Today was the first of many goodbyes. Most people were going to leave on the 21st, however Greta was leaving on the 20th. She wanted to see her sister before she moved into UVA and leaving on the 21st would have been too late. So, instead she had a 6am flight. So she stayed up with Charles, who then drove her to the airport. Me and Sarah also woke up in the middle of the night to say our goodbyes.
And then there were seven.
I awoke again at 9am and saw Ramona was also awake. So we decided to make the most of it and pack the car ONE LAST TIME.
birbreorganizing and consolidating our gear
For context, we booked a round trip car rental and me and Ramona were going to drive the car back to Boston. This is in contrast to last year’s team who booked a one way rental, so they had to deal with the logistics of packing up and sending the bikes and camping gear back across the country. Since we were bringing the car back, post trip logistics were a lot easier.
Packing the car for our upcoming road trip was not much different than usual. We’ve done this for 75 days, so we’ve gotten pretty good at it. We consolidated some of our boxes, threw a bunch of stuff out and changed the organization of the car to make grabbing food items easier. With most people’s personal belongings out of the car, we also managed to fit 2 bikes in the car in addition to the 3 bikes on the rack. We managed to finish most of the packing by the early afternoon, so we had a lot of free time.
We decided to go out and explore San Francisco! By we I should say me, Sarah, Ramona, Tian, Ishaq and Charles. At some point, me and Sarah were unintentionally split up from the rest of the group. So we decided to go to Ghiradelli Square to get some shakes and chocolate. The rest of them went to Japantown after seeing the Painted Ladies. Then me and Sarah met up with the rest of the team in Japantown where we had Thai food for dinner. This was the team’s Final Supper (sadness).
View of the Golden CityChocolates and a shake at the Ghiradelli Chocolate ExperienceJapantown!!!Thai Food!!!!
We then went into the mall and after failing to find a bakery, we settled for crepe shop, where me and Sarah had some delicious fruit crepes. It was getting late, so we decided to head back, but we were in the technopolis that is San Francisco, so what better way to get home than to call some autonomous taxis! The six of us split up and got into our cars. It was quite the futuristic experience.
Japantown Mall
Everyone spent their last night here doing their own thing. We tried to get to bed early, because Ramona was going to wake everyone up early.
So that concludes the very last, final Spokes blog…
or does it?
Stay tuned for our post-Spokes blog series which will follow me and Ramona on our 10-day road trip back across the country, featuring Charles for the first two episodes!
Around 2am, I arose, frozen by the South Lake Tahoe nights. It wasn’t until morning that I discovered the cause of my sleepless night. The window was open, letting in blasts of cold air. I will not make the same mistake again tonight.
Ramona, Greta, and I were up before 9am, but the rest of the team is still getting some snooze in. We have a rest day in South Lake Tahoe today. We plan to hit the beach, play mini golf, and enjoy live music at the beach in the evening. As procrastination goes in Spokes, I am not confident that we will accomplish everything we set out to do. With Spokes wrapping up in a week, all of us are feeling a sense of impending end that we are pushing to the back of our minds. At least I know I am trying not to think about it.
Around 10:10 am, everyone awoke. Spokes 2025 is bad at collective decision-making. The morning beach plan was scrapped since we plan to go to the beach in the evening anyway. After some hustle and bustle, we left for mini golf. Little did we know that we would be stuck there for 4 hours.
Get ready with the Spokies
This was my first time playing mini golf, but the game was surprisingly fun. Ramona and Ruth were leading in the first half, but Charles caught up and snatched a victory in the second half. I ended up in 5th place, tied with Ishaq. Not bad for my first time playing mini golf. We also divided into two teams, SCRI and Latvians in the Sheets, to give Spokies something else to fight for. Unfortunately, Latvians in the Sheets did not do too well. One of my joys in life is trying new things. Mini golf is definitely something I would like to revisit in the future.
28 holes turned out to be too many. After the game, we were famished and rushed back to Dan and Natasha’s place to eat some leftovers and sandwiches. I took this opportunity to take an amazing nap.
Around 6pm, we biked to the live music at the beach. Today’s theme is rock and roll. Beach prices were no joke. 8 dumplings were $15. My wallet was crying. We left our bikes at a bike valet (can you imagine) and enjoyed a memorable evening of dance, food, and swimming.
To my surprise, people wanted to go bowling after the beach event. We didn’t go bowling in Bowling Green, but this time, Ishaq is determined to make it happen. However, I was already suffering from the lack of sleep. In case anyone is wondering, I recovered from my fall described in my previous blog and biked an incredible hill into South Lake Tahoe. I wanted to continue my biking streak. Cutting my sleep doesn’t seem like a great way to prepare for the arduous climbing day tomorrow. Another blogger can tell you how bowling went, but for now, I am heading to bed.
This is my last official blog of Spokes 2025. I have so many feelings about this trip, feelings that I can’t completely process while still on the trip. I want to write a reflection blog in the next month or so, but we will see if that happens. Tian is signing off. Hope you enjoyed following along with my story. Enjoy the final few blogs as we finish up our trip. This journey has been bittersweet. One that will be on my mind for a long time. Good night!
