MIT Spokes 2026

Author: MIT Spokes

  • day 34: fruits and roots 🍎

    day 34: fruits and roots 🍎

    Newton, KS to Macksville, KS — 92.6 mi, 1,120 ft

    hello again! after i (sarah) took over tian’s blog about a week and a half ago, she took over mine, so it’s been a second since you’ve heard from me (especially since i’m posting this a few days late…sorry everyone. and you mom, especially). but i’m back, writing from the great plains—specifically, kansas! 

    today, we departed from the historic home of the voth’s after our 6th out of 10 learning festivals the day before at the fairly new newton public library. after 4 hours of teaching (both rewarding and EXHAUSTING), i had popped over to a cafe across the street to grab a quick snack with greta and joseph, then came back and read for an hour or so. it was such a nice, peaceful moment: i’m already missing that quaint little library in the middle of nowhere kansas…📚

    some of my reads at the newton public libary: i was first introduced to fredrik backman in early high school, love his work!

    ANYWAYS, getting back on track! i woke up a little before 7am in the upstairs living room among a pile of air mattresses sleeping my fellow spokies. i had a little bit of last night’s breakfast burrito from the mexican place our hosts had so kindly treated us to for dinner yesterday, did my usual personal and bike preparations (including making my electrolyte water concoctions that i like to call “potions”–today was a mix of watermelon salt and orange gatorade powders 🍉🍊), and departed around 8:30am. i’ve been a fan of the slightly early start: 8 or 9 isn’t SUPER early anyway, and we usually get to our place for the night with a good amount of time left in the evening, and still have plenty of time throughout the day to bike at a moderate pace, and have ample time at rest stops. 

    • this was too good 🌯
    • good morning from newton!
    • bike set-up! was planning on doing a gear tour for me and my bike, but that will have to wait for another blog…

    leg 1 was about 18 miles long, so a bit on the longer side. i made my way out of town playing a folk mix off of spotify, which felt appropriate for the quiet morning hours. after catching up to ruth and ramona (a common pairing on the road these days), i also caught up to tian, who proceeded to non-consensually draft me for the next 10 miles!!!  every time i thought i had finally got a bit of space, the shadow of her helmet would appear at my feet…scary 😨 the kwik shop finally appears in the distance, the girls all wait around and snack for a bit, then decide to keep going without waiting for the car—greta was going grocery shopping 🛒

    because joseph has (for SOME unknown reason) been trying to be frugal with rest stops, leg 2 was 21 miles long. the fastest way i’ve found to make the time go by on the bike is to talk to people, either with my teammates in-person or over the phone with friends and family from back home/MIT. for this stretch, the terrific trio of ruth, ramona, and sarah returns! we bike along a train carrying whole AIRPLANES ✈️, i send a selfie to my parents after my dad texts and reveals that he’s stalking my location, and we play a few songs from spongebob while rolling into rest stop 2. while joseph gets points for choosing a cafe, he loses more for it being closed. thankfully, a kind stranger invites us into his office right next door for some AC! i eat an UNGODLY variety and quantity of fruit courtesy of greta that included an apple, strawberries, AND raspberries, and our friendly stranger tells us about how he is finishing up grad school soon and hoping to work in south america! we share our socials, give our thanks, and head on our way. if you’re reading this kind stranger, good luck on your future travels! 🌎

    • country roadsss
    • reno mention? (nevada is in our future)
    • hello ruth and ramona! hello dad and mom!
    • TRAIN 🚂
    • our kind stranger’s office!
    • fruits galore 🍎🍓🫐
    • my apple

    leg 3 is once again 21 miles. SERIOUSLY 😐 i set off for a solo segment to grind through some mileage, and while i’m jamming out to some tunes and enjoying the scenery, i get a text in a group chat of some of my high school friends. it’s a screenshot from snapchat maps of my location, with the app claiming that i’m driving, and one of my friends claiming that i’m CHEATING!!! i immediately send picture and video evidence to prove that i am NOT cheating—i’m just. that. fast 😎🔥 this leads to a catch-up call with another one of my high school friends: i tell her about where we stay, what we eat (which has been AMAZING), biking, teaching—everything spokes. one day i will post a blog with an deep, introspective section on people, since we’ve met so many AMAZING ones on our spokes journey. but for now, this blog continues…eventually, i turn around and see everyone minus tian (so, ruth, ramona, charles, AND joseph) right behind me! i slow down for a sec and join them, and after hanging up the phone, we all take on the next 2 miles of VERY loose and slippery dirt—thankfully, we all make it out with no falls, just quite a few close calls…soon after we all catch up to tian, and we have a rare almost full group ride going into rest stop 3! 💗 we all descend upon the seats inside of the oasis convenience store for some food and more scratch offs courtesy of charles. i ultimately decide to buy the ice cream sandwich i had been eyeing (hey, it had EXTRA chocolate chips on the rim), and share with some of the people still around at the store. i try to give my last bite to charles, but drop it on the floor. sorry, i owe you one 😦

    • selfie of evidence 📸
    • loving the greenery!
    • all together now (if you squint)
    • 🍪🍦

    slightly shorter at 17 miles, i ended up tag teaming leg 4 with joseph on my side (after drafting him without asking for around 4-5 miles…), and the duo of ruth and ramona in my front (thanks for some wind coverage!) we talked about deciding on our majors, classes we took in high school, and general academic stuff, and before we knew it, the rest stop was just ahead! but before we quite make it, my mom calls asking for updates, so i had to put a pause on joseph and i’s conversation (of all the spokies, he probably understands the “mom calls” the most). after a quick convo, i say my love you’s and goodbyes, apologize to joseph, and we pull into a nice shaded rest area with some informational signs on the local wildlife. i charge my phone in the bathroom, we snack and debate over some questionable…safety posters, and then head off for our last leg.

