Overbrook, KS -> Emporia, KS – 61.9 miles 1,602 ft
“Herding cats” is how our Overbrook host Scott described the MIT Spokes group getting ready in the morning. We rushed to pack our car because we had a special engagement this morning, visiting Scott’s retirement community. Joseph’s glove also went missing in the laundry so hopefully we will find those soon. We biked over to the retirement center, and Scott took our breakfast orders while we chatted with the retired folks about their interests and lives in the community. I’m glad we had the opportunity to interact with the local folks more.
Classic Sarah Star
Yesterday was so amazing that it didn’t seem real. I am still thinking about the amazing hot tub, but today’s rain is a reminder that the world is temperamental. Speaking of temperamental, so is my body. My period cramps forced me to ride in the car today despite my intention to bike. This frustrated me because I like being able to accomplish the tasks I set out to do. However, I knew that if someone else were in my position, I would tell them to rest.
Ruth is the driver today and I trust her to get things done. We got in the car and said goodbye to Scott and the retirement center while the bikers set off to our first rest stop. Ruth started watching Straw and I took a nap. Many others had the same idea because Charles and Joseph also took a nap at the first rest stop.
The second rest stop brought stories of many adventures. The address pointed to a private property again, so Ruth interacted with a stranger (out of character for her) to find a different place to park. We don’t want an incident like yesterday to happen again. Ishaq arrived first because he was trying to best his personal record. The bikers told us about a closed trail that sent them to the street. However, they couldn’t figure out how to return to the trail which kept them on a windy highway for longer than comfortable. Ramona crossed a yellow-taped, do-not-enter bridge. Luckily the bridge did not collapse. If we lost Ramona, we might not go on.
The flatness of Kansas brought about other challenges. Apparently, the bikers faced a 20-mph headwind all day. While today was not the longest ride, it was a tiring day for many Spokies. However, I wouldn’t know what it’s like because I was asleep in the car all day.
Vickie, our host, welcomed us into Didde Catholic Center which had a kitchen, laundry machines, and a shower. What more could we ask for? She permitted us to set off fireworks and told us stories about other visitors to the center. She locked up after us after giving us a key for for easy access to the center. The basement of the center is a child’s dream. It had a switch, a ping pong table, foosball, air hockey, and a pool table. What more could we ask for?
Because Scott was so kind and gave us amazing activities and food for the actual Fourth of July (Yesterday). The Spokes Fourth of July was decided to be set on the fifth of July. The festivities began with Ruth cutting open a watermelon for all to enjoy. Our chefs Charles and Ramona made burgers for dinner. I made peach cobbler (despite having never eaten one) and salad. Many Spokies hadn’t had peach cobbler before so thankfully the taste didn’t matter. Ruth picked up some vital groceries for the dinner crew. We also finally started New York Times’ 36 questions to fall in love during this dinner. Last year’s Spokes recommended them to us. Maybe we will fall in love with each other after we finish these questions. I sure hope so. Otherwise, I am going to sue NYT.
After an intermission of washing dishes, air hockey, and ping pong, the Spokies started setting off firecrackers, sparklers, smoke balls, and Roman candles. Ishaq taunted Greta with a Roman candle which scared Greta enough to run. She fell after slipping on some fine gravel but luckily, she was alright. Clint Lawler (Greta’s Dad) will not be happy with Ishaq after reading this blog. Charles had a (brilliant?) idea to tape a crayon smoke bomb to his bike. He biked around the Didde Center parking lot while his bike farted.
We finished the fireworks activities with a fireworks show. I set off a big fireworks shell for the first time in my life! Our neighbor also had a couple of fireworks shows. Watching these fireworks go off in the night sky, I felt a strange sense of belonging. All these people around me were only strangers a few months ago. The word fate comes to mind. Looking into the night sky filled with transient sparks of light, I couldn’t help but feel the ephemeral connection between the eight of us this one summer like the brilliant fireworks. Short, but cozy and filled with beauty.
Kansas City, MO to Overbrook, KS — 77.6 mi, 3,363 ft
Happy 4th of July!
The morning starts out normal. We say we’ll leave at 8am, and we actually do a pretty good job of it. At 8:30am, I see everyone except Joseph leave, and I hurry to get on my bike and catch them. Unfortunately, my bike computer is acting up. Charles helps me fix it, and I zoom ahead, two minutes behind the others, determined to catch up.
2.5 miles into my ride, I realize I am going in the COMPLETE OPPOSITE DIRECTION as everyone else. I only notice because some road blockage forces me to reroute, my bike computer glitches, and I check Life360 to see which direction to head. I slightly freak out once I see that everyone is miles to the south of me.
A historically accurate diagram of where I was this morning
I decide to navigate with Google Maps instead, and head towards Joseph’s last known location. Sarah calls me to check in, I tell her that I’m probably fine, and I make my way to rest stop 1 alone. I’m convinced Charles sabotaged my bike computer ✋
On my solo ride, I get to see some cool things, like crazy Kansas City mansions and the start of the 4th of July bike parade.