It’s 9:35pm. Charles and I are sitting in TABS laundromat in Hurricane, UT, listening to the hissing, humming, and squeaking of Speed Queen Commercial Washers. I recently returned from a 20 minute quest to acquire quarters spanning Pizza Hut, Ernie’s General Store, Taco Bell, Little Caesar’s, and Alfredos. Said quarters were ultimately acquired by knocking on the drive-thru window at Alfredo’s (a Mexican restaurant, obviously). We are running five loads of laundry simultaneously. We will not leave this laundromat until 11:27pm.
hi charles!our new home
Spokes has been full of experiences, like this one, that I can only describe as surreal. “What is going on? How did I get here? Why am I doing this?” Right now, as I write this blog, I am sitting on the porch of a general store in Nevada, in a town with a permanent population of 16. All I can hear are crickets and the occasional click-clack of Charles’ and Tian’s keyboards as they blog beside me. There are twinkling Christmas lights adorning a house across the street. It is August. It is 11:50 pm. I am once again waiting for the laundry.
Like I said, surreal. But sorry, I got ahead of myself. Let’s get back to the day at hand.
On Day 60, I woke up in a grain silo. I dilly-dallied my way through the morning, packed myself a pb+j, and joined the other Spokies in the minivan, squeezed between the sliding door and the folded, untethered middle seat. We drove to Hoodoo’s General Store, where Ishaq purchased $25 worth of snacks in exchange for free all-day parking. Ishaq generously shared his snacks with rest of the team. (We joked early on on in the trip that Spokes was like Groundhog Day and we each had some vice that we would need to overcome in order to escape. Ishaq’s was his poor sharing abilities. I’m happy to report he will be escaping Spokes when we reach SF.)
At Hoodoo’s, we met up with our new friend from Bryce, Cameron. He was wearing a bright orange shirt and appeared far more prepared for this hike than most of us, with our drawstring bags and tennis shoes. Together, we caught the shuttle into Zion National Park. We unloaded half a mile later and walked through a maze of empty line lanes, which made me feel like I was at Busch Gardens, or the airport. We re-boarded a different shuttle and continued our journey towards Angels Landing. I passed the shuttle ride watching Ishaq and Tian play Star Realms and the rest of the team play naptime whack-a-mole.
Finally, we arrived at our stop and found the trailhead. The trail began with a bridge crossing a very enticing looking stream. We resisted the urge to abandon our hiking plans and spend the entire day kicking our feet in the sun-dappled water. It was a hard choice. Propelled by the beautiful sights ahead of us, however, we began the climb up to Angels Landing. The first mile and a half of the hike consisted of very steep, narrow switchbacks. We took our time, stopping to rest at the few shaded areas we could find. We discussed how terrible biking either up OR down this trail would be. Ramona is the only one who stands any chance at all of surviving the bike down. The rest of us, Charles observed, would be biking the Devil’s Takeoff. No thank you. After many, many, MANY switchbacks, we made it to the ranger station at the entrance to the last mile of Angel’s Landing. Because this is such a popular hike, entrance to the trail is controlled by a lottery-ed permit system. We were lucky enough to get two permits, so the rangers gave us all the ok to complete the hike. After the ranger station, Angels Landing turns into an steep, adrenaline (and endorphin)-pumping scramble along the rocky ridge line of the canyon. I’d seen pictures of the hike totally swamped with people, so I was happily surprised that we passed few people along the way.
We spread out across the ridge, each step demanding careful attention. Metal handles and chains attached across the rocks helped guide us as we ascended… up and up and up. It was a beautiful day. Blue skies, hot but breezy, a couple wispy clouds. Looking out across the red canyons, I couldn’t believe I was still on the same planet I’d been in just a couple days ago. I still don’t understand how it is possible to have lush, green areas like Zion in the midst of endless, desolate desert. The park was named Zion after the biblical place-name often used as a synonym for Jerusalem and embodying the idea of a place as “refuge” or “sanctuary”. If I was a Mormon pioneer discovering Zion1 in the late 1800s, I too would have thought I must have stumbled upon some sort of holy land.
Once on the summit, we all sat together and ate our lunches staring out across Zion Canyon. Best pb+j view ever. We made friends with a concerningly friendly squirrel. He really wanted our sandwiches. Unfortunately for him, I wanted my sandwich more. We sat on the top of Angels Landing for what felt like forever but still somehow not long enough. We’ve seen so many beautiful sights on this trip, I sometimes fear I’m becoming less observant of the beauty around us. Not today.
At some point, we left the top of Angel’s Landing and made our way back, all the way down to the river we saw on our way up. This time, at last, we took off our shoes and socks and waded in. Most of us found nice big rocks to sit on and chatted or sat in silence while water gushed around our legs. The sun hung lower in the sky than it had in the morning, and the light dancing on the water made it even prettier than before.