    • hello joseph!
    • wow 💚
    • lovely rest stop
    • signs!

    our final leg for the day was only 14 miles! i love when our last leg is a short “sprint,” so the energy was high as we set off for even more fields (a typical sight these days) and the occasional clump of trees. we resume our formation from the previous leg (now including charles), and we start a group discussion on travel before splitting into side conversations. joseph tells me about colombia—his mom’s side is from there, and he’s been there a few times himself. it’s so mountainous (due to the andes mountain range) that driving anywhere takes FOREVER because you have to take various detours to avoid unclimbable summits, has these very unique ecosystems called “cloud forests” that occur due to a mix of high altitude and intense moisture, and is one of the most biodiverse places in the WORLD! 🏔️☁️🌿

    hearing how passionate he was about his roots was very moving, and got me thinking about my own roots…or lack thereof. i’m (guessing) that i’m a mix of various countries in europe (but probably mostly germany). no matter the case, that was generations ago: since then, we’ve just been hopping around the states. that…impermanence (is the best way i can put it) makes me feel like i’m missing out on something sometimes: not having anything “well grounded” to look back on and connect, or celebrate, or share with others. i think if there is something i can look back on with pride, though—if i have any “heritage” or “legacy”—it would be the sacrifices my predecessors near and far made for me to be simply…here. i will probably never know their names, their struggles, their accomplishments…but so much went into my very existence—COUNTLESS generations of triumph and toil—there has to be some dignity in that, even if my ancestry is a bit muddy.

    can you tell i’ve had a lot of time to think? anyways 😀

    after i took some pictures of the welcome signs, we stroll into the quaint town of macksville—and by stroll, i mean i force the group to wait while i snap my photos and then joseph and i (after some sneaky scheming) proceed to sprint ahead of them to get to the front of the shower queue (i let them have their spots back, don’t worry, i’m not that mean). we are warmly welcomed by our hosts at the macksville christian church with the promise of fajitas for dinner! i shower, and ishaq finally arrives after ditching us the day before (he was visiting his mom in oklahoma city so…valid). to apologize for his absence (i assume), he brings a bag of nigerian snacks and some meat pies in a tin. i enjoy what doesn’t have nuts as an appetizer, and our lovely dinner is served soon after ishaq’s grand entrance. i expressed a desire to watch chicken little, but i accidentally fell asleep for 1-2 hours…i was a little disoriented so i’m not entirely sure, but i slept pretty late into the evening. whoops. i proceeded to devour 2 bowls of sugary cinnamon toast crunch (or as we loving call it, “CTC”) in a late evening burst of hunger, and against ALL odds, slept pretty good that night!

    • the quad
    • macksville we are here!
    • signs pt. 2
    • ishaq’s snackies
    • snack/food box chaos
    • din din 🌮

    i leave you with my usual ramblings and many additional introspective thoughts. hope you enjoyed, and see you next time for our learning festival in denver, co! ⛰️🧪

    with love,

    sarah 💗

  • Day 33: Decyphering Newton

    Day 33: Decyphering Newton

    Newton, KS -> Newton, KS 0 mi, 0 ft (except for Ishaq, but he had his own agenda)

    After cycling for hours through the plains, fields and general flatness and emptiness the last couple of days, I was excited to exist in civilization for a day. We had a learning festival planned in the Newton Public Library. Newton has a population of around 18k people, all of which I am jealous of, because they have such a cool local library.

    Library!
    The nicely coloured windows lead to the children’s section. (There is also teen section of course, and plenty of computers.)

    We were not there to marvel at the library though, we were there to run some workshops! (Pictures can be found on our instagram btw.) I had some great runs of my Science of Secrets workshop a.k.a. the Ceasar cypher and how to crack it, mostly because we had enough time to do the cracking with a lot of the groups and I got some great questions! One girl also solved the whole worksheet, which was a first.

    I suppose we have never actually given a rundown of what our lessons are, so I can briefly walk through mine. It starts with a discussion about how to share secrets (e.g. with your friends, from whispering to texting to hiding messages and sending encoded ones), I might go on a detour to talk about steganography, but ultimately we will settle on cryptography. We learn about the Ceasar cypher, what keys are, what keys make sense for this cypher, how to encode and decode messages. To make life easier and the activity more hands on, the students make their own cyphering tools (instead of using substitution tables). Then, after getting some encryption and decryption practice, they can choose to exchange hidden messages which solidifies the skills or try to hack the cypher (which is more rewarding, but also more challenging). My favourite parts are probably the discussions in the beginning, then trying to figure out the keys and finally the challenges that ultimately lead to (or at the very least allude to) the cracking of all substitution cyphers, which is pretty awesome! Sometimes I get to introduce the factorial and that makes me happy, but I will also settle for understanding the number 25. Point is, it’s pretty great. Halfway through the lesson, we start using a handout, so there is a more structured way to move through the tasks. I sneakily put some further readings at the end of it, in case someone has a boring summer ahead of them.

