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Zion, UT – 0mi, 0ft
It’s 9:35pm. Charles and I are sitting in TABS laundromat in Hurricane, UT, listening to the hissing, humming, and squeaking of Speed Queen Commercial Washers. I recently returned from a 20 minute quest to acquire quarters spanning Pizza Hut, Ernie’s General Store, Taco Bell, Little Caesar’s, and Alfredos. Said quarters were ultimately acquired by knocking on the drive-thru window at Alfredo’s (a Mexican restaurant, obviously). We are running five loads of laundry simultaneously. We will not leave this laundromat until 11:27pm.
Spokes has been full of experiences, like this one, that I can only describe as surreal. “What is going on? How did I get here? Why am I doing this?” Right now, as I write this blog, I am sitting on the porch of a general store in Nevada, in a town with a permanent population of 16. All I can hear are crickets and the occasional click-clack of Charles’ and Tian’s keyboards as they blog beside me. There are twinkling Christmas lights adorning a house across the street. It is August. It is 11:50 pm. I am once again waiting for the laundry.
Like I said, surreal. But sorry, I got ahead of myself. Let’s get back to the day at hand.
On Day 60, I woke up in a grain silo. I dilly-dallied my way through the morning, packed myself a pb+j, and joined the other Spokies in the minivan, squeezed between the sliding door and the folded, untethered middle seat. We drove to Hoodoo’s General Store, where Ishaq purchased $25 worth of snacks in exchange for free all-day parking. Ishaq generously shared his snacks with rest of the team. (We joked early on on in the trip that Spokes was like Groundhog Day and we each had some vice that we would need to overcome in order to escape. Ishaq’s was his poor sharing abilities. I’m happy to report he will be escaping Spokes when we reach SF.)
At Hoodoo’s, we met up with our new friend from Bryce, Cameron. He was wearing a bright orange shirt and appeared far more prepared for this hike than most of us, with our drawstring bags and tennis shoes. Together, we caught the shuttle into Zion National Park. We unloaded half a mile later and walked through a maze of empty line lanes, which made me feel like I was at Busch Gardens, or the airport. We re-boarded a different shuttle and continued our journey towards Angels Landing. I passed the shuttle ride watching Ishaq and Tian play Star Realms and the rest of the team play naptime whack-a-mole.
Finally, we arrived at our stop and found the trailhead. The trail began with a bridge crossing a very enticing looking stream. We resisted the urge to abandon our hiking plans and spend the entire day kicking our feet in the sun-dappled water. It was a hard choice. Propelled by the beautiful sights ahead of us, however, we began the climb up to Angels Landing. The first mile and a half of the hike consisted of very steep, narrow switchbacks. We took our time, stopping to rest at the few shaded areas we could find. We discussed how terrible biking either up OR down this trail would be. Ramona is the only one who stands any chance at all of surviving the bike down. The rest of us, Charles observed, would be biking the Devil’s Takeoff. No thank you. After many, many, MANY switchbacks, we made it to the ranger station at the entrance to the last mile of Angel’s Landing. Because this is such a popular hike, entrance to the trail is controlled by a lottery-ed permit system. We were lucky enough to get two permits, so the rangers gave us all the ok to complete the hike. After the ranger station, Angels Landing turns into an steep, adrenaline (and endorphin)-pumping scramble along the rocky ridge line of the canyon. I’d seen pictures of the hike totally swamped with people, so I was happily surprised that we passed few people along the way.
We spread out across the ridge, each step demanding careful attention. Metal handles and chains attached across the rocks helped guide us as we ascended… up and up and up. It was a beautiful day. Blue skies, hot but breezy, a couple wispy clouds. Looking out across the red canyons, I couldn’t believe I was still on the same planet I’d been in just a couple days ago. I still don’t understand how it is possible to have lush, green areas like Zion in the midst of endless, desolate desert. The park was named Zion after the biblical place-name often used as a synonym for Jerusalem and embodying the idea of a place as “refuge” or “sanctuary”. If I was a Mormon pioneer discovering Zion1 in the late 1800s, I too would have thought I must have stumbled upon some sort of holy land.