As usual when we are gathered around a body of water, a couple of us started skipping rocks. This particular stream had lots of smooth, flat rocks conducive to elite-level skipping. Unfortunately, despite trying my hand with some objectively perfect rocks, my rock-skipping skills remained unimpressive. Fortunately, they were still better than Ruth’s. It’s a great quality of life that there are almost always people both worse and better than you at things. Nonetheless, my competitive spirit was fired up so I probably could have stayed there for hours, skipping rock after rock incredibly mediocre distances. Practice makes perfect progress, right?
With a glance at my watch, however, I remembered that we remained in a very real predicament. After our decision yesterday to “save laundry for tomorrow”, the clock was ticking down before the laundromat closed and the entire team reached laundry-pocalypse. Several Spokies had already warned me that they had “no clothes left” after two days without laundry. It was time to leave the stream and head back out of the canyon.
We reversed our morning commute to return to our host, Robin’s, house. I originally planned to buy post-hike gelato from the general store, but I was so excited for dinner at Robin’s house that I decided to save my appetite. The night before, our first night at Zion, Robin cooked us what is without a doubt the most delicious meal we’ve had this entire trip. She told us she would be cooking “casserole and salad”, which was intriguing but didn’t strike me as anything out of the ordinary. I was imagining some sort of cheesy rice dish and maybe a caesar salad. No. Robin cooked us no less than 6 separate dishes, all packed full of vegetables, flavor, and love. Chickpea, couscous, and feta salad. Eggplant and tomato with mozzarella and polenta. Beet and jicama salad. Black bean, corn, and pepper salad. Wild mushroom casserole. Mac and tuna. I might be forgetting one. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. It was insane. Anyway, Robin was cooking for us again tonight so we skipped gelato and headed straight back for dinner and to complete the rest of our tasks for the night.
Now, the laundromat in Zion closed at 10. We got back to Robin’s place around 7, and dinner was ready at 7:30. We knew we’d be cutting it close, but we were so excited to eat that we decided to do laundry after dinner. In the meantime, there were several tents and camping mats that needed cleaning after our stretch of camping in Utah, so Charles and I passed the time before dinner cleaning and setting out to dry our camping equipment. In the meantime, Ruth and Ramona made sandwiches for everyone. (They’re the best!!)
We finished up the tents with a little extra time to spare, so I cleaned my drivetrain and lubed my chain, both of which were long overdue. Before I knew it, dinner was ready!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, it deserves all those exclamation marks.) I told Ruth and Charles, who were accompanying the grocery and laundry trip, that we had 15 minutes to eat. Ruth easily accomplished this feat. I went back for seconds at minute 12 and barely cleared my plate. Charles got to minute 15 with an entire bowl of chili left to eat. I gave him a tupperware and told him to pack it for the road.
Our laundry mission was becoming dire. With an hour and forty minutes until closing, we zipped out of Robin’s driveway and towards Zion Park Laundry. As we pulled into the parking lot, however, we found a very unwelcome site. Laundromat shuttered. Machines piled outside the building. The interior half ripped apart and empty. A sign on the window said “closed for the next month”:| The nearest laundromat still open was more than twenty miles away, in a town called Hurricane (but pronouned her-a-kun, according to our native Southwesterner, Sarah). This would have been an absolute disaster, except Ruth was already planning to drive to Hurricane to go grocery shopping at Walmart. We quickly made the decision to tag along with her.
Thirty minutes and one beautiful sunset later, we pulled into a (fully functional!), somewhat antique laundromat. I haven’t spent much time in laundromats outside of Spokes2, but I think Ramona’s fascination with and love for them has rubbed off on me. In addition to the laundromat adventures I recounted at the very start of this blog, Charles and I supposedly worked on our blogs in the laundromat. I believe we wrote a combined total of about six sentences.3 Somehow, we completed all the laundry, folded all the dry clothes, and finished our blogs before Ruth finished grocery shopping. She arrived, however, bearing strawberries and chocolate, so we forgave her. Actually, the timing was quite perfect! We reunited, bid goodbye to our dear friend the laundromat, and once again hit the road. We pulled back into Robin’s driveway around midnight. I took a shower, Charles did some adulting to find an apartment, and Ruth finished making everyone sandwiches (real Spokes angel 🫶). Finally, I returned to the grain silo and went to sleep. As far as I know, I still haven’t turned into grain.