Pretty view
I get to Krispy Kreme to several Spokies waiting for me. I rant about my defective bike computer, go pee, then head out with Ramona, who patiently waited for me. We spend the ride talking about Latvian rock operas, debating about school uniforms, and shouting in tunnels.
Ramona dancing at rest stop 2
While biking to rest stop 3, we pass two small children sitting on the grass with bikes suspiciously similar to ours. I realize it’s Sarah and Joseph! Sarah tells me that everything is good, but I later find out that Joseph hurt his back (sounds like you need to work on your core, man).
While biking to rest stop 4, I see a cop car zoom by. Suspicious, I think.
I get to the rest stop, tired from the uphills and the heavy headwind, and confused why it’s a mile ahead of schedule. Ramona didn’t notice the change, so she blows by the rest stop, and a cop car chases her down to tell her to turn around. Why a cop car, you might be wondering. Boy, do I have a crazy story for you:
Apparently, Charles, Ishaq, and Greta arrive to rest stop 4, blissfully unaware. Charles peeks into all the windows of the glass blowing shop we decided to have a rest stop at. A couple minutes later, a sheriff pulls up. She tells them that the man who owns the shop got so freaked out by Charles looking inside that he got his gun ready and was prepared to shoot. They stood there in silence while the deputy sorted things out, then Charles moved the rest stop a mile forwards while Ishaq and Greta continued biking.
So now you know that the cop car was zooming after our resident Spokie delinquents. Also fun fact, remember how Charles sabotaged me? Well, this had lasting effects. Because of my 5 mile delay and the fact that Charles ditched us to go to Lawrence, KS, to visit his birth hospital, Greta and Ishaq were so far ahead of the rest of the group that they kept on leaving rest stops before Charles got there. Ishaq rationed his water, so when he got to rest stop 4, he chugged 2 Sprites and 2 bottles of water and an apple, and promptly puked.
Anyways, Ramona and I finally get to the Warmshowers host, and we shower and get settled. Our host, Scott, offers us pizza and wings. We get in the hot tub, relax, then watch fireworks in the driveway post-sunset. Great 4th of July 🙂
Hi, Ishaq here 👋. Happy first of July and have Tour de France eve eve eve eve. What a day today was. The pace was slow, the vibes immaculate, and the falls even more so. All in all a chill century ride with loads of fun time.
Our journey begins in Sedalia, Missouri where we hop back on the Katy trail, where we’ll stay for pretty much the rest of the day. But we had a nice rest stop at a cafe where I got a large pineapple limeade Italian soda. Delicious way to instantly hit my daily recommended added sugar intake. But continuing on we hop back on the trail and start playing Mr. White. Our favorite gaem for the day works by havign us all pass around Charles’ phone and getting a word. All civilians have the same word, 2 people, the under covers, have a different word, and Mr. White gets no word. No one is directly told their role except Mr White and we all have to go around giving clues in order to vote out Mr. White before they get the civilian word and vote out the under cover members. On the other hand, the goal of Mr. White and the under cover members are to survive as long as they can.
Now that you know the game, you can begin to understand just how I was repeatedly wronged over the course of this ride. Every time my turn rolled around I’d drop the most elite hints and no one would get them. I personally think its a skill issue. For example, I had Lord of the Rings as my word, so I, with a very sensible line of logic, said “Professor X” (Professor X -> Magneto -> Ian McKellan -> Gandalf). Little did I know, none of the other spokies know X-men! Actually criminal. So I made it FAR more simple for round 2 and dropped “Eagles” (Gandalf always calls the eagles to save the day in LOTR). Once again even the so called “LOTR readers” didn’t get it. I was ultimately voted out for my “suspicious answers” and we civilians lost the round ☹️. Even worse, Ruth’s insufficient knowledge of the intelligence of aquatic mammals threw me on the chopping block again (She claims whales aren’t smart).
In the middle of our grand group ride a few whoopsies happened. First off, I sadly slipped off the trail, took a ride in the bushes, and fell back on to the trail. Really tough, I though I was going to survive spokes unscathed, but I have now acquired scrapes on my right knee and elbow. The team, of course, laughed at me, however, my fall was topped by Charles just a couple of hours later. While setting up a new game of Mr. White, he clipped a metal post and was launched off his bike. He lied there, motionless, all of us thinking the worst. He says he hit his head and the worst was spinning but recovered as we ushered him to a nearby table. He actually re-scraped an old scab on his elbow so we hit it with the wettest stingiest alcohol swab which had him squealing in pain. Once we were sure he was okay we all had a good laugh about the sound of the fall and the scene we observed in the aftermath. Maybe we’re horrible people for finding joy in the misfortune of our friends. Maybe we are just a generation conditioned on epic fail complications 🤷🏾♂️. Either way, its funny because we were all okay in the end.
After tending to the wounds of the fallen, we stopped playing Mr. While and I was now incredibly tired of biking for the day. This is where I innovated. Using two bungee cords I secured my iPad to my handlebars to enable a peak watching experience on the bike. Granted I did not want to watch anything actually good that would require mental energy to enjoy so I put on the Netflix adaptation of the popular game series Devil May Cry. I was very disappointed because at no point in the 4 episodes I watched did a devil cry. But, I suppose thats what makes it interesting: maybe a devil will cry, maybe not 🤷🏾♂️. The other spokies were all haters, thinking that I would fall or my iPad would drop, but I literally have a degree in engineering from MIT so pretty confident in the setup. I followed Ruth and Ramona because the iPad partially covered my bike computer.
