Author: MIT Spokes

day 10: be my baby 🐣
Learning Festival Day in Tazewell, VA

yo yo YO!!! sarah “schmitty” schmitt is BACK again, this time from the learning festival perspective! 🧪

for our 2nd learning festival, we are near the northern virginia border in the lovely town of tazewell, specifically the main street united methodist church! since i was the driver yesterday, and was (not supposed to, at least) run my learning festival today, i had plenty of time and energy to spare to prep for a high quality blog post.

our lovely home for the past 2 days, the main street united methodist church!

i started my day bright and early at 7:20am so that i could shower and hit the cafe across the street i had been eyeing on apple maps since the day before, “the well” coffee shop on main street. i got my 4th iced chai latte of spokes (yes, i am counting), as well as a bacon egg and cheese on an everything bagel 🥯 i brought my laptop with the intention of doing work, but my hands ended up being too greasy (and maybe i was being a little lazy, too) 🙂‍↕️ at some point, joseph pulled up and copied my exact order. i know i have good taste, but it doesn’t hurt to be a little original…🤷🏼‍♀️

around 9am, we made the treacherous, extensive journey of a few hundred feet back to the main building to start helping our teammates set up for their respective learning festival activities. for those of you who don’t know, when we were planning for spokes, we split up into 5 groups (some pairs, some not) to make 5 separate lesson plans. learning festival coordinators pick 4 of our lesson plans they want to run, and the 5th person/group ends up as “floaters” to help with overall flow. spokes 2025 lesson plans are:
- sarah/joseph: diy bottle rockets via the baking soda and vinegar reaction 🚀
- greta: states of matter, with melting ice and “oobleck” (a “non-newtonian fluid”) 🧊
- ruth/charles: 3D printing + pens 🖊️
- ramona: cryptography via simple caesar ciphers 🕵🏼‍♀️
- tian/ishaq: machine learning and AI 🤖
for this learning festival, me and joseph were the floaters. not going to lie, it was nice to be pretty much brain dead for a few hours and just have fun with the kids. they all came in around 10am, and they were of all ages, from just graduating kindergarten to entering/already being in HIGH SCHOOL!!! we usually won’t have this wide of a range, so MAJOR props to my fellow spokies for adjusting their learning festivals to fit each age group. imagine trying to teach machine learning to 6 year olds…😀
charles and ruth hard at work at the computers
science of secrets!
machine learning and AI ooo
states of matter w/ greta! this got SOOO messy…
anyways, after some conversations with some of the parish adults, they eventually realize that the bottle rocket learning festival activity was in fact NOT powered by firecrackers, and are DYING to run it for the kids. since we are all for the kids, joseph and i spend the next 30 minutes scrambling our materials together (including vinegar generously donated by the church) in order to run the rockets during lunch.

lunch (also generously provided by the church) consisted of corn dogs, watermelon, carrots and ranch, chips, s’mores, and cookies!!! 🌭🍉 plus asian food(?) for our resident vegan and non-pork eaters tian, ishaq, and ruth, respectively. during the 2nd half of lunch, we took each of the 4 age groups out in shifts to watch the bottle rockets. i’m SO glad we were able to do so—the excitement and smiles on some of these kids’ faces were SO worth it. truly a reminder of why we do what we do!!! 💗

screenshot from a video taken of our bottle rocket demonstration for the K-3 age group!

once the final kids left around 3:30pm, it was time to clean and CRASH. i hadn’t biked the ~70 mile route the day before, and didn’t fully run my learning festival today, but i was still EXHAUSTED. even after (kinda) repacking the car and hosing down the now very colorful tarp with greta from her states of matter learning festival, the day was STILL not done. to keep a long story short, i made a quick, non-serious visit to the hospital the night before to get a prescription for some steroids i might need in the future (in case i get more sick than i already am, because asthma is forever the bane of my existence and destroyer of my happiness), and i still needed to pick the pills up at the pharmacy. so, i decided to tag along with and help joseph on his laundromat run 🧺

1 bottle of prednisone and detergent, 68 quarters, and 3 bags of laundry later, greta, ruth, and ramona arrive with cheese bread from the italian place a block (ok, maybe a block is generous, another few hundred feet?) away. ramona had come earlier and commandeered 1 of my quarters (consensually) for a piece of gum, but she helped put laundry (which she calls “laudry”) in bags, so we’re even. eventually, the group makes it over to the ice cream joint attached to the italian place, and we all get a sweet treat of some kind, whether it be ice cream or float, kindly paid for by our learning festival main point of contact, theresa! after hearing a few of us left our towels at another host’s place, she also bought new towels for ALL of us. so sweet 🥹💗
tarp
laundry
cheese bread! 🧀
when we return, tian is taking a nap, but the energy is HIGH in the kitchen as charles and ishaq are preparing to cook all of the breakfast food provided by the church for our stay. pancake batter is being mixed, biscuits are in the oven, and bacon and eggs are on the way 🥞🥓🍳 i added some extra hershey’s chocolate to my raspberry “rocky road” ice cream (that doesn’t contain nuts!), and got started on my blog. as of writing these sentences, half the group is on a sugar high from the sweet treats; there’s music and singing coming from the cooks hard at work in the kitchen; route planning, blogging, and 3D printing is occurring all at once in the dining room; some (one is) are snoozing upstairs in sleeping bags on the floor; most (everyone else) are eating in some way shape or form. THIS is what spokes is all about!!! 🥰
ishaq and charles hard at work
biscuits
pancakes and bacon
eggs
my attempt at a 0.5
sing greta! ishaq is trying to hide his amusement
after washing a mountain of dishes to a spotify playlist ishaq searched up called “songs white girls get turnt to” (as a white girl, it was quite alright), ruth dragged everyone into the living room to finally watch a movie, which we had been discussing doing for a few days now. it wasn’t until i sat down in a chair that i realized we we’re watching a horror movie.

i.

