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Final day in San Francisco
Today was the first of many goodbyes. Most people were going to leave on the 21st, however Greta was leaving on the 20th. She wanted to see her sister before she moved into UVA and leaving on the 21st would have been too late. So, instead she had a 6am flight. So she stayed up with Charles, who then drove her to the airport. Me and Sarah also woke up in the middle of the night to say our goodbyes.
And then there were seven.
I awoke again at 9am and saw Ramona was also awake. So we decided to make the most of it and pack the car ONE LAST TIME.
For context, we booked a round trip car rental and me and Ramona were going to drive the car back to Boston. This is in contrast to last year’s team who booked a one way rental, so they had to deal with the logistics of packing up and sending the bikes and camping gear back across the country. Since we were bringing the car back, post trip logistics were a lot easier.
Packing the car for our upcoming road trip was not much different than usual. We’ve done this for 75 days, so we’ve gotten pretty good at it. We consolidated some of our boxes, threw a bunch of stuff out and changed the organization of the car to make grabbing food items easier. With most people’s personal belongings out of the car, we also managed to fit 2 bikes in the car in addition to the 3 bikes on the rack. We managed to finish most of the packing by the early afternoon, so we had a lot of free time.
We decided to go out and explore San Francisco! By we I should say me, Sarah, Ramona, Tian, Ishaq and Charles. At some point, me and Sarah were unintentionally split up from the rest of the group. So we decided to go to Ghiradelli Square to get some shakes and chocolate. The rest of them went to Japantown after seeing the Painted Ladies. Then me and Sarah met up with the rest of the team in Japantown where we had Thai food for dinner. This was the team’s Final Supper (sadness).
We then went into the mall and after failing to find a bakery, we settled for crepe shop, where me and Sarah had some delicious fruit crepes. It was getting late, so we decided to head back, but we were in the technopolis that is San Francisco, so what better way to get home than to call some autonomous taxis! The six of us split up and got into our cars. It was quite the futuristic experience.
Everyone spent their last night here doing their own thing. We tried to get to bed early, because Ramona was going to wake everyone up early.
So that concludes the very last, final Spokes blog…
or does it?
Stay tuned for our post-Spokes blog series which will follow me and Ramona on our 10-day road trip back across the country, featuring Charles for the first two episodes!
Zion, UT -> Lava Point Campground, UT — 29.75 mi, 4,975 ft
Hi hi, It’s Joseph again1 with a blog for the shortest mileage day of the trip! Don’t be fooled though, today was anything but short. It was also the day with the largest single climb of the trip…
It was a great start to the day. I had gotten great sleep for the past two nights in a row, a rarity on this trip. I felt ready to tackle this day head on. Today, as is usually the case, the team left at different times, though unusually enough, I was not part of the last group to leave. I spent the first hour speeding along a slight descent and attempting to catch up to the frontrunners of today2 as I approached Kolob Terrace Road, where we would spend most of our day.
Allow me to give some context about where we were headed. Zion National Park is bigger than some people realize. There’s the main section of the park inside of Zion Canyon, where most of the tourists go and where we hiked Angel’s Landing the day before. Then, there’s the Kolob Terrace, the high elevation area of the park, many thousands of feet above the bottom of Zion Canyon. Our destination for today was Lava Point Campground, near the top of the terrace and named after Lava Point, a vista with views spanning the entire park.
Back to the biking. The climb started and I managed to catch up to Tian and Sarah before the first rest stop, and then made it to the rest stop, where Ruth and Ramona were. The car had earlier passed me, then not 5 minutes later turned back around. I didn’t see it again for another half an hour. I wondered what happened, but I didn’t see a second bike on the car when it drove by the second time, so I assumed it was fine. Turns out that Ishaq accidentally ran into The Legendary Metal Dorito™, a mystical weapon used by the gods of cycling to strike down anyone who dared to ride too fast, fly too close to the sun, if you will. Ishaq had done just that, and he paid dearly for it. In one swift motion his tire was slashed open. The Specialized tire he had gotten a week or so ago was slain. It was no more. Ishaq, devastated by the loss of his companion, turned to The Metal Dorito and promptly curb stomped it, returning it to being a regular dorito shaped piece of metal. He called Ruth in and snatched her wheel.