At the end of the day we rode into Kansas City and I hada great time zooming down the city roads at sunset. We got to our large Airbnb where Sarah made us all grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner, then we spokies dispersed for our bedtime endeavors.
St. Louis, MO to Jefferson City, MO, 125.1 mi 3840 ft or 74.1 mi 2239 ft
The sun rose at 5:40am over St. Louis; me and Greta rose at 5 am sharp. We had a long day ahead of us. 130 miles ahead of us. No joke.
I did not get a picture of the sunset, because I was busy getting ready: losing a glove, finding my other pair of gloves, then finding the lost glove again and other stuff of that sort. But we rolled out at 6am sharp. It was surprisingly warm, but we were optimistic. The plan was for us to bike self supported for the first 50 or so miles, then meet up with the rest of the group, who would leave afterwards and shuttle ahead to reduce the milage. (Huge thanks to Nora and Alex for making this happen!)
The team with our hosts in the morning ->
So that’s what we did. We started off going through St. Louis, seeing more parts of the city we explored yesterday, when the sun went away and it started raining. Not heavily, but consistently. This was new. We were used to the afternoon thunderstorms, but now we finally got a simple rainy day. At around mile 27 we got on the Katy trail… where we would continue for the rest of the day. The Katy trail, which used to be part of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (also known as the Katy, this is where the name comes from) at 260 miles total distance, mostly by the Missouri river, is the longest developed rail-trail in the US. It is fine gravel, used by cyclists, runners and walkers, with occasional bathrooms and benches maintained. No water fountains, but we asked for some at a restaurant and also realised that we don’t really drink nearly as much in the cool rain. In the rain, the gravel got nice and mushy, which had the effect of reduced speed and muddy backs.
Mile 80 marker and funny looking plantsThe bustling restaurant which kindly filled the water bottles of two muddy cyclists.Greta and the dirt on her back.
Despite this gloomy atmosphere, we had a great time! We chatted, played some tunes on Greta’s legendary hanging speaker, including The Sound of Music soundtrack in its entirety, as well as playing the Picnick game – a great invention and amazing way to pass the time. (If someone already explained it in their blog or if you know what it is, feel free to skip ahead.) The way it works is one person comes up with a criteria to decide if a noun is YES or NO (eg. is alive?, had more than 8 letters?, etc.). Then the game alternates between them saying something they can bring and the other person asking if they can bring something else. The goal is for the other person to guess the criteria. I struggled on Greta’s criteria for more than 10 miles and did not get it. You can ask her about it. She got mine much faster, so I can tell you that the criteria was all words with and even number of syllables.
We also took in the scenery, saw some crazy blue birds and tackled a fallen tree. Mud was everywhere. (I later found sand in my washed bibs.)
blurry Missouri rivergreta tackling a fallen treemuddy shoes
Anyways, I think it was around mile 60 when we met up with the car for some lunch. We had packed a bunch of snacks, but its really nice to have actual food (dinner leftovers!). Time until lunch had flown very quickly, but afterwards it slowly started to slow down. Luckily the sun came out for a bit and Ishaq and Tian – our driver and passenger for the day – brought Greta some (lukewarm gas station) coffee.
lunchthe sun!greta, ishaq and the joy that coffee brings
We kept meeting up with the car until around mile 108, when Greta shuffled to our destination to take a call and I was left on the trail with my own thoughts. The sun had dissappeared again, my butt was hurting and my legs were done with this. The air was eerie and my podcast (about espionage) did not help (and there were way too many ads). But I persevered – changed my hand position on the handlebars too many times and worked on my leftover snacks.
s-patch-es and cinnamon toast crunchme and my snackslast i saw of the sun
Last miles went by slowly. Occasionally I thought I would be on this wet trail forever and contemplated making contact with the birds or bunnies. But that was not neccessary, since I did, in fact, make it to Jefferson City. Surreal. Crazy. Iconic.
Jefferson City rest stop on the Katy trailThe second to last climb – a spiralJefferson City
The sun set at 8:40pm over Jefferson City. I rolled in at around 8pm. Not that you could see the sun – for the most part, I could not be sure it was there. But I was sure that there was me, outside, on the Katy trail, scaring squirrels, frightening bunnies and thinking too many thoughts. Maybe I was the sun. My sun for that day was me. (read again: thinking too many thoughts)
Our rest for the night was Sarah’s place. And it was an amazing place for resting. I got hosed down, devoured dinner, got cuddles from Barbara (see below), showered and fell right asleep. I know some people stayed up to play some game, but I actually have only a very vague idea about how the rest of the team’s day had been. There is only so many hours in a day. And today, I spent them all biking.
Me and Barbara on the couchBarbara on the couch
(I don’t think a dog had ever cuddled up to me like Barbara did, missing her already.)