HATE.

horror movies.

but, for the sake of team bonding, i decided to stick around to watch “barbarian,” even if i watched 90% of it with my hands covering my eyes and ears as much as possible, and my body half turned away from the screen. after it ended, ishaq started ranting about the genre of horror, symbolism, etc., but my elbows were sore from cowering for 2 hours straight, and i was just glad it was over. he tried (for the 2nd time since staying in tazewell) to jumpscare me, and (for the 2nd time) i hit back. not sorry. i made ruth follow me to the bathroom that was 10 feet away from where we were all sleeping because i was scared of being alone. 2/10, not doing this again out of my own freewill. sorry guys. musical next time? 🎶

never. again.

i brushed my teeth, got some of the last bits of sugar out of my system by carrying ruth around and (simultaneously) attacking ishaq, sorted some of my laundry, and FINALLY laid down. we’ve only been on spokes for about a week and a half, but it’s already felt like a month. a single day feels like a few days all wrapped into one. it feels like spokes will last forever, but even between the early rises, sore legs, itchy bug bites, hilly rides, and exhausting learning festivals…i wish it did.

on that note, i am finishing up this blog the next morning, and i really got to get ready to bike to breaks. see y’all next time for…(checking the spreadsheet)…our rest day in bowling green, ky! 💚

yours truly,

“schmitty”

P.S. to respond to ramona’s slightly antagonistic statement at the end of her last blog (the one right before this one), i finished this (my day 10 blog post) at 9:25am on day 11, so i would say i was pretty timely this time around :)) love u ramona tho!
June 15, 2025
Day 9: forever long miles and the perfect refuel spot

Radford, VA to Tazewell, VA – 68.24 mi, 4,380 ft

It’s Ramona again and welcome to day 9. The day started with some awesome power oatmeal that Sharon made for us. It had all kinds of amazing nutritious additions, so we we’re well equipped to start the day. I left Sharon’s and Keith’s home with some hesitation. We had had a great evening with smores and fire (read more (probably?) on Charles’ account on day 8), but I knew we had to hit the road. On paper, the day seemed chill enough – 68.2 miles and 4319ft of elevation (according to ridewithgps, our navigation devices thought it was more like 6000ft, but i think they are wrong). So we headed out from Radford! These were the views – some mountains in the background here and there, some trees, a little bit of ups and downs and cloudy skies.

:sparkles: views :sparkles:

We had a nice little break at a park, where Greta and Charles unleashed their inner childs.

Charles getting in that exercise and Greta on the swing.

… but after the first 10 to 20 miles, everything started to feel ~ slower ~

I am not even sure why, we had plenty of rest stops to refuel and get water, but the fourth cycling day in a row hit me harder mentally than any of the previous ones. I know I wasn’t alone in that. Charles was hurting, Joseph had (very wisely) decided to take a rest day and Ishaq was complaining that his butt aches. The miles, with little variation in hills, seemed to go on forever. I was watching my navigation and I swear the miles left were just frozen sometimes.

Battling my own mind, I put on some music, but in the heat, and the occasional cars overtaking us, it just overwhelmed me. So I suffered for a while, until I remembered a great invention – podcasts! I put on some Origin Story (an episode on the Doctor Who) and everything got so much better. Dorian Lynskey even brought out some laughs in me. My dad actually recommended this podcast, so I was waiting to pull this card out in exactly this kind of a situation. So, from this experience, I rate listening to podcasts a 10/10 strategy, especially suited for when no good thinking thoughts seem to be floating in your mind, so you are left with battling boredom and frustration.

I had taken a break at some point, when Charles passed me. I did catch him afterwards, and remembered that perhaps an 11/10 strategy is yapping, even for a little bit. By the time the next rest stop rolled around (with a huge hornets nest, allegedly (ask Joseph or Sarah, I did not see any hornets)) I was feeling better. I left Charles with the hornets and started on the last 10 miles of the ride.

Soon after entering Tazewell I noticed a sign for ice cream and contemplated stopping, BUT THEN I noticed the some Spokies at the ice cream spot! Telepathy! Of course, I pulled over and got two cold, sweet and glorious scoops of ice cream (pictured below).

Me and ice cream

Spokies and ice cream

The spot was actually very cool! First, the ice cream hit the spot! And I’m pretty sure the girl at the shop only charged me for one scoop, so it was an incredible deal. Second, they also did floats, which Charles was very happy about. And third, through the same door, there is also an Italian food spot. (It might or might not be the same establishment, I am not sure). And Joseph noticed, it had a creative logo.

The logo, in case you want to stop by, ice cream is right there!

