MIT Spokes 2026

Tag: driving-day

  • Day 18: BUSS*-EEs

    Day 18: BUSS*-EEs

    Mammoth Cave, KY to Bowling Green, KY — 35.6 mi, 1393 ft

    Reading the latest blogs, it feels like emotional whiplash the way the team has experienced the lowest of lows and highest of highs together, often within the span of a couple hours. In the last week, I crashed headfirst into a tree, Caroline got bit by a dog, Tatiana sprained her ankle, Nate/Tatiana/Drew battled through a literal war zone of rabid dogs, Nunu/Drew’s butts have been on fire, Caroline/me’s numb hands are losing fine motor skills, we’ve all gotten some of the worst sleep of our life, and all while biking a few hundred miles. At the same time, we’ve rock scrambled up a gorgeous secluded emerald-moss-green waterfall that I stuck my face in and felt reborn, danced on top of stools on a splash pad in the middle-of-nowhere Kentucky pretending it was Ibiza, listened to Riptide around a bonfire on a warm summer night, slept in hammocks underneath the stars, and eaten free meal after free meal, all thanks to the kindness of dozens of strangers we’ve gotten the chance to meet. As the normalcy of this insane routine has been settling in, I’ve been forgetting lately that the rest of the world is still spinning as it usually does. My family is still following the same routine I’ve witnessed for ten years, my friends are still waking up to go work their internships every morning, my lab is still working on the research projects I left a month ago, and I’m in some la la land where my main concern is that my blog is late.*

    I’ve been lucky to have had some pretty amazing summers and IAPs in my four years at MIT, yet every time I come back to campus and get back into my normal semester routine, what had previously seemed like some of the best moments of my life quickly fade into some distant fever dream. I always wish I somehow had a better record of my life but I am ordinarily too lazy to actually do anything about it, so alas it has stayed merely a wish. Until this summer. And so, I will now describe to you today’s events in as much detail as I can muster.

    Carmen waking up at 7 at the campsite to write the incredibly detailed blog that inspired this post.

    It seems like everybody’s circadian rhythm has adjusted to the 6 AM daily wakeups, because  everyone was up around the campsite before Tatiana’s alarm rang at 9 AM, our latest wakeup of the summer. We were biking in the afternoon today because we booked a 11:45 AM Mammoth Cave Historical Tour. Today marked the HISTORIC RETURN OF SPOKES 2026 because for the first time in a week, everybody was ready to bike, in spite of lingering injuries and dog fears. It was the second shortest route of the summer, a beautiful 35-mile downhill, and I was the chud* who was driving it, selflessly switching my driving day with Tatiana so she could spend more time with her boyfriend Noah who was coming to visit this weekend. 

    Since nobody else wanted to drive, we had to return the extra car we had rented while half the team was sagged out these last few days. Nunu and I decided to make use of our later morning to go return it to our destination for the day, Bowling Green. I learned how to drive the massively wide ½-ton Ford F-150 pickup truck for the first time, checking the side view mirrors every fifteen seconds to make sure I was still barely within the lane lines. Nunu was driving our team minivan, whose overhead storage bag was now pretty empty as our camping gear had been taken out for the night. We’d previously run into some issues driving the minivan with a flaccid overhead bag (stuff falling out on a side road in Luray; the bag itself half falling off on the freeway in Elkhorn City…) yet we still didn’t think to remove it before starting off to BG. Speeding down I-65, I saw the back of the bag thumping up and down on the car roof, so I kept an extra careful eye on it to make sure nothing flew out. Unfortunately, I lost Nunu halfway down the interstate since I was driving cautiously with the F-150, until I get a call from her as I take the exit: the bag had completely unzipped on the highway. As I went to fill the truck up with gas, she took stock of what was left in the Enterprise parking lot. Two camping pillows, a sleeping pad, a camping chair, a hammock, and Caroline’s nice blanket had been lost in the wind (they were nowhere to be seen even when I drove down I-65 again later that day). Nunu and I drove back to the team feeling like serious chuds*; even the extra $100 the kind Enterprise lady gave back to us for returning our rental a day early didn’t improve our moods. The chud-est part of it all was that right as we pulled into our campsite, we felt the first drops of rainfall, and found out that there was a flood warning issued with thunderstorms predicted for all day. So we probably shouldn’t have even returned that extra rental car. 

    Just feeling like some chuds…

    We arrived five minutes after we were supposed to have been checked out of the campsite to our whole team suited up and ready to load the car. We threw everything in and biked to the national park’s visitor center, just barely making it to our tour group in time. 

    I actually really enjoyed the cave tour, which I spent goofing off saying stupid stuff to the rest of the team, making sure we stayed at the front of the line, taking really blurry photos to put in my blog, resisting the urge to touch every rock I walked past, and trying to remember everything the guide said so I can repeat it back to you all. The legend goes that Mammoth Cave was discovered by a guy named John Houchin, who stumbled upon its cool breeze while hunting a bear in 1797. The cave became a hotspot for saltpeter mining, a key ingredient in gunpowder, from 1810-1815, with the value of a pound of saltpeter increasing from two cents to a dollar to back to nothing in the span of those five years, as America cut itself off from trade with Great Britain during the War of 1812 and then went right back to it. In 1816, a year after everyone had abandoned the site, somebody who was looking to buy it came knocking, and the cave has been an active visitor tour site since. The cave is full of artifacts from indigenous people dating back to 5000 BCE, everything from stone tools to limestone tombs containing human bodies with skin and nails intact. It’s also the longest cave system in the entire world!! 

    Some amazing cave photography for you all

    That paragraph pretty much sums up everything we learned on the whole tour. After two hours of looking at rocks, we were famished as usual and we replenished our bodies with cheeseburgers and pizza at the overpriced visitor center cafe. Despite the thunderstorm forecast, we felt barely a few drops of rain so our fearless bikers decided to continue forward with the plan to bike, starting off around 3 PM (our latest start to date).

    As the driver, I instead went to the Mammoth Cave Post Office to mail the postcard I had picked up earlier in the visitor center to my family. As the performative young adult I am, I’ve collected postcards from wherever I’ve gone around the world but always just as wall decor. Thanks to WikiHow, I learned how to actually mail a postcard for the first time in Virginia, and, copying my teammates, I’m trying to send one to my family from every state (SURPRISE!). Now that I’ve found out how they’re actually meant to be used, postcards really are such a cute concept!! It feels like I’m slipping in a sweet secret surprise every time I slip the card through the slot of the blue USPS mailbox.

    After that, I drove to our one and only rest stop for the day: BUC-EE’s!!!!! I had been told by my fellow Texan teammates that BUC-EE’s was like if Costco was a gas station convenience store, like if the American Dream could come true from aisles of gummies and soda and fudge and brisket sandwiches, because there was nothing more American than the row of soda fountains only being available in 32 (L) or 44 oz (XL) cups—except maybe the rows and rows of AMERICA’S 250TH merch. As soon as I walked inside those doors, I lost myself. Red, white, and blue kool-aid ran through my veins as I ran through every aisle scoping my options, the white of my eyes as wide as saucer plates as I took in the enormity of the snack selection before me, and I thought to myself, how amazing what capitalism has done for our country. Nunu, Nate, and I finally settled on an electrolyte can, sour peach gummies, caramel popcorn, candied almonds, lemon soda, cheese and pretzels, and an XXL brisket sandwich. Caroline, Carmen, Drew, and Tatiana split another XXL brisket sandwich, rainbow-sprinkle cookie dough, dark chocolate caramel fudge, spicy pickles, watermelon, and Arizona soda. As we sat in a circle on the cement outside BUC-EE’s to devour our haul, the sudden amazement, patriotism, and greed for capitalism that took over me was quickly replaced by a fierce belief in communism: I held out my hand for a piece of every snack that every Spokes member had bought. Team tax isn’t cheap.

    When the bikers left for Bowling Green, I went straight for our Airbnb to unload all our bags. When I saw what greeted me upon arrival, I literally wept tears of joy and jumped for joy at the same time. Two neighboring townhouses, each with 3 full bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen with an island, a cozy living and dining room, in-unit laundry, and all brand spanking new. We each got our own bedrooms to sleep in. Let me repeat that: WE EACH HAD OUR VERY OWN BEDROOMS COMPLETE WITH A KING SIZE BED!!!! After cold campground nights and deflated air mattresses and three people crammed on sofa couches, this was genuinely heaven. I literally cannot thank our hosts enough: Sam, our thoughtful Bowling Green learning festival coordinator, and Adam and Lindsey, the couple who very kindly let us stay in their home for free.