Murphysboro, IL to St. Louis, MO — 101.4 mi, 2540 ft
surprise suprise! sarah is back sooner than you thought! unfortunately (as you may have read a few blogs ago), tian took a nasty fall in some gravel, and is taking some time to recover in the car. if you did not get the Fall Out Boy reference in the title, today was our 1st of 3 century (or 100+ mile) rides! she gracefully gave up her blogging day so that we could hear about this feat from the biker’s perspective. get better soon tian!!! ❤️🩹❤️🩹 get cozy ‘cause this is a long one…
our day started bright and early around 6am at our warmshowers host jessica’s house. i had taken the time the night before to roll out my legs and stretch a bit, and i was definitely thanking my past self for that this morning. biking is tough on the legs, of course, but now that we are through the initial 2 weeks of general discomfort and soreness, there are other parts of my body that are starting to hurt that i was quite surprised about: my hands hurt from putting weight on the handles, then that tension extends to my shoulders and neck, my back will sometimes hurt from being hunched over for so long, my knees have started having some problems occasionally as well…i think stretching and rolling will be my saving grace, just gotta stay consistent ‼️ we had a lovely breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and fruit (which i washed down with some milk, per usual), got ready and packed, and set out around 7:30am—pretty close to our goal of 7am. we even got some team pictures before we left! good hustle spokes!!!
as we set off for our 1st of 7 legs of the day, i was feeling GREAT, and SUPER excited to take on the challenge of a century ride. i settled in with ishaq and greta, and we talked for a bit about how we envisioned our futures (living situation, family, etc.) charles eventually catches up, and we hit our 1st of only 4 climbs of the day (for context, in the hiller parts of virginia and kentucky, we could have up to 20-25 climbs over a 70-80 mile ride!!!) i am VERY curious how garmin calculates climbs: is it a specific ratio of distance to elevation gain that must be met? a certain bar of grade? what are the garmin gods doing?? 🙂↕️ anyways, our longest one was up first, about 1.5 miles: i consider anything above 0.5 miles to be a considerate distance, so i was not a super happy camper going into this. even with ishaq’s beckoning to catch up, i eventually fall behind the group. as probably our slowest climber, “spokes is a marathon, not a sprint” is a mantra i have to repeat to myself very often. towards the end of the climb, though, i see ishaq coming back down the other side of the highway. “why is he back here? is there a route problem? is someone hurt?” are all questions racing through my mind. turns out, he came back to help me finish the climb! the extra support (both physically and mentally) truly made my ride, and reminded me that spokes is something we are all in together, no matter our various abilities, strengths, or weaknesses 🥰 we spent the next few miles attempting to catch up to greta and charles, and while it was in vain, we made it to the 1st rest stop very speedily. i ate an apple (skin and all—shocking to some of you, i know), and we played on the playground, naturally. there was a shoe kicking competition on the swings between ishaq and charles, but both we’re quickly humbled once greta—a “real shoe kicking demon” (as dubbed by charles)—came into the ring. as some of the others start playing some complicated version of monkey in the middle invented by middle school charles, ramona, ruth, and i take the opportunity to start the next leg.
yummy
ramona w/ her cookie 🍪
my apple
park!
we love centripetal force 🌀💥
results of the shoe throwing competition
not gonna lie, i was FLYING down the 2nd leg: with the combined power of music and flat, straight ground, i was cruising around 17-20mph, putting down laps of 5 miles in around 17.5 minutes. this leg held sights of the occasional patches of wildflowers and a few sets of train tracks, which were lovely! i pulled into the 2nd rest stop singing “I Bet You Think About Me” by Taylor Swift (ft. Chris Stapleton), munched on one half of my DELICIOUS egg salad sandwich (less than after i sadly dropped some on the pavement :((), tried and failed to find a bathroom, took a generous donation of electrolyte tablets from joseph, then proceeded to the 3rd (and my favorite rest stop): a coffee shop 🙏🏻
for the 3rd leg, i decided to switch it up a bit and try to watch TV while biking—specifically the first 2 episodes of dan dan dan i had downloaded on netflix. while i had almost finished the 1st episode a few months ago, i decided to just start from the beginning. while this strategy works on side streets, it’s a bit too much on busy roads and highways, so i ditched television for the last few miles and went back to music. lately i’ve been listening to high tempo, high energy pop to keep my rpm up, especially on flatter, more boring stretches (if you got any recs, drop em! plz i’m desperate). eventually i make it into town, and i see that garmin wants me to bike straight into a building. huh? i laugh and assume that this building is new and hasn’t been updated into garmin’s maps yet, manually reroute, and eventually make it to the car, where ramona and ruth are also ranting to joseph (our main route planner) and tian about the aforementioned route error. we eventually all make our way into steam coffee house, get drinks and food, and settle down for a longer break. i start digging into my 2nd lunch—some of last nights curry with rice, chicken, and plantains—along with an iced chai latte with raspberry and apple cinnamon muffin i had bought from the cafe. we all do taste tests of each other’s food and drinks (like usual), calculate how much of our personal funds we’ve spent on spokes (props to tian for being at only $7!!!), then wander back out at of course the hottest part of the day to keep going 🔥 🔥
egg salad 🍳
lunch!!!