Once on the summit, we all sat together and ate our lunches staring out across Zion Canyon. Best pb+j view ever. We made friends with a concerningly friendly squirrel. He really wanted our sandwiches. Unfortunately for him, I wanted my sandwich more. We sat on the top of Angels Landing for what felt like forever but still somehow not long enough. We’ve seen so many beautiful sights on this trip, I sometimes fear I’m becoming less observant of the beauty around us. Not today.
At some point, we left the top of Angel’s Landing and made our way back, all the way down to the river we saw on our way up. This time, at last, we took off our shoes and socks and waded in. Most of us found nice big rocks to sit on and chatted or sat in silence while water gushed around our legs. The sun hung lower in the sky than it had in the morning, and the light dancing on the water made it even prettier than before.
As usual when we are gathered around a body of water, a couple of us started skipping rocks. This particular stream had lots of smooth, flat rocks conducive to elite-level skipping. Unfortunately, despite trying my hand with some objectively perfect rocks, my rock-skipping skills remained unimpressive. Fortunately, they were still better than Ruth’s. It’s a great quality of life that there are almost always people both worse and better than you at things. Nonetheless, my competitive spirit was fired up so I probably could have stayed there for hours, skipping rock after rock incredibly mediocre distances. Practice makes perfect progress, right?
With a glance at my watch, however, I remembered that we remained in a very real predicament. After our decision yesterday to “save laundry for tomorrow”, the clock was ticking down before the laundromat closed and the entire team reached laundry-pocalypse. Several Spokies had already warned me that they had “no clothes left” after two days without laundry. It was time to leave the stream and head back out of the canyon.
We reversed our morning commute to return to our host, Robin’s, house. I originally planned to buy post-hike gelato from the general store, but I was so excited for dinner at Robin’s house that I decided to save my appetite. The night before, our first night at Zion, Robin cooked us what is without a doubt the most delicious meal we’ve had this entire trip. She told us she would be cooking “casserole and salad”, which was intriguing but didn’t strike me as anything out of the ordinary. I was imagining some sort of cheesy rice dish and maybe a caesar salad. No. Robin cooked us no less than 6 separate dishes, all packed full of vegetables, flavor, and love. Chickpea, couscous, and feta salad. Eggplant and tomato with mozzarella and polenta. Beet and jicama salad. Black bean, corn, and pepper salad. Wild mushroom casserole. Mac and tuna. I might be forgetting one. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. It was insane. Anyway, Robin was cooking for us again tonight so we skipped gelato and headed straight back for dinner and to complete the rest of our tasks for the night.
Now, the laundromat in Zion closed at 10. We got back to Robin’s place around 7, and dinner was ready at 7:30. We knew we’d be cutting it close, but we were so excited to eat that we decided to do laundry after dinner. In the meantime, there were several tents and camping mats that needed cleaning after our stretch of camping in Utah, so Charles and I passed the time before dinner cleaning and setting out to dry our camping equipment. In the meantime, Ruth and Ramona made sandwiches for everyone. (They’re the best!!)
We finished up the tents with a little extra time to spare, so I cleaned my drivetrain and lubed my chain, both of which were long overdue. Before I knew it, dinner was ready!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, it deserves all those exclamation marks.) I told Ruth and Charles, who were accompanying the grocery and laundry trip, that we had 15 minutes to eat. Ruth easily accomplished this feat. I went back for seconds at minute 12 and barely cleared my plate. Charles got to minute 15 with an entire bowl of chili left to eat. I gave him a tupperware and told him to pack it for the road.