Zion National Park was originally called Mukuntuweap, meaning “straight canyon” by the indigenous Paiute tribe ↩︎
This might not be true, actually. I have many fond memories of ripsticking outside the laundromat on base in Sasebo. Maybe I just reignited an old spark? ↩︎
This is actually quite impressive work for the two of us. Please comment your congratulations. ↩︎
hello from the absolutely STUNNING bryce canyon, utah! sarah is back to tell you about our rest day adventures in this gorgeous park!!! 🧡
after a well-deserved late wake-up for the previous day’s bikers in the campground (i drove the day before), we all began mingling over breakfast while deciding how the day was going to go. some really cool birds with mohawks also decided to join us. after munching on some berry granola then cinnamon toast crunch, we decided we would hit our hike in the afternoon, and spend the rest of the evening running our usual errands and doing other miscellaneous tasks.
cool birds 🦅
good morning from camp!
as of the hike, after a bit of research on joseph’s end for something that would give us the best overall exposure to the park but wasn’t TOO excessive/strenuous, he decided on the navajo loop. after some scrolling through my camera roll and texts with my mom, i realized this was the exact same hike i did with my family when we visited bryce ourselves 10 YEARS AGO!!! 😮 a whole decade…crazy. thanks to my biking legs now, i was definitely a lot less prepared back then, but it was still HARD, due to its consistently steep grades towards the end. sticking to the childhood theme, we ended up talking about computer games, books, and other hobbies we participated in as kids.
besties!!!
off we go
wow.
tian keeping up the social media game
weee
it’s so interesting to think about how i was coincidentally brought back to walk the exact same path i had walked 10 years ago. the millions of steps in between then and now tell so many stories: some expected, but many not at all. after all, life has its own unexpected turns and detours, steep climbs, rewarding descents, and monotonous (yet sometimes relaxing) flats in-between. even in the overlap between then and now, even though the path is the same, the traveler is very different—older, grown (at least more than before, and in many ways). her companions are, too, but all are—in their own ways—family. i wish i could go back and walk with her, tell her that things turn out NOT at ALL like she would have expected, but to be excited anyway. i wouldn’t have wanted it to happen any other way—the fight was well worth it, and the rewards sown even more so. maybe one day i will return, with even more stories to tell, even more growth achieved…💫
ramona chatting w/ a squirrel
hi joseph!
STUNNING!
after a nostalgic, reminiscent ruck through the canyons, we eventually made it back to the trail connecting to the campgrounds and started thinking about lunch. actually, we had all started thinking about lunch about 2 miles ago, but now was the time to act. we walked past the camp restaurant and pizzeria, and after realizing the first was too expensive and the second would be too long of a wait, we eventually decided to make our way in a hunger-induced, feverish (and maybe slightly grumpy) haze back to the campground and scavenge our own food stores. while the others had some quick sandwiches and headed into town to run errands (buy groceries for dinner, do laundry, etc.), joseph and i, with nothing much to do, stuck around the campground to rest. we eventually made a box of annie’s mac and cheese with some of last night’s garlic bread on the side, and ate it in camping chairs on our amazon box of learning festival supplies. maybe a little scuffed, but definitely a top 5 spokes meal (definitely not influenced by my hours of RAGING hunger…) what can i say, i’m a sucker for pasta, bread, carbs in general…🥖
we did our dishes, the town people finished their tasks and returned, and dinner was started. this was ramona’s first time cooking for the group, so we were all very excited to see what she was going to whip up. she had decided on a lovely dish dubbed “grandma’s soup,” which was a hearty mix of potatoes (her favorite vegetable), carrots, and cabbage in a warm, comforting broth. on the side was rosemary bread and chicken potstickers 🥟 which i DEFINITELY didn’t eat way more than my fair share of, straight out of the pan.
good soup 🍲
happy tian :))
thoroughly relaxed, we hit the hay early to prepare to continue our utah adventure into the grandeur of zion national park the next day.
Today’s blog begins with Ishaq’s anecdote from the middle of the night. He woke up to what he thought was Tian’s (my) new, unlocked snoring pattern. He shone a light outside his tent and saw 3 raccoons on the tree next to him. Never in his life has he been so close to a raccoon. One raccoon stared deep into his soul. He felt seen in a way we, Spokies, have never seen him.
I also had my nighttime adventures in my tent. For some reason, I kept falling in and out of sleep. Ramona was awakened in the middle of the night (out of character for her) by a nightmare featuring a realistic-looking snake. I don’t think I did much to comfort my tentmate.
The piercing Utah sun awakened me from my slumber, and Ishaq immediately implored me to charge my phone. Although he didn’t know what today would hold, he believes that some Star Realm battles would be necessary, and there goes my emergency portable battery. I suppose entertaining ourselves can be considered an emergency. I walked over to my bike, intending to charge my bike computer, where I found my handlebar bag opened and the plastic cover ripped. Turns out, the snacks from my bike bag were not the only things ravaged by these stealthy raccoons. A half-eaten bagel in the grass was also the last remnant of our stolen bag of bagels. After Ramona returned from her walk, she told us about the ripped trash bag she had to clean up and the open cooler.
After a demure morning of breakfast and indecision, we decided to let Sarah and Greta run their errands (laundry and dinner shopping) before we collectively go on a scenic drive. The rest of us camped in the visitor center of Capitol Reef National Park to get some stuff done with their WiFi. I hid in the movie room with a film of Fruita showing every 30 minutes. The rest of the Spokies spread out across the visitor center. There wasn’t really a good place to work. The center should seriously consider renovating to accommodate work-starved bikers. I had many emails to send, so I was typing away at my laptop. Planning for a cross-country trip never stops.