    I singlehandedly unloaded every single thing in the car to make enough space for all eight seats in the car to go up, so we could drive around together on the following rest day + learning festival day. As I stocked the fridge with two of every kind of soda/drink we had so every possible option would be cold for the team upon arrival, I felt like a serious hero. Until I later realized that Tatiana’s boyfriend Noah was coming tomorrow with an extra rental car, and nobody really drank anything I had put in the fridge, so may be I was DTM*. I don’t mind though; my favorite part of being the driver is being able to do things that make the team happy.

    I joined the team at Thai Thai, where they had stopped 3 miles before the end for a free dinner graciously provided by the restaurant owners. After days of fried chicken in Kentucky, the vegetables and noodles and basil and fried rice seriously hit the spot. A huge huge thank you and shout out to Thai Thai of Bowling Green; the best Thai food I’ve had in a long time!

     Happy campers

    When we came back to the Airbnb, we allocated one hour of shower and blogging time until 10:30 PM, when the moment I had been waiting for for eighteen days finally came. I had genuinely been asking the team every single day what the move was tonight and if tonight was the night, to the point where it felt like I was Curry shooting from the moon hoping one night I make the basket, and the joke became that it would never happen all summer. I am talking, of course, about MOVIE NIGHT!!!!! 

    I was actually so excited I thought I would explode from happiness as Nunu put on We’re The Millers, a comedy about a small-time pot dealer turned international drug smuggler with the help of a fake family of four he put together (The Millers) to look less suspicious. Although half the team went to bed before the movie finished, I thought it was really funny so shoutout Nunu for a great pick.

    And then I also went to sleep, splayed out across my king bed in the master bedroom. It’s crazy how in one day you can wake up with every muscle feeling like lead in a sleeping bag that smells like feet and then end the very same day with all your dreams coming true.

    Sending love to you all as per usual,

    Aarushi

    *For reference I timed this blog and it took me 8 hours across 5 days (1, 3, 1, 1, 2). Hope you enjoyed the detail because this might never happen again.

    *In modern slang, “buss” (often used as “bussin”) means that something is excellent, impressive, or amazing. It is primarily used by Gen Z and younger generations to describe great food or a really fun experience. Common Usages: “This taco is bussin!” (The food tastes incredible.) “That party last night was bussin.” (The event was a lot of fun.) (citation: Google AI Overview, 2026).

    *In internet slang, a chud is a derogatory term used to insult someone perceived as boorish, unintelligent, or socially maladjusted. It comes from the 1984 sci-fi horror film C.H.U.D., which stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller—a movie about radioactive, man-eating sewer mutants. On platforms like Reddit, Twitter/X, and political forums, it is used to describe toxic, bad-faith internet trolls or far-right reactionaries.Outside of politics, it is often used similarly to words like “nerd,” “creep,” or “loser,” specifically implying that someone is physically unappealing, socially awkward, and terminally online. Interestingly, the term has recently been co-opted by some young internet users as a self-deprecating joke to describe themselves when feeling hopeless or “cringy”. (citation: Google AI Overview, 2026).

    *DTM most commonly stands for the internet slang “doing too much”. It is used to call out someone who is being overly dramatic, over-the-top, or trying way harder than a situation requires. Think of it as a quick, modern way to tell someone to chill out or relax. (citation: Google AI Overview, 2026).

  • Day 17: Fake it till you make it

    Day 17: Fake it till you make it

    Liberty, KY to Mammoth Cave, KY — 88.8 mi, 5427 ft

    Some of you may have heard about my recent sprained ankle. Today was the day I began to pretend like it no longer existed. Yes, reader, you read that correctly. Only two days after I sprained my ankle and a day after visiting an urgent care, I have decided that my ankle is NOT sprained and therefore will not be treating it as such.

    My hubris, however, is not completely unlimited, so I did begrudgingly convince myself to drive one of our two cars (I took our usual minivan and left the obnoxiously ginormous 5.8 L V8 GMC Sierra to Drew) and let my ankle rest at least ONE more day.

    Part of this probably awful mindset could be explained by a recent conversation with my brother, Daniel, who accurately said, “bro, you better get back on the bike soon or else you’re a FRAUD,” followed by my deep conversation with Caroline asking if we were frauds. Short answer: maybe, but all of us are kind of frauds since we have to drive every 6 days anyway, so an extra few days in the car really can’t matter that much. 

    When we began the morning, I knew that if I was gonna be stuck in the car, I HAD to make the most of the day and was gonna sidequest max. Fitting with the vibe of the day, I also want my blog to be extra whimsical, so I will be adding in haikus for every major portion of the day. If you feel particularly moved, I would be happy to accept nominations for the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. 😆

    On the note of sidequest maxing, I also really wanted to feel useful despite my injury, so I decided to cook breakfast for the team with the farm-fresh eggs that Pastor Roger Allen had given us. My scrambled egg endeavour was going well until I remembered that at home, my family always adds milk to our omelets and scrambled eggs. Of course, the fridge did not support this idea at all, but I was undeterred, as the pantry had dried milk!!! Note: I have never used dried milk before. Second note: I will never use dried milk again. 

    Unbeknownst to the team, I poured the dry milk powder into the eggs and watched my 12 eggs of hard work go to waste, with ALL of the dry milk sticking together in huge clumps that refused to mix into the egg mix. Alas, I decided that I couldn’t go down this easily and spent the next 15 minutes fishing the dry milk powder out of the egg mix. Nate definitely walked by me a couple of times while I was doing this, so I am really not sure if he actually didn’t see or just decided to spare my ego, but regardless, team, don’t even worry; all of the powder was successfully removed, and a slightly rubbery but cooked plate of scrambled eggs was made!

    Haiku #1:

    I tried to cook eggs

    Dry milk does not mix with eggs

    Eggs are served anyway

    After packing up our team’s sprawling possessions from Pastor Allen’s fellowship hall, the team finally rolled out, with Caroline and I whipping the minivan and Drew following us in the 5.8 L V8 GMC Sierra. Since Drew was on a voice call with us, we quickly realized that Drew couldn’t listen to his music, so I selflessly offered to be his radio. My terrible singing turned into the worst rendition of Adele’s “Hello” that you have literally heard in your entire life. Let me set the scene.

    I cannot sing to save my life. Caroline and Drew can maybe actually sing, but Drew has a half-second delay due to the call between cars. Our car sounds something like this:

    “SO HeLlO – SO hELlo – FrOm ThE OThERsIDe – OtHeRsIDeEeEE”

    Actually, I’ll just let you experience it yourself.

    Haiku #2:

    Tatiana “sings”

    Caroline has burst eardrums

    Adele says “Goodbye”

    When we reached our first rest stop, we were greeted by a very nice doggy who actually looked just like Max (the dog that bit Caroline), as well as a BEAUTIFUL playground with lots of sports equipment, swings, a basketball court, and a volleyball net. Obviously, we had to pet the dog (successful), climb on the playset (successful), swing on the swings (successful), and teach Caroline how to throw a football (unfortunately unsuccessful). In the vein of the football endeavour, Drew and I also tragically lost to Nate and Nunu in a backyard football game. Sorry, Drew, that one’s on me.

    Haiku #3:

    Max has now returned

    Throwing a football is hard

    We get to be kids

    It was then time for us to move to our next rest stop at Harden Coffee. Last year’s Spokes team had hyped this up in their blogs as the best rest stop so far, so our hopes were incredibly high, and the team was GEEKED to all get coffee and explore the town.

    Drew, Caroline, and I used our extra time to roam into an extremely cute stationery store and a book shop with paperbacks for $2. One of my roles on the team (aside from morning duty as described in the other blogs – you’re welcome, Drew) is to be the shameless person who calls places and asks for donations. On this note, people have been SO incredibly kind to us. My job has been beyond easy, and it takes me at most three calls per city to get our team a meal. The trip is truly a monumental effort from the entire community, not just our team of 7. As the three of us walked around the town, I made a single call to La Cabana Mexican Bar and Grill near Mammoth Cave, which immediately agreed to feed us for dinner.

    Soon after, however, Drew was summoned to be our team’s hero and returned to the first rest stop where Nunu had unfortunately left her phone. Meanwhile, the rest of the team carefully chose from the coffee selection, with significantly high worries expressed about where and when the team could take their “post-coffee poops.”

    Haiku #4:

    Drew is a hero

    Yummy coffee makes us lit

    We all need to poop

    Sooooo next rest stop? Duh. What else could possibly be the purpose of Spokes?? 