With that we arrived at our destination. Theresa at the Main Street United Methodist Church is kindly letting us stay. I am glad tomorrow is not a cycling day, since we are teaching! So, last item on the agenda is dinner. Lead by Ishaq, the Spokes cook crew is making turkey meatball spaghetti right as I am writing this. I better go and help them. Tune in tomorrow (or whenever Sarah will finish tomorrow’s blog 🙂 )

Meatballs in the making

June 13, 2025
Day 8: A Day in the Life (Driver Edition)
Roanoke, VA to Radford, VA – 52.39 mi, 4,265 ft

The stars have aligned. We have 8 bloggers but only 7 drivers (uncommon Ramona L), so today is one of the rare days when the driver is in charge of blogging! I thought this would be a good opportunity to peel back the curtain and explain some of the driving logistics that happen behind the scenes to keep our cross-country ride running smoothly.

Literally me

The driver’s day actually starts the previous night as they are tasked with unloading the cooler. This way they know what goes into the cooler when they load it in the morning of their driving day. Our hosts yesterday, Lisa and Rob, didn’t have a lot of fridge and freezer space for us, but Rob’s mom lives right down the street her fridge had a lot more room! Thanks Rob and Carol!

Since the driver gets the day off, they take on a few more responsibilities to make life easier for the bikers. This includes:
- Packing the car in the morning
- Refilling the water jugs
- Flagging Spokies down at the rest stops
- Contacting our hosts (if we’re being hosted)
- Checking biker locations on Life360 periodically (safety first!)
- Grocery shopping (if need be)
- Getting gas (if need be)
How we’re packing the car (we limit at most 1 bag on the cooler for easy access to our lunches)
View from the driver’s seat
Every day, the route has multiple rest stops. The driver leaves each stop after the last biker departs and then drives to the next rest stop in time for the faster bikers. At the rest stops — if needed — the bikers refill their water bottles, re-apply sunscreen, snack, eat lunch, and take a break from biking.

The best part about being a driver is not having to bike 😆. Most of the time, the driving route between the rest stops is the same as the biking path. Knowing that the everyone else has to bike on the road I’m driving on definitely gave me a new perspective today. I tried to feel bad each time I drove up a hill but mostly I just giggled and felt fortunate to be in a car with AC on and music blasting while I zoomed towards my destination.

The next best thing about being the driver is the free time you get after arriving at the rest stops and waiting for bikers. Activities our drivers have done with this free time include:
- Watching a show/movie
- Reading
- Napping
- Calling loved ones
- Calling not-so-loved ones…?
- Blogging!
Today, the first rest stop was at a gas station. After troubleshooting a buggy bike computer for a bit, I decided to generously spend some of my free time acquiring some fundraising opportunities for Spokes.
Feeling lucky 🍀
No dice 😕
We did not win a single scratch-off. However, as the well-known statistic goes, 95% of gamblers quit before they win big. Big Spokes windfall coming next time for sure.

At the second rest stop, I discovered that the Sprite we had bought yesterday had not been completely loaded into the cooler. The team keeps teasing me because I really want to teach my own slightly unhinged Learning Festival lesson about the science of pressure. Maybe my fellow Spokies could take a lesson on pressure so we don’t have beverage cans burst in the heat!

Deformed Sprite cans

Cleaning up

The third and final rest stop of the day was when most people decided to eat their lunch. I hadn’t fixed myself a lunch in the morning, so I tried to make myself a very simple tuna sandwich. There was one problem, though. The can opener was in the cooking supplies box that was under another box in the trunk. I was also feeling very lazy. Greta definitely egged me on by suggesting that it was possible to open the can by smashing it on the ground.
Greta’s floor rice cake
Ice ice baby
Aftermath of our tuna can opening attempts
My “tuna sandwich”
Spokes derangement reached all-time high levels over the course of the ensuing 20 minutes. We threw the can on the ground. We smashed it on rocks. We stomped on it. We pried at a small opening with sticks. We shook out small bits and pieces onto my sandwich. Tuna went everywhere. Mostly *not* on my sandwich.

Eventually the shame set in and we called it quits on that. We all made it to the house for the night and met our lovely hosts, Sharon and Keith. They cooked us an immaculate dinner and gave us a tour of their greenhouse that Keith built during COVID. S’mores followed dinner (Ramona had her first ever smore, as well as her second and third). Our long-awaited attempt at a movie night was postponed yet another night as people cozily chatted and blogged by the fire.
Sharon and Keith’s signature fried spaghetti setup
yum 😋
Ramona’s reaction to her first ever smore
The greenhouse
All in all, a packed but fairly restful day for me. This driving thing is pretty efficient — wonder why we even bought these dang bikes in the first place 🤔
June 12, 2025
Day 7: The Lone Star Adapts

Lexington, VA to Roanoke, VA – 59.58 mi, 4,160 ft

I woke up to the smell of pancakes courtesy of Dirk and Chrissy van Assendelft. The breakfast I had at their place in Lexington was some of the best I ever had.

Berries! Yum 😋

After breakfast, the team scattered to pack. As I collected my clean laundry, I felt anxious because I hadn’t biked the steep hill, which had grades up to 17%, from yesterday. Not completing something gives me immense dread. My pride also makes it hard for me to stomach that I am the slowest biker on our team.