Back to me, I guess. I spent a while at the first rest stop, since just as I was about to leave, the rest of the gang showed up. Eventually I leave to catch up with the frontrunners3. The views were becoming increasingly scenic, with the road winding up and around jagged cliffs. We started the day in the plain dessert, but as we climbed the landscape became greener and meadows and groves of pine trees started appearing. It took an hour to make it to the next rest stop only six miles up the road. The climbs were generally fine, but every once in a while, the grade would become very steep, but everyone kept on chugging along just fine.4 After the next rest stop some of us split up into pairs. I started cycling with Charles. Sarah paired up with Greta. Often times it’s hard to chat with people on the climbs, but the road was empty enough that we could do it comfortably.
At this point we were fully in Alpine forest and it even started to become a little chilly. At the third rest stop we arrived to find Ruth watching TSITP aka The Summer I Turned Pretty. After being a responsible support vehicle for the morning, she had embraced the bum driver lifestyle. After the last rest stop me and Charles continued the climb, feeling like the end was now in sight. Eventually we make it to the top and we hear the familiar and loved beep of the Garmin, signifying the end of this immense climb. We waited at the top for Sarah and Greta to complete the last couple of miles together.
We pull into the campsite and see the tents already set up thanks to the efforts of Ramona, Ishaq, Tian and Ruth.5 Though seems like it wasn’t easy for them, as the wind caused stuff to ascend, including causing one of our tents into the forest. There were no showers at the campground, so I devised a plan to go to Kolob Reservoir for a dip. When we found a spot to pull over to the water, we realized the water was very cold and the shore was really muddy. Most people opted not to go in all the way if at all, except for Charles, who went for a full plunge. I also went in and dunked my head in the water to get the dirt out of my hair. I promptly ran out of the water violently shivering and dried myself off as quickly as I could.
On the way back to the campsite, I sneakily took us to Lava Point, where we soaked in the views – the product of all of our climbing today. It was also the only place where we had any service in the area.
Then we headed back to the campsite where Ruth cooked ramen for dinner. I actually quite enjoyed this meal. I ate more for this camp dinner than I almost ever do, so good job Ruth! Not much else happened that night, though the night sky was as beautiful as it had been the rest of Utah.
If you take anything from this blog, let it be this. Don’t bike too close to the sun, otherwise you too might get struck down by The Legendary Metal Dorito or similar phenomena.
Moab, UT -> Green River, UT — 56.8mi, 1900ft
It’s that time of the week again, its Joseph’s blogging day! But it’s also my driving day, woot woot. This morning, we would finally leave the Schmitt’s, who pretty much enabled us to go full vacation mode while in Moab. It would be back to reality for us. The thing was, the people weren’t ready. In fact, the spokies were very disorganized today and locked out. As people were leaving, Charles remembered that he shipped his cycling shoes to Moab, then spent half an hour finding if they were shipped to the Airbnb we stayed at. Simultaneously, everyone decided last minute to go to a cafe in Moab before the first rest stop, but Ramona never got the message. I too pulled up to the cafe, partially to hang out but also because I was ravenous from a smaller than usual breakfast. I got myself a fire sandwich.
After Charles eventually realized his cycling shoes weren’t delivered, he too started heading towards the cafe. Hearing this news, I also remembered that Ramona was nearly at the first rest stop and I still needed to get groceries before I left Moab. You see, Moab is a bit of an oasis in the desolation of southwest Utah. Green River, our destination for the day, was a lot smaller and I suspected there wouldn’t be as much variety in groceries. I rushed to the grocery store to buy ingredients for today’s dinner, a gnocchi and rigatoni soup, as Ishaq went off on his own sidequest: buying new Specialized tires. Ishaq’s tires may have been slightly leaky, but it wasn’t enough to warrant getting new tires. This was entirely a luxury purchase (Ishaq paid for it himself of course). Ishaq delivered me his new tires as I was walking out of the grocery store. I then rushed over to the first rest stop, where I was sure people were already waiting. Ramona had long since passed the first rest stop after refilling her water and I figured she was going to get to the second rest stop before me. The big issue here is that our last two rest stops were in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road, meaning that the bikers wouldn’t be able go self supported. This meant that I really had to be able to support the bikers and be there, especially in the heat. This is the start of my driver struggles. I get to the first rest stop, a gas station, where everyone but Ishaq is waiting for me. I get them all sorted, then wait for Ishaq to eventually show up. While he was getting himself sorted for the next stretch, I went to fill up on gas and realized that gas was pretty darn expensive out here, so I only put in like 5 gallons. It’s enough to get me to Green River.