    At this point, Caroline, Drew, and I head to the third rest stop of the day at Brush Creek Baptist Church. We are greeted by the most insanely awesome surprise ever. THE CHURCH HAS A RIVER AND A WATERFALL!!!!

    Obviously, the three of us go and explore it (me hiking on my “no longer sprained ankle”), diving back into Caroline’s Conservation Council roots where she got to engage with the nature and soil of different ecosystems. Drew climbed up the side of the waterfall, leaving the two injured people sad and lonely at the bottom (rude). Soon after, we were joined by Nate and Nunu, who also marveled at the incredible beauty of nature.

    So what’s for lunch?? You guessed it. SANDWICHES! I’m sure you can’t be more excited than me, proven by this beautiful moment where I was so eager to start making my sandwich that I accidentally mistook the sunblock bottle for mayo!

    At this point, Aarushi and Carmen STILL had not arrived, so Drew had his second opportunity to be a hero and make sure that they were okay. Once he finally found them, they arrived with beautiful gifts of free cantaloupes from Mike and Nancy Tucker at Milby’s Produce (thank you, guys!!!).

    After they ate, we, of course, had to show them the waterfall, and Aarushi, Drew, and Carmen, of course, had to climb it, ditching the sad and lonely injured folks AGAIN. This time, though, they were able to climb higher, with the three of them edging each other on. When they came down, they were covered in mud, and we especially noticed that all three of them had dirty butts.

    Drew and Carmen approached this issue like normal people. A little water, splash splash on the butt, good to go!

    Aarushi, however, took a completely different approach. In a horrifying display, she proceeded to crouch in the water, crab style, with her stomach towards the sky, and then thrust her hips up and down to get her butt in and out of the water. Our eyes are truly scarred forever.

    To make matters worse, this now meant that Aarushi had a chamois completely full of water. Do not fear, as she had a wonderful solution to this problem, too! Aarushi proceeded to grip her butt with both hands, squeeze as hard as she could, and say “I’M GRABBING MY OWN BUTT JUST TO FEEL SOMETHING!” She claims that this was meant to wring out her chamois. This is, of course, why she is my best friend 🙂

    Haiku #5:

    We climb waterfalls

    Who will grab Aarushi’s butt

    Maybe only her

    Finally, Drew, Caroline, and I sent off our bikers, and the three of us moved to our last rest stop, Farmwald’s Dutch Bakery and Deli. This store is run by the local Amish community, which is a group that I have gotten to interact with a few times in the past on trips through Pennsylvania with my grandparents, Brenda and Tom. On our last visit to Lancaster County about a year ago, we stumbled upon an Amish and Mennonite auction, and the people there kindly let us stay to watch (I had never been to an auction before!). Aligned with my philosophy of dilly-dallying as much as possible, I wanted to explore the neighborhood around Farmwald’s and see if there were any open shops that we could wander around. Sadly, the nearest one was closed, so we turned around and waited for our bikers in the deli.

    When Nunu and Nate arrived, I immediately knew that my choice not to bike that day was the right one. They were the most exhausted I had ever seen them, telling us about their awful downhill where the wind was so strong that it felt like an uphill. The next group of bikers that came in was in similar shape, so we knew that the team needed emergency fuel to finish the ride. Thank you, Farmwald’s, for our first dinner, consisting of the best pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, and cheesecake EVER.

    Haiku #6:

    The bikers are dead

    Farmwald’s cures the exhaustion

    10 miles to go

    At this point, the driving group was convinced that we would have to SAG our bikers, as there were 10 miles to go and only 45 minutes before sunset. In this vein, Drew got his THIRD chance to be a hero today and went to follow Aarushi and Carmen in the back while Caroline and I set up our tents at the campground. 

    Of course, Aarushi and Carmen are just the GOATs, and even as the light waned, they refused to stop on the last two-mile climb up to the campsite so that Drew physically could not SAG them out. We are definitely a group of stubborn, tough cookies.

    Finally, we got to wrap up our day with INSANELY delicious food from La Cabana Mexican Bar and Grill for the second dinner and GREAT vibes from Louis and Nolasco. Thank you, guys, for being so kind and donating a meal to our team. It was DELICIOUS!! Extra shoutout for the birria tacos that literally brought life back into my eyes.

    Haiku #7:

    People are so kind

    Nolasco feeds us great food

    Our hearts are happy

    At this point, the long day (and long blog) are coming to a close. Nightly routines proceeded as usual, only a little stinkier than normal for some of us due to the coin showers at Mammoth Cave (6 quarters for 4 minutes per person… and guess how many quarters we had on hand).

    Regardless, I was happy that my ankle had clearly “completely healed” and that I got to experience a beautiful sidequesting day in the car with no SAGs. Life is good 🙂

    With love to the moon and back,

    Tatiana ❤

  • Day 15: Dog Days Are Over?

    Day 15: Dog Days Are Over?

    Hazard, KY to London, KY — 78.9 mi, 5620 ft

    I’m calling a team meeting.

    As you may already know, we are big on team meetings. So this is what we say when we find a lull in our conversation and we know we have something serious to discuss. This past week was a rollercoaster, from Aarushi’s tree crash to Caroline’s dog bite to sleeping barely 6 hours at an overcrowded camp site, our team needed a major recharge. Thankfully, our past two night stay at Harmony House Bed & Breakfast provided us just that. So, through our various team meetings conducted in our gorgeous lacey wallpaper bedroom, chandelier adorned dining room, and lemon-themed front porch, we came up with a game plan.

    To quickly recap, a majority of the team was feeling a little traumatized from Caroline’s recent dog bite. So we had to discuss a couple of questions including: Who wants to bike through Kentucky? What parts of Kentucky do people want to bike through? How can we support the people who do want to bike and the people who don’t want to bike? Now I’ll walk you through everyone’s individual thought processes.

    Drew was the first one to say he absolutely wanted to continue biking through Kentucky. He had grown up around dogs similar to the ones we would be seeing and felt more than comfortable to keep himself safe. Tatiana had a long conversation with previous Spokes 2025 members Charles and Greta in which she decided, since she hadn’t been there when Caroline got bitten, she wasn’t yet able to understand her fear level and wanted to bike so that she could understand it. I was the first to decide I definitely did not want to bike, at least for this first day. Not only was I still feeling extremely scared after nearly being Max’s appetizer (the dog who bit Caroline), but I was dealing with some butt chafing injuries and it was already my assigned driving day so why mess with what might be my fate? Aarushi and Carmen were initially on the fence leaning no, and they decided together by the end of yesterday to not bike. They both felt scared and unsure they would be able to take proper action in the situation. Nate started out a no, but after much consideration, decided he didn’t want his fear to control him. With Caroline, well the team pretty much decided for her, she was in no shape to bike yet. After 6 rabies shots, limping around, and feeling feverish the whole day, I don’t think a justification is necessary. So we had Drew, Tatiana, and Nate biking and myself, Aarushi, Carmen, and Caroline as drivers.

    With that, we needed to book a second rental car (one big enough to carry at least two or three bikes). Though, even if everyone but Caroline did want to bike, we realized we needed to book a second car regardless because Caroline doesn’t know how to drive so she would automatically take our one SAG spot and we definitely needed to have an available SAG spot as we’ve learned from this past week. So, having made an online pickup truck reservation the night before, at 8AM Nate and I said our goodbyes to Charles—our amazing host and learning festival coordinator for the Challenger Center—and drove off to the rental place.

    Thank you for everything Charles!!!!

    As we pulled into the parking lot, we funnily enough saw Charles walk into the exact same car rental shop. We overhear the lady at the desk telling Charles that his initial rental isn’t available and he can choose between two other car options. This is when I knew it was chopped. When it’s our turn, she tells us the same thing. Even though we had made a reservation online, the website doesn’t update the actual availability of their car types and many customers made reservations with their pickup trucks long before we did. Feeling at a loss, we call our teammates who are patiently waiting back at the B&B. They are all equally confused and demand to be put on Facetime with the car rental lady. Nate reluctantly tells the lady, “my boss wants to talk to you.” After some back and forth between our boss (Tatiana) and the lady, we still have no luck and do a one day rental of the biggest car they had available, a Chevy Trailblazer. This way we could exchange the car for a pickup truck at our next stop.

    Nate with the keys to our awesome “pickup truck” rental

    After two hours, we made it back to the B&B, magically stuffed our two smallest XS bikes in the back of our rental, and the bikers were off. One condition we’d decided for this day was to have a “follow car” follow the bikers along the entire 80 mile route from Hazard to London, KY. This means one of the cars will literally trail the bikers at a maybe 10 ft distance going 10 mph to help support them and use the horn to help scare away any dogs. Carmen and Caroline took this first shift until the first rest stop while Aarushi and I went to Walmart to restock on groceries. We also stopped for some coffee.

