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Spokes 2025
Glenwood Springs, CO -> Vega State Park, CO — 56.6 miles, 4887 ft
Sometimes on Spokes we are faced with tough decisions. Which lesson should sit out at the upcoming learning festival? When should the driver leave rest stops on days when everyone gets spread apart? Do we end Spokes today and just stay with our hosts forever until the end of time? Unfortunately on the last count, while the answer is clear, the decision to leave our hosts is always a tough one. It was hard getting out the door in the morning and saying bye to Barb, Lindsey, Birdie (their dog), and their fantastic cooking, but we all eventually lumbered towards our bikes and headed towards our first rest stop of the day, a free hot springs a few miles out from town.
The hot springs were surprisingly hot (I know, not sure what I was expecting). The Rs (Ruth and Ramona) got there first and changed into swimwear and bathed for a bit. The rest of us (minus Tian, who skipped the stop) pulled up a short while after and waded.
Once again, we peeled ourselves away from a place we could stay forever and biked together to the next stop. For some reason, we often ride together when Sarah is the driver for the day. It’s not on purpose, I think…? Or perhaps Sarah has some deep, sinister vibes that subconsciously poison the will to form a seven-rider peloton when someone else is driving ๐ฌ
I was feeling a bit slower today on the bike and my chain was making weird noises, so I troubleshooted at the second rest stop. I also found out the sushi wrap that Ruth had made me last night went missing! Not a great rest stop. And right before we set out again, Ruth broke the news that Ozzy Osborne had died. After explaining to some of the team who he was (and also why it was incredible that he made it to 76 in the first place), I put in my AirPods and played my favorite Black Sabbath songs. RIP Ozzy
In between rest stops 2 and 3 lay a long gravel climb. Despite the surface and the elevation, the climb was a reminder of how far we’ve all come as bikers since the start of the trip. When all of us are getting faster and more skilled on the bike, it’s hard to tell how much I’ve improved sometimes; however, I know a climb like this would have obliterated me on the first week of the trip. Now, it’s quite manageable. We reached the top and waited for one another. I took a scenic piss.
After leaving the last rest stop for the day, I biked with Greta and Ishaq to the campground. I finished my Ozzy tribute ride and took my earbuds out, Greta marveled about the Earth being round (?), and we tackled the final climb with some help from Fiona Apple over Greta’s speaker. The views coming into Vega State Park were gorgeous and our campsite was right next to the lake.
Ramona went for a shower/swim. The others went for actual showers. I helped Sarah chef up her signature Spokes meal — grilled cheese. After taking some very involved, personalized orders, we decided that the meal sounds a lot better advertised as custom melts instead of just grilled cheese. When it was my turn, I put literally every possible topping available on my two melts, made my bowl of tomato soup, and rocketed off to heaven. After dinner, Ruth, Joseph, and I drove to the campground facilities (rather far away since we were at the other end of the lake) and I showered while they did the dishes. I came out to see the sunset bathing the sky in warm red, yellow, purple, and pink hues. I helped out with the last few dishes, joining what was easily the most scenic dish washing experience I’ve ever had. Ruth and I also tried the tiny playground slide and I stung her with a nasty shock at the bottom. It was bad. Joseph heard and saw the spark from 20 feet away. We both screamed.
When we got back, some of us sat around the camp fire, relaxed, and stared at the mesmerizing flames. Ishaq broke the tranquil trance from inside one of the tents by cracking a Sprite. After chatting for a bit, we dispersed for bed. Ruth and I played a couple hands of Gin Rummy with a cheeky hanging iPhone flashlight rig. Another Spokes day in the books — I feel maybe our coziest yet!
Since today’s blog wasn’t all too eventful, I also worked with the other Spokies on a more recent rest day to bring you our long-awaited, hotly-anticipated, Grammy-nominated “What Spokie Are You?” quiz. Link in text form: https://opinionstage.com/page/a42634c6-b51c-4f3c-8261-221331801c6f.
**EDIT: migrated the quiz to a new site! the old quiz was buggy, but has all the bios at the end if you’re curious.
Drop in the comments which Spokie you are most similar to!!
P.S. Sorry about the late blog! I officially entered (and am now exiting) the three-blogs-behind club ๐. Because I am vain and need the blog views (and I worked hard on the quiz :)), I am leaving this blog up at the top of the blog page and I will backdate it when someone else publishes a more recent blog.