we’ve come a long way! ⚡️
i honestly can’t remember much from the 4th leg. whoops. while heading out of sparta, i catch up to the car before it turns into walmart for a grocery run, take a selfie, then keep chugging along. later on, the head winds start to dampen my spirits a bit, things start to hurt, and in the distance, amidst dark clouds, i see a few bolts of lightning. yikes. i make it to the church for our 4th rest stop, the rest of the team arrives a few minutes later, and THEN the car pulls up. we all give them a hard time, saying we had been there for half and hour already (it had only been max 10 minutes), then all sit down in the shaded grass to chat. i snack on the newly purchased dried mangos. we all talk and laugh, and while i can’t remember what it was about or why, all you need to know is that this is a pretty usual thing for us :))
some views
some more views 🌽
dried mango for snack :))
as i head out for the 5th leg, i call my twin sister brooke for the 4th time, and she FINALLY answers. we we’re supposed to call while i was biking and she was running, but she tells me she slept in and decided to run at night instead. now, she is tanning outside while watching the 3rd season of squid games that had dropped that day, which she eventually hangs up on me to watch instead of keeping me occupied on my very long, very hard bike ride. rude 😐 i then call sierra, my best friend at MIT, and we catch up while she plays stardew valley. i nearly get hit by a flatbed truck that comes within 6 inches of my left leg, my life flashes before my eyes, and i eventually decide to let her go after my service gets spotty. i catch up to ruth and ramona right before the 5th rest stop, and as ruth announces that she is going to pee behind the van, and i complain about how i’ll have to wait until the next rest stop to go myself, we pull into the stop and realize it has a porta potty. yippee! this stop was some kind of track for flying model aircraft, and was the only thing within miles that could even be set as a marked rest stop, so we got really lucky. i was peacefully eating the 2nd half of my egg salad sandwich in the driver’s seat when joseph decided to check the radar and ruin my so far pretty decent ride: “yeah, it’s DEFINITELY going to rain before the next rest stop.” i grab my rain jacket out of my duffel, and after waiting forEVER to use the bathroom after a spokie that will remain anonymous (*cough* *cough* CHARLES *cough*), set out in a pack with ruth and ramona, straight into the storm ⛈️
joseph had mentioned that a few miles into this leg, we would hit a really nice bike trail that would lead us straight into st. louis, and that it would be best to make it onto the trail before any storms hit. we get onto the trail (before it storms!), and it is NICE. getting to bike on clean, designated paved lanes miles from any highway or road after almost getting hit by a gigantic automobile earlier in the day was a RELIEF. as we made our way into the city on maintained bike lanes, past speedy light rails, i felt very thankful for the innovation that is public transportation. while people in boston complain about “the T,” coming from las vegas (which has NOTHING), i think it is AMAZING. if the T has no fans, i fear i am 6 feet under. after i get a call from joseph with a VERY IMPORTANT question (the color of sun glasses he was buying for me), and charles gets a scam call about a seized package of his in texas (he hasn’t had anything shipped in days), the “storm safety” groups get a bit mixed up, so i start riding with charles, while the pairs of ishaq and greta and ramona and ruth go on ahead. it sprinkles on and off, but we don’t get hit with anything NEARLY as bad as we have had in the past few weeks. PHEW. charles and i talk about pets and other things, we make our last climb, and turn into the family dollar just outside of eastern st. louis (the part still in illinois). i take a look at and approve the glasses that joseph and tian bought for me (thanks guys!), chug a strawberry milk to get a jump start on my protein intake and recovery for the night 🍓 and start making my way to the arch with the terrific trio once again consisting of myself, ramona, and ruth.
storm chaser-core
more egg salad
shame 🫵🏻
rain jacket 🌧️
my new cycling glasses!
🍓🍓
after being on city streets for a few miles and getting a few light honks with seemingly mixed signals (a polite request to move over? a gentle encouragement to keep going? we’re going to be optimistic), we start seeing the arch popping in and out of view in the distance! a friend of mine said it was underwhelming, but i thought it was pretty cool (no hate to you, sierra!) as we start crossing the bustling bridge into missouri and st. louis proper, ruth—our life-long boston native—is BEAMING with joy at being in a real city again. “the buildings are big and tall!” she cries! i love cities myself, but my fear of being within inches of speeding cars took over, and i gently asked her if she could stop breaking to take pictures and videos so we could get off the bridge faster. love you ruth!!! 💗
finally, we enter a grassy, wooded park, and as the tree line breaks, we at LAST see the arch towering above us, set over an open area with the mississippi river on the left, and the city of st. louis on the right. i had looked on apple maps earlier in the day to get a solid idea of how far we had biked into the united states, but this truly solidified how far we had actually gone! joseph and tian eventually join us from the car on their bikes, we take pictures, some of us buy stickers at the gift shop, and we start the last 5 miles of our journey to our warmshowers hosts!!
we love parks! 🌳
hello ramona!
ruth’s bridge 💗
spokes ft. the arch
did you know the arch is the smallest national park in the united states?