    Buying more fig bars and gummy worms

    Once all 7 of us met up at the first rest stop, we had a serious debrief. Right at the beginning of the day, our three bikers ran into a couple of other bikers at a gas station where they were told that these areas they were about to bike through are indeed really scary and there are many dogs that will come out and chase you. With no other choice but to continue, they started their first 20 mile leg. Nate said that he felt like they were in a “zombie apocalypse” and they had to “watch every house to see if a zombie will come out and get you.” Tatiana said she also felt like she was in an apocalypse and compared it to call of duty or walking dead. Drew said that he “felt like [he] was in a video game” and was having “a lot of fun.” It felt like every house they passed, there was potential danger and you held your breath for something to happen until you were safely out of range… until you came onto the next house again.

    Feeling worried and scared even as a non biker, Aarushi and I drove the follow car for the next 20 mile leg. Now let me describe to you how serious of an operation this was. It was Nate and Drew flanking Tatiana in a V formation while I tailed very closely behind them, all windows of the car rolled down to hear barking sounds. At the first sight of any movement or potential threat, we would walky-talky each other. If a dog ever started coming at the bikers, Drew and Nate would immediately grab their mace and start yelling at them to back off, I would honk loudly and maneuver the car to block them when possible, and Tatiana would make sure to keep biking through. The whole time it just felt like being on constant high alert, tense and prepared to take immediate action. This second leg, there were quite a few dogs that ended up coming out of their houses and actively chasing us down the streets. Most notably, a Great Dane, at full speed, ran after Nate and Drew before accidentally smashing itself into a mailbox (aura loss). Another Great Pyrenees (the same dog that bit Caroline) ended up chasing the whole group very far down the street (including our follow car). At one point, there was a pack of small dogs in the street and Drew had to mace one of them. We also passed by a house that had a giant cage on the front lawn of maybe 20 huge dogs that all turned to bark at us. In a kind of cruel way, it felt like a horror video game. Drew said that in the end, he kind of found the fun in it.

    At our second rest stop, we took a break for lunch. We ended up at a park next to a gas station and across the street from an interesting shop of random things. I bought this supposedly special Kentucky ginger ale that Drew and I thought was pretty good but Nate said wasn’t sweet enough. We made the most delicious sandwiches using the new ingredients Aarushi and I bought—complete with hummus, salami, sun dried tomatoes, bruschetta spread, bell peppers, and more. Our team is getting pretty good at making bomb sandwiches on the fly. And we played on the swings and on this spinning thing for a bit.

    Me and Caroline then took the third follow car shift to our last rest stop at the SPLASH PAD! At this point, even as a non biker, I was feeling the effects of being on such high alert for the past 4 hours straight. As we pull into the parking lot of the splash pad, a dog comes running up to us and Nate instinctively pulls out his mace and I am kind of frozen in fear. Luckily, the dog was super friendly and we completely overreacted. Though, it was definitely a reality check that we’d been experiencing some alternate reality and we felt disappointed that, as dog lovers, our immediate attitude had slightly shifted but hopefully only temporarily. Separately, this splash pad was awesome and a great break from the tough day. We danced through the water blasting music on our speaker pretending we were clubbing somewhere in Europe…

    The final leg from the splash pad to Lucy and Steve’s home was mostly dog-less. Aarushi and I went ahead to start unloading while Carmen and Caroline drove the follow car. Lucy and Steve, the kindest and warmest people, immediately offered Aarushi and I a “Big Girl” drink which we happily accepted. We met Milo, the cutest dog ever and my favorite because he reminds me a lot of my dog at home, Momo. They even smell the same.

    When our five other teammates arrived, our three brave bikers jumped in the pool and we ate a delicious bolognese pasta dinner complete with garlic bread and more Big Girls. After dinner, Drew serenaded us with a couple of pieces from The Greatest Showman. Every day I learn something new and awesome about my teammates and this week I learned Drew is extremely good at playing piano. We wanted to end the night with an awesome bonfire that Steve set up behind their house.

    As we were sitting around the fire, looking up at the stars, we suddenly heard Tatiana scream. At first we thought she was looking for the bonfire and yelled at her to follow our voices. Quickly, we realized her scream sounded a little serious and we all ran to the back porch of the house where we found her on the ground. She had misstepped in the dark and sprained her ankle. After some back and forth, we decided to help her to bed and go to urgent care in the morning for an X-ray.

    Suddenly, our team in just the past few days has suffered from three serious injuries. Are we just chopped? I think in hindsight, we are going to inevitably have some really awesome weeks and some really tough weeks. I’m just incredibly proud of our team for always working together and problem solving even when faced with what might seem like impossible challenges. We all signed up for this crazy adventure for a reason and I would not want to go through these ups and downs with anyone else. Plus, I think this summer is all about truly experiencing life and the full capacity of our emotions. I’m excited for the weeks to come because we can only go up from here! I’m carrying with me the spirit of this song, Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine. Because hopefully, our dog days are over.

    We ended the night trying to set up four hammocks in Steve and Lucy’s backyard gazebo because doesn’t that just sound like an awesome idea? Well you can read more about how that went in Nate’s blog for tomorrow!

    – Nunu

  • Day 13: Let me get a bite of that

    Day 13: Let me get a bite of that

    Breaks Interstate Park, VA to Hazard, KY – 1.4 mi, -315 ft 

    (85.1 mi, 4,749 ft)

    First driver x blogger day! 😅

    My POV: (6:00 – 9:10 am)

    That morning we woke up at our bare bones campground (no electricity or water), and most of our devices were either dead or almost dead. Everyone was either tired, irritable, or slightly injured as they begrudgingly put on their bike gear. The first group consisting of Nate, Drew, Nunu, and Caroline left as soon as they could, knowing they had a long 85 mile day ahead of them. A little while later, Tatiana and Aarushi went on their way. Soon after, I pulled out of the campsite and started to make my way out of the park, trailing an incredibly slow camper van.

    For some reason, the morning felt off. I still had this pit in my stomach from yesterday, after we biked through an incredibly sketchy neighborhood and had to drag our bikes under potentially live electric fencing. But today was a new day. All I wanted to do was get on the road and prepare for the next rest stop; I figured this routine would help calm my nerves. 

    About two minutes into trailing this camper van, I received a call from Nunu. If you remember from the previous blog, Nunu had to SAG out towards the end of the ride because of her knee pain. In the moment before I answered, I had almost decided this was the reason for her call. But it was so early on into the day that it didn’t make sense. I kept my adrenaline from overcoming my temporarily focused and placated state, and picked up the call.

    “Carmen, we need you to come right now, Caroline has been bitten by a dog”, Nunu demanded. I cursed in shock. Was Caroline okay? How did this happen? All I could think about was how our previous circular discussion on dealing with dogs in Kentucky never ended in a practical solution; instead we had relied on our faith in statistics and hope to keep us safe.

    I frantically asked for their location, but all I could hear of Nunu’s response was random vowel sounds as the spotty service decided to choose our conversation to chew up. I had to call Nunu several times before she was able to pick up, and eventually she was able to tell me to follow our daily route until I could see her and Nate on the side of the road waving their hands above their heads.

    Caroline, Nunu, Nate, and Drew’s POV: (8:20 – 9:00am)

    At around 8:45 am, the first group had just taken the descent out of Breaks Interstate Park and were approaching a cluster of houses on the first back road of the day. Drew was leading with Nate taking up the rear, Caroline behind Nunu, but both sandwiched in the middle between them. 

    They had just come up a hill and were met with an adorable big white fluffy dog sitting in the driveway of the “dog house”. Everyone was off their guard as no one suspected it could be aggressive. Drew first barreled past, and Nunu followed, but somehow their speed must have lit a fire in the dog’s eyes as it set it’s sights on Nunu. It came charging at her from the right (as seen below), causing her to scream bloody murder and start pedaling as fast as she could to escape. At the same time, Caroline saw this as an opening for her to get past. The dog was distracted with antagonizing Nunu on the left, creating a pocket behind the dog on the right. Caroline tried to bolt past, but the dog was quicker. It turned around, deeming Nunu was no longer interesting enough to chase, and targeted Caroline instead. 

    She had told me that all she could think of in those few seconds before was a jumbled mess of potential solutions to the dog problem we had discussed. But since we had made no clear line of action, she picked one at random: just keep biking.