    While I was having fun debugging the struggles of communicating in code, Tian and Ishaq had a different quest – go to Wichata, KS to fix some bike problems. That included getting Joseph some gloves. A simple task… Or so it seems… (tnn, tnnn, tnnnnnnnn)

    Here is Ishaq hitting some sleek poses with glove candidates. (sorry Ishaq, these are too good)

    Joseph went with the red ones. Equipped with this information Tian and Ishaq then made the purchase and headed to the bus station to drop Ishaq off, so he can visit his mom. On the way there Ishaq was going to put the gloves purchase into Splitwise (our personal purchase splitting app of choice), when he realised he could not find them. Odd… After some digging around the car, he remembered that he had put them on the roof of the car, while securing the bikes on the back. So they hurried back to the store and searched for the glove in the parking lot, but to no avail. Battling the demons of guilt they got another pair of gloves and headed to the bus station. But then on the highway Ishaq noticed a suspicious red item laying alone on the highway – the missing gloves! Of course it being a highway the car had already passed the gloves, so they did a u-turn and then another one, but then they passed the gloves again, so they did some more u-turning until the gloves were acquired. So now we have an extra pair of gloves and the moral of the story is to never give up on the things you lose. (This statement really did not age that well with more stuff going missing… that’s for another blog.)

    Back to the main plot, the learning festival went very smoothly. Personally, I think it is the best one yet. Small groups of great, engaged kids with lots of joy and questions, it was a pleasure to spend time with them!

    After the kids left we stayed in the library. Charles and Ruth were 3d printing and debugging the printing pens. I was drawing and cutting circles. Tian was eating and making 3d flowers. Joseph gave some well received back massages. Some people visited the nearby cafe and came back raving about the banana muffins and peach chai lattes (which might have taken the top spot in chai rankings or not i don’t know nothing). Sarah did some reading. Ruth started scheming how we can do almost 300 miles in 3 days in Northern Nevada (where there is barely any churches, and too many shrubs). Busy with various tasks, we ended up spending the whole day in the library.

    Ruth biting the pen in a desparate (but ultimately successful)
    attempt to fix it.
    Charles approaching a point of desparation fixing the last pen.
    Tian being cute with a cute flower she made.
    circlessssssssssss
    Ruth scheming
    the back massage that rumour says hits your lungs

    To top it off, our lovely host Janet took us to dinner at a mexican place not even a block away from their home. It was great! I got to try barbacoa and pink lemonade (that was really pink!), Ruth got ramen, which was interesting and did some shenanigans to make her sweet iced tea the right sweetness. Sarah got a huge burrito. I think my braincells at that point were running around without aim, so I got lots of laughs. It was awesome! Thanks Janet and Orvin!

    Acapulco!
    Pink lemonade, not sweet iced tea and pepper in a funny bottle.
    food!
    Ruth transfering tea from one glass to another
    No it’s not the same tea, yes both teas at this point were hers.
    Yes, she did later realise she could just pour it.

    And with that ended our learning festival day. Off to sleep we went! And off to sleep I am going now too!

  • Day 32: Life is a Highway 🎶

    Day 32: Life is a Highway 🎶

    Emporia, KS -> Newton, KS – 76.3 miles, 1,602 ft

    My day began like most of my other days on Spokes — smashing the snooze button on my phone alarm and cursing previous-night Charles. This time, the offense was a 7-player Smash Bros session in the church basement the night before. I can probably count on two hands the number of times I’ve played Smash Bros in my life, but Ishaq was literally playing by himself against the CPU and it was honestly getting sad to watch. “One game I promise” morphed into “last game” turned into “last game, swear, for real” (not in fact the last game). However, Greta was (un)characteristically the voice of reason and shooed us to bed since she was sleeping on the couch in front of the TV, so all in all, it was a fun and not terribly regrettable 20 minute delay of our bedtimes. Once I cleared the cobwebs and hazy memories of spamming Ness’ PK Fire attack from my addled early morning brain, I began my morning routine and we all got out the door by 8am SST1.

    Today was the first of many days from now on that we will be biking along US route 50. Despite a few shortcomings (the occasional stinky manure smell; no shade to protect us from the sun; random gusts of wind from passing semitrucks; the neverending, flat, and often repetitive scenery), the pros (spacious shoulders; smooth, paved asphalt; no climbs) make the riding physically fast and painless, leaving only the mental fight against boredom. Over the course of the past month, I’ve been developing my personal arsenal of defenses against the lack of external stimulation on my rides.

    Comically wide shoulder

    I busted out my first boredom defense by biking and chatting with Ramona on our way to the first rest stop. We talked about extreme physical endurance feats and Ramona sung high praises about one of her favorite topics in the whole world — mountain bike orienteering. For the uncultured, that’s orienteering (a sport where you navigate using only map and compass to find waypoints, usually in some sort of natural setting like a forest) on a mountain bike. Before we knew it, we pulled into Phillips 66, almost 20 miles in.

    Greta had snapped her rear derailleur cable on the ride over. Conveniently, Joseph, the driver for the day, rocks the same frame size as Greta (despite being a very differently sized human; Greta has freakishly long legs apparently). The plan was for Greta to use Joseph’s bike for the rest of the day. After adjusting Joseph’s entire bike fit and preparing to leave, Greta’s nose starts bleeding. Profusely. So, with two signs from the big man upstairs, she finally takes a hint and realizes perhaps biking is not in the cards for her today. Ishaq cries PR sabotage.

    Also, Ruth whips out a tub of left over ice cream and we eat some. Great job, Ruth.