Rest day in Colorado Springs, CO
What’s up everyone, Charles here, back at it again with another b-logggg!
I woke up for the second time today at 8:30am and checked my phone. I had a new Whatsapp notification. The message informed me that Cathie, Greta’s grandma and our host, tripped over a duffel in the morning and hurt her shoulder and went to the hospital. This helped explain my first wake up of the day, which was prompted by a loud THUD from the floor above.
The Spokie responsible for this poorly placed duffel is named and shamed over breakfast. They feel really terrible about it, so we agree to omit the identity of this murderous culprit from the blog. Okay, it was Sarah’s duffel. But in all seriousness, hope you are resting up and healing well, Cathie.
Ishaq and Ramona serve up breakfast in the kitchen. Ishaq’s strawberry banana smoothie hits the spot, Ramona’s bacon is on point, and the pancakes are wonderful. We self serve bagels, yogurt and granola, and milk and cereal. I stream the day’s Tour de France stage (which we all loosely follow now, in part due to Ishaq’s incessant glazing of Tadej Pogaฤar) to the TV and we try to piece together what’s going on.
We get good news from the hospital — nothing is broken for Cathie and she is coming back after an ibuprofen shot. In the meantime, Ramona and I strategize about my screw-in-tire situation. She calls a few bike shops and finds one that has our tire size in stock. I’m slated to get a slightly different tire than the other fifteen we have (first (and hopefully last) tire replacement of Spokes 2025!). It’s pretty comparable to the tires we have, maybe slightly better, with one crucial difference that sends Ishaq into fits. I’m getting a Specialized tire. This means nothing to us performance-wise, but the Specialized brand literally slaps a SPECIALIZED logo on your gear. As we all know by now, style points are strongly correlated with speed, so my dripped out rear tire replacement is going to be responsible for at least a 1 mph boost. I defend myself against plots to steal my new tire in the middle of the night. Ishaq contemplates purposefully running over a screw to get a new tire as well.
Although re-mounting the tire will be pretty cheap ($25 service), Ramona and I (mostly Ramona) decide we want to give it a go ourselves. The year is 2025 and everything we need to know for the repair is in a 10 minute YouTube video anyways. Ramona watches the video, nods along, and mumbles “it’s not that hard” at regular intervals.
When Cathie comes back, we make plans to sightsee the Garden of the Gods, a free local park with great mountain scenery and spectacular rock formations. Half of us go in David’s (Greta’s grandpa) car and the rest ride with Cathie.
The park is packed. On the ride over, we admire the scenery and comment on the various bikers we see on the trails. Coming into Colorado, I knew the state’s reputation for being very outdoors-y, but even still, I was surprised at how many people were out biking, running, and hiking. We found parking at the lot beneath the Balanced Rock and took some fun pictures:
We then drove to the main lot at Garden of the Gods and walked on the trails that lead you to some of the other rock formations. We also climbed on the rocks, posed for some more pictures, and discussed our roles in a hypothetical Spokes horror movie. Also, an intense piggyback ride showdown took place.
After returning to Greta’s grandparents’ home, we made tacos from last night’s leftovers for lunch and split up for afternoon activities. Ishaq, Ruth, and Tian finished watching Squid Games season 3. Greta went out for a run. Joseph and Sarah napped. Ramona and I went to the bike shop. We got my new tire, asked a lot of questions, and picked up chamois butter, more tire sealant, and new bike lube.
We also wanted to buy a pair of pliers, which Spokes has been sorely missing, so we stopped at Home Depot on the way back. The pliers at Home Depot are way more heavy-duty than we need ($15), so after some nifty Googling (I google “pliers”), we find that Ace Hardware sells pliers for far cheaper ($3.50) and go there instead. With our spirits buoyed by our cost-saving successes, Ramona and I head back, ready to fix my tire.
The repair goes smoothly. The part we were worried about — seating the new tire onto the wheel rim — works on the third try as we hone in on the pressure to pump our tire canister to (150 psi!). Ramona busts out her trusty method for spreading new sealant in my tire.
Dinner is at PF Chang’s courtesy of David and Cathie. After the meal, we ate fortune cookies. Joseph and Ramona pulled two *very* topical fortunes.
Since Ruth has an appointment to get her hair done tomorrow, we help unbraid her hair. I work on one singular braid for what feels like forever, then promptly quit. The others are more successful.