    After, the dog kept on charging, and moved to focus on Nate instead. But he had yelled “NO” just in time to deter it. Incredibly, Caroline kept biking the entire time; she must of had an insane amount of adrenaline coursing through her to keep herself from feeling the pain. The four of them stopped at a house down the road to regroup, where they realized there was no service and made the decision to walk back up the hill to call for help. This meant they would have to once again enter enemy territory. 

    If I believed in divine intervention, I might have seen what happened next as proof. While passing by the house, the dog had reappeared from behind the owner’s truck. It was about to charge again when suddenly a car came speeding down the hill and breaked just in time to only bump into the dog, allowing Caroline, Nate, and Nunu to hobble to the top of the hill where Nunu was finally able to call me.

    Nunu’s architectural drawing of the sequence of events

    Simultaneously, Drew had decided to confront the owner. Drew was very polite, southern accent slipping out to maybe subconsciously disarm him. He asked for him to take responsibility for what had happened and was of course uncooperative. Instead he blamed the team for being stopped in the road (which they have never done), it escalated into name calling and shouting and by this time Drew knew it was a lost cause. He channeled all of that anger into biking back up the 400 ft climb into Breaks Interstate Park in order to get service, update Tatiana and Aarushi, and call the police.

    My POV: (9:10 am – 1:30 pm)

    Once I got there, Nunu immediately grabbed the first aid kit from the car and started to tend to Caroline. They all moved to sit under the shade of some abandoned truck. At this point, emergency response services had been called and we were all waiting for them and the police to arrive. 

    I felt at a loss for what to do. I realized how unprepared I felt to deal with an emergency such as this; everyone else made a plan of action. I just did what others said and tried to be helpful. It is an interesting feeling, knowing in theory what steps to take, caring so greatly about the outcome, and yet being completely clueless as to how it should be translated into practice. Police should be involved, yes. Caroline should get medical attention, yes. But ambulances are expensive, so should I drive her? Should I wait for the police to arrive before I take her? Will they bring medical response services with them who can take her themselves? Hospital or urgent care? Wait times? What can the police even do in this case? A lot of questions that were impossible to be answered without experience. I trusted those around me to do what was right. And they did. I think it’s vulnerability, stepping back where you feel unsure, especially in moments where accuracy matters the most. It’s probably fear too, mixed in there. 

    Drew and Nate went down to the “dog house” to wait on the police, where Nunu soon followed, but not before she handed me a walkie talkie. She had been so dedicated to charging them that it was unfortunate how they finally were being put to use.

    While we were waiting, Aarushi called Charles, our wonderful host in Hazard and the coordinator of the challenger center, to ask if there was any way he could come and pick us up. He immediately agreed and determined that he was able to get a cargo van and get to us at around 2 pm that afternoon.

    About 30 minutes after Drew had made the first call, Tatiana left where she was comforting Caroline to make a second, slightly more angry call to the sheriff. The cops still hadn’t arrived.

    10 minutes later, the Haysi volunteer rescue team pulled up. Two volunteers climbed out and slowly trundled over, both older in age. Before they could start treating her, they needed to fill out some paperwork. It was an interesting interaction to observe; I felt like I was performing a vivisection of rural healthcare. 

    Caroline had to repeat her information several times as the man in charge of writing it down had poor hearing, while Aarushi had to loudly and slowly repeat how to spell H-U-A-N-G. I watched as he actively mistook an 8 for a 5 when Caroline very clearly dictated her phone number aloud, and when he crossed out the K in his “Karoline” for a C.

    After his partner had finished cleaning Caroline’s wound, she realized they would need more bandaids. He was already over by their ambulance, more than 200 ft away, and so she decided to shout at the top of her lungs, “GET BANDAIDS!” It went back and forth several times, through a series of, “WHAT?”, “BAND-AIDS!”, “BEND-WHAT?”, “NO, BAND AIDS!!”

    Eventually they got it figured out, came back to patch up Caroline, and gave us the chance to ask more about how to proceed. Should we be worried about rabies? Apparently, they have to get a sample from the dog, so that was largely out of our control. We never even learned from them that Caroline would need to get the rabies vaccine anyway, just that she might need a tetanus shot.

    Eventually the sheriff arrives, followed by two more cop cars, one hour after Drew had first called them.

    Mind you, I have been in a slight state of shock this whole time. Caroline’s eyes were understandably red, Aarushi was clutching her hand like she knew she needed the support—we were all on a similar wavelength, trying to stay calm but really quite shaken up. But when the sheriff came over, he brought a completely different vibe. To me at least, all of their southern accents were disarming, he was calm, in a kind of jolly mood, which matched the volunteer rescue team’s (what seemed to me) lack of urgency. Maybe I just misread a good beside manner.

    The sheriff talked to Caroline, looked her over, and asked about the dog bite. He brought out his phone to take a picture, squatted down to get a good angle, and in a serious tone accidentally said, “Let me get a bite of that!” He immediately apologized, but everyone thought it was hilarious; it was the first time I had seen Caroline break a smile since this whole mess had begun.

    We still had more questions for the rescue team: should she go to the hospital or was it unnecessary? If so, should she go in their ambulance or in our car? His response was to tell us a story of how a motorcyclist got into an accident, broke his arm, ribs, and collar bone, and still refused to be driven by them, opting to make the two hour drive to the nearest hospital himself. In other words, the decision was up to us. Ultimately we decided she should go with them, since their service is free, and they should theoretically get there faster. Aarushi hopped in the ambulance with Caroline, and then they proceeded to wait for an extra 20 minutes on the side of the road.

    Caroline vibing in the ambulance
    Caroline’s POV

    While we were making sure Caroline got the help she needed, Tatiana was busy talking to the police. She had hopped in the sheriff’s car to drive down to the house to meet up with the rest of our team. Part of the reason why they had taken so long to respond, was that they had a debate over in which county the dog bite occured. The road was in Dickenson county, but the house was in Buchannan county, and cops from both were there. Eventually they determined the officers from Dickenson county were responsible for handling the attack, due to some river boundary on someone’s property.

    Once they had come back up the hill, the cops noticed the ambulance hadn’t left. They asked us if we knew the reason, we definitely did not, and so one of them went to go talk with the rescue team. This whole time they had been waiting “to be released” by the cops, who themselves had no idea that was a rule, mainly because it wasn’t. Finally Caroline and Aarushi were off to Pikeville Medical Center, what was supposed to be a 35 minute drive had stretched into a 55 minute wait + drive.

    Ambulance, sheriff’s car, animal control, our vehicle

    At some point towards the end of this whole debacle, animal control arrived. For what reason I couldn’t tell you since the cops had earlier determined the owner had left with his dog in the car a while ago. Maybe they were hoping he would return to the scene of the crime. The sheriff also told us that this exact dog, named Max, had a record: he had bitten a cyclist before, but they hadn’t pressed charges. Max was notoriously aggressive. 

    Right before the cops made their leave, Nunu and Drew remembered they had both taken pictures of the owner’s car, and went to show them. Drew managed to capture the license plate in his. The sheriff ran the plate and found the owner’s personal info. F**k you Scotty.

    Drew giving the license plate photo to the sheriff

    Caroline and Aarushi were now safely on their way to the hospital, the police were on the lookout for Scotty, and the rest of us were calming down, the eye of the storm had passed. 

    We unanimously decided to SAG out as a team, since we knew Charles the goat would be able to shuttle us. I doubt anybody strongly wanted to continue anyway, but I felt partly responsible after creating the route and sending my friends off to their doom, while I was safely locked in a car. 

    Charles would not arrive for another few hours, and so I recommended we go down to the only diner in the area to wait. A two mile, 5 minute drive can quickly turn into an hour long ordeal when shuttling 5 people and 7 bikes, something I first experienced that day. After my second trip, I came back to find Drew, Nunu, and Nate talking with a suspicious looking hiker who was apparently yapping to Drew about his own home town. I took Nunu to the diner, and then crammed Drew and Nate in the back seat next so neither one would be left alone.

    During this whole process, cops kept returning to the address, a few hours after it had happened. My guess is that they were trying to see if Scotty had returned. We all appreciated that they seemed to be taking this seriously.

    For the next few hours we recuperated at the diner until Charles arrived. I left to go pick up Caroline and Aarushi, who had surprisingly gotten done 30 minutes before and after going to a Starbucks in the hospital (this Starbucks was very special to Caroline), were now eating at a fried chicken place recommended by all of the hospital staff. When I asked about their experience at the hospital, Aarushi instantly spoke on how Caroline was simply so brave and remained incredibly calm throughout, even as she received six rabies shots in a circle around her wound. I can’t even begin to imagine how much pain she was in. For her part, Caroline said she now understood why people hold other’s hands when they get vaccinated. It hurts.