    Omm
    Nommm

    Back on the road, Ramona calls her family, who are in Latvia and taking a road trip (“so they have no excuse not to pick up”). I try out my second trick and ring my family as well. Coincidentally, they are also on a road trip. I roll in to rest stop 2 feeling adequately entertained and ready to eat lunch. Greta and Joseph arrive at the rest stop a little late (a lot late for a few of the other bikers who were 20 minutes ahead of me) after checking out a local nature preserve a kind stranger had recommended at the last rest stop. I eat my sandwiches and invest (read: scratch lotto tickets).

    Sights from Joseph and Greta’s adventure. Greta convinces Joseph to “run” a trail with him. Air quotes around “run” because both of this man’s feet are firmly attached to the ground smh

    The rest stop is in a kind of ghost town. Halfway through our time in Cedar Point, a guy (who actually lives there!) pulls up in a pickup truck, and we ask questions about the town. It’s not quite a ghost town actually, but mostly deserted. The entire county is 20 miles square but only has 3,000 residents — they have more cattle than people. Most of the buildings in the town closed down after the school shuttered about 25 years ago. The bank is technically still operational, but only by appointment. We also learned that the town used to be the first location of Heckendorn Mowers, a company that developed tricycle mowers with small turn radii to mow grass in cemeteries.

    I called my family some more after this rest stop, but their connection ended up being the problematic one, so we gave up. For the third time in the day, I tried a different time-passing technique — listening to music, the tried and true method. I’ve been absolutely jamming out to and falling down the rabbit hole that is the genre of “white girl hardstyle” the past few days. Tuning in each time is a complete game changer, +2 mph boost at least.

    I switched over to a normal hardstyle mix at some point and listened to possibly the worst song I’ve ever heard. After this abomination graced my earbuds, I switched back to white girl hardstyle and finished the ride boppingly.

    Contrary to popular belief, water exists in Kansas. Still not sure about Nevada

    In Newton, we arrived at the home of our hosts, Janet and Orvin. We met Enzo, their adorable, uncoordinated, and slightly clueless dog. We also meet Bill, another biker they are hosting for the night, who is on a self-supported trip across the country. Dinner featured angel hair pasta, marinara sauce (w/ meat for the meat eaters), and Texas toast. Janet and Orvin asked us each to share why we decided to do Spokes. Though we kept getting distracted by side tangents, we all answered, alternating between contemplative reflection and laughter, in true Spokes fashion.

    We concluded dinner with Janet’s mulberry pie. Bill asked Orvin to share any stories of the pie’s fame. Turns out it is quite famous — it fetches $500 bids at a bake sale benefit auction Janet and Orvin do every year! I felt slightly guilty and most definitely spoiled whilst scarfing down my ~$50 slice with a healthy heaping of vanilla ice cream, but I think I did the dessert justice. Licked my lips and the plate clean. Absolutely heavenly.

    • Their house is from the 1800s!
    • Enzooooooooo
    • 😴

    Janet and Orvin had a guest book they asked us each to sign with a page describing ourselves and leaving any contact info we’re comfortable sharing. It was great leafing through the book and reading about everyone else who has passed through their house on a similarly long ride as us. Spokes `24’s entries were in the book as well. Ruth asked me to read them all and just tell her the best one since she was being lazy. I decided the best entry was from no they were all great (except for seven of them :P).

    Days like these make me feel so blessed to be assisted by so many kind souls on our trip. From calling my family and friends, to conversations with fellow Spokies, to meeting helpful strangers at rest stops, to our wonderful hosts each night who open their homes and churches to us, it’s been great to experience travel not just as the sights I see, but the people I meet. And on the flip side, Janet and Orvin said something quite poetic about being WarmShowers hosts that will stick with me for quite some time — “traveling is wonderful because you go see the world, but when you host, the world comes to you.”

    1SST aka Spokes Standard Time: 30 minutes to an hour later than the given departure time

  • Day 31: Second Fourth of July

    Day 31: Second Fourth of July

    Overbrook, KS -> Emporia, KS – 61.9 miles 1,602 ft

    “Herding cats” is how our Overbrook host Scott described the MIT Spokes group getting ready in the morning. We rushed to pack our car because we had a special engagement this morning, visiting Scott’s retirement community. Joseph’s glove also went missing in the laundry so hopefully we will find those soon. We biked over to the retirement center, and Scott took our breakfast orders while we chatted with the retired folks about their interests and lives in the community. I’m glad we had the opportunity to interact with the local folks more.

    Classic Sarah Star

    Yesterday was so amazing that it didn’t seem real. I am still thinking about the amazing hot tub, but today’s rain is a reminder that the world is temperamental. Speaking of temperamental, so is my body. My period cramps forced me to ride in the car today despite my intention to bike. This frustrated me because I like being able to accomplish the tasks I set out to do. However, I knew that if someone else were in my position, I would tell them to rest.

    Ruth is the driver today and I trust her to get things done. We got in the car and said goodbye to Scott and the retirement center while the bikers set off to our first rest stop. Ruth started watching Straw and I took a nap. Many others had the same idea because Charles and Joseph also took a nap at the first rest stop.

    The second rest stop brought stories of many adventures. The address pointed to a private property again, so Ruth interacted with a stranger (out of character for her) to find a different place to park. We don’t want an incident like yesterday to happen again. Ishaq arrived first because he was trying to best his personal record. The bikers told us about a closed trail that sent them to the street. However, they couldn’t figure out how to return to the trail which kept them on a windy highway for longer than comfortable. Ramona crossed a yellow-taped, do-not-enter bridge. Luckily the bridge did not collapse. If we lost Ramona, we might not go on.