After 3 hours of running errands, our troopers finally returned. We were momentarily distracted by the Which Spokie are you? quiz. Inspired by Spokes 2024, Charles was trying to create a bigger and better version of the quiz. Only in the late afternoon did we actually set out on the scenic drive. Unfortunately, Capitol Reef welcomed a tough crowd. While I loved the scenery, not everyone was satisfied with rock after rock. Ishaq chose to sleep during the drive. Greta regretted not buying a geology book to learn more about Utah’s rocks. Everyone was wiped out by the end of the drive, but I got some cool solo pictures.
Greta volunteered to be the head chef for tonight’s dinner. Ramona, Ruth, and I helped prepare dinner while everyone else went off on side quests. Cutting vegetables at the campsite was so serene, in part because some key players were missing. I could be cutting vegetables with the girlies forever.
When the rest of the crew returned, Charles and Ishaq proclaimed, “We were robbed”. The national park grocery prices were no joke. Greta related to their dismay. She made a fire bean salad for dinner, but ran out of steam when it came to the potato salad. Thankfully, Ruth and Charles came to the rescue(?) and cooked up some delicious(?) concoctions.
We rushed towards a sunset trail point to do some last-minute hiking, and didn’t even manage to see the sunset. At least the stars were nice. The night was surreal. I thought I was trapped in a dream or memory. I couldn’t remember if I had ever seen so many stars in my life. The stars wrapped around the night sky much like a planetarium. Stars were lining the horizon, too. I suddenly recalled a play I watched in San Francisco where two characters were lying down on the roof of their car while watching the night sky. I didn’t understand the allure two years ago, but lying on the too dirty ground, I finally understood that scene. The wonder of the night sky and the people that you choose to share that moment with are special. To live is to experience, and there is much more to come.
“Greta, do you fear being 3 blogs behind?” Tian asked me this the last time I was two, almost three, blogs behind.
Yes. Yes I am.
Unfortunately, today officially marks my descent into “three blogs behind” territory. BUT I am determined it will also be my last day on the dark playground of blog procrastination. I have to start somewhere, so I’m starting with today. Day 44 and…uh…Day 36…. will be coming shortly. My deepest apologies to all our devoted readers.
I woke up early this morning to finish up the last of my interviews for MITEC Hack Director positions. My first alarm went off at 6:30, at which point I was still planning to sleep for another 15-20 minutes. Ishaq, however, HATES hearing alarms. So, instead of letting me enjoy my morning snooze in peace, he engaged in a terror campaign to force me out of bed before my next alarm went off.
My wakeups are very important to me, and this nearly set my day off on the completely wrong course. To reset the karmic balance, I pulled on my lucky socks and took a long swig of water. Water solves everything.
Properly hydrated, I hopped on my computer and got to it. It’s my first time being on the other side of an interview process, and I’ve found it very eye-opening. Luckily, everyone I have talked to has been amazing! Starting to coordinate a major event while on the road has been stressful, but I can’t wait to get back to campus and get the planning into full swing.
I was considering going for a run after my calls, but I got hit by an overwhelming wave of hunger, so I decided to eat breakfast instead. I spent the first six weeks of this trip curating a perfectly linear running graph on my Strava progress tab, but I finally gave up this week. Turns out running 20 miles in a week on top of biking through the desert isn’t the most appealing activity. I’ve run 5. Oops.
On the upside, I ate a lovely breakfast (my go-to: greek yogurt, fresh fruit, and granola with a lavishly buttered cinnamon raisin bagel on the side) and appreciated a rare moment of solitude on the condo balcony. After enjoying such a peaceful morning, I took it upon myself to destroy everyone else’s peace. “Rise and shine!” I tried my best to offer my sleeping Spokie friends a warm welcome to the waking world, but I fear it was not particularly well received. Alas.
Eventually, the rest of the team rubbed their groggy eyes and pulled their aching limbs out of bed. Sarah’s mom, Jennifer, has been cooking us incredible food all weekend. This morning, she prepared a lox bagel bar, complete with capers, red onions, and smoked salmon. While eating, we started a jam on Spotify which I curated impeccably until Ishaq joined and decided to completely destroy the vibes. Notable additions to the queue include Funkytown and Bad Day by Alvin and the Chipmunks. I absolutely did not sing along…
lox bar!
teddy bear ishaq
ruth-in-a-box
Luckily, Ishaq’s terrible music choices succeeded in propelling us all out the door and onto our excursion for the day: a hike in Canyonlands! Before Spokes, I considered myself a pretty bad driver. I probably still am one, but I’ve found I actually really like driving the minivan to and from our rest day excursions. Ruth, Charles, and Ishaq joined me in the van and we spent the hour and a half ride scheming for Charles’ next blog: a “Which Spokie are You?” quiz. We generated lots of question and answer ideas, many that will (and some that will not), be included in the quiz. Keep an eye out. 👀
We arrived to the trailhead right at noon, which everyone knows is the perfect time to start a hike. Especially in July. Especially in Utah. Before leaving the house, Joseph, our most experienced hike, implored us all to bring LOTS of water. Don’t tell him I said this, but we were all grateful we listened to his advice. It was HOT out there.