    We went to go pick up her prescription at the pharmacy and then I drove to our bed and breakfast while they both took naps in the backseat. I was exhausted from listening to only the initial conversation with the first responders. Both of them had to deal with this the entire day.

    Reunited with the rest of the team, we had another team meeting centered on the “Kentucky problem”. In short, those who want to bike should bike and those who want to drive should drive. The evening ended with most everybody calling friends and family to get advice on what decision is personally best for them. 

    To me, the dog problem boils down to how much trust you have in yourself and the dogs of Kentucky. Are you able to defend yourself? Yell at and spray them? And trust that most are not aggressive? It’s mainly a mind game, a balance between stupidity and perseverance to our Spokes mission of biking, not driving across the country. The balance between the two shifts daily, as you’ll get to see in our next few blogs.

    – Carmen

  • Day 0: Half a Mile of Hell

    Day 0: Half a Mile of Hell

    I woke up to my blaring 7 am alarm in a dazed state, suddenly remembering that TODAY IS THE DAY! Did I go to bed a little too late the night before from my final post-graduation yap session with my best friends? Maybe. But the excitement overcame!

    My mom, Olga, and my grandfather, Victor, were going to help me drive down to DC, so they showed up at 8 am. This had been our planned leaving time, but, unsurprisingly, our personal items were not fully packed. This was our first introduction to 2025 Spokie Sarah’s accurately described “Spokes Standard Time” (+/- 30min to an hour standard time). 

    Our send-off quickly turned into a full party, as another 2025 Spokie Ishaq stopped by to say hello, Sarah kindly brought the team Dunkin, Aarushi’s family brought Bagelsaurus for everyone, my boyfriend Noah came to say bye, and my mom and grandfather prepared to ride with us. Of course, party is a strong word, as the entire procession was filled with deep tears from both Aarushi and I. Both of us experienced such heartfelt sadness in leaving MIT, and hugged everyone maybe 5,000 times before getting in the minivan and finally making our grand departure with Nunu and Nate simultaneously departing in the cargo van carrying our bikes.

    We truly thought we were in the clear, beginning our beautiful journey into the unknown when we were suddenly accosted by a loud “BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM” coming from both sides of the car and a piercing “WAAH WAAH WAAH WAAH” from the car’s flashing red dashboard. Oh no. It’s over. Half a mile of hell into our trip, my mom pulled our car over at a gas station, and we identified that the straps of the roof storage were slamming against the windows in the wind, and the car was upset that we had put heavy bags on the unbuckled middle seat. Within 5 minutes, Aarushi and my handy dandy engineering skills (surely unlocked through our recently acquired degrees) allowed us to fix the straps, buckle the seatbelt, and continue onwards in our journey.

    My mom was a lifesaver in driving the first part of the way, letting Aarushi and I peacefully catch up on our lack of sleep post graduation. Aarushi was also getting a little sick, so she slept most of the day. My mom drove all the way to our first rest stop right before New York City, where, to my own great surprise, she laid out the FEAST she had packed for us in the car. Suddenly, we had delicious fresh vegetables, flavorful chicken, rice, potatoes, and pasta at a rest area’s picnic bench, and our hearts and stomachs were happy.

    After lunch, I switched off with my mom, and we gossiped about graduation week and all of the changes to come. A few hours later, we stopped to get gas in New Jersey with the cargo van (where we all unanimously disagreed with letting someone else pump our gas), switched back to my mom driving, and finished our day-long journey to DC! Nate and Nunu were also rockstars in driving the HUMONGOUS cargo van with no incidents!

    When we arrived in DC around 7:30 pm, we were greeted with a hugely warm welcome by Carmen, Drew, Caroline, and Aarushi’s family friends, Deepika and Nikunj, who had prepared THREE separate rooms with individual mattresses for us to sleep in, snacks, drinks, and dinner. Filling our stomachs with home-cooked Indian food (the best meatballs ever) and chatting with my mom, my grandpa, and Deepika and Nikunj’s kids and parents made me feel very happy and excited for a whole summer of meeting people all across the country.

    At 10:00 pm, we began our official lock-in for the next day’s learning festival and realized the momentous task ahead of us. The Department of Corrections and Youth Services Center does not allow visitors to bring in any scissors, glass, or sharp objects. This meant we had to precut ALL of our felt, cardboard, and paper materials to accommodate 120 students the next day. Light work! Psyche.

    At 1:00 am, Nate accurately declared that there is “no rest for the wicked,” accompanied by most of the team’s estimates that their learning festival preparation was “50-60% done” despite our expected 5:30 am wake up time.

    At 1:30 am, we let Drew go to bed, since he was going to be our driver for the next day and we didn’t want him to be groggy at the wheel. For the next hour, in a delusional and dreary state, Nunu worked her magic on organization for the learning festivals, Caroline, Aarushi, and I cut out cardboard and felt, and Carmen and Nate finished measuring liquids.

    At 2:30 am, the living room was magically clear, and we finally logged off for the night, full of nerves and excitement for our first-ever learning festival! Would 3 hours of sleep be enough to hold the team over for the day? I guess you’ll have to wait and hear from Drew tomorrow 🙂

    Lots of love,

    Tatiana ❤

  • Day 70: hey what’s up hello

    Day 70: hey what’s up hello

    Fallon, NV to South Lake Tahoe, CA — 96.8 mi, 5,442 ft

    As today’s driver, I’m tasked with waking everyone up. Per Ishaq’s request, I blast Fetty Wap at 7:10am. It was surprisingly efficient: he basically leaps out of bed. Ramona is already up per usual, as is Sarah. Joseph and Tian sleepily arise, while Greta is technically conscious but still lying down. I’m about to jostle her awake until I notice a more concerning Spokes member. Charles has not budged. I rip his sleeping bag off. No movement. I try taking his mat from underneath and he finally awakens, retaliating by grabbing it back. It seems like a losing battle until Joseph pulls out the ultimate weapon: a spray bottle. One squirt and Charles forfeits. I look up, ready to attack Greta next, but fortunately for her she decided to leave the couch. Maybe fortunate for me, actually, since she later admits she would’ve been livid if she had gotten the same treatment (and Greta’s a fighter).

    This is my last driving day, so I’m determined to make it my best. I stayed up late last night putting gallons of water in the freezer, labeling the 3D prints from our last learning festival, and probably doing something else important that I can’t remember. I actually woke up at 6am, albeit unintentionally, and I decided to make the most of it by starting to pack the car. My efforts were successful: at 8:30am, all the girls had biked away. I’m pretty sure this is the fastest we’ve left in the morning (I’m patting myself on the back). The guys left a bit later, particularly Joseph, but everyone was out by 9am. My only fault as a driver is that I’m not a particularly good shopper. I guess I didn’t improve much throughout the summer because by the time I get to rest stop 1, only Charles and Ramona are left. I’m ashamed.

    I actually catch everyone at rest stop 2, our first cafe of the day. Cafe rest stops are typically longer than usual, since people tend to purchase and consume products from said establishment, but today was particularly long, since Charles decides to have a cup off with Greta. Ruth, what’s a cup off? you might be asking. Well, dear readers, a cup off is when two idiots spend 30 minutes trying to land a plastic cup in a larger pile of cups. It can involve a third idiot who sits next to the pile of cups and retrieves the throwing cup to make the two idiots’ lives easier. I was the third idiot. Neither of the two idiots landed the cup.

    I finally manage to shoo them away by promising that they can continue at the next rest stop. I look into Charles’ eyes and lie, because I know that the cups will not be available at the next rest stop. Ruth, why won’t the cups be available at the next rest stop? you might be asking. Well, dear readers, I plan on setting up a float station to cement my position as the best driver because I love my teammates and they love floats. Sure enough, 7/8 Spokies are delighted by the sight of vanilla ice cream and bottles of Fanta and Dr. Pepper (sorry Tian). We have an equally delightful conversation about the injustices of the justice system and whether or not we would press a killing button for $100,000. We also looked at baby photos and gambled. Just delightful.

    I admitted to my fellow Spokies that I was having trouble staying awake while driving, and Charles suggested an… interesting comedy sketch. It definitely kept me awake. I also called some friends (shoutout Taylor) to keep me occupied — we haven’t had a whole day with service in a while, and I wanted to take advantage of it. I did also watch the newest episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty, summaries of which I’ve been forcibly subjecting the other Spokies to for the last few weeks.

