station. We were lucky we got there when we did, since it looked like a horrendous storm was brewing, only a mile or so in front of us. Drew is the one who normally calls the rest of us lame when we chicken out of biking in a thunderstorm. But when he saw this one in the distance, he even suggested we wait it out. All of us were so concerned we considered sagging out the rest of the ride, all 74 miles.

    1. Terrifyingly windy storms that last as quick as they arrived
    1. The audacity to bike on a hunk of metal through a thunderstorm with the belief that everything will be fine

    Drew decided now was the perfect opportunity to go and play basketball with a local team for a July 4 event, even though he was the one who said it looked like tornado weather. The rest of us began to prepare for the worst. Tatiana started the hour drive to the church to drop off our luggage and free up sag spots. This time it was Nunu who got left at urgent care, and Caroline gallantly stayed at the church to ensure enough seats were open in the car. 

    Nate attempting to hold onto his hair in the wind

    While waiting for either the storm to pass or for our car to return, the four of us camped out in the corner of the gas station. 

    We bought every Peelerz flavor there was under the sun and tried them all together, while Nunu made a tik tok.

    1. Overconsumption, the incessant need for variety, and the availability of infinite options to choose from, even at a small gas station in the middle of nowhere in Burrton, KS
    1. Making a tik tok about overconsumption, the incessant need for variety, while choosing from an infinite number of options provided by a small gas station in the middle of nowhere in Burrton, KS

    Miraculously, the weather cleared up after about two hours and then we were on our way. Not sagging out of this 90+ mile day after all. 

    Drafting means you feel less hot with the wind cooling you down, you go at a faster pace with less effort, and hours of biking shorten. But also you’re bored out of your mind, staring at the back wheel in front of you, your concentration narrowed down to the 6 inch gap you’re trying to maintain with your life because falling back means falling out of line permanently and biking alone for the rest of the 20 miles until the next rest stop. This may be an exaggeration, but illogically, sometimes, it feels this way. To tamp down this boredom we all, at last, decided to give in and join a Spotify jam. We listen to the entirety of Hamilton.

    With this raw musical genius and patriotism rushing through my veins, I was propelled to the second rest stop, one of those small cafes that Nate and Drew love so dearly.

    1. Listening to Hamilton for hours on end, voluntarily filling our heads with red-blooded American pride 

    On our way in, the four of us were having that exact discussion: the merits of coffee houses. We were walking through the doorway, two baristas standing behind the counter staring us down, when Nate said something along the lines of “We’re just not going to get the same satisfaction as you when we stop at random coffee shops.” We stared at him, eyes raised. He turned around to face the barista with the neon green buzz and said, “but not this one” and laughed awkwardly. 

    1. Having zero subtly

    Drew and Nate then start ogling everything on the menu, saying “ooh that looks so good”, probably trying to save face. It was hilarious. I had to stop myself from laughing otherwise it would take away the sincerity they were trying to convey.

    They ended up ordering 12 quesadillas each.

    On our way to the third rest stop, we began to cross more and more cow territory. After Kentucky I’ve developed a fondness for cows, since they don’t try to bite our ankles. When biking by, we all noticed that if we MOO at them, every single cow will turn their head to look towards us. Hundreds of big black eyes stare at probably the most interesting thing they’ve seen all day.

    Kansas may be flat but in a charming way

    At this point we’ve also created our own unique moos. The rest of us moo like normal people would, but Drew has decided to moo in a high pitched moan that manages to startle me more than the cows. 

    During this stretch, Drew also decides to show off his aerodynamic pose that he learned from a Tour de France champion. Incredibly skillful.

    1. Being less graceful than the French

    At the end of the third stretch we finished all of Hamilton. As I was listening to his dying thoughts, the rest of us were also contemplating our deaths as we had to trudge through this horrible sand pit for several miles. 

    The next rest stop was at the Oasis gas station, where we met the new owners who had recently renovated the place. When we first walked in, the lady behind the counter immediately started making conversation with us, asking why we looked so coordinated. Two things first stood out to me: 1) that she was so curious and outgoing, and 2) that she had an accent I couldn’t place. We later learned that she and her husband (the owners) had moved from South Africa to start a life here in Kansas. They had a farm and had also taken on this business within the past few months. 