Our laundry mission was becoming dire. With an hour and forty minutes until closing, we zipped out of Robin’s driveway and towards Zion Park Laundry. As we pulled into the parking lot, however, we found a very unwelcome site. Laundromat shuttered. Machines piled outside the building. The interior half ripped apart and empty. A sign on the window said “closed for the next month”:| The nearest laundromat still open was more than twenty miles away, in a town called Hurricane (but pronouned her-a-kun, according to our native Southwesterner, Sarah). This would have been an absolute disaster, except Ruth was already planning to drive to Hurricane to go grocery shopping at Walmart. We quickly made the decision to tag along with her.
Thirty minutes and one beautiful sunset later, we pulled into a (fully functional!), somewhat antique laundromat. I haven’t spent much time in laundromats outside of Spokes2, but I think Ramona’s fascination with and love for them has rubbed off on me. In addition to the laundromat adventures I recounted at the very start of this blog, Charles and I supposedly worked on our blogs in the laundromat. I believe we wrote a combined total of about six sentences.3 Somehow, we completed all the laundry, folded all the dry clothes, and finished our blogs before Ruth finished grocery shopping. She arrived, however, bearing strawberries and chocolate, so we forgave her. Actually, the timing was quite perfect! We reunited, bid goodbye to our dear friend the laundromat, and once again hit the road. We pulled back into Robin’s driveway around midnight. I took a shower, Charles did some adulting to find an apartment, and Ruth finished making everyone sandwiches (real Spokes angel 🫶). Finally, I returned to the grain silo and went to sleep. As far as I know, I still haven’t turned into grain.
“Greta, do you fear being 3 blogs behind?” Tian asked me this the last time I was two, almost three, blogs behind.
Yes. Yes I am.
Unfortunately, today officially marks my descent into “three blogs behind” territory. BUT I am determined it will also be my last day on the dark playground of blog procrastination. I have to start somewhere, so I’m starting with today. Day 44 and…uh…Day 36…. will be coming shortly. My deepest apologies to all our devoted readers.
I woke up early this morning to finish up the last of my interviews for MITEC Hack Director positions. My first alarm went off at 6:30, at which point I was still planning to sleep for another 15-20 minutes. Ishaq, however, HATES hearing alarms. So, instead of letting me enjoy my morning snooze in peace, he engaged in a terror campaign to force me out of bed before my next alarm went off.
My wakeups are very important to me, and this nearly set my day off on the completely wrong course. To reset the karmic balance, I pulled on my lucky socks and took a long swig of water. Water solves everything.
Properly hydrated, I hopped on my computer and got to it. It’s my first time being on the other side of an interview process, and I’ve found it very eye-opening. Luckily, everyone I have talked to has been amazing! Starting to coordinate a major event while on the road has been stressful, but I can’t wait to get back to campus and get the planning into full swing.
I was considering going for a run after my calls, but I got hit by an overwhelming wave of hunger, so I decided to eat breakfast instead. I spent the first six weeks of this trip curating a perfectly linear running graph on my Strava progress tab, but I finally gave up this week. Turns out running 20 miles in a week on top of biking through the desert isn’t the most appealing activity. I’ve run 5. Oops.
On the upside, I ate a lovely breakfast (my go-to: greek yogurt, fresh fruit, and granola with a lavishly buttered cinnamon raisin bagel on the side) and appreciated a rare moment of solitude on the condo balcony. After enjoying such a peaceful morning, I took it upon myself to destroy everyone else’s peace. “Rise and shine!” I tried my best to offer my sleeping Spokie friends a warm welcome to the waking world, but I fear it was not particularly well received. Alas.