After Ishaq left, I rushed to meet Ramona at the second rest stop, passing the bikers along the way. They seemed to be struggling a bit. This road was heavily trafficked, high speed, and there was almost no shoulder. This is probably the worst possible combination of conditions for a biker, and I was a bit worried for them. Charles was stopped on the side of the road, seemingly to take a breather from the stressful biking. I eventually make it to the second rest stop, but then realize that making a sharp left turn on this single lane highway with cars going 80 was going to be impossible. I pass the stop and pull off a bit later. I prepare to make a very scary u-turn. It’s like making a U-turn on an interstate, but you can’t even see the cars coming until half a mile away. I manage not to die and finally meet Ramona, who had been waiting for around 15 minutes. This is where everything goes wrong. Ramona’s back derailleur cable had snapped, leaving her unable to shift gears. This wasn’t something we could fix ourselves, so Ramona’s bike would have to get to a shop. This was very inconvenient. There were no bike shops in Green River and tomorrow was not a rest day, but a long cycling day through a desolate part of Utah, meaning that driving a long distance for a bike repair was not an option. Our only two options were to either have Ramona be a passenger princess until we reached Escalante three days later or to speed back to Moab, where bike shops were abundant. We decided to speed back to Moab. As we were preparing to drive back, some of the bikers arrived and I was able to serve them, but for those who were further behind, I left them a care package of waters and food that I would later pick up. The plan was to drop Ramona off in Moab, drive the 40 miles back to rest stop 3, then drive back to Moab to pick Ramona up, then drive all the way to Green River to set up camp. This was going to be complicated and very annoying for me, the driver. But alas, this is part of the job.
I drive back to Moab and drop Ramona off, then prepare to make the drive back. This is when I receive a text that the bikers had found a wacky alien themed gas station/convenience store, where they were able to fill up on water. I ask if everyone’s good with me staying in Moab, as this would make the day a lot easier logistically. I do worry about Greta, as she chose to take a stint on a dirt road to avoid the scary highway and she wouldn’t pass by the ufo store. This meant doing 30 or so miles in the Utah heat self supported. She said that she was fine with it, so I decided to stay. I go back into the bike shop and see Ramona intently watching the mechanic do his thing. She really likes this mechanic, he’s very down to earth and knows what he’s talking about. I go to the food truck park that we had stopped at two days ago and grab myself a fire quesadilla. I’m just able to finish my quesadilla when Ramona finally comes out with her fixed bike.
We rush out of Moab, hoping to catch the bikers before they reach the third rest stop, but then realize it’s a pointless effort and change course straight to the campground. We arrive and see half of the cyclists sitting around, waiting for us. We set up camp relatively quickly and laze around for a bit. We actually have electricity and good signal for once, which is a nice change from most of our camping. Some people go for a dip in the Green River and I eventually start to set up dinner. Ruth goes to a laundromat and I cook up a feast. There’s not much else to report for the night, it was pretty calm following a bit of a hectic day. I got good sleep, rare for camping nights. See you next time, where we ascend into Zion’s backcountry!
Black Hawk, CO -> Frisco, CO – 69.75 mi, 7,848 ft
Today’s a big day. We’re set to cross over the continental divide, a true dividing line that separates East from West. And any big day needs a big breakfast. The team ate a final breakfast at Amanda’s place, preparing for the day with the single most elevation gain of the entire trip. Some people are nervous, some are anxious, but we’re all determined.
We set off at different times, with Ruth, Tian, and Ramona in front, Charles and Greta in the middle, and me and Sarah in the back. The big climb of the day was the long ascent to Loveland Pass, the highest point of the whole trip, but the climbs at the beginning were no joke either. I could see the glistening glaciers at the top of the Rockies in the distance. We would have to pass up and over those later in the day, but first we had to descend to the I-70 corridor, nestled in one the few valleys in the Colorado Rockies that go east to west and are big enough to hold settlements and something like a major Interstate. We descended 1000ft down a steep dirt road into the Black Hawk, the gambling capital of Colorado. There, Sarah and I stopped at our first cafe of the day, where Charles and Greta were also around… except Charles was busy playing poker at a nearby casino!