We packed our lunches on the lawn of Dirk and Chrissy’s home as the morning sun brutally shone on us—lunches I wished that we packed the evening before. After 2.5 years of traveling the world solo, I am used to organizing my schedule however I want. However, I am learning that traveling with a group of 8, each with their quirks and needs, proves to be a very different task.

We started our ride to Roanoke down a grassy and gravel path where some of us feared for our lives. Fueled by my desire to become faster, I kept pedaling, one street after another, until I left the city. Before I realized it, I passed the zeroth(?) and first rest stop. Some of the team members stopped in downtown Lexington to snack on gelato and sit in love chairs. Usually, I would feel FOMO. However, I didn’t want gelato, and there was nothing I could do about missing a rest stop. Besides, my anxiety about completing the route was ebbing away with every mile I moved towards Roanoke. I am content with choosing to ride on.

Spoksies on a creaky bridge

I ended up playing leapfrog with Ruth for the rest of the day. I would ride in front, and then she would pass me for another stretch. I took the advice of a previous spokester (Duha) and acquired open-ear headphones. With Chappell Roan playing in my ears, my legs were willing to keep spinning the wheels. Although I was exhausted and walked a couple of hills, this was my happiest biking day.

Second rest stop! After completely missing the first 😦

When I finally arrived at the destination, I couldn’t find Lisa and Rob’s home. I meandered back and forth on the street, hoping that our driver Ishaq would pop out of nowhere to fetch me. Instead, I spotted a lady in her yard who beckoned me. That’s how I met Lisa.

Lisa ushered me into her home with utmost kindness. I met Ruth, who arrived before me. Ruth was shocked to the core when I said I wanted to shower first. Apparently, our shower order was based on the arrival order (I never arrived early enough to find out). But it calmed my anxious heart to know that I will be showering second today.

Lisa offered us a bowl of cherries. I love cherries, but I never buy them because they can cost quite a penny. Lisa and Rob were generous and offered us flautas and me impossible burgers. I even got to meet Carol (Rob’s mother) who is a big fan of Spokes. We met Rob, the creator of the Virgina Rockstar route, a trail some of us vow to do one day (not me).

Since this was the second day we arrived around 4 pm, Lisa and Rob had time to take us sightseeing. This was the first time Spokes had time to sightsee. I was so excited. Sightseeing was one part of my solo traveling I missed on Spokes. Lisa loaded me onto an artsy van Rob bought for $200 and drove us to see the largest man-made star, which happens to be in Roanoke.

Reassured by the city lights of Roanoke that twinkled in the distance, I realized I was still figuring things out. I don’t know where exactly Spokes ends and Tian begins. I’m not sure how much of the solo traveler in me can exist on this trip. But surely, once in a while, I can choose myself.

The night wrapped up sweetly with Lisa’s chamomile mint tea.

June 11, 2025
Day 6: stab your friends…

Afton, VA to Lexington, VA – 47.02 mi, 4,354 ft

Today was just one of those days. I woke up at 1:55 am to pee, and never quite fell back asleep. Tian, our resident snorer, unknowingly kept me awake all night. I popped in my airpods and drifted in and out of consciousness for the next few hours.

At the breakfast table, we (ironically) started off the day comparing sleep scores — Ishaq was well rested with an 87/100, and Greta was close behind with a 71/100. I was the star of the show with a whopping 42/100. I was basically non-verbal throughout breakfast and car-packing due to how sleep deprived I was (apologies, fellow Spokies).

Now, I’m not sure if you read Day 5’s blog (go Joseph), but if you did, you may know that we changed our route last minute, opting for a shorter, albeit steeper climb. Due to my state of being, Greta, our driver for the day, offered to drive me to the top. I respectfully declined – I needed to tire myself out enough that I would sleep peacefully tonight.

Sad to leave Pam’s magical cottage in Afton, VA, we headed off to the steepest climb to date. With an average grade of 10% (and a maximum of 17%), this climb reached a steepness of over 2 times the maximum allowable slope of a wheelchair ramp (my dad is an architect).

Text correspondence with Father Ruth

I opted to not have my own bike computer to save the team $350, so I rotate through drivers’ computers. Today, Greta’s computer was simply not loading the route for me – I resolved to follow Ramona closely behind so I wouldn’t get lost, since we ride at a ~similar~ pace.

Me, Charles, and Joseph before I zoom ahead with Ramona

I’m not going to subject you to the same pain that I felt climbing that large hill today, so I’ll spare you the details. Just know that Ramona and I didn’t take breaks, that I felt I was going to go backwards at multiple points, and that when we finally passed the worst of it and pulled over to snack, I didn’t know if I could get up again.

As for the rest of the journey, it went pretty smoothly. All the Spokies met under a tree to eat lunch. By this time, my mood was significantly better👍. Exercising does release endorphins, after all ✨.

Me and Ramona smiling through the pain post a 17% grade

Spokies at lunch

Ramona, Ishaq, and I set out before the others. Then came the best 13 miles of the day – flat land. On this land, like a fledgling jumping out of its nest for the first time, I learned to fly— i.e. ride with no hands. I even did the wave!

We had one last climb before the house, but after a quick snackie, we pulled through.

Me, Ramona, and Ishaq smiling before the last climb

46.8 miles later and 4456 ft ascended, we made it to Dirk and Chrissy’s house in Lexington, VA at 3:30 pm— early for a change. Roxy the dog was awaiting us!