Eventually, the rest of the team rubbed their groggy eyes and pulled their aching limbs out of bed. Sarah’s mom, Jennifer, has been cooking us incredible food all weekend. This morning, she prepared a lox bagel bar, complete with capers, red onions, and smoked salmon. While eating, we started a jam on Spotify which I curated impeccably until Ishaq joined and decided to completely destroy the vibes. Notable additions to the queue include Funkytown and Bad Day by Alvin and the Chipmunks. I absolutely did not sing along…
Luckily, Ishaq’s terrible music choices succeeded in propelling us all out the door and onto our excursion for the day: a hike in Canyonlands! Before Spokes, I considered myself a pretty bad driver. I probably still am one, but I’ve found I actually really like driving the minivan to and from our rest day excursions. Ruth, Charles, and Ishaq joined me in the van and we spent the hour and a half ride scheming for Charles’ next blog: a “Which Spokie are You?” quiz. We generated lots of question and answer ideas, many that will (and some that will not), be included in the quiz. Keep an eye out. 👀
We arrived to the trailhead right at noon, which everyone knows is the perfect time to start a hike. Especially in July. Especially in Utah. Before leaving the house, Joseph, our most experienced hike, implored us all to bring LOTS of water. Don’t tell him I said this, but we were all grateful we listened to his advice. It was HOT out there.
We all like to think we’ve gotten in pretty good shape biking across the country, but our hikes the past two days have given us some serious doubts. How is “just walking” possibly so exhausting?! Besides getting slightly humbled physically, the hike was incredible. The hike was a six mile out-and-back weaving in and out of towering rock structures to get to a viewpoint of “The Needles”. At the viewpoint we could see not only “The Needles”, a set of towering sandstone spires, but also hazy blue mountains and dark red plateaus–all from just one spot. I only wish I knew anything at all about Utah’s geology. Unfortunately, our collective knowledge amounts to “some sort of erosion probably caused this”.
The other nice thing about hikes is that we get lots of time to talk! (You know we’re normally pretty short on that…) Actually, we’re getting to the point where it seems like we should be running out of things to talk about, but we never quite get there. Today, we spent a good amount of time discussing each other’s Hogwarts houses: (Joseph/Ravenclaw, Tian/Slytherin, Charles/Hufflepuff, Ramona/Ravenclaw, Ishaq/Slytherin, Ruth/Hufflepuff, Sarah/Hufflepuff, Greta/Gryffindor) We accused many team members of being “funny weird” rather than “funny haha”. And we (rather unsuccesfully) played Guess The Tune. I was also (somewhat succesfully) gaslit into believing octopi aren’t born with all eight legs. Tough.
I knew I’d probably fall asleep when I got back in the car after hiking, so I asked Charles to take over driving for a bit. Sure enough, I curled up in the back and took an epic car nap. I woke up feeling quite refreshed (and Charles was looking… not quite alert) so I switched back to the driver’s seat and gave Charles a chance to rest as well. He later reassured me that “we were never in any real danger…”
Back at the condo, we dispersed to work on our respective tasks. I blogged, Charles and Tian took a quick trip to the grocery store, Ishaq bonded with Sarah’s dad, Mike, over music. Jennifer cooked us another mouthwatering dinner of mango orzo salad and flank steak with chimmichuri sauce. We were all quiet around the table for at least five minutes, the surest sign of a good meal. Thank you so much Jennifer!!
Since we hadn’t gotten enough heat during the day, after dinner, we all went across the street to hit the jacuzzi. Little did we know, the pool also had our favorite game–cornhole! For some reason, Charles wanted to play against Ruth and I again after his complete and utter humiliation at Vail. Joseph had already left, so Ruth and I teed up against Charles and Ishaq. Let’s just say… Charles can’t claim Joseph is the weak link. Final score: 21-3.
Charles and Ishaq nursed their wounded pride over smores and we all finally headed back up to the condo just before 11. I think I heard somewhere “late to bed, late to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”. What a nice quote.
Clock ticking towards 12, we showered off and started our preparations for the next morning. Slowly, like usual, with plenty of time for giggling.
“I’m just high on friendship,” I heard Ishaq say from across the room. “Awww that’s so sweet,” I said. “Shut up, dude,” he closed the bathroom door.