After I munched on a delicious cheese Danish, we continued on, climbing out of Black Hawk, up and over another steep mountain pass, then descending 1600 feet down a winding dirt road to Idaho Springs. It was both terrifying and beautiful, with the sharp drops being both an ever present danger and opening up wide vistas into the distant mountains and the thousands of cars zooming across these once impassible mountains. Sarah’s back tire kept on leaking, so I would wait at the bottom of a steep descent for her. This process happened multiple times until we eventually got off of the somewhat treacherous Virginia Canyon Road, leaving the two of us quite a bit behind the frontrunners of the day. We stopped at the second cafe in a row, and while I was inside, Ishaq seemed to go mad. He threw my bike onto the ground and chucked one of my water bottles across the parking lot! I came back to the scene of the crime confused and angry. Ishaq denies the allegations placed against him, but he has no alibi. I know it was you. Ishaq.
We continued on, slowly making miles as the elevation ticked up, foot by foot. There was beautiful scenery wherever I looked. Gushing rivers, evergreen trees moving against the wind, and boundless mountain vistas in every direction. Today felt like more of a pure adventure than any other day of the trip. I passed through Georgetown, a small town with a passenger railway going up to a mountain pass. I was very happy to actually catch the train making its way down the mountainside.
At the third rest stop, I realized there really would be no catching up to the frontrunners of the day. They were only two miles from the top! We still had over 2000 feet of climbing over 10 miles to go. We continued on, slowly climbing ever higher. The road wasn’t actually all that steep compared to previous climbs, but the sheer elevation and endurance game meant that things were very slow going. I spent so long staring at each foot of elevation gained on my bike computer, watching the number get further and further away from anything I’ve ever done before. Eventually, I could see the top of the pass. It really does feel like I’m climbing up to the top of the world.
A few minutes later, I saw the van, and the Loveland Pass sign right next to it. As I like to do when I’m close to the end, I sped up to reach the top. I had done it. I conquered the biggest climb, the highest high of our journey. Sarah trailed behind me, reaching the top a minute or so later. With this, Spokes conquered Loveland Pass. What a day.
…Except we still had 20 something miles left to go. And it was 5pm. So at this point I started zooming down the backside of Loveland Pass. What a lovely reward for our hours and hours of climbing. 2600ft of descent over 8 and a half miles. And just like that I was out of altitude. After waiting 10 or so minutes for Sarah (she is a lot more cautious on descents than I am), we continued on a series of bike paths towards the Dillon Reservoir, the big lake that the town of Frisco sits on. This part of the country really is just so beautiful.
The cool mountain air kept my spirits up as we continued toward Sapphire Point, the site of our last rest stop. Unbeknownst to us, there was a wedding happening at the same time. So we basically became a bunch of wedding crashers. I can see why they picked this location for a wedding, though. Its absolutely stunning.
We descended down to the surface of the reservoir as we followed its coast into Frisco. Ruth and Ramona had the idea to dip into the water for a swim, and independently Charles and Greta came up with the same idea.
The sun slowly started to sink below the mountains as we made Sarah and I, finally ahead of the middle of the pack, made it into the quaint town of Frisco. Nearing the end, I saw two blobs ahead that looked suspiciously like Ruth and Ramona! We had finally caught up with them. It turns out that this duo had spent the last couple of hours goofing around in all sorts of places, including downtown Frisco.