We eat Cathie’s delicious apple crisp with vanilla ice cream afterwards. I solve a crossword in the papers with help from Ruth and Greta. Periodic shrieks emanating from the basement pierce my blissful crossword+dessert combo. I find out later that this is owing to the other Spokies playing, as Joseph said could only be described as, “Jenga, but the bricks were our bodies.”
We all go to sleep, some sweatier than others. Apologies for the late blog, and until next time!
Emporia, KS -> Newton, KS โ 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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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
Rest day in St. Louis, MO
What’s up everyone, it’s Charles, here to recap our rest day in STL! After our first century ride yesterday, we all seized the opportunity to sleep in this morning. Everyone fixed themselves a breakfast as we mapped out our plans for the day, eager to explore our first major city since DC.
Nora, our host, had recommended we check out the farmers market in Tower Grove Park the night before, so we all set out for that around 10:30. Even though we’re a biking team, I’ve found a strange reluctance to tour the places we visit on my own bike. Part of me is trying not to spend any more time than I have to on the bike. But the other part of me likes to separate the biking aspect of Spokes from my rest day adventures because of the other hassles — pedaling on clip-ins without biking shoes on, having to find a spot to lock my bike, wearing a helmet. We all opted to walk the 1.5 miles to the farmers market, so I think the other Spokies were also happy to spend some time walking for once.
The farmers market was lively. A jazz band was playing music. There were a lot of booths selling all sorts of things. Sweets, BBQ, pet food, plants, art, woodworked pieces, earrings, and on and on. I bought baklava at a Mediterranean treats booth and the seller threw in an extra Oreo finger for me. Ishaq “got clocked as Nigerian by a Ghanian couple” and bought their algae lemonade. (Review: “it was ass”). Ruth, Ramona, and Joseph cooled down in the fountain water and probably doubled the average age of the population frolicking there.
After walking back and sweating profusely in the deadly Missouri heat/humidity combo, the Spokies ate a few bites and split up for afternoon adventures. Tian crashed out and started swinging a pillow around violently. Greta went out for a run (yes, she is not right in the head). Joseph, Sarah, and Ramona went to a coffee shop to get some work done, then biked to the park and did some more work. Ruth biked to the art museum and got tacos. Ishaq, Tian, and I went to the zoo.
We didn’t really feel like biking to the zoo, so we were going to walk, until we realized we literally have a minivan. Instantly buoyed by this revelation, we made it to the zoo in high spirits with cool body temperatures. Since I was the most excited about the zoo, I guided us. We only got lost a few times. (I’m directionally challenged). The zoo was great quality bonding; we yapped so much at times we hardly even realized we were trying to see all the sights in the zoo. We had a great couple of hours; and best of all, the zoo was free! Shoutout St. Louis.
Greta made her famous Thai quinoa salad and lime ginger chicken+tofu for dinner and we chatted with Nora and her husband Alex. Two of the buffest dudes I’ve ever seen — friends of our hosts — came over and said hi. Ramona, Sarah, Joseph, and I worked on the bikes for a bit and then we all wound down for the night. If only we could stay another night, but alas…
Liberty, KY to Mammoth Cave National Park, KY โ 88.6 mi, 5,465 ft
Today was our longest ride to date — 88 miles — and I woke up in the morning not looking forward to it. It was going to be my third straight day cycling and my left knee had been bugging me more and more over the course of the last two days. Moreover, after a discussion the previous night about trying to actually leave earlier in the morning, the team firmly resolved to get on the road by 9am. I haven’t seen the doctor about it yet, but I might be allergic to waking up so early.
So, after a speedy pack up process in the morning, we got an early (by our standards) start to the day and I got to biking. The rolling hills of Kentucky went by rather uneventfully until I came up on a small stream that I tried to cross on my bike. After I fell in, what did I look up to see but Joseph recording my stream crossing attempt and laughing to himself. This guy really waited 20 minutes at the stream just to capture everyone’s crossing attempts. (He did actually yell out for me to dismount my bike and cross normally, which I didn’t hear because I had my earbuds in ๐).
Once everyone behind me crossed the stream (without trying to pedal through it and falling off), Joseph asked us where Greta was. We were sure she was ahead of Joseph, but he was adamant that she hadn’t passed him. After gaslighting Joseph for a few minutes, we realized that Greta maybe took a wrong turn after the rest of us lost sight of her and we called her. She had in fact gone down the wrong road while calling her mom and biked an extra four miles. So we all owe Joseph an apology for making him question his own sanity.