Shutting up (for now),
Greta
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bowling Green, KY -> Madisonville, KY – 84.8 miles, 4,439 ft
Today, like too many Spokes days, technically started at 12:00am. Many of us share the the night owl quirk of getting more energy as the night wears on, and tonight was no exception. In fact, tonight was particularly exciting because we were sharing the night with two new Kentucky friends. On our first rest day in Bowling Green, Tian left the house at 6:00pm to “go get groceries”. When she didn’t come back until 9, we all suspected her grocery mission must have been a cover for some other mischevious scheme, but then she asked for help unpacking the groceries… and we realized she really had just gone shopping and that we really would be feasting the next night. In fact, there was SO much food we suspected we might need some extra help finishing it all up…
Fear not, Spokes put on our extrovert hats and made some new friends at the Bowling Green learning festival. Along our travels, we interact mostly with hosts and learning festival coordinators (who are usually older than us) and students (who are always younger than us). While I’ve loved getting to know everyone we’ve met so far, I’ve missed getting to interact with new people my own age. Luckily, this void was filled yesterday by two super cool students from WKU, Libby and Khalil. Khalil, a recent WKU graduate, runs an education startup from the WKU Small Business Accelerator, located just down the hall from our learning festival. We met Khalil in the morning during check-in, and he ended up helping us out with the learning festival all day! I met Libby a couple hours later, when we were both photographing the bottle rocket workshop. Libby is a summer intern at the WKU Herald and she had come to the festival in order to publish a story about our event. We started chatting during the learning festival, but we realized by the end of the day that there was still so much we wanted to talk about. Thanks to Tian’s grocery shopping foresight, we were able to invite Libby and Khalil to join us for dinner at our Airbnb, which was a double win for us–more hours to spend with awesome people and more people to help us finish Tian’s gargantuan (and delicious) meal.
Before we knew it, it was nearly 11 o’clock and everyone was still gathered around the table chatting. My family often talks about kindred spirits, a phrase we adopted from L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. You know you’ve found a kindred spirit when, despite whatever differences in where you’re from, what you do or who you know, it somehow feels like you’ve always known each other. Libby and Khalil are definitely Spokes kindred spirits.
(Unfortunately, we had so much fun we forgot to take a single picture…epic fail. With no photographic evidence, who knows… maybe this was just another one of Greta’s crazy dreams.)
After Libby and Khalil left and we finished the rest of our tasks for the night, I did eventually drift off into dreamland. When I opened my eyes again around 7am, I was stocked up on (almost enough) beauty sleep, my bucket was still filled from the night before, and I was ready to continue making the most of Day 20.
By this point in the trip, the morning tasks were routine. I readied my snack bag, lubed my chain, and pumped my tires. Filled up my water bottles (one with water and one with electrolytes), curated my Spotify queue, slathered on my sunscreen. Order doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s go time.
Time is of the essence, especially today. It was day one of the heat wave rampaging across the country and temperatures were soaring into the high 90s before noon. We knew we were going to be cooked (literally). Nothing like a little perspective to keep you sane, though. Back home in Virginia, my family’s AC was out, so I knew I should at least be grateful for Mother Nature’s ever reliable fan, the westernly winds.
With our personal and communal tasks in order, all the bikers set out towards our first destination around 8. Sarah was our driver for the day, and Ruth was in the car recovering from her mysterious illness (possibly, but probably not, pneumonia). Ruth spent the day tearing through her book, The Lady With the Dragon Tattoo, and Sarah was hard at work driving and finishing up her blog. Unlike me, Sarah is a pro at publishing her blogs in a timely manner…
One of the highlights of today was the joy of discovering leftovers for lunch. Last night, I had packed myself not only a leftover burrito, but also a leftover box of sweet potato noodles with tofu and veggies. When I tell you… they. were. DELICIOUS. SO GOOD. Tian has been on the leftover game from day 1; and Tian is always right… I probably should have converted sooner.
Besides meals, today was full of lots of little happy moments. Ishaq and I swung by the John Prine Memorial Park (shoutout to Grandad, my favorite John Prine fan!)