I sped ahead of them to make it to the finish line as second of the group, very satisfied to have beat most of the team when I was so far behind… and also because I had a long, long drive ahead of me. You might remember that I lost my prescription sunglasses way back on Day 35. If you pay close attention to any pictures of me with shades from day 36 onwards, you might notice a different pair of sunglasses every day. I’ve actually been borrowing the driver’s glasses this whole time! It does mean that I am biking with impaired vision, but I’m not so blind that I can’t manage without. Its just very annoying, especially on gravel. Turns out that I had in fact left them at the church we stayed at in Macksville, KS and the nice people there had them mailed to Black Hawk, a place they would surely get to before us… not. They in fact were delivered the day after we left! I now had no choice but to drive all the way back to Black Hawk to grab them. What a tragedy. Thankfully, our Black Hawk host Amanda offered to meet me halfway in Idaho Springs. And so the plan was set. I would drive our van through mountainous I-70 in the cover of darkness to grab my shades. And that was AFTER one of the most physically intense cycling days of the whole trip. And to top it all off, our now nearly empty roof storage decided to start intensely THUMPing against the roof of the van continuously for the entire ride… I was quite shaken after that drive, and when I finally met up with Amanda she had the bright idea of taking the roof storage off of the roof of the car. The drive back was much more relaxing. And now I had my shades! Yay.
It was a long day full of trials and tribulations, but also with adventure and beauty. So much experienced, all in one day. All the emotions I feel and everything I experience, this is what it means to live, to be human. I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
Lakin, KS -> Lamar, CO — 77.25 mi, 1,490 ft
I awoke at 4:30 am to Ruth full on launching herself onto the bed where Charles and I slept. Ruth cracked her nose on Charles’ knee upon impact, causing sudden onset bleeding. I was pretty bewildered, but it turned out that Ruth couldn’t bear to share the same bed as her partner for the night, Ishaq, for any longer. Ruth gets pretty terrible sleep already, so an active sleeper is a bad person for her to share a bed with. She switched places with Charles, and we all went back to sleep.
We later awoke played out our usual morning routine. The inn that the church in Lakin had graciously provided us rooms in had self-serve breakfast, a nice change from our usual make-your-own breakfast. Eventually, we got ready to leave. Today was an unusual combination of people for me. Charles, Greta, and Ishaq would be my riding partners for the day. I had ridden with Charles and Greta a few times before independently, but Ishaq is usually chasing PRs, so it’s not often I get to ride with him, much less everyone in such a large group. This group was full of a lot of the speedsters of the group, though, which led to a fun dynamic for the day. Ruth, Tian, and Ramona left earlier than us, but we eventually caught up. They would leave rest stops before us, but we would always catch up. At one point, we passed them while performing the Indonesian Boat Racing Dance Formation, which we later all attempted as a big group.
Pretty early in the ride we crossed into Mountain Time, a first for my 19 years on this Earth. A short while later, we crossed into Colorado! This marked the end of our 8-day stretch in one of the flattest states in the Union. It’s not like we had left the Great Plains yet, though. Eastern Colorado contains the High Plains, and it’s pretty darn big. We wouldn’t be able to even see the Rockies for another two days. There is some interesting stuff in this region of Colorado, though, like the site of the Amache Internment Camp in the small town of Granada, CO. It’s a bit strange being in the middle of nowhere and then passing through a site where thousands of Japanese Americans were held in WWII. Apparently, the townspeople treated them well, but they were still treated like POWs by the government. We weren’t able to see the site up close, but I could see the ruins from afar.
After our stop in Granada, I was feeling particularly good. In fact, I could feel endless energy emanating from my legs. It was go time. I turned on the music and led the pack for the next 10 miles. I was zooming. A quick 30 minutes later, we made it to our first gas station in Colorado. Charles bought a bunch of scratch offs to commemorate our new state, and wouldn’t you believe it, he won big time. This win was big enough to offset all of his losses in Kansas. Colorado was off to a good start.
We eventually made it to our church in Lamar, and sure enough, I set a lot of PRs. I was averaging 23 miles an hour for that stretch! What a good day for cycling… as long as you ignore my seemingly chronic finger numbness. It really doesn’t want to go away. RIP my nerves, I guess.
I spent some time before dinner hashing out details with Ramona about our road trip back to Boston. For those of you who are unaware, once the team makes it to San Francisco, most people are going to eventually fly back to wherever life takes them next. But not me or Ramona. We’ve been tasked with driving our van, gear, and bikes back to Boston. It was cheaper than buying a one-way rental and logistically simpler than shipping a packed van’s worth of gear. That’s not even mentioning the free road trip I get out of this. The quickest route back to Boston involves passing through a lot of the same regions of the country we will have just spent nearly 3 months cycling through, and that seems a little lame. We will instead drive up to Seattle, then cut across the Northern states and hit some awesome national parks. After zooming through the Rust Belt, we will end this 10-day road trip with a journey into Northern Vermont and New Hampshire. I’m really excited for this drive, but I have to get to San Francisco first!