    1. The American dream might actually be real. These two people uprooted their whole lives to move to a different country and now live on their own terms

    By the time we were about to leave, our car finally showed up. They surprised us with bomb pops that we eagerly devoured in this sweltering heat.

    On the second to last stretch we listened to the Mamma Mia soundtrack (we’re really into this jam thing now), while I hopelessly attempted to explain the plot to Aarushi, and usually just called in Nate to show off his extensive musical knowledge. 

    As we arrived at the last rest stop, we were surprised with a patriotic FEAST! Red, white, and blue everything: gatorade (limited edition Uncle Sam flavor I guess), those delicious plastic cookies, all the fruit we could eat.

    What was even more beautiful than our lunch was the public bathrooms. Pristine. After being scarred from all sorts of smells emanating from dank holes in the ground, this clean, wintergreen scented restroom instantly made the next twenty ish miles bearable and me that much happier. I noticed this was unique to Kansas. Top tier bathrooms alongside roads in the middle of nowhere. Always a 7-8/10

    1. Roadside janitors

    The last leg was uneventful but Tatiana made sure we’d remember our arrival to the church. She surprised us with her very best twerk while shaking even more red, white, and blue flavored drinks.

    We were staying in the small town of Macksville; they’re so small they don’t host July 4th celebrations. Our contact for the church, Katrina, told us there was one in the next town over. So to not waste any time (relatively) we all decide to skip showering, change, and hop in the car, our stink masked by a build up of deodorant.

    It had a wonderful vibe. It made me realize how important community is, especially in a small town like Lewis. Kids were playing at the playground, parents lounging on the field, families in the surrounding neighborhood chaotically setting off their own fireworks. Genuinely everyone and their cousin were lighting fireworks in the middle of their front yards. The sound and the smoke was intense, but really added to the MURICA of it all.

    1. Setting off fireworks from the trunk of your car

    We got these utterly delicious barbacoa tacos and ate them on the grass while trying to avoid being eaten alive by bugs. And then, the next course of action was obviously to play a game of ultimate where we “randomly” divide up teams based on who has and has not played frisbee for MIT. I wonder who won.

    Aarushi took some very cinematic photos of us, with the fireworks bursting in the background.

    Finally the real fireworks show (put on by the fire department, not Gary from down the street) was about to start. As we sat down to watch, we got mauled by biting flies and mosquitoes. Throughout the show we (well at least I was) were just slapping ourselves. It got so bad that we had to ask the man behind us for his bug spray, and then proceeded to use up the whole can. Our generosity knows no bounds. Tatiana did try to pay for it but the kind man refused her offer.

    1. Gary’s fireworks getting mogged by the professionals 
    1. Kind people willing to donate what they have without expectation of anything in return

    The fireworks were beautiful, and from this photo it looks like they moved us to tears. Maybe we all were about to sneeze at the same time, I’m not sure.

    At the end of the show, we decided we’d had enough of the bugs and escaped into the car. While driving back, we saw hundreds of kids on the side of the road throwing gunpowder popper bomb things at the ground, twirling sparklers in the air. In the small town of Lewis, Kansas it seems like July 4th is one of the major holidays they go all out for. 

    1. Kids being trusted to not burn their fingers off

    The next morning as we biked out of Macksville, the road looked like a battlefield with red, white, and blue shrapnel everywhere. In the daylight it was slightly dystopian. It’s interesting how that’s simply evidence of a lively community.

    1. Rural communities bound together in their local group through traditions and town-wide celebrations 

    This list is my realistically absurd representation of the American spirit. I hope it’s at least somewhat coherent.

    O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,

    Carmen

  • Day 33: life is a highway (50)

    Day 33: life is a highway (50)

    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.

    Capturing the 50 experience

    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.

    Inside the shop

    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. 

    Thank you so much for your kindness, Vonda!

    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. 

    Exhibit A of Kansas’s bugs

    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…

    Nail outlined for reference

    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.

    The council in the “as seen on TV” aisle

    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. 

    • Please enjoy these attempts
    • Not bad…
    • Right up in the corner
    • Missed completely

    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!

    Their dog, Enzo, longingly looking for a snack. And Phoebe, their adorable + cuddly cat.

    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