    The flatness of Kansas brought about other challenges. Apparently, the bikers faced a 20-mph headwind all day. While today was not the longest ride, it was a tiring day for many Spokies. However, I wouldn’t know what it’s like because I was asleep in the car all day.

    Vickie, our host, welcomed us into Didde Catholic Center which had a kitchen, laundry machines, and a shower. What more could we ask for? She permitted us to set off fireworks and told us stories about other visitors to the center. She locked up after us after giving us a key for for easy access to the center. The basement of the center is a child’s dream. It had a switch, a ping pong table, foosball, air hockey, and a pool table. What more could we ask for?

    Because Scott was so kind and gave us amazing activities and food for the actual Fourth of July (Yesterday). The Spokes Fourth of July was decided to be set on the fifth of July. The festivities began with Ruth cutting open a watermelon for all to enjoy. Our chefs Charles and Ramona made burgers for dinner. I made peach cobbler (despite having never eaten one) and salad. Many Spokies hadn’t had peach cobbler before so thankfully the taste didn’t matter. Ruth picked up some vital groceries for the dinner crew. We also finally started New York Times’ 36 questions to fall in love during this dinner. Last year’s Spokes recommended them to us. Maybe we will fall in love with each other after we finish these questions. I sure hope so. Otherwise, I am going to sue NYT.

    After an intermission of washing dishes, air hockey, and ping pong, the Spokies started setting off firecrackers, sparklers, smoke balls, and Roman candles. Ishaq taunted Greta with a Roman candle which scared Greta enough to run. She fell after slipping on some fine gravel but luckily, she was alright. Clint Lawler (Greta’s Dad) will not be happy with Ishaq after reading this blog. Charles had a (brilliant?) idea to tape a crayon smoke bomb to his bike. He biked around the Didde Center parking lot while his bike farted.

    We finished the fireworks activities with a fireworks show. I set off a big fireworks shell for the first time in my life! Our neighbor also had a couple of fireworks shows. Watching these fireworks go off in the night sky, I felt a strange sense of belonging. All these people around me were only strangers a few months ago. The word fate comes to mind. Looking into the night sky filled with transient sparks of light, I couldn’t help but feel the ephemeral connection between the eight of us this one summer like the brilliant fireworks. Short, but cozy and filled with beauty.

    All in all, a great second fourth of July.

  • Day 30: And the rockets’ red glare

    Day 30: And the rockets’ red glare

    Kansas City, MO to Overbrook, KS — 77.6 mi, 3,363 ft

    Happy 4th of July!

    The morning starts out normal. We say we’ll leave at 8am, and we actually do a pretty good job of it. At 8:30am, I see everyone except Joseph leave, and I hurry to get on my bike and catch them. Unfortunately, my bike computer is acting up. Charles helps me fix it, and I zoom ahead, two minutes behind the others, determined to catch up.

    2.5 miles into my ride, I realize I am going in the COMPLETE OPPOSITE DIRECTION as everyone else. I only notice because some road blockage forces me to reroute, my bike computer glitches, and I check Life360 to see which direction to head. I slightly freak out once I see that everyone is miles to the south of me.

    A historically accurate diagram of where I was this morning

    I decide to navigate with Google Maps instead, and head towards Joseph’s last known location. Sarah calls me to check in, I tell her that I’m probably fine, and I make my way to rest stop 1 alone. I’m convinced Charles sabotaged my bike computer ✋

    On my solo ride, I get to see some cool things, like crazy Kansas City mansions and the start of the 4th of July bike parade.

    Pretty view

    I get to Krispy Kreme to several Spokies waiting for me. I rant about my defective bike computer, go pee, then head out with Ramona, who patiently waited for me. We spend the ride talking about Latvian rock operas, debating about school uniforms, and shouting in tunnels.

    Ramona dancing at rest stop 2

    While biking to rest stop 3, we pass two small children sitting on the grass with bikes suspiciously similar to ours. I realize it’s Sarah and Joseph! Sarah tells me that everything is good, but I later find out that Joseph hurt his back (sounds like you need to work on your core, man).

    While biking to rest stop 4, I see a cop car zoom by. Suspicious, I think.

    I get to the rest stop, tired from the uphills and the heavy headwind, and confused why it’s a mile ahead of schedule. Ramona didn’t notice the change, so she blows by the rest stop, and a cop car chases her down to tell her to turn around. Why a cop car, you might be wondering. Boy, do I have a crazy story for you:

    Apparently, Charles, Ishaq, and Greta arrive to rest stop 4, blissfully unaware. Charles peeks into all the windows of the glass blowing shop we decided to have a rest stop at. A couple minutes later, a sheriff pulls up. She tells them that the man who owns the shop got so freaked out by Charles looking inside that he got his gun ready and was prepared to shoot. They stood there in silence while the deputy sorted things out, then Charles moved the rest stop a mile forwards while Ishaq and Greta continued biking.

    So now you know that the cop car was zooming after our resident Spokie delinquents. Also fun fact, remember how Charles sabotaged me? Well, this had lasting effects. Because of my 5 mile delay and the fact that Charles ditched us to go to Lawrence, KS, to visit his birth hospital, Greta and Ishaq were so far ahead of the rest of the group that they kept on leaving rest stops before Charles got there. Ishaq rationed his water, so when he got to rest stop 4, he chugged 2 Sprites and 2 bottles of water and an apple, and promptly puked.