We bought Haagen Dazs ice cream bars at Dollar General. Or, more accurately, I bought Haagen Daaz bars and coaxed the rest of the team into eating them with me. For some reason, the team hasn’t yet realized I have impeccable taste, and keeps disapproving of my group purchases. Their loss, I guess. Luckily, today was hot enough that no one could put up a fight and all the Haagen Dazs bars were consumed:)
Everyone has their own ways of dealing with the heat. And when I say “own ways”, I mean some people like to nap lying down and some people like to nap sitting up. I personally, am a lying down napper. The heat did take it out of me more than I expected. Along some of our longer stretches, I could feel my body working overtime to both keep the bike moving and keep me from overheating (like my laptop when I write code without chatgpt…) I much prefer being hot than being cold, though. One time, my mom told me I had to choose whether to complain about summer or winter because I couldn’t get annoyed about both. I chose winter, so… no complaining for me.
By the time we made it to our final rest stop, we’d made it through the worst of the heat with out spirits intact. The mood was goofy, as it often is at the end of the day. Ishaq showed off his manly strength by pushing the minivan in neutral. We were all very impressed… until Sarah and I gave it a go and turns out its actually not that hard. Ishaq did look pretty cool in this picture though. Also at this rest stop, Charles got up to his usual tricks and made Tian feed him a bit of her bibimbap. After pretending (?) to take an enormous bite, he backed off, but the damage was already done. Tian then tried to shove all the contaminated bibimbap into his mouth. Guess he got what he asked for?
Once we got our giggles out, we locked in for one last stretch of road to arrive at our destination for the night! We were hosted by Life Christian Center in Madisonville, KY. Pastor Jon, Isaac, and Steve cooked us a delicious meal, and we all sat and chatted while we ate. There is nothing like arriving someplace to a home-cooked meal, and I am so grateful for the incredible generosity of our hosts. I definitely want to repay the favor someday!
Finally, we ended the night packing our lunches and preparing for the day ahead (our first day in Illinois!) I went to sleep surrounded by all the Spokies, curled up in my sleeping bag on the gymnasium floor. Like usual, I woke up all the way on the other side of the gym. But that’s a story for tomorrow…
Peace out!
Greta
Today started at 3am when I sat straight up in my tent and started screaming for someone to come help me get out. After entertaining my tentmate Ruth and terrifying the rest of my teammates (including Joseph, who, thinking I was being attacked by a bear, started screaming along) I went soundly back to sleep until our wake up time around 8am.
Besides my exciting pre-dawn shenanigans, today was a relatively uneventful day. Cloudy with occasional rain in the morning, we made our way across the Virginia border and into Eastern Kentucky. One of the things I like most about biking as a mode of transportation is that it’s slow enough to take in on all the sights around us. I’ve rarely travelled to areas as rural and secluded as what we saw today, so I spent a lot of time contemplating what life might be like out here. There is so much beauty in the winding creeks and appalachian foothills, but life also seems harder here than it is back home. I’m coming to appreciate all the urban conveniences I usually take for granted.
I spent most of the day thinking about the land we were riding on, and just how much bigger our country is than the slice of east coast life I’m used to. Somewhere along the way, though, my mind turned inward and I started thinking about the ways this trip was shaping me. I realized the things that had been hardest for me on the trip hadn’t been what I expected, and neither had the things I’d most enjoyed.
Overall, these first two weeks of Spokes have been some of the best in my life. I had thought the most difficult parts of the trip would be how gross and dirty we were. In reality, the most difficult part of the trip so far has been.. ummm… saddle sores? which was not something i even knew existed? something i wish i still didn’t know existed?? other than that, i’ve been most challenged confronting my fear of unleashed dogs and figuring out how to manage the dynamics of conducting life constantly surrounded by 7 other people (answer: with a lot of laughter!) I’ve absolutely loved meeting our hosts and other locals, each one of which has expanded my perspective on what the future could hold. I’ve also been cherishing all the small moments we spend together as a team, whether at rest stops, cooking dinner, or even when we’re all grumpy and bleary-eyed in the morning. It’s a privilege to see each other through our highest highs and lowest lows, and I feel like I’ve personally bared down to my realest self more quickly than at any other time in my life.
