Day 32: 'MURICA 🦅🦅🦅

Hi everyone, 

Today (or 9 days ago, oops) we celebrated America 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸. 

We left Newton, KS early in the morning and continued our journey along US 50 for the second day in a row. Not much to report about the bike ride as we followed a flat, straight road surrounded by fields. 

Kansas has made its way up my state ranking as I’m amazed  by the prairies and the novelty of the landscape. I’ve never seen such wide stretches of green land with no sign of human life. 

sorry southern Illinois :/

We stopped at a community center slightly off the road for lunch, relaxed for a while and ate our traditional bagel + protein + hummus combo. We then headed out to our destination for the day: the Stafford RV Park. Upon arriving we slightly changed plans and legally stealth camped at the nearby Highway 50 rest area. Celebrating the 4th there was definitely a first for everyone.

We quickly set up camp and kicked off our celebration with grilled hot dogs, chips, and salsa. JD, who was on Driver Duty for the day, brought back a few surprises like sparklers, spray cheese, and French onion dip. We also celebrated by playing a few rounds of Make it Meme, a meme game that has become a Spokes staple.

A little introspection moment because my blog read time is too short: Celebrating the US felt particularly special this year as 1) I usually don’t celebrate it and 2) I’ve been feeling really grateful for this country as I’m seeing more of it. I've lived here for 2.5 years and had never truly appreciated it because I was always subconsciously comparing it to other places I'd lived in. Spokes has made me realize how amazing this country is, and now it has skyrocketed to the best place on earth in my eyes.