about a mile out from our hosts and JUST before i officially hit the 100 mile mark, my dad calls me! he tells me about an emergency simulation event he went to at the local military hospital through his honorary commander position with the air force base in vegas, and says i’ll be a great er doctor one day. i let him know that my garmin beeped to signal i had hit 100 miles, he congratulates me on my 1st century, and i let him go once i make it to our hosts place. to have so many supportive people in my life—whether it be my family, friends, classmates, track teammates, and now my fellow spokies—on my side while i pursue these big goals i have set for myself—biking across the country, vaulting higher than ever, graduating MIT and going to medical school, and simply becoming the best possible version of myself—is truly the biggest blessing in my life ❤️
we get settled in with our host for the night nora, who makes us pasta (spaghetti and penne, because she understands like me that spaghetti is not a top-tier pasta) (i will die on this hill) with meatballs and salad for dinner. she gets us hooked on love island, we meet her 2 dogs and 2 cats (one of them being a maine coon that kept rubbing up on me that is NOT helping with my distant dream of owning one, even though i am SERIOUSLY allergic to cats), and—after a bit of logistics reworking and GRACIOUS help from our host—the spokies eventually decide to stay in st. louis another day! we all get ready for bed, and i crash the bed duo of ruth and ramona, squishing 3 people in a 2 person bed (thanks guys), exhausted but excited for the next day’s rare opportunity to explore rather than just pass through 🏙️
YAYYY
post-ride electrolytes
FIRE. post-ride fuel
glued to love island 🏝️
cats :))
…ok i know this was a long one. sorry!!! it was 100 miles, there was bound to be a lot of story to tell! to go back to my short tangent from earlier, though, this wouldn’t be the story it is without the people. joseph mentioned a few blogs ago the sentiment that quite a few hosts have shared with us that we seem to be an especially close-knit group (spokes or otherwise), and i couldn’t agree more. i am thinking back now to a few months ago when i first got accepted to spokes—realizing i’d be gone my whole first summer home from college, i considered trying to push off my acceptance to the next year, or even take the chance and apply again the year after, not knowing if i’d ever get accepted again. now, i can’t imagine having done this with anyone else. a big thank you to my fellow spokies for everything—from cooking meals, refilling waters, and fixing bikes to providing much needed encouragement, perpetually lending a hand (figuratively and literally), and sharing so. much. laughter. i’ll probably miss that the most once this is all over 🥲
ANYWAY, this thing is NOT yet over, not even CLOSE, so here’s to TAKING RISKS and STAYING PRESENT!!! see you next time as we continue to make our way across missouri from jefferson city to sedalia!
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.
where we slept the night in Madisonville, KY
the shampoo incident
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.
Charles riding along the corn fields
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.
Crossing the Ohio River over the Shawneetown Bridge
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.
The ice cream stop posting us on their Facebook
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.
Sunset at Sherry’s house in Harrisburg
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.
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 shereally 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 everyonewe’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.
my epic snack bag: granola, almonds, banana chipsjoseph: lubemaster
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…
ruth hogging all the shade to read her bookenjoying the coveted car acsarah… hard at work or hardly working?leftover sweet potato noodles from tian’s dinnerguess the pizza’s wattage
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!)
narrowly avoided death by barrel racehello in therenonchalant ishaqhire me chipotlelazy bumssay cheese!
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.
hydration maxxingdead to the worldcar queen
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?
tian’s smile says it allokkk ishaq
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…
Mammoth Cave National Park, KY to Bowling Green, Kentucky — 32.7 mi, 1,342 ft
I woke up and gleefully announced my sleep score of 79 to the other campers. What changed, Ruth? you might be asking. Didn’t you have horrendous sleep for the past two weeks? How did your sleep score triple in a single day? The answer: sleeping in the car. I highly suggest you try it sometime.
In all seriousness, somehow sleeping upright was just what I needed to successfully sleep through the night without waking myself up in a coughing fit. I felt good enough that I was ready to tackle the day’s bike ride, all 33 miles of it. But first, we decided to do a self-guided tour of Mammoth Cave, totally not because we didn’t plan ahead enough to book a guided tour.
The cave was cool (literally) and had surprisingly more historical relevance than I would’ve expected. It contains minerals like saltpetre that are essential for gunpowder formation, and enslaved people were forced to mine it in the 1800s.
We waited in a line for 5 minutes to see some northern & southern cave fish, got to the front of the line, realized there were no fish, then left wondering about the human psychology of queues.
We left the cave, spent an absurdly long time getting ready to leave (Greta ate a whole sandwich), then finally got biking to our one and only rest stop. Although I was having difficulty breathing on the uphills, Greta and Ishaq were kind enough to bike with me for the 15 short miles.
You can’t tell but I’m dying next to Ishaq and Greta
We made it to the vast expanse of the rest stop parking lot, found the bikers ahead of us, located Charles, our driver for the day, then all stared at the looming logo above us: we made it to BUC-EES.
Yooo it’s Charles, remember me? From yesterday? The poor guy whose blog got hijacked? Well I’m back to dish out some sweet revenge and, more importantly, write about my favorite place in the entire world1 — the epitome of American consumerism — Buc-ees.