    The drive from Carson City to Genoa was gorgeous, with luscious rolling fields and cute houses speckling the landscape. I also learned from a street sign that Genoa, NV was founded in 1851, in case you were interested. At rest stop 5, I found a nice shady picnic table for us to loiter around. I also climbed a tree! (sorry it was after you left Ramona)

    The final rest stop was after a long climb, so I was expecting people to be more tired than they were. Everyone was doing great though (yay team). Tian’s front shifter wasn’t working so Ramona helped fix it 🐐 . Ramona also excitedly informed me that a magical tailwind appeared at mile 85.8, only to disappear a fraction of a mile later. Ishaq consumed Sprite, per usual, while Greta consumed stolen apple sauce, a first.

    Everybody had dispersed by 7:45pm, which, if you can’t tell, is late. While I was slightly concerned about this, it did allow me to witness a magnificent magenta mountain sunset while driving down, one Ramona described as “cotton candy.” I unfortunately don’t have pictures because I’m a safe driver 🫡 The beauty didn’t stop at the mountain — entering South Lake Tahoe gave me a sense of euphoria I haven’t felt since Day 46. What can I say, I’m a city girl at heart. 

    I pulled up in front of our Warmshowers hosts for tonight, Natasha and Dan. Poppy, their dog, trotted out to greet me as well. I got a tour of the house and started unpacking the van when Ramona arrived and very intelligently told me to consider shuttling the rest of the riders since it was now pitch black outside. I nodded at intelligent Ramona, and suggested my own intelligent thing: why don’t I go back and just give them bike lights instead? Joseph and Sarah arrive soon, I steal Joseph and Ramona’s lights, then go find the bums Tian, Charles, Ishaq, and Greta.

    After illegally parking in a fire lane, I find them munching on sweets at Insomnia Cookies. I trade them the lights for the cookies, then zoom back to our temporary home. I find the speedier Spokies showered and eating the delicious grilled food that Dan and Natasha served us. After everybody arrives intact, we all enjoy some dinner together while chatting with our lovely hosts. I also realize we entered California today! I can’t believe nobody told me.

    That’s it for today’s blog. I must mention it’s my last one 😢(I know I know, a terrible loss for the blogging community). Everybody has at one point or another written something deeply meaningful in their blog. Instead of doing that, I’m going to drop the Spokes rendition of The Breakfast Club trailer that we created at the high school in Ely.  Despite the audio and general quality being quite bad at times, I did spend a substantial amount of time editing this for absolutely no reason, so I hope you enjoy! Peace out ✌️

  • Day 56: The Seasons of Spokes

    Day 56: The Seasons of Spokes

    Capitol Reef NP, UT -> Escalante, UT — 68 miles, 6,031 ft

    👋 Charles here with a driver blog. After last night’s magical stargazing experience, we took the liberty of sleeping in this morning. Despite the mountain of tasks that stood between us and getting on the road, I woke up with a ball of energy and a strong desire to be the best driver ever. The route that lay ahead for the bikers included a long gravel ascent, so I promised everyone I could pack up the campsite solo and told them to get on the road after getting ready. Some tried to sneakily help out, but I shooed everyone away and got to crackin’ on packin’.

    After doing last night’s (we left them for the morning, oops) and the morning’s dishes, everyone had left and it slowly dawned on me that perhaps I bit off more than I could chew. I still felt determined, but I was realizing that I would probably be way late to rest stop 1, and I had no cell signal to message the Spokies.

    Even though we’re at the point in the trip where being a driver is less enjoyable than biking – it’s a lot of chores without any company – I found myself embracing the opportunity to pay off last night’s loan we borrowed from our morning’s readiness for our time under the stars. Or maybe I was just really in the zone. To pass the time, I guessed that I had maybe 40 things to load into the car was packed. I loaded the roof storage. 39. 38. 37. 36… My phone had overheated and died, so I had no music, no concept of time, just a bunch of gear and a slowly filling car.

    Eventually, the finite and decreasing items reached 0 (actually like -10) and I hit the road. Almost 2 hours had passed. Oooops. When my phone turned back on (at a very opportune time since I had no clue which direction to head in after retracing the entry road to the national park), I saw that all the bikers except Tian had moved on from rest stop 1. Double oooops. I reached rest stop 1 and picked up an extremely frazzled Tian, who had requested to hitch a ride.

    Tian had made her way to rest stop 1 in record time. Record slow time, that is. She was fine, thankfully. But biking was simply not in the cards for her today. Highlights included “I was going so slow… I think if I tried to finish today I would arrive at like midnight,” “I felt like I was in a dream,” “my legs were not cooperating,” and “the whole thing just didn’t feel real… it was so surreal.” So, I had company for the day!

    Tian filled me in on the cute boy they met at the general store who actually was at MIT and on vacation with his family. Ruth and Ramona, who had left the earliest, had narrowly missed this chance encounter. We concluded Ruth would be crushed to learn of this.

    Getting close to rest stop 2, we hit the ascent, and not long after, the gravel. To make matters worse, the headwinds were so strong we could hear them from inside the car. I certainly did not envy the Spokies who were biking today. We passed most of the bikers a mile from rest stop 2 and gave them food and encouragement. Tian tried to hug Greta from the window but missed as I was pulling away. A half mile of reversing later and kicking up a nasty cloud of dust, we rectify this grave sin 🙄

    • There was a wildfire in the area and we saw its smoke in the distance the whole day
    • Ishaq showing off his new tires

    Ruth and Ramona had conked out at rest stop 2.

    Triple ooooops. They snacked and refilled on water as Tian told them about who they had missed. Really dreamy eyes apparently. Over the past few weeks, the idea of the “seasons” of Spokes has taken ahold of our group, starting with the Spokies narcissistic enough to believe we are characters in a TV show, and slowly becoming a regular conversation topic. At the rest stop, Tian, Ruth, Ramona, and I decided last night was the season 3 finale. The others agreed when they reached the rest stop. We wondered what would be in store for us in season 4, proposed possible character arcs, and speculated on if season 4 would be a good one (narrator: it was certainly an exciting one).

    Not a tree was in sight at rest stop 3 — a tiny pullover from the gravel road in the midst of an endless, dry grassy plain. The sun was bearing down, so I thought it would be a good idea to fetch the ground tarp from the roof storage and try and pitch a shaded awning besides the car with some rocks holding down the loose corners. We quickly realized this was a futile effort given the windy conditions. But this quickly turned into a far better idea: running around with the full tarp flapping behind us and pretending we were superheroes.

    Tian and I made parachutes and tried to fly; we pretended we were fashion models debuting extremely avant garde capes on the runway; we curled up in the tarp and hid from the sun; we held it up as high as we could and made finish line tunnels for bikers as they pulled in to the rest stop. I did not work on my blog.

    • nyoom
    • tian ball
    • The wind was so strong Greta stuck her spoon in the gravel so it would stop blowing away

    After rest stop 3, the climb flattened out. A few minutes into our next drive, Tian randomly shouts “Charles you’re a dumbass!!” Taken aback, I ask what she means. “Charles you’re a dumbass!!” Truly unhinged behavior. Top tier bit; I can’t lie. I threaten to roll the car and kill us both. Tian demands I do it. An eventful 15 miles later, we pull into rest stop 4. At this point, I am the truly frazzled one.

    The route had turned into an extremely bumpy descent at this point. Have I told you how glad I am to have missed this ride? Ruth and Ramona were not having a great time when we met them at the rest stop. As Tian and I chatted away, full of energy, Ruth lay on the ground, unmoving. She says maybe five words the whole time before standing up and charging on with a determined look on her face. There are definitely two types of responses to a particularly difficult route. The first is to grit your teeth, saddle up, and try to get it over with as soon as possible. The other response rolls into the rest stop a full HOUR after Ruth and Ramona DEPART.

    Nonetheless, we congratulate everyone on nearly finishing this terrible, no-good bike. I pass on a few murder threats from Ruth and Ramona to Joseph, our resident route architect. I unsuccessfully try and kick my bully (Tian) out of the car.

    We arrive at the host’s house after dusk. Ruth and Ramona have already arrived. Tian and I unpack the car. Joseph and Sarah arrive not long after. Greta and Ishaq, Spokes’ two fastest bikers, are nowhere to be seen. Some 15 minutes later, they arrive. They’re in fine condition. What took them so long? Greta pulled over a couple times on the gravel descent to give her hands a rest, and one of these times, just fell backwards (??). Yeah, I didn’t understand either. But she’s okay! Just a bit… frazzled (word of the day).