After the rest stop, Greta and I biked side-by-side and started chatting. We rode together for the rest of the day. This actually was great for staving off the biking boredom that I had been dreading for the day and I’m definitely going to employ the “yap ride” technique on these longer mileage days. We talked about silly topics, like religion and making friends, and deep topics, like if we would get along with twin versions of ourselves and whether we’d marry into the British royal family.
Our second rest stop of the trip was possibly the best rest stop we’ve had yet. Ishaq and Ruth got Lee’s Fried Chicken and lemonade. They made the mistake of allotting chicken by number of pieces, so I claimed the two largest pieces in the entire bucket. A few of the others went to the coffee shop and met a bunch of interesting people. I joined a few others in the book shop and bought a book.
The food tided us over until a late lunch, when I ate my two sandwiches for the day. To keep things interesting, I’ve started making one normal sandwich and one abomination sandwich every biking day. Two days ago, Ruth made me a diabetes sandwich (peanut butter, golden Oreos, Hersheys, sour patch kids, marshmallows, and jam) and it was actually incredible and got me through the hills. Tuna, sour patch kids, and hummus was another surprising yet resounding success (others disagree; they are wrong). For today, I had asked everyone to name a random sandwich topping and assembled the resulting peanut butter, crushed red chili flakes, goldfish, apple slices, and parmesan sandwich. Unfortunately, this disaster looked to be my first sandwich DNF of the trip.
Greta and I yapped until we reached our final destination, Mammoth Cave NP Campground for the night. We finally got to pitch our tents with daylight left and made a fire! After compensating for our poor fire-starting skills with plenty of lighter fluid, we cooked corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, and burger combinations in the fire while everyone took turns telling scary stories. I finished my thought-to-be-DNF sandwich. It wasn’t so bad actually — I think all the crushed chili flakes got concentrated in one bite I had at the rest stop. The indomitable human spirit triumphs again.
Double blog! Ruth had such a fun day riding in the car with Ishaq today that she has decided she wants to hijack my blogging day and write her own events of the day. So, I’ve kept my musings short and I’m tapping Ruth in. In exchange, I’ll be popping in to Ruth’s blog tomorrow to rave about Buc-ee’s.
Ruth here! And now for the better blog…
Uh oh. Why canโt I breathe??
This was my first thought waking up in the church in Liberty, Kentucky, where we spent the night. Iโve been battling a cold for a couple days, but something changed today. It went from being uncomfortable to becoming semi-serious. I thought to myself, I probably shouldnโt bike. But I couldnโt decide, and I really didnโt want to miss a whole 85 miles, so I got ready for the day, staying in my pajamas for as long as possible. When I couldnโt prolong it any longer, I announced to the team that I didnโt think I could bike. Everyone was very supportive, probably because they care for my health more than I do, letโs be real. I took on some driver roles and helped Ishaq load the car and fill waters, then I sat in the van and mentally prepared for the next super serious role Iโd have to take for the rest of the day โ passenger princess.
Ishaq and I started off by getting gas, because someone forgot to fill it up the day before (cough Greta cough). We then went to Save a Lot to buy ingredients for our hobo campfire dinner at Mammoth Cave Campgrounds. Save A Lot didnโt have some essentials, like marshmallows, aluminum foil, and firewood, so we planned on stopping by a Walmart later on. We made it to the rest stop and watched Sonic 3 on Ishaqโs iPad until bikers showed up to refuel. Now, this boring pattern ought to have continued through the rest of the day, but Ishaq the goat discovered a Leeโs Famous Chicken shop nearby and bought a 16-piece bucket for us all. He also spiked one of the water tanks with lemonade powder and ice. We parked on a main street in Campbellsville, a hidden gem in the middle of Kentucky, and waited for bikers to show while munching on our own chickens, sipping lemonade, and proceeding with Sonic 3. Once the bikers arrived, we all munched together, except Tian whoโs vegan.
I also discovered an adorable bookstore across the street and bought my summer book #2 for $3.50. Sarah, Charles, and Greta are all copycats and followed me in.
We declared this the best rest stop of the trip (crazy that I’m agreeing with Charles, I know).