Greta petting Roxy

Ramona chasing Roxy

Roxy with a ball

Joseph passed out next to Roxy

Greta hugging Roxy

Greta and Ishaq ran out to get groceries, while the rest of us took much needed showers. Once everyone was stink-free, we had dinner! A very very very yummy dinner, with stuffed mushrooms and caprese salads and protein pasta. During dinner we discovered Ramona’s love of orienteering – Europe’s favorite pastime. We also realized what a small world it is. Last week, Dirk and Chrissy hosted a Harvard pole vaulter that Sarah sort of knows. And they have a daughter at Stanford in the same department and year as my sister, who she doesn’t know at all! Pretty small world if you ask me.

Since we got to our Warmshowers so early, we could actually do fun things! We used the large foot massager in the living room. Most people hated it but Tian was ready to sneak it into the van. People made banana bread. I got sat on by Roxy. We pet the bipolar cat, Eli. Finally, we played Stab Your Friends, a card game (by Dirk and Chrissy’s nephew!) that turned all of us against each other. Charles, I’m coming for you.

Sarah making banana bread

Roxy sitting on me

June 10, 2025
Day 5: Can we take five?

Rest day in Afton, VA

The first four days of this trip have been nothing but hectic. Day 1 had me running a bottle rocket workshop seven times followed by a terrifying time being the driver in DC (how is it worse than Manhattan??). Day 2 had me cycling on gravel roads through a severe thunderstorm all the while Charles was lost to the world. Day 3’s ascent into Shenandoah National Park felt like an insurmountable obstacle with my tired body (I was one of the cheaters :p). Day 4 (my driving day) involved some scary driving through windy roads in the midst of one of the worst downpours I’ve seen in my life. But finally, we made it to a rest day…
Pam’s off-the-grid house was an absolutely magical place to spend our first rest day. Greta said enough about the awesome person that is Pam Mendosa, but her place was just so awesome that I couldn’t write this blog without mentioning it.

Pam’s magical off-the-grid home

One of Pam’s cats, Garlic, roaming around outside

A neighboring cabin where three of us slept for two nights

So, what exactly does a “rest day” entail? Normally on this trip, we crash at someone’s place or a campsite, eat, sleep, then pack our things up the following morning for another day of biking. On a rest day, we instead stay put in one place, both to take a break and also to get pending tasks done. For today there were many items on the agenda.

For one, all of our camping equipment was soaked from the overnight downpour at Big Meadows and needed to be dried. The team did a great job using Pam’s entire property as a place to dry our stuff.

Our tents and sleeping pads being dried outside the cabin

Ramona and I spent some time in the morning perfecting our bike cleaning technique and left everyone’s bikes looking squeaky clean.

Ramona hosing down a dirty bike

There were three more tasks that required venturing from Pam’s isolated intentional community to Charlottesville, the location of the University of Virginia and also where Ishaq grew up! Four of us (Me, Ramona, Sarah, and Charles) drove to this lovely town and I dropped Sarah and Charles off at a laundromat (Pam didn’t have a dryer).

Me photobombing the laundromat shot

Ramona being thirsty

Sarah bringing our laundry back

Ramona and I went to a bike shop called Blue Wheel Bicycles to fix my broken spokes (just like me fr). After we dropped off my bike, we went to Whole Foods to return some unused fenders (the team decided they were actually fine getting wet from their tires). I called Sarah and seeing that laundry was going to take a while, went to Great Outdoor Provision co. to get myself some packing cubes (my disorganized duffel bag was driving me crazy). We may have also had some fun looking at all of the gear.

Waiting at a light in Charlottesville

Having some fun at the gear shop

My repaired spokes after over a month of a weird noise yayyy

Once laundry work finished up we all decided to hit up Shenandoah Joe Coffee Roasters for a work sesh on our laptops (Pam’s house unfortunately had no wifi or cell service). Ishaq spent the night at his own house and joined up with us at the cafe. After a few hours of semi-productive time and a very good fruit smoothie, we headed on back to Pam’s place and enjoyed another relaxing evening arguing over our route for the following day…

Side tangent, the route for the following day was looking to be short, but very difficult, with an over 3000ft climb and some of the steepest grades that we would see for the entire trip. We argued over a couple of potential routes for hours… I’ve been the main route planner for this trip and spending my valuable evening hours making these routes every day is going to drive me crazyyy

June 9, 2025
Day 4: thunderstruck⚡️
Big Meadows Campground, VA to Afton, VA – 42.74 mi, 3,045 ft

“There’s no way I’m biking down Skyline Drive this morning,” I told Ruth as the pitter patter of rain woke us up from our short, wet night of sleep. Yesterday, we completed the long ascent up Skyline Drive and I had spent hours of it imagining us all flying down the mountain at the end. Unfortunately, the combination of blind curves, thick fog, and heavy rain was a perfect recipe for broken bikes and broken Spokies–not a desired outcome on day 4 (or day anything) of our trip.