Dinner time came and our lovely hosts at the Lamar Christian Church invited us to their Friday community dinner. There was a great variety of food brought in from various members of the church. It was quite a feast. They also do a weekly viewing of a TV show, this time the House of David. It was very dramatic and entertaining.
Following dinner, I, Sarah, and Ruth went on a walk around town. We had a great time.
Crossing into Colorado is a sign of the beginning of the end of one of the longest stretches of the trip. The Great Plains have been both boring and eventful and were the first segment of this trip completely new to me. I’m glad to be leaving, but the many days on Highway 50 have been a nice kind of predictable. I knew what to expect day after day, whether good or bad. It gave my mind space to think about other things. The Rockies will bring real challenge back to the trip. Tune in next time to the single hardest day of the trip: crossing the Continental Divide.
Rest Day in Kansas City, MO
Yo yo yo! It’s Joseph, back at it again from Kansas City (the one in Missouri). I’m finally out of the trenches, and all my deep thoughts and introspection go to a complete halt unless I’m in complete misery and questioning my life. That’s why this time I’m doing a bit more of a silly blog. I’m sure as you will have heard from Greta (when she eventually publishes yesterday’s blog), we had a great learning festival followed by an awesome dinner out with some of the sponsors of the program we taught at. Meeting influential members of the Latino community anywhere is always a treat and our VIP level treatment has elevated Kansas City to my favorite stop on the trip so far. Kansas City continued to be a surreal trip even after last night, though.
We awoke with plans to go to The Children’s Place, a specialized trauma treatment center for very young children. The visit was set up by the aSteam Village sponsor. We were given a tour of the facility and then split up into groups of two or three to play with the children for an hour, followed by a little fireworks show. We weren’t allowed to take any photos and aren’t at liberty to talk about many details, but I can personally say that the kids were great and everyone had a blast. The adults there are doing some very important work and have my full respect.
We got back to our Airbnb and had a couple of hours to spare before our dinner plans with the learning festival sponsor, supposedly some amazing barbeque (Kansas City is known for it). Charles wanted to run some errands, so me and Ruth joined him. There were a few errands to run, but one was more important than the others. Enterprise said that we had to renew our car contract every thirty days and wow would you look at that we started Spokes a month ago! So, we drove to the nearest Enterprise thinking this would be a 15-minute errand. Then everything went wrong. For the past thirty-something days, our car rental process had gone too smoothly. No car breakdown or troubles with authorized drivers. Of course, all good things must come to an end. See, our 2024 Chrysler Pacifica had very recently been recalled due to a side airbag malfunction, along with 250,000 other Pacifica’s in Enterprise’s nationwide fleet. Enterprise told us we could keep the van until the end of our trip, but when it came time to renew our contract, the local branch said they could not renew a contract on a recalled vehicle. The only option here would be to get a replacement minivan and renew the contract with that, but it just so happens that those 250,000 Pacifica’s are most of Enterprise’s minivan fleet, so there were no available minivans or any seven-seater SUVs in the entire Kansas City area. We drove across state lines to two more Kansas City locations including the airport in an attempt to find an available vehicle, but no dice. At this point, our only option was to forego the Cambridge Enterprise’s pleas to get our car switched and continue on with the recalled Chrysler Pacifica with an overdue contract until we can eventually get it replaced, maybe in Denver… The legality of this decision is dubious. One might even say that we’ve committed Grand Theft Auto™.
After our quick errand turned wild goose chase, we came back to the AirBnB with nothing to show for our efforts. Our barbeque dinner with the sponsor was cancelled for unrelated reasons, but he instead generously doordashed us food from the barbeque place. It was quite delicious. The team all gathered together for our fourth iteration of the Spokes Movie Night, where we watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I had been wanting to watch the movie for quite some time now and I was not disappointed. The main female lead’s name in the movie was Ramona, so it became a running joke that our Ramona had seven evil exes and all that. The best thing to come out of it was probably the song in the movie called Ramona. I had the bright idea of making a three minute long edit with the song. Please enjoy the fruit of my labor.