We all like to think we’ve gotten in pretty good shape biking across the country, but our hikes the past two days have given us some serious doubts. How is “just walking” possibly so exhausting?! Besides getting slightly humbled physically, the hike was incredible. The hike was a six mile out-and-back weaving in and out of towering rock structures to get to a viewpoint of “The Needles”. At the viewpoint we could see not only “The Needles”, a set of towering sandstone spires, but also hazy blue mountains and dark red plateaus–all from just one spot. I only wish I knew anything at all about Utah’s geology. Unfortunately, our collective knowledge amounts to “some sort of erosion probably caused this”.
star of the show
okkkk model
awww
hydrate or diedrate
#pickydrinker
The other nice thing about hikes is that we get lots of time to talk! (You know we’re normally pretty short on that…) Actually, we’re getting to the point where itseems like we should be running out of things to talk about, but we never quite get there. Today, we spent a good amount of time discussing each other’s Hogwarts houses: (Joseph/Ravenclaw, Tian/Slytherin, Charles/Hufflepuff, Ramona/Ravenclaw, Ishaq/Slytherin, Ruth/Hufflepuff, Sarah/Hufflepuff, Greta/Gryffindor) We accused many team members of being “funny weird” rather than “funny haha”. And we (rather unsuccesfully) played Guess The Tune. I was also (somewhat succesfully) gaslit into believing octopi aren’t born with all eight legs. Tough.
I knew I’d probably fall asleep when I got back in the car after hiking, so I asked Charles to take over driving for a bit. Sure enough, I curled up in the back and took an epic car nap. I woke up feeling quite refreshed (and Charles was looking… not quite alert) so I switched back to the driver’s seat and gave Charles a chance to rest as well. He later reassured me that “we were never in any real danger…”
sleepy time
more sleepy time
hi cricket!
yummy leftovers
Back at the condo, we dispersed to work on our respective tasks. I blogged, Charles and Tian took a quick trip to the grocery store, Ishaq bonded with Sarah’s dad, Mike, over music. Jennifer cooked us another mouthwatering dinner of mango orzo salad and flank steak with chimmichuri sauce. We were all quiet around the table for at least five minutes, the surest sign of a good meal. Thank you so much Jennifer!!
Since we hadn’t gotten enough heat during the day, after dinner, we all went across the street to hit the jacuzzi. Little did we know, the pool also had our favorite game–cornhole! For some reason, Charles wanted to play against Ruth and I again after his complete and utter humiliation at Vail. Joseph had already left, so Ruth and I teed up against Charles and Ishaq. Let’s just say… Charles can’t claim Joseph is the weak link. Final score: 21-3.
Charles and Ishaq nursed their wounded pride over smores and we all finally headed back up to the condo just before 11. I think I heard somewhere “late to bed, late to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”. What a nice quote.
Clock ticking towards 12, we showered off and started our preparations for the next morning. Slowly, like usual, with plenty of time for giggling.
“I’m just high on friendship,” I heard Ishaq say from across the room. “Awww that’s so sweet,” I said. “Shut up, dude,” he closed the bathroom door.
One Schmitt, two Schmitt, red Schmitt, blue Schmitt. Today I was struck with the cruel reality that I cant just call Sarah by her awesome nickname Schmitty because we have two more Schmitties with the gang today. Sarah’s lovely parents, Jennifer and Mike (dubbed mother and father Schmitt) got the team an Airbnb for two days and treated us to quite possibly some of the most fun and adventurous rest days of the trip. Sadly twin sister Schmitt could not join us 🥲.
We had potential plans today for an early morning hike, however, the group collectively decided in the morning that we were not built for that so we all enjoyed some delicious cinnamon rolls made by mother Schmitt then Ramona and I hit the pool for a morning swim. Later, a few of us hit the town to go to a bike shop and book store. We all did our business and Tian introduced me to some game on her phone that she really loves. I, looking at bike tires the first round, was not locked in so Tian easily defeated me. But of course that round was just the training so I proceeded to destroy her the next two games. We hurried back to the Airbnb to set off for our group white water rafting trip on the Colorado river.