Luckily for us, as we were stuffing our soaking wet camping gear back in its bags, my dad and his friend Greg were driving up to meet us at Big Meadows. Now, with two cars and two bike racks at our disposal, we decided the best plan was to shuttle both ourselves and our bikes down the mountain into the nearest town. Even though I knew I wouldn’t have felt safe on the mountain in these conditions, I still spent the whole drive down mourning the loss of such a beautiful descent. I was not consoled when I was informed we didn’t have enough space to bring down all the bikes in two trips–so my dad was going to make the trip down by bike after all. without me…

mystical fog at big meadows

hiding out from the rain:)

Once we were all assembled at the bottom of the mountain, we ate some brunch, pumped up our tires, and got on the road. Although Greg and my dad were purportedly here to ride “with Spokes”, I guess the beautiful Virginia hills got to them because they took off as soon as we started. I let them get away the first couple miles, until I decided I couldn’t let two middle-aged dudes get the better of Greta Lawler so I showed them what I was made of (aka drafted off my Dad for the rest of the ride) 👍 Besides their super speedy bike skills, I was super happy to have Greg and my Dad with us for a day! Greg taught us to think about our energy reserves as a matchbox; each one of us has only a limited number of matches to burn each day. Its important to know how many you have and to decide carefully how to use them. I really liked that one! My dad updated his advice to future Spokes from “be safe and have fun” to “be prepared for rain.”

(Did I mention we got hit by another bout of torrential rain around 4pm? Classic Virginia.) Other highlights include “the world’s best pizza” (according to Ishaq), the acquisition of a new (overpriced) sticker, and lots of cows!!

dad aka captain lawler

yep

joseph and the BEST PIZZA EVER (elf style…)

Despite our crazy, water-logged day, we arrived at our host’s house by about 5, which is much earlier than we’ve arrived at our destination the previous two days of Spokes. I’m so glad we did because our host, Pam, is just incredible! First of all, she hosted her son’s entire wedding the day before we arrived and still offered to host us for two nights. Second of all… well, there’s really too much to tell, so I’ll do my best with a (completely inexhaustive) list.

List of reasons Pam Mendosa is one of the coolest people I’ve ever met:
- lives entirely off the grid
- built her own house from the ground up
- is an expert wildlife rehabilitator, working both with cats and racoons in her backyard and gibbons and chimpanzees in Africa
- volunteered as a a street medic at the charlottesville riots in 2017
- worked as a racecar pitcrew and chatted with tom cruise and paul newman without even knowing who they were
- pours her heart and time into pursuing her passions
- created the release protocol for rehabilitated bush babies
- makes a delicious mac n’ cheese
- is one of the kindest, most generous people I’ve ever met
Pam lives in an “intentional community” called Shannon Farm, which is a neighborhood tucked back in the forest in which everyone has shared ownership of the land, participates in community events, contributes to upkeep of the farm, and is invested in knowing and supporting their neighbors. Everyone I met seems to really love it in Shannon. It reminds me a lot of French House, where I currently live in MIT, and I honestly think I would love living in an intentional community one day. Even just 4 days in, Spokes has given me so much to think about and I’ve met so many cool, generous, inspirational people. Somehow, the world feels both bigger and smaller than ever. (Not to mention I’m getting to hang out everyday with 7 of my newest favorite people ever. 🫶 ) So so so excited for the rest of our adventure!

Peace out,

Greta
June 8, 2025
Day 3: BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS, SHENENDOAH RIVERRRR

Linden, VA to Big Meadows Campground, VA – 55.75 mi, 6,555ft

Howdy y’all, Ishaq here. Today we had quite the late start but we’re treated to a quality pre-ride meal by our wonderful hosts, Jen, Tim, and their adorable baby Wayne (his cuteness fed our spirits with the motivation to conquer the day’s challenge). It was raining in the morning so we gladly accepted a short ride down the steep gravel road to start our journey on the highway to Shenandoah National Park.

Everything started out alright with a tiny hill around 10 miles in and we all got some wicked speed on the way down. However, it was quite hot today so I drank all my water by the time I got to our first rest stop and gladly purchased an Irish cream coffee and a lemonade from a lovely cafe. I also got what was probably the worst baguette I’ve ever had but a biker gotta eat 🤷🏾‍♂️. Ruth was driving today, and while she was waiting for us she explored a cute little inn. Everything inside looked old and expensive–so certainly outside of our spokes budget.

All in all it was a successful and restful break! Ramona took an awesome candid group photo and we continued our bike.

All was good until i saw this come up on my bike computer:

Arguably worse than our climb yesterday, we had a 10 mile, 3000 foot, grade 5 climb into Shenandoah ahead of us. And being completely real I was not physically or mentally prepared for that challenge. Everyone went ahead of me and two of us, who had been having some cardiovascular issues the previous day, made the smart decision to ride up in the car part of the way. I, however, stopped at another cafe, got another lemonade and sat on a porch of an abandoned building contemplating this climb. Contemplation quickly became doom scrolling, along with my daily LinkedIn games (gotta do my Queens). I realized it had been a bit and I probably should get going so I put on a podcast reviewing Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and got to riding. The first half of the climb took an hour. Physically, I was broken, mentally even more so. I did not help that the podcast was bad and they kept hating on the Star Wars prequels (which I am quite a fan of). I met up with Tian and Ruth for some lunch as everyone else had went ahead.