    Anyways, Ramona and I finally get to the Warmshowers host, and we shower and get settled. Our host, Scott, offers us pizza and wings. We get in the hot tub, relax, then watch fireworks in the driveway post-sunset. Great 4th of July 🙂

  • Day 29: Grand Theft Auto

    Day 29: Grand Theft Auto

    Rest Day in Kansas City, MO

    Yo yo yo! It’s Joseph, back at it again from Kansas City (the one in Missouri). I’m finally out of the trenches, and all my deep thoughts and introspection go to a complete halt unless I’m in complete misery and questioning my life. That’s why this time I’m doing a bit more of a silly blog. I’m sure as you will have heard from Greta (when she eventually publishes yesterday’s blog), we had a great learning festival followed by an awesome dinner out with some of the sponsors of the program we taught at. Meeting influential members of the Latino community anywhere is always a treat and our VIP level treatment has elevated Kansas City to my favorite stop on the trip so far. Kansas City continued to be a surreal trip even after last night, though.

    We awoke with plans to go to The Children’s Place, a specialized trauma treatment center for very young children. The visit was set up by the aSteam Village sponsor. We were given a tour of the facility and then split up into groups of two or three to play with the children for an hour, followed by a little fireworks show. We weren’t allowed to take any photos and aren’t at liberty to talk about many details, but I can personally say that the kids were great and everyone had a blast. The adults there are doing some very important work and have my full respect.

    We got back to our Airbnb and had a couple of hours to spare before our dinner plans with the learning festival sponsor, supposedly some amazing barbeque (Kansas City is known for it). Charles wanted to run some errands, so me and Ruth joined him. There were a few errands to run, but one was more important than the others. Enterprise said that we had to renew our car contract every thirty days and wow would you look at that we started Spokes a month ago! So, we drove to the nearest Enterprise thinking this would be a 15-minute errand. Then everything went wrong. For the past thirty-something days, our car rental process had gone too smoothly. No car breakdown or troubles with authorized drivers. Of course, all good things must come to an end. See, our 2024 Chrysler Pacifica had very recently been recalled due to a side airbag malfunction, along with 250,000 other Pacifica’s in Enterprise’s nationwide fleet. Enterprise told us we could keep the van until the end of our trip, but when it came time to renew our contract, the local branch said they could not renew a contract on a recalled vehicle. The only option here would be to get a replacement minivan and renew the contract with that, but it just so happens that those 250,000 Pacifica’s are most of Enterprise’s minivan fleet, so there were no available minivans or any seven-seater SUVs in the entire Kansas City area. We drove across state lines to two more Kansas City locations including the airport in an attempt to find an available vehicle, but no dice. At this point, our only option was to forego the Cambridge Enterprise’s pleas to get our car switched and continue on with the recalled Chrysler Pacifica with an overdue contract until we can eventually get it replaced, maybe in Denver… The legality of this decision is dubious. One might even say that we’ve committed Grand Theft Auto™.

    • Cool Bridge
    • Driving to Enterprise

    After our quick errand turned wild goose chase, we came back to the AirBnB with nothing to show for our efforts. Our barbeque dinner with the sponsor was cancelled for unrelated reasons, but he instead generously doordashed us food from the barbeque place. It was quite delicious. The team all gathered together for our fourth iteration of the Spokes Movie Night, where we watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I had been wanting to watch the movie for quite some time now and I was not disappointed. The main female lead’s name in the movie was Ramona, so it became a running joke that our Ramona had seven evil exes and all that. The best thing to come out of it was probably the song in the movie called Ramona. I had the bright idea of making a three minute long edit with the song. Please enjoy the fruit of my labor.

    The Ramona Edit
  • Day 28: it takes a(STEAM) village

    Day 28: it takes a(STEAM) village

    Today I woke up from a deep, restful slumber and felt decidedly like I’d been hit by a truck. Not a big deal–this is basically how I feel every day. I dragged myself up out of bed, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and pulled on my bright red Spokes learning festival shirt.

    I’m often hungriest on our non-biking days, so I walked down to the kitchen ready to chow. I popped a cinnamon raisin bagel in the toaster and smeared it generously with butter. I also found a blender and decided to make a protein shake, before realizing we were out of milk… again. Not going to name any names, but I know who to blame (cough cough sarah). I ended up making my shake with water instead, but it was disappointing and I remained hungry, so I popped another bagel in the toaster. Yum!!

    In the meantime, the first group of Spokies headed over to aSTEAM Village, our learning festival location for the day. Ishaq, Charles, and I played some ping pong while we waited for Ruth to return with the car. We were not impressed by the quality of the ping pong table, but this was definitely a blessing in disguise because there’s no way we would have gotten eight hours of sleep tonight if we’d followed through on our ping pong double elimination tournament plans.

    moments before defeat

    This week’s learning festival was a finale to a three and a half week STEM camp. Most of our workshops are one-off programs, so we are working with a group of kids who has assembled just for one day. Today, however, our kids have been learning and building projects together for nearly a month. Each week, the kids at aSTEAM have a different project to work on. They learn technical skills, like coding and 3D prototyping, in order to solve problems that arise in the project. I’m a big fan of this way of learning and I often wish Spokes had more time to spend with the students we work with, but the mobile nature of our trip makes this difficult.

    • intro to machine learning
    • phases of matter

    During lunch, we love the opportunity to engage with students in a less formal setting, so we usually intermingle at their lunch tables while they eat. With younger kids, I ask them what they want to be when they grow up, and we talk about their favorite tv characters and brainrot videos. With older kids, I ask about their goals for college and beyond and they ask me what it’s like studying engineering and going to MIT.