Our rafting guide, Jonah, got to know us all and gave us the run through on raft and kayak safety. I really wanted to flip a kayak, but they ened up being pretty much unflippable. The ride down the river was pretty relaxing. We saw 3 bald eagles, an otter den, and even a stunning otter impression from Ruth flailing in the water. I started out in the raft and really wanted to take a turn at the paddles. So I got into the captain chairs and started rowing. Now some would say I was just bad a rowing, but the raft was initially in quite the difficult position near the river bank in almost still water making it pretty difficult to navigate back to the flow in the middle. Charles stepped in to assist, each of us with one paddle and we eventually found the bubble line and started zooming. Others tried, Ramona getting the most praise from Jonah for her steady pace and good navigation. Personally, I believe she received the oars when the raft was already in steady currents due to the labors of all who came before her, but I could never hate on Ramo so I sat there while she was praised, only making a small off-handed political comment about inheriting a good economy to Charles. During this process of us spokies learning how to row a boat, mother and father Schmitt wisely chose to flee to a kayak, avoiding a series of terrible raft maneuvers with one of us spokies in the captains seat. When it was finally my turn in a kayak, Ruth and I locked in. Utilizing her years of rowing experience and my raw power, we successfully paddled around in circles and were far slower than Charles and Tian in the other kayak 😐. But we did have a good time navigating through a few of the rapids and swimming around in calmer areas. All in all, rafting was a great experience for the team, after packing up all the boats at the end we started heading back to moab and hit our spokes signature move: napping in the van.
After our return, we set out on yet another adventure: Arches National Park. We went on a short sunset hike to the delicate arch and I gotta say, it don’t look all that delicate to me. Liiiiiiiike a bunch of birds were pulling up and perching on it and nothing happened 🤷🏾♂️. The hike up was pretty nice and it wasn’t too hot anymore. Ruth enjoyed seeing germans, because apparently every time you go on a hike there will be germans. She has some strange obsession with them for no reason, even though she barely speaks the language. Everyone enjoyed me tripping and falling on the way up because they’re all fake friends with no care as to if I was okay. Seeing the arch itself was pretty breathtaking. I would’ve loved if the amphitheater around it didn’t have as many people so the entire area would be more serene, but I suppose Jean Paul Sartre put it best: hell is other people (I’m just being dramatic, but i would have loved to be there at like 3 am with no one else around). Charles, Joseph, and I got some solid pictures of the men of the group looking fly as heck, but we were photobombed by Greta who couldn’t resist destroying out vibes (She’s evil, simple as that). Tian of course got her entire photoshoot with all of her signature poses as usual, actively kicking away any spokies who wanted to join her bc she gotta maintain her solo traveler reputation. After some cute full group photos we all headed back down and had a great conversation about REDACTED. Tian and Ruth have quite interesting opinions about the topic, then we took the convo to the van ride back to Moab.
🙂Me exiting tian’s photo shootTian being a poserGetting SchmittyyyyyyMen looking fine as heckGreta’s evil photobombingus posing like we love each otherWhat are they staring at???Not so delicate archThe setting sun
Our final event of the day was hitting an upscale Italian restaurant. Now I LOVE Italian food, but the menu was my worst nightmare: too many options. Everything looked phenomenal, I didnt know what to order and started scrambling to organize a bunch of shared plates with other spokies so I could try everything. Bc the team is fake as heck no one wanted to go splitsies on 2-3 dishes so i had to make a choice. Once the waitress got to me I asked a wealth of questions about the dishes but was hit with the curveball of more dinner specials on the board behind me which i hadn’t seen. Naturally I asked her to come back to me after this revelation. Everyone else orders. Most notably Joseph gets the Josephina ravioli, very fitting I know. Once the zero hour finally arrived and I was forced to make a decision then and there, I did not take a chance on the ravioli, nor did I spring for the tortelloni. I, a man of class and high standards, ordered their mac and cheese. No toppings, no meat, no nothing. Just cheesed-up mac. As the other ordered started rolling in I started to get scared because they all looked absolutely scrumptious. All of the complex artisanal pastas made my dedication to my mac and cheese waver, I nearly even felt some regret. Then set before me was the finest plate of dairy coated pasta I have every witnessed. The consistency, the aroma, the perfectly browned layer of cheese on top. Taking my first forkful caused a single tear to trickle down my face. C’est tres bon. C’est magnifique. One could say it had a certain je ne sais quoi. But as they do whenever you find something truly sacred, the fiends began to swarm. Greta and Ruth started by simply asking for a taste, to which I agreed – I am a chill guy who likes to share food after all. But then, without warning, they began to descend on my cheese sauce with handfuls of garlic bread, dunking and swiping, leaving streaks of emptiness where rich cheese sauce once was. I continued to eat and revel in the meal, but the crows were flocking. In the end, my plate was decimated, not a spec of noodle or cheese sauce remaining. While I’m sure everyone enjoyed their own meals, everyone who tried mine surely had regrets about their ordering choices afterward.
My reaction to receiving my mac and cheeseSpokies at the Spoke on Center
After dinner we headed back to the Airbnb, another successful day for the spokies, very generously funded by mother and father Schmitt. All parties, tired, speedily headed to bed in preparation for an even longer and more arduous day tomorrow.
What’s up everyone, Charles here, back at it again with another b-logggg!
I woke up for the second time today at 8:30am and checked my phone. I had a new Whatsapp notification. The message informed me that Cathie, Greta’s grandma and our host, tripped over a duffel in the morning and hurt her shoulder and went to the hospital. This helped explain my first wake up of the day, which was prompted by a loud THUD from the floor above.