On this break at the half way point I went non verbal. Drank two full bottles of water, scarfed down the rest of my disgusting baguette, and laid down on a park bench. As I laid there staring at the tree above me and sky above that tree, I thought to myself, “dang I could really just hop in the car right now and get a ride to the top.” But then I thought of former Navy SEAL, endurance athlete, and motivational speaker, David Goggins. What would he say to me right now? WHOS GONNA CARRY THE BOATS!

I locked in, got up, biked out into another 5 miles of pure uphill. My willpower renewed, and reinforced now by the power of Jazz, Bollywood music, and the Sinners soundtrack. I pushed up that mountain and may have truly experienced endorphins for the first time. I took some stops at the view point and found joy in the climb. Just me, my bike and I, determined to make it to the top.

Hitting the peak was absolutely euphoric. I gladly zoomed at 30mph down the the other side until finally seeing other Spoksters at a lookout.

After that, I cant say the rest of the ride was chill, but it was certainly more manageable. We made it to Big Meadows campground as the sun was setting and I hurriedly got a bag of kettle corn and a sprite from the general store minutes before closing. I was now at peace… PSYCH! Where was Ruth? Where was Tian? Nobody knew, everybody worried. But it ultimately all panned out as Ruth found Tian and drove her on over. We unloaded the car and set up camp in the dark. We started cooking, but I conked out immediately, leaving the rest to the other Spokies.

June 7, 2025
day 2: taking off the training wheels (and lessons learned along the way) 🚴🏼‍♀️
Washington, D.C. to Linden, VA – 82.06 mi, 5,361 ft

hello!!! this is sarah with our 1st biking day blog!!! 🚲

after spending our first night all together at our lovely airbnb in falls church, virginia, we got up at a timely 5am (or around there, it’s been a few days, behind on blogs…i think i even got up at 4:50), i excitedly put on my full spokes “uniform” for the first time, packed up my personal belongings and threw them in the van (dubbed “amy” because that was the second part of the license plate :)), and hopped on my bike to go to breakfast at greta’s house with ruth (we were ready on decent time…can’t say the same about everyone else…)

this breakfast was EXACTLY what i needed to start our 1st biking day. that french toast casserole was seriously one of the best things i’ve ever had. the rest of the team eventually caught up and finished eating, we did final preparations out front and our team chant (which is a work in progress), and set OFF (feat. captain lawler, aka greta’s dad!)
our lovely 2024 chrysler pacifica amy <33
view from the airbnb 🏡
sunrise!
BREAKFAST 🔥🔥
the 1st ~30 miles were absolutely WONDERFUL. the team was cruising down the flats, enjoying the virginia scenery. as a las vegas native, i never get sick of greenery. there were also sightings of cute deer, cool birds, and…a singular snake. yikes.

eventually we made it to our first rest stop at my 2nd cousin claire’s house! my mom reached out a few days before we set off to see if any of her side of the family on the east coast was along our route, and claire and her husband miles ended up being literally right off of the trial we were taking. nice! i haven’t seen them since…maybe ever, but definitely since i was too little to remember anything. my great aunt bubby also decided to stop by, and we all enjoyed the company of my family, their LARGE and FLUFFY and so friendly and cute cats moose and noodle, and the bagels and fruit they set out for us. the water and electrolyte refills were also MUCH appreciated. if the fam is reading this, thank you so much!!!!! will be back soon to visit again 😇
some views!
virginia is gorg ☀️
SNAKE
various spokies with moose, first up charles
joseph
me!
noodle 🍜
some of my fam 💗
bomb bagels…
…and fruit! 🍉
everybody together now
after some more flats, the team pulled off for a lunch break at bluemont community center. the ominous clouds that were once in the distance were now on us and slightly pouring. after waiting out the worst of it for about half an hour, we got back on the road to conquer some hills that i swear came STRAIGHT from hell. after a few walks alone in the woods contemplating why i joined spokes, around 3 close calls with death via asthma attack, i made it to the the final rest stop at some random pull-off about 10 miles from our first host.

after almost falling asleep in the passenger seat of the van, i realized that finishing this ride was probably not in the picture: while very frustrating and slightly embarrassing, i had to remember that spokes was a marathon—not a sprint—and that my body probably just wasn’t super well adjusted on the very 1st day, as well as not able to handle super steep climbs super well in any case due to my health condition. i had to give myself some grace and recognize that i still biked around 63 MILES in ONE day, which is a HUGE accomplishment! something i have been working on the past few years is not comparing myself to others in an unhealthy way, keeping in mind my own capabilities and unique strengths and weaknesses, and being proud of what i do accomplish rather than always just looking for the next achievement. i think i took another step on that specific journey today, and this was only day 1!
leaving the cousin’s place 🌳
wowww
hey ruth!
lunch break ft. my fav lucky socks
rain
eugh 🌧️
chicken? turkey? idk
getting driven up and getting to the host early with tian actually ended up being a HUGE blessing in disguise because right after we got there, a HUGE thunderstorm started nearby, and half the team was still. biking. greta had made it up (even after a missed turn), with ruth and ishaq following close behind, but joseph, charles, and ramona were still out. joseph ended up making it up (albeit getting soaked in the process), but those of us who had made it had to quickly empty the car to make extra room for the rescues of ramona and the lost and hurt charles (who had crashed 😦 thankfully he was ok!) if i hadn’t come up earlier, a TON of extra unpacking would have had to been done in order to get 1 more seat for the very likely rescue of yours truly (since i was behind everyone else).