BUC-EE’S! BUC-EE’S! For the unenlightened, Buc-ee’s is a gas station chain known for its endless chain of gas station stalls, its huge convenience stores, and squeaky clean bathrooms. It’s Costco meets Disneyland meets gas station at the peak of the mountain that is modern Americana. They own world records for largest convenience store, longest car wash, most gas station stalls, etc. If the scale still isn’t setting in for you, let me add that it’s primarily a Texas chain. ‘Nuff said.
A fraction of the gas station stalls
Shoutout the Smith’s Grove Kentucky Buc-ee’s
I’d been raving about Buc-ee’s to the team for like the past week, so everyone’s expectations were high. I was especially hyped for Ramona’s encounter with Buc-ee’s because she is very easily impressed by the US’ innovations in vice culture. S’mores, ice cream floats, scratch-off tickets, Camel Crushes. And… laundromats (“like they spin… and it’s so cool”)? Maybe she’s just easily impressed in general. I also secretly suspect word about the industrial revolution has not yet reached Latvia.
After locking up our bikes in a big bike pile, we go into the store, which is big enough to lose track of people very quickly. I use the wonderful restrooms, then pick up a triple meat sandwich (sausage + brisket + turkey). I devour the sandwich outside as everyone sits down at the spot with their Buc-ee’s purchases. I ask about everyone’s impressions. “Overstimulating,” “awesome,” and “MURICA” are common refrains.
Ishaq recaps his Buc-ee’s haul (“I went in and just went full consumer mode”) before I go in for a second time to buy a round of treats for myself. I wind up buying fresh glazed nuts, cherry maple jerky, assorted sours, peanut butter and caramel popcorn with cinnamon, and milk chocolate covered raisins 😋.
Bike pile
Me eating my triple meat sandwich
Joseph showing off his own triple meat sandwich
Glazed nuts were so good I only thought to take a picture when there were two left
Rest of Buc-ee’s haul
View from the parking lot
Ramona mid-slurp
One happy camper
As the bikers get ready to leave, I go in for a *third* Buc-ee’s trip to buy some beer for our rest day chillaxing. (spoiler alert: they did not make it to the rest day). Ramona is in fact impressed by Buc-ee’s. So impressed she buys merch on the spot.
Ruth’s back! (wooo the crowd goes wild)
I’m feeling extremely stuffed from my brisket sandwich, but I gather myself and hop on my bike. Ishaq is feeling lazy and joins Charles in the car, but Greta’s vow to stay with me throughout the day doesn’t waver. She plays my 2000s hits playlist, “dancing in my room,” and we jam along for the next 17 miles. Somewhere along the way, Ramona joins us, and now all three of us are jamming. Per usual, flash rain about 3 miles out from our final destination attempts to derail us. We bike through the downpour and come out the other side completely soaked and smiling wildly – mostly Greta, who “loves this type of weather.” We play tag with the rain for a bit, see a ground rainbow, then finally make it to what I can only describe as the best Airbnb to ever exist.
We enter the glorious estate and lay claims to bedrooms and showers. Ramona and I struggle to work the record player, then realize Charles and Ishaq tried the same thing half an hour earlier with no success.
Record player: 1. Me and Ramona: 0
After Charles and Ishaq return from grocery shopping, we start making dinner. Music is blasting (from a speaker😔) and spirits are high. The sun is setting, the sky is beautiful, and the fireflies come out.
General merriment
We eat mac and cheese, turkey bacon, salad, watermelon, and banana/olive oil brownies, and stay up all night watching 21 Jump Street, playing card games, and just talking. It’s ok, we have a rest day tomorrow.
1 I actually wrote a full essay praising Buc-ee’s my junior spring.
Liberty, KY to Mammoth Cave National Park, KY – 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 🙊).
Bro is cackling at my downfall
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.
Diabetes sandwich from two days ago; I did not take a picture of my sandwiches today
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.
At long last
Dinner 😋🏕️
Boo
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 can’t I breathe??
This was my first thought waking up in the church in Liberty, Kentucky, where we spent the night. I’ve 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 shouldn’t bike. But I couldn’t decide, and I really didn’t 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 couldn’t prolong it any longer, I announced to the team that I didn’t think I could bike. Everyone was very supportive, probably because they care for my health more than I do, let’s 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 I’d have to take for the rest of the day – 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 didn’t 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 Ishaq’s 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 Lee’s 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 who’s 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.
cute bookstore in Campbellsville
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 owner’s 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 couldn’t 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. Ishaq’s 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 she’s 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 don’t 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.
Amish horse drawn carriage spotted!
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 she’s vegan). While eating and making s’mores, we told impressively crafted ghost stories, except for the fact that several people didn’t think of endings and just stopped telling the story right at the denouement. What happened to the butler, Ishaq?!?
I have gotten into the (bad) habit of using fellow Spokies as alarms. I woke up and saw Ramona still in bed. I fell back asleep and repeated this process 4 times before Greta (bless her) barged into the room, and woke everyone up. Greta soared up the list of top Spokes drivers today because she made everyone oatmeal for breakfast. Sometimes I forget how such a simple breakfast food item could be so yummy with the right toppings. Speaking of being the top driver, she accomplished something phenomenal, making everyone pack their lunches the night before. I knew how much time doing errands the night before saves, but I haven’t gotten everyone on the same page. However, I learned that building relationships and trust is important in order to influence others (cue evil laugh). I was astounded by Greta’s magic, and very VERY pleased.