Madisonville, KY -> Harrisburg, IL – 90.32 mi, 2,533 ft
No one said that a cross-country cycling trip would be easy, but man this is ROUGH. I feel like I’ve been tested so many times and after getting hit by an absolute wombo-combo of bad experiences recently, I’ve been in trenches deeper than ever before. I already mentioned the probably broken rib thing previously (it still hurts), but as of late there’s been so much more. The country got hit with a bad heat wave starting our day getting to Bowling Green (Day 17) and I became very aware of a new danger previously unknown to us – heat exhaustion. Having lived in the Southeast my whole life, I’ve always had to deal with extreme humid heat in the summer, and I figured myself equipped to handle it in the coming days. I made a big deal out of staying hydrated and with electrolytes to avoid heat exhaustion, but I made two major miscalculations on my own end. The first was that our two non-biking days in Bowling Green, mostly in the comfort of being inside with AC, reduced my heat acclimation. The second is that, despite living in the Southeast my whole life, I usually didn’t go outside in the heat, mostly because I would often end up feeling sick if I stayed out too long! So wouldn’t you imagine my surprise when I wound up being the person to tap out midway through the day yesterday because of a combination of heat exhaustion and back pain! I felt miserable yesterday, and to top it all off, my shampoo spilled inside of my bag, emptying out onto all of the contents inside. Luckily none of my stuff was ruined, but 4+ hours of cleaning shampoo off of all of my personal belongings after such a rough day was anything but fun. I went to bed hoping tomorrow would be better.
I woke up the following morning with absolutely no motivation. I was tired, still having to deal with cleanup following the shampoo incident and was not at all looking forward to another absolutely miserable day on the bike. The heat was, after all, going to stick around for a couple more days. I managed to get going eventually, though Charles described my look getting out of the door as being between homicidal and suicidal. Things got better, though. I took it slow, chatting with Charles for the first part of the day as we passed dozens of corn fields, a sign of the approaching Great Plains.
I was feeling a lot better than I did yesterday, but eventually the heat and my back pain (was a bike fit issue, now solved) started getting to me again. We crossed into Illinois from Kentucky, across the Ohio River. Shortly after, at our third rest stop, I decided I would once again tap out, if only as a break from the heat so that I could bike again for our last segment. I had hoped that I would have acclimated enough to the heat by this point, but I still wasn’t quite there. I really wished I could’ve continued, but I decided at the start of the trip that my health would always come first.
I rode with Tian to our last rest stop: an ice cream shop called 4 S Dairy Barn. There we all indulged in some sweet treats, as has become tradition on this trip. I looked at how all of the other bikers seemed. Was I really the only one getting hit this bad by the heat? Some people definitely seemed energized, especially after the ice cream, but others definitely looked more tired. Everyone has to fight their own battles and face their own demons on this trip, and it’ll be apparent at some times more than others for each individual. What’s in front of me is my own fight, and it’s up to me to face it head on. Even if it felt like my mental fortitude was melting away as quickly as my smoothie was, my mom didn’t raise a quitter. So, I got back on my bike.
We eventually all made it to our destination, where our wonderful host Sherry had a tub of watermelon waiting for us. As we all settled in and ate dinner, she mentioned how our team seemed very close compared to other years of Spokes. It’s a sentiment that I’ve heard shared by a lot of our hosts who have hosted Spokes teams in the past. We were eight college students who didn’t even know each other before we started planning for the trip, and now we’re all a tight-knit group of friends, discovering more about each other with every passing day. It’s quite a special thing, really.
Spokes so far has seemed like a microcosm of life itself. Each day is filled to the brim with so many new experiences, lessons to learn from, and discoveries about myself and the people I’m slowly starting to call family. For each low, there’s a greater high to be received, and for each high, there’s a more devastating low to be had. A never-ending amplified oscillation. Can it be stopped? I fear it’ll keep on going until my own spokes stop, whenever that may be.