thankfully, we all made it to our first host (although some of us soaking wet) in one piece! we were staying with an mit alum and her husband: she was a course 7 (biology), similar to me! we had tacos for dinner with their baby wayne and dog…it was some computer science reference that i can not remember to save my life :,) maybe one of my fellow spokies can help me in the comments…

we split up between the couch, sleeping bags on the floor, and a mattress split between me, greta, and ruth. i almost got kicked off and fell on top of joseph like, 2-3 times? but sleep was MUCH appreciated. a very eventful day 1! see you next time from…(now checking the route spreadsheet for when i am blogging next)… tazewell, va for our 2nd learning festival!

future sarah here since i am so behind on blogging (apologies to my fellow spokes) (i guess its been future me the whole time but shhh), but it took me getting through midnight marathon, day 1 of real spokes, and all my training rides in between to learn that our bikes (and prob most bikes in general) have 2 SETS OF GEARS. and i had been on the harder one THE ENTIRE. TIME. while i obviously still struggle on hills a little (cause duh), i since have had a LOT easier time. sometimes i wonder how i got into MIT. on that wonderful note, see you next time!
tacos! 🌮
charles snoozing
June 6, 2025
OFFICIALLY DAY 1 (crazy ik, we’re in natural numbers now)

Wow, the past days have been crazy! I was so busy making it through them that this blog has been delayed… for 4 days. Sorry about that! But let’s get into it!

I am honoured to declare that as of this day, the Spokes 2025 trip has OFFICIALLY STARTED!

Ishaq and our car in the morning!

Yesterday all eight of us Spokies convened in Washington DC. And after a long night of preparation and not enough sleep, we woke up at around 5:30am convincing ourselves to conquer our first day. On the agenda was a learning festival in the Department of Corrections Correctional Treatment Facility (I’ll just say DOC) and Youth Services Center (YSC). For the morning part, we split up – me (Ramona) and Greta went to DOC to later join the rest of the group at YSC. At DOC we met up with Judge Faruqui, Ms Reason, Fiona and Brie and headed in.

My learning festival supplies!

We were greeted by Judge Faruqui and Fiona and Brie, before meeting Ms. Reason, who came to let us in the facility. To enter you go through something similar to airport security, except no electronics for us and some additional metal doors. Luckily all of our learning festival supplies made it through! Greta was teaching a workshop on phases on matter and I did one on cryptography. (We should each write about our lessons in detail in these blogs at some point! Would you like to hear more about that?)

After securing our way in, Ms. Reason took us through a series of locked doors. At that point, I started to realize that I was in a real jail and question what was I even doing here. I mean I knew what I was doing, but the lack of sleep and actually being in there felt surreal. It was clearly a high security place, with one goal – to keep people from leaving.

But turns out there is more to it. We got to visit a unit that stands out. The YME unit, YME standing for Young Men Emerging, is all about learning, improving and working on yourself while incarcerated. We got to hear about their routine, packed from waking up to going to sleep and how the program has impacted them. I can say they were determined, insightful, brave and humble. A tight knit community with the common goal of improving themselves. I was incredibly grateful to be able to hear from the young men in the YME unit.

Afterwards we set out to do our learning festivals. I set up a table for my intro to cryptography through the Ceasar cypher activity. It was super cool to see the students engage with what I had prepared. There weren’t many students, so we could do a lot of questions and answers, and, in addition to encrypting and decrypting practice, we also did sending encrypted messages to each other!

Afterwards we headed to YSC, went through security, took a lunch break (with pizza!) and ran all five of our activities on rotation for 3 more class periods. It was a rollercoaster, some students were super engaged, others were tired and the teaching was not without its difficulties, but we made it through!

This would probably be the place to give a huge thank you to Judge Faruqui and everyone at DOC Correctional Facility and Youth Services Center that helped make this happen!

Around 3:30pm we were ready to head out. Next up on the agenda were a bunch of errands. But, first, we took a snack/drink break at Union Market. Nicely AC-ed area of cafes, food and a water fountain.

Us at Union Market

Then 7 of us in our 7-seater took in some DC vibes and sights as Joseph skillfully weaved through narrow lanes of terrible DC traffic. We went to the car rental company to get some formalities done and to avoid crazy expensive parking, pulled up in an alleyway. I got left to guard the car. Now, you would think nothing much happens in an alleyway in 45 minutes or so, but 3 people came to park or unpark their cars and 2 people wanted to pass through. So I, who had never driven an automatic car, was left to maneuver around our Crysler Pacifica, equipped with a bike rack for added difficulty. I survived. The car survived. The alley also survived. I felt ready to take on the world.

Me in a car in the alley

Then, a brief venture to get propane and gas later, we finally got back and it was already late. Tian cooked a lovely dinner of pasta for dinner in our Airbnb (thanks Lawlers!) that just hit the spot. And I spent a long evening of trying to make my brain work, packing and setting up our bikes. At this point I was starting to wonder when the next day of reasonable number of hours slept will be. But we made it through! So, excited, tired and a little scared, we went to sleep to set out on our bikes the next day..

Dinner ❤

Editor’s note: I cannot believe I actually finally wrote this! Hope you enjoy 😀

June 5, 2025