Spoon is Ramona
The first 30 miles passed like a breeze, but soon after I faced a very unfortunate dilemma. I needed to use the bathroom. Not only that, I needed to poop without any toilet paper. At first, I wasn’t panicking because I had been in this position many times before. I simply need to find a gas station or an unsuspecting soul mowing their lawn and borrow their bathroom (I know, I know, entering strangers’ homes is not the smartest idea). As I trudged along, I spotted a gas station to the left of the road, but I hate crossing busy highways. I moved on hoping to find a gas station on the right side of the road. Kentucky is a state of barking dogs who hate bikes. Lady Luck showed her face a few miles later. An old lady was sitting on her porch. However, her barking dogs scared me away and I didn’t get a chance to ask about the bathroom. After a few more miles, panic started to set in. Around the corner, I encountered an older gentleman with 3 barking dogs. Still, my desperation encouraged me to ask him about his restroom, to which he replied, “We don’t have water right now.” I left, disappointed. Soon after, I realized I should have asked for some toilet paper. After a couple of hills, I broke down. I NEED TO USE THE RESTROOM. I couldn’t see any houses for a mile, and then finally, I saw a gated home with a car parked outside. I thought to myself that someone must be at home. I unlatched the gate and rang the doorbell. Multiple times. All the while thinking that I am going to be shot for crossing into private property. The baby toys in the yard gave me hope that this family wouldn’t hurt me. But most animals are known to be protective and defensive of their young. No answer. I got back onto the road in pain. I don’t know how many more pedals I got in before I threw my bike on the side of the road, squatted on the side to relieve myself, and tried my best to avoid the 3 leaved poison ivies. I held my breath hoping that no cars would come down the road. It turns out, dried leaves are great toilet paper. As soon as I finished my business, I skedaddled away so no one would be able to tell that the poop on the side of the road was human and not dog poop.
I enjoyed lunchtime at rest stop 3, but the heat was getting to me and I was having a slow day. Meanwhile, Charles ate one of the crazy sandwich concoctions that Ruth made for him the night before. Greta was interviewing for everyone’s Rose Thorn Bud of Spokes for her blog. Ishaq was nowhere to be seen because he was a solo bird today.
The next stretch to Dollar General was unbearable. My legs weren’t pushing as it usually does and I couldn’t find my cycling rhythm. I could feel my vision getting blurry as I pulled up to a stop sign on a hill. At the stop sign, I saw a car moving towards me as I tried to turn left. I didn’t stop. Surely, the car would stop for me. But the car didn’t. The car got closer and closer. I blinked at the alarming sight and my mind suddenly cleared up. Oh no, what am I doing? The car swerved and screeched past me. Whew. That was a close call. Yesterday, I also had a close call with a van on the wrong lane who was driving straight towards me after a bend. However, this close call shook me more because I was in the wrong. I should have stopped at the stop sign. My lack of mental faculties frightened me.
I reached the Dollar General rest stop 4 with a sense of relief. I asked my fellow Spokies for advice on relieving dizziness. I was pampered with chewable electrolytes and an energy gel by today’s driver Greta. She asked me if I wanted to get driven. A wave of relief washed over me. I almost shed a tear, but I cried on this team too much already so I kept it in. I have done distances as long as today’s route before, so the fact I couldn’t finish the route was very disappointing. I wanted to push for 10 more miles. If the rest of my team could do it, why couldn’t I? But rationally, what is the point of biking for a few more miles on a random day in Kentucky when I know I am not feeling my best? For one reason or another, today is not my day. My mind and my body were at their limits. And so, I retreated into the car, thankful that I didn’t have to bike the rest of the 30 miles.
At rest stop 5, I took a nap while Greta went for a run (she is crazy). When I woke up, the rest of the team arrived after conquering a crazy hill on their way. I was grateful that I didn’t have to battle that hill today. Ruth arrived all sniffy, but feeling powerful. She has been sick for the last few days so I don’t know how she has been managing.
We wrapped up the day at the Liberty Assembly of God Church. Ishaq broke a vase when he arrived at the church. I don’t know how he managed that, but the church was kind and let it slide. Greta made us an amazing meal of chili while Ramona made cornbread and Ishaq made rice. I did some pre-eating cleanup while Ruth and Charles took care of the post-eating cleanup. Sarah gathered laundry and Joseph made the route for tomorrow. We all made sandwiches for tomorrow and had a productive meeting to set our leaving time as 9 am. Spokes 2025 to my surprise has slowly become a well-oiled machine. There are still creaks and clunks here and there, but everyone is pitching in to make things happen. I realize that when I struggle against the current, I gasp for air, but if I float in the rushing waves, I may be brought to shore. I need to choose carefully when to fight or float, or I may drown.
I tucked into my bed next to Ramona. She seemed to be the only team member immune to my snoring. I drifted to sleep not knowing that the sleep demon was out to get me this night (I fell off my bed).
MIT Spokes 2025 