I wanted to get the rest of the team’s perspective, so I asked everyone to go around and share a rose (highlight), thorn (challenge), and bud (something to look forward to) from the trip so far. Here are their answers:
Sarah
Rose: Seeing a lot of greenery that I’m not used to since I’m from the desert. Also seeing wildflowers and butterflies and rivers. Thorn: climbing ginormous hills and not knowing how to shift my bike gears. Bud: visiting national parks in Utah.
Joseph
Rose: the time the team has spent hanging out together so far. Thorn: my seven day streak of horrendous sleep that forced me to take an extra rest day. Bud: when we finally get into a stable enough routine that we can do a bunch of fun stuff during and post ride
Tian
Rose: all the nice people we’ve met along the way who have offered their homes, showed us their communities, and made us delicious food. Thorn: managing both physical and mental fatigue from day to day. Bud: The rest day learning festival combination in bowling green (extra rest!)
Charles
Rose: this sandwich/ getting to hangout with all of ya’ll and the fun moments we have over dinner and breaks. Thorn: butt pain and neck stiffness. Bud: buc-ees!!
Ramona
Rose: having a very different routine and set of responsibilities and things to worry about that is completely unrelated to what I do and worry about during the semester. Thorn: less time than I expected to think about life and whatnot… scared the summer will pass in a blink and I’ll be launched back into chaos. Bud: excited to see more places and experience what “real” heat it
Ruth
Rose: meeting the hosts and eating their foods (learning about their lives, sitting at dinner and talking with them). Thorn: sleep. Bud: better sleep
Ishaq
Rose: getting to the top of the hill in Shenandoah. Thorn: climbs are still hard. Bud: being better at climbs when we get to the Rocky Mountains
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…
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!!
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:
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
Hellooo Spokes friends and fam! Today is May 18th and Spokes 2025 officially begins in…
days
hours minutes seconds
until
SPOKES 2025
I say “officially”, because while we haven’t yet hit the road, all the Spokies have already been hard at work. We’ve spent the fall, winter, and spring putting in all the behind the scenes hours needed to bring Spokes to life. Countless emails, a couple giant spreadsheets, and one popping WhatsApp community later… the finish (start?) line is in sight!
This past Wednesday, Charles, Joseph, Ishaq, and I got the chance to take two of our workshops for a test run at Carbone Hall, a juvenile detention facility and high school in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Charles and Joseph ran our Bottle Rocket learning festival, which teaches the basic engineering principles needed to make a large object defy gravity. At the end of the workshop, the students launch a rocket of their own by harnessing the chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar.
While liftoff wasn’t successful this time around, science and engineering are all about learning from our failures, right?
Speaking of which… instead of studying for my thermo final, I taught our thermo-inspired learning festival with Ishaq! Our Phases of Matter workshop walks students through the properties and molecular structure of solids and liquids, the (super cool) process of phase transition, and what happens when a material doesn’t follow the rules. In more exciting terms, we competed in an ice cube melting race, created molecules out of marshmallows, and, of course, made oobleck!
Luckily, Ishaq and I took our learning festival for a test run the night before because our food dye ratios were… well.. a bit generous. Luckily my blue hands didn’t scare away any of our students (or their teachers 😅). Lots to learn still!
On the topic of teachers, we’re so grateful for Carbone Hall principal Thomas Guarente, who made this learning festival possible. We’re also thankful for all our students for being awesome and engaged, Ms. Gabbie and Paul for giving us great feedback on the first iteration of our workshops, and all the staff who made us feel so welcome at Carbone Hall!
With our first learning festival under our belts and finals almost done, Spokes is really starting to feel real. I’m so excited to share our workshops with more students and to get some pavement under our tires. Stay tuned for a team intro post coming soon and a whole summer of adventures ahead!
Peace out! ✌️
Greta:)
MIT Spokes 2025 