    I don’t tell them this, but I’ve recently realized teaching might be harder than my normal life at school. Before Spokes, I had no idea how exhausting teaching was. The kids we work with are amazing, but being constantly engaged takes an incredible amount of mental and physical energy. Mad respect for teachers.

    At the end of the learning festival, we went back to our Airbnb to rest for a while. We sat around chatting and talked about watching something (Love Island), but then my mom called!! I chatted with her for a bit, but my eyes were beginning to droop, so I eventually hung up and went to sleep.

    I think all the fatigue of the past month finally hit, because I then took the BEST 2 hour nap, possibly ever of my life. When I woke up, it was time for us to head to dinner, which one of the supporters of aSTEAM Village was generously hosting for us.

    We all packed up in the van (the first time all 8 of us have driven together!) and drove to dinner at T’ähä Mexican Kitchen. At the restaurant, we joined William Wells, coordinator at aSTEAM village; Kevin Martinez, benefactor of aSTEAM and The Children’s Place; Carlos Gomez, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and all the counselors from aSTEAM village.

    scenes from the car

    Carlos told us about how getting out in the community and volunteering led him to the career path he is on today. He told us that volunteering, in addition to helping your community, also expands your skills, grows your network, and helps you find your passions. Volunteering more is a thought I’ve had marinating in my mind for a while, so I am grateful for the reminder to take action. Kevin told us about his grandmother’s untiring generosity, which he cited as one of the main reasons he is as generous as he is today. Juleese and I chatted about educational disparities and she told me about her work helping reduce incarceration rates in Kansas City, MO. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to meet and learn from multiple pillars of the KCMO community; I am inspired by their tireless efforts to make the world a better place, each using their individual strengths and passions. It’s reassuring to know just how many great people are out there, working hard every day to do good.

    All in all, today left me with a lot of thoughts about what kind of person I want to be in the world. In many different ways, my interactions in Spokes have shown me how the boundaries of my personal generosity have so much room to expand. Whenever I think of Kansas City, I know I’ll remember William, Kevin, Carlos, and Juleese. I’ll think about the expansiveness of their care for their communities and for us. And if the Chiefs ever end up in the Super Bowl again, I’ll probably give them my cheers.

    post dinner goofies

  • Day 27: Missouri Business

    Day 27: Missouri Business

    WAKE UP! ITS THE FIRST OF THE MONTH!

    Hi, Ishaq here 👋. Happy first of July and have Tour de France eve eve eve eve. What a day today was. The pace was slow, the vibes immaculate, and the falls even more so. All in all a chill century ride with loads of fun time.

    Our journey begins in Sedalia, Missouri where we hop back on the Katy trail, where we’ll stay for pretty much the rest of the day. But we had a nice rest stop at a cafe where I got a large pineapple limeade Italian soda. Delicious way to instantly hit my daily recommended added sugar intake. But continuing on we hop back on the trail and start playing Mr. White. Our favorite gaem for the day works by havign us all pass around Charles’ phone and getting a word. All civilians have the same word, 2 people, the under covers, have a different word, and Mr. White gets no word. No one is directly told their role except Mr White and we all have to go around giving clues in order to vote out Mr. White before they get the civilian word and vote out the under cover members. On the other hand, the goal of Mr. White and the under cover members are to survive as long as they can.

    Now that you know the game, you can begin to understand just how I was repeatedly wronged over the course of this ride. Every time my turn rolled around I’d drop the most elite hints and no one would get them. I personally think its a skill issue. For example, I had Lord of the Rings as my word, so I, with a very sensible line of logic, said “Professor X” (Professor X -> Magneto -> Ian McKellan -> Gandalf). Little did I know, none of the other spokies know X-men! Actually criminal. So I made it FAR more simple for round 2 and dropped “Eagles” (Gandalf always calls the eagles to save the day in LOTR). Once again even the so called “LOTR readers” didn’t get it. I was ultimately voted out for my “suspicious answers” and we civilians lost the round ☹️. Even worse, Ruth’s insufficient knowledge of the intelligence of aquatic mammals threw me on the chopping block again (She claims whales aren’t smart).

    In the middle of our grand group ride a few whoopsies happened. First off, I sadly slipped off the trail, took a ride in the bushes, and fell back on to the trail. Really tough, I though I was going to survive spokes unscathed, but I have now acquired scrapes on my right knee and elbow. The team, of course, laughed at me, however, my fall was topped by Charles just a couple of hours later. While setting up a new game of Mr. White, he clipped a metal post and was launched off his bike. He lied there, motionless, all of us thinking the worst. He says he hit his head and the worst was spinning but recovered as we ushered him to a nearby table. He actually re-scraped an old scab on his elbow so we hit it with the wettest stingiest alcohol swab which had him squealing in pain. Once we were sure he was okay we all had a good laugh about the sound of the fall and the scene we observed in the aftermath. Maybe we’re horrible people for finding joy in the misfortune of our friends. Maybe we are just a generation conditioned on epic fail complications 🤷🏾‍♂️. Either way, its funny because we were all okay in the end.