Learning Festival Day in Hazard, KY
I did not want to get up this morning. We just spent the last two days cycling long distances through some crazy mountainous terrain and heavy downpours. That’s not even mentioning the nasty crash I had on our day leaving Roanoke (Day 8) in which I probably fractured a rib! I was, shall we say, pooped. We had a learning festival today which started at 10, so I had no choice but to painstakingly make my way down the stairs of the Harmony House BnB to the breakfast table, all the while my knees were weak and my arms were heavy 😔. Ishaq’s bike had broken down the day before (he stopped being able to shift gears), so he had to drive two hours one way to get to the nearest bike shops in Lexington, KY. We decided he would drop all of us off at the learning festival site, the Challenger Learning Center, and then he would leave Tian to run the Machine Learning workshop alone while he got his bike fixed.
Our host Sherry cooked us a tasty casserole for breakfast, but Sarah, my bottle rockets workshop partner, thought her nut allergy was acting up even though the food didn’t have nuts. She took some Benadryl to prevent an allergic reaction, but it also made her super drowsy as a result. This all meant that Sarah was also out of the picture for bottle rockets and I would be running it solo. I was a little worried. This was going to be my first learning festival without kids from a correctional facility (we didn’t do an official bottle rockets workshop in Tazewell), and there was a variety of kids of all sorts of ages from kindergarten to 9th grade that we had to attempt to cater to in separate groups. I didn’t think our curriculum was advanced enough for the older kids, so finding out I had to run it solo all of a sudden gave me some anxiety.
I had a job to do, so I tried to set aside my worries and embrace my life philosophy of ignoring any fear and embracing adversity, or as us kids like to say, “F**k it, we ball”. I started off with the youngest group of kids and the kids progressively got older as the day went on. The first two workshops went amazingly. I was able to keep the kids engaged for the entire hour and they had a lot of fun launching the rockets. With the last two groups, however, my curriculum fears were realized. I blasted through the lesson too quickly because it was so simplified and when we all went outside to launch rockets, the kids weren’t as excited, and it seemed like a lot of them had even done bottle rockets before. In comparison, I launched my first bottle rocket a month ago! I had pretty big gaps in time between the end of my lesson and the transition time, so I initiated my last-ditch strategy of hypersocial activity. I talked with the kids about a variety of subjects, like what their aspirations and plans were, college stuff, what life was like for them, if they wanted to stay in Kentucky, etc. And it worked! My workshop may not have been engaging enough for them on its own, but hopefully they took something away from all of my talking.
Most of the other workshops ran pretty smoothly, except for 3D Printing… it’s definitely the most logistically difficult workshop to run, since Charles and Ruth run prints for all of the kids. For those that don’t know, 3D printing is a time-intensive process, and having to give 40+ kids each their own prints is super difficult. I know Charles stayed up late the night before troubleshooting the printer and the two of them spent over an hour after the last workshop ended trying to give kids their printed objects, but not everyone ended up getting their stuff. This process is still definitely a work in progress, and I hope they can find a solution to this that’ll leave everyone happy.
After all the workshops ended, we were given a tour of the Challenger Learning Center, and its actually amazing. They run simulated space missions where a classroom of kids has to work together to ensure the mission is a success, with a level of detail and complexity that mirrors a REAL space mission. I love stuff related to exploring space, so I feel a great sense of appreciation for the amount of work that the staff have put into immersing kids into a SPACE MISSION of all things. WHERE WAS THIS WHEN I WAS YOUNG????
Afterwards, they took us to an exhibit space where they had a 1/10 scale model of a rocket and a bunch of cool demos and games for kids to check out. We spent way too much time having fun in this space.
We eventually got back to the BnB where we were catered some delicious Italian food, all provided by the CLC! We all sat down at this dinner table, and I kid you not, we sat eating and chatting for five hours. The conversations just kept going and going and going and going. Those are the kind of moments I live for.
Tomorrow is my driving day, so I get more rest haha (it was genuinely one of the most stressful days of the trip for me, off-roading for over an hour in the Pacifica after avoiding a flooded road hit different). See you guys in my next blog, where we cross into Illinois and I can finally talk about a cycling day!!!!
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.
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.
Ramona and I spent some time in the morning perfecting our bike cleaning technique and left everyone’s bikes looking squeaky clean.
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).
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.
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
MIT Spokes 2025 