    We eat a hard-earned (ok, the bikers eat a hard-earned) dinner and chat with our host, a pastor. We meet their dogs before everyone retires for the night. One last bout of silliness strikes Greta, Ishaq, and I’s room. The last thing I remember the next morning is Ishaq’s extension cord of pure greed:

    Biblical greed
  • Day 53: Mother of All Bicycles

    Day 53: Mother of All Bicycles

    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.

    Sarah’s mom recording the Spokies’ departure
    eating said fire sandwich
    inside Moab Garage Co.

    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.

    bike path out of Moab

    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.

    Ramonaa loading her broken bike onto the car
    care package shaded under a bush

    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.

    • waiting for Ramona as I munch on a bean and cheese quesadilla
    • ufo gas station
    • lets split up and search for clues!
    • kachow
    • snazzy tian
    • a comrade’s beverage of choice
    • commie Charles!?!?

    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!

    • The Green River
    • eppy Tian
    • the people are ravenous
  • Day 35: Last One Out of Dodge City

    Day 35: Last One Out of Dodge City

    Ishaq here with a driver blog. Yesterday I went to visit my mom in Oklahoma City so I abandoned the spokes team and it was pretty 50/50 among the rest of the members is I would come back. After a nice day with my mom and afternoon in Wichita where I went to a nice coffee shop and random barber shop, I was really thinking about forgottign this whole biking thing. But how could I deprive the public of my blogs? So, I rejoined the team and brought a bunch of Nigerian snacks.

    Now to the driving of it all. We are a notoriously terrible team in the morning, we’d set wake up times and leave times and regularly disregard them on the basis of low collective responsibility. Greta, however, was resolute on us get out the door on time at least once just to prove we could. So in support of this idea I woke up everyone 6:30, lightly kicking their sleeping bags when necessary. I was locked in on my driver duties and hurried everyone and we 6 of 7 bikers made it out by 8:10, just minutes after our 8 am departure goal. Joseph, sadly, lost something again. This time it was his glasses, so we spend 30 minutes looking for them until we ultimately gave up and collectively hoped that one of the spokies had “accidentally” taken them for some reason. I personally suspected Greta, she clearly was itching for revenge for the time Joseph stole her phone. She of course denied this accusation when I confronted her later on, but we all know the evil that lurks in her mind.

    It was a short biking day to Dodge City, aka The Wickedest Little Town in the West, known for it’s history of cowboys and outlaws on the old frontier. Googling the place made be want to visit a saloon and hawk one up for the good ole’ spittoon, but back ti the driving. I got to the first rest stop just minutes before Greta. She was ZOOMING and didn’t stay long. Fueled by the PRs set yesterday by others while she was driving she wanted to go all out today and knew the key was to keep these rest stops short and sweet. The rest of the team rolled in and out of thew rest stop and last came Joseph, sunglassesless, in agony of the bright sun blinding him on highway 50. I would have said he could borrow mine, but they are prescription and I’m quite blind so I wouldn’t really work out. So, he hopped in the car, and my driver day once again became a dynamic duo.

    The rest of the day was pretty standard biking. Joseph and I saw largest wind farms we’d both ever seen. Then I tried to get him on the show Legion, which I watched a long time ago and forgot, but he didnt seem all to into it. Greta was going mad fast so she ended up skipping the last rest stop and riding straight to the end. She put up quite the fast 100km PR, some would say nearly unbeatable by any of us other spokies… nearly. Everyone else was pretty fast today too so we ended up arriving around 2pm, definitely one of our earliest arrivals. Now we had the rare the occurrence of free time on a biking day, so we hit the local water park 😎. Well 5 of us did, Sarah, Joseph, and Charles stole out host’s car and did donuts in the parking lot of a coffee shop or something. The water park was quite fun, they had the works, a lazy river, water slides, and some little lanes where I could just swim laps. I’m pretty bad at swimming, but I find it super cool so I’m trying to learn some water skills. Greta tried to teach me how to tread, but I really was just drowning with extra steps. We all relaxed for the last hour until we had to head back for dinner.

    We had some absolutely amazing lasagna and our host’s told us about the history of Dodge City. The lawlessness and cowboys were only the surface level, with tons of economic and military involvement with the history of city and surrounding area. It was quite educational, but I really wouldn’t do it justice with a brief recap here. After dinner, we all settled down and prepared for bed to try and once again get an early start tomorrow.

    Lastly, here is Charles, moments before he and Ruth collectively break our host’s violin.

  • Day 26: Best Driver Ever

    Day 26: Best Driver Ever

    Jefferson City, MO -> Sedalia, MO — 69 mi, 3250 ft

    Our Spokie Sarah kindly offered to take my place on my previous blogging day because I was injured and couldn’t participate in MIT Spokes’ first century (100 miles) ride (a future sneak peek: I eventually completed my first century on day 27). Sarah asked if I had blogging pride to decide if she should take over my scheduled blog or if we should switch blogging days. Initially, I thought I had zero blogging pride. One less blog to write! But alas I realized I had too much pride, and therefor I wrote the day 26 blog.

    I thought today would be my recovery bike ride after a couple of days of being a passenger princess, but it turns out that Charles’ birth hospital was on the route of my next driving day so Charles and I switched driving days. Now, we have another rare driver’s blog, from me!

    We woke up today to amazing berry-filled oatmeal courtesy of our host Sarah. She is honestly everything I want to be. She is artsy, even-tempered, calm, and reads the room very well. She also gave us a gift that we will pass down to the future generations of Spokes as an heirloom. While I ate breakfast, I started packing up all the food boxes and the cooler. I don’t believe that a driving day is all that restful on Spokes because you become the morning cleanup crew and the evening meal planning crew (if we need dinner). I aspire to be the kind of driver who can get everyone on the road as quickly as possible, but I cannot be bothered to boss people around at this stage of the trip.  

    Just as we were getting ready to leave, our host Sarah gathered everyone for a group picture. I double, triple checked the rooms to make sure we didn’t forget anything. My biggest fear is leaving something behind that someone cares about. Oops, mayo and otter pops from my last driving day. The devastation in my fellow Spokies’ voices is something I don’t want to deal with again.

    After pulling out of our host Sarah’s driveway, my first task was shopping at the supermarket. I spent an ungodly amount of time in the supermarket because there was so much going on. I get overstimulated in supermarkets and my brain gets so confused. I visited 4 supermarkets on this driving day because I kept forgetting ingredients and I had to pick up bananas for Charles which he doesn’t even want lol. I also got into an accident in the parking lot of a supermarket, but to not incriminate myself, I shall not delve into the details.

    I missed the first rest stop due to grocery shopping and dinner planning. I met everyone at the second rest stop at a cute coffee shop where some of us had lunch. Joseph always seems to be the last one to leave, including from this rest stop, because he enjoys taking his time. Still, I am astounded by his ability to always catch up with the team. Good for him.

    The third rest stop was Dollar General, and I was able to share some strawberries I bought with the crew. We were waiting for Charles and Greta to show up when they arrived with bright red blood on Charles’ leg. Turns out, they crashed into each other which left Charles with multiple wounds and Greta with a painful pinkie and bump on her leg. Luckily, I pulled out all the medical kits earlier this morning so I was prepared to give our wounded Spokes members everything they needed.

    Cool sights discovered by bikers

    Greta’s hand hindered her biking so she joined me in the van at the fourth rest stop. We made our way to the Kingdom Life Church, where we would sleep for the night. We met Pastor Steve and his wife Anne who took us on a tour of the church which had comfortable chairs set up like pews in their sanctuary. Needless to say, my sleep was heavenly.

    A storm was brewing in the distance and the church had no showers. I turned on my logistic brain and sent our first bikers, Greta, Joseph, and Sarah to shower first in Pastor Steve’s home. Greta also planned to go to urgent care to check for fractures in her hand (there are no fractures yay). Pastor Steve and Anne also offered to do laundry for us! The rest of the team pulled up and helped unload the car in record time before the rain started. The rest of us then all got shuttled by Anne to her home and finished our shower lineup. But wait, I was still in the shower when some Spokies got shuttled back. How are we going to cook dinner? I sent some instructions for dinner in the group chat after I got out of the shower, fully not expecting any meal prep to be done. To my surprise, when I returned to the church, almost everyone was in the kitchen. I had help preparing red Thai curry with salad and leftover pasta from last night. I smoked the whole kitchen because I cranked the heat up. Ramona’s rice became porridge because we didn’t have a lid. All in all, dinner was served and the curry turned out well.

    While dinner was getting cleaned up, Ishaq and Ruth were cooking up a storm with the drums on the stage of the sanctuary. Driving days always mentally exhaust me, but I am happy I won’t have to do it for a while. I snuggled into my sleeping bag and wrapped up another great driving day.