    After tending to the wounds of the fallen, we stopped playing Mr. While and I was now incredibly tired of biking for the day. This is where I innovated. Using two bungee cords I secured my iPad to my handlebars to enable a peak watching experience on the bike. Granted I did not want to watch anything actually good that would require mental energy to enjoy so I put on the Netflix adaptation of the popular game series Devil May Cry. I was very disappointed because at no point in the 4 episodes I watched did a devil cry. But, I suppose thats what makes it interesting: maybe a devil will cry, maybe not 🤷🏾‍♂️. The other spokies were all haters, thinking that I would fall or my iPad would drop, but I literally have a degree in engineering from MIT so pretty confident in the setup. I followed Ruth and Ramona because the iPad partially covered my bike computer.

    At the end of the day we rode into Kansas City and I hada great time zooming down the city roads at sunset. We got to our large Airbnb where Sarah made us all grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner, then we spokies dispersed for our bedtime endeavors.

  • Day 26: Best Driver Ever

    Day 26: Best Driver Ever

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Cool sights discovered by bikers

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

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

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

  • Day 25: with(out) the sun – light rain and heavy legs

    Day 25: with(out) the sun – light rain and heavy legs

    St. Louis, MO to Jefferson City, MO, 125.1 mi 3840 ft or 74.1 mi 2239 ft

    The sun rose at 5:40am over St. Louis; me and Greta rose at 5 am sharp. We had a long day ahead of us. 130 miles ahead of us. No joke.

    I did not get a picture of the sunset, because I was busy getting ready: losing a glove, finding my other pair of gloves, then finding the lost glove again and other stuff of that sort. But we rolled out at 6am sharp. It was surprisingly warm, but we were optimistic. The plan was for us to bike self supported for the first 50 or so miles, then meet up with the rest of the group, who would leave afterwards and shuttle ahead to reduce the milage. (Huge thanks to Nora and Alex for making this happen!)

    The team with our hosts in the morning ->

    So that’s what we did. We started off going through St. Louis, seeing more parts of the city we explored yesterday, when the sun went away and it started raining. Not heavily, but consistently. This was new. We were used to the afternoon thunderstorms, but now we finally got a simple rainy day. At around mile 27 we got on the Katy trail… where we would continue for the rest of the day. The Katy trail, which used to be part of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (also known as the Katy, this is where the name comes from) at 260 miles total distance, mostly by the Missouri river, is the longest developed rail-trail in the US. It is fine gravel, used by cyclists, runners and walkers, with occasional bathrooms and benches maintained. No water fountains, but we asked for some at a restaurant and also realised that we don’t really drink nearly as much in the cool rain. In the rain, the gravel got nice and mushy, which had the effect of reduced speed and muddy backs.

    Mile 80 marker and funny looking plants
    The bustling restaurant which kindly filled the water bottles
    of two muddy cyclists.
    Greta and the dirt on her back.

    Despite this gloomy atmosphere, we had a great time! We chatted, played some tunes on Greta’s legendary hanging speaker, including The Sound of Music soundtrack in its entirety, as well as playing the Picnick game – a great invention and amazing way to pass the time. (If someone already explained it in their blog or if you know what it is, feel free to skip ahead.) The way it works is one person comes up with a criteria to decide if a noun is YES or NO (eg. is alive?, had more than 8 letters?, etc.). Then the game alternates between them saying something they can bring and the other person asking if they can bring something else. The goal is for the other person to guess the criteria. I struggled on Greta’s criteria for more than 10 miles and did not get it. You can ask her about it. She got mine much faster, so I can tell you that the criteria was all words with and even number of syllables.

    We also took in the scenery, saw some crazy blue birds and tackled a fallen tree. Mud was everywhere. (I later found sand in my washed bibs.)

    blurry Missouri river
    greta tackling a fallen tree
    muddy shoes

    Anyways, I think it was around mile 60 when we met up with the car for some lunch. We had packed a bunch of snacks, but its really nice to have actual food (dinner leftovers!). Time until lunch had flown very quickly, but afterwards it slowly started to slow down. Luckily the sun came out for a bit and Ishaq and Tian – our driver and passenger for the day – brought Greta some (lukewarm gas station) coffee.

    lunch
    the sun!
    greta, ishaq and the joy that coffee brings

    We kept meeting up with the car until around mile 108, when Greta shuffled to our destination to take a call and I was left on the trail with my own thoughts. The sun had dissappeared again, my butt was hurting and my legs were done with this. The air was eerie and my podcast (about espionage) did not help (and there were way too many ads). But I persevered – changed my hand position on the handlebars too many times and worked on my leftover snacks.

    s-patch-es and cinnamon toast crunch
    me and my snacks
    last i saw of the sun

    Last miles went by slowly. Occasionally I thought I would be on this wet trail forever and contemplated making contact with the birds or bunnies. But that was not neccessary, since I did, in fact, make it to Jefferson City. Surreal. Crazy. Iconic.

    Jefferson City rest stop on the Katy trail
    The second to last climb – a spiral
    Jefferson City

    The sun set at 8:40pm over Jefferson City. I rolled in at around 8pm. Not that you could see the sun – for the most part, I could not be sure it was there. But I was sure that there was me, outside, on the Katy trail, scaring squirrels, frightening bunnies and thinking too many thoughts. Maybe I was the sun. My sun for that day was me. (read again: thinking too many thoughts)

    Our rest for the night was Sarah’s place. And it was an amazing place for resting. I got hosed down, devoured dinner, got cuddles from Barbara (see below), showered and fell right asleep. I know some people stayed up to play some game, but I actually have only a very vague idea about how the rest of the team’s day had been. There is only so many hours in a day. And today, I spent them all biking.

    Me and Barbara on the couch
    Barbara on the couch

    (I don’t think a dog had ever cuddled up to me like Barbara did, missing her already.)