Once the bikers had semi-digested, they headed off, leaving me and Ishaq behind yet again. We went to a bike shop to fix one of our broken pumps, and instead ended up trading our pump with the ownerโs personal pump from the 90s for free. Then we went to Walmart and had too much fun perusing the aisles. Ishaq got his Sprite, and I got the rest of the important stuff (jk jk). We still couldnโt find firewood but figured Mammoth Cave Campground would have some. As a result of our jovial time at Walmart, we were very late to the next rest stop. But it was at our favorite place, Dollar General, so bikers had already gone inside and bought their snackies and peed and whatnot. Ishaq declared the breaks were getting too long and shooed them away.
We drove to the next place and proceeded to watch more Sonic 3. The bikers rudely interrupted us demanding lunch, which we begrudgingly handed to them. Ishaqโs friends called so I got kicked out of the car, and I sat with the bikers and listened to tales from their harrowing journey.
Once everyone left, we went to the final rest stop, a Dutch-themed place with ice cream and other desserts. I got a pumpkin loaf that reminded me of a bakery from my hometown (shoutout to Fornax), Charles got his signature float, Ramona probably also got the same thing since sheโs been on a soda bender recently, Sarah was disappointed by her pumpkin cream cheese chunks, Joseph is boring and just got vanilla ice cream, Greta got toothpaste mint chocolate chip ice cream, Tian ate her vegan chili, and I donโt remember what Ishaq got. Sarah got mistaken for one of the Amish workers, I stole 16 plastic utensils, and Greta made new stranger friends, per usual.
Once everyone finished, Ishaq and I kept driving until we reached Mammoth Cave. We bought some firewood and set up tents until the bikers finished their travels for the day. Joseph and Charles struggled to start the fire, but once it was ready we threw in some foil-wrapped corn, sweet potato, and hobo onion + carrot + patties (tofu for Tian because sheโs vegan). While eating and making sโmores, we told impressively crafted ghost stories, except for the fact that several people didnโt think of endings and just stopped telling the story right at the denouement. What happened to the butler, Ishaq?!?
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.
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:
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 ๐. 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:
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 ๐ค
Hi everyone!! Charles here. It’s been a hectic few days but Spokes is finally under way. Ramona is writing the blog post for today (Day 1), so I’ll fill in the details for how we all reconvened in DC.
Most of the team arrived in DC yesterday with the exception of Greta and Ishaq, who live in the area. Ruth and I drove the minivan rental down from Boston.
Ruth and I picked up our car for the summer at noon. It’s a 2024 white Chrysler Pacifica we’ve named Amy. After picking up various Spokes orders and materials from stores, dorms, and storage rooms; assembling the roof storage and bike rack (went surprisingly smoothly, MechE grads ๐๐); and putting everything into boxes we finished loading the car. Ruth took the minivan home for the night (she lives in Boston).
Ruth came to pick me up at the dorm at a bright and early 6 AM. After some dilly-dallying (aka I still needed to pack a few things), we headed down to Philly, hoping to catch a Spokes 2017 alum for a lunch. Our lunch plans appeared doomed given the drive time, until we realized we had avoid tolls checked on Google Maps ๐ . We were both rather sleep-deprived from a long night of packing, lesson planning, and 3D printer debugging, but I won the game of no-sleep chicken and Ruth took the first driving shift. At our gas stop, I offered to drive for a bit, but Ruth insisted she was doing fine1.
We had lunch with Caity, who treated us to Philly cheesesteaks. I can now personally vouch for a correlation between Philly cheesesteak tastiness and proximity to Philly. Caity gave us great advice and encouragement and told us some fun stories, shoutout Caity!!
One ice cream treat later, I drove us the remainder of the way to DC. Spirits were high as we pulled into the AirBnB driveway singing along to songs off Doo-Wops & Hooligans.
Everyone else flew in during the afternoon and we ran some errands before a kickoff team dinner at the Lawler’s. Watermelon, chicken and vegan enchiladas, salad, chips and guac, and popsicles to top it all off — we ate like kings and queens.
After dinner, we recapped responses from a Spokes superlatives form Greta had sent out. Highlights included some people possibly taking the “most likely to get into an encounter with the police” question *too literally*, a mandatory multi-select “most likely to get together” question, and Joseph taking down the only clean sweep of the night for “biggest yapper.”
We had to get up early today for our Learning Festival, so everyone split off for a few more errands and then we wound down for the night. I dreamt of friends, bikes, and friends on bikes.
1 She later admitted to dozing off multiple times at the wheel only to be awoken by lane assist playing guardian angel ๐ฌ.
MIT Spokes 2025 