The Spokie responsible for this poorly placed duffel is named and shamed over breakfast. They feel really terrible about it, so we agree to omit the identity of this murderous culprit from the blog. Okay, it was Sarah’s duffel. But in all seriousness, hope you are resting up and healing well, Cathie.
Ishaq and Ramona serve up breakfast in the kitchen. Ishaq’s strawberry banana smoothie hits the spot, Ramona’s bacon is on point, and the pancakes are wonderful. We self serve bagels, yogurt and granola, and milk and cereal. I stream the day’s Tour de France stage (which we all loosely follow now, in part due to Ishaq’s incessant glazing of Tadej Pogačar) to the TV and we try to piece together what’s going on.
Morning view from the balcony. Colorado is really something else
We get good news from the hospital — nothing is broken for Cathie and she is coming back after an ibuprofen shot. In the meantime, Ramona and I strategize about my screw-in-tire situation. She calls a few bike shops and finds one that has our tire size in stock. I’m slated to get a slightly different tire than the other fifteen we have (first (and hopefully last) tire replacement of Spokes 2025!). It’s pretty comparable to the tires we have, maybe slightly better, with one crucial difference that sends Ishaq into fits. I’m getting a Specialized tire. This means nothing to us performance-wise, but the Specialized brand literally slaps a SPECIALIZED logo on your gear. As we all know by now, style points are strongly correlated with speed, so my dripped out rear tire replacement is going to be responsible for at least a 1 mph boost. I defend myself against plots to steal my new tire in the middle of the night. Ishaq contemplates purposefully running over a screw to get a new tire as well.
Although re-mounting the tire will be pretty cheap ($25 service), Ramona and I (mostly Ramona) decide we want to give it a go ourselves. The year is 2025 and everything we need to know for the repair is in a 10 minute YouTube video anyways. Ramona watches the video, nods along, and mumbles “it’s not that hard” at regular intervals.
When Cathie comes back, we make plans to sightsee the Garden of the Gods, a free local park with great mountain scenery and spectacular rock formations. Half of us go in David’s (Greta’s grandpa) car and the rest ride with Cathie.
The park is packed. On the ride over, we admire the scenery and comment on the various bikers we see on the trails. Coming into Colorado, I knew the state’s reputation for being very outdoors-y, but even still, I was surprised at how many people were out biking, running, and hiking. We found parking at the lot beneath the Balanced Rock and took some fun pictures:
Get it… cause the rock is balanced
Our pose so fire everyone behind in line copied us
Tian hittin that
Ramona getting jiggy
Joseph knows something we don’t
??
Boo
🥵
We then drove to the main lot at Garden of the Gods and walked on the trails that lead you to some of the other rock formations. We also climbed on the rocks, posed for some more pictures, and discussed our roles in a hypothetical Spokes horror movie. Also, an intense piggyback ride showdown took place.
Chalanting it up
We’re chill like that
Garden of the Gods was gorgeous
One of the rock formations
More views
Postcard worthy
Landscape view
Ishaq + Sarah | 1 – 0 | Ramona + Ruth
After returning to Greta’s grandparents’ home, we made tacos from last night’s leftovers for lunch and split up for afternoon activities. Ishaq, Ruth, and Tian finished watching Squid Games season 3. Greta went out for a run. Joseph and Sarah napped. Ramona and I went to the bike shop. We got my new tire, asked a lot of questions, and picked up chamois butter, more tire sealant, and new bike lube.
We also wanted to buy a pair of pliers, which Spokes has been sorely missing, so we stopped at Home Depot on the way back. The pliers at Home Depot are way more heavy-duty than we need ($15), so after some nifty Googling (I google “pliers”), we find that Ace Hardware sells pliers for far cheaper ($3.50) and go there instead. With our spirits buoyed by our cost-saving successes, Ramona and I head back, ready to fix my tire.
The repair goes smoothly. The part we were worried about — seating the new tire onto the wheel rim — works on the third try as we hone in on the pressure to pump our tire canister to (150 psi!). Ramona busts out her trusty method for spreading new sealant in my tire.
Backup career option for Ramona is pizza spinner
Dinner is at PF Chang’s courtesy of David and Cathie. After the meal, we ate fortune cookies. Joseph and Ramona pulled two *very* topical fortunes.
And people think the government doesn’t spy on us
Since Ruth has an appointment to get her hair done tomorrow, we help unbraid her hair. I work on one singular braid for what feels like forever, then promptly quit. The others are more successful.
Ruth’s mom screenshots this still on a FaceTime call. I am struggling mightily
We eat Cathie’s delicious apple crisp with vanilla ice cream afterwards. I solve a crossword in the papers with help from Ruth and Greta. Periodic shrieks emanating from the basement pierce my blissful crossword+dessert combo. I find out later that this is owing to the other Spokies playing, as Joseph said could only be described as, “Jenga, but the bricks were our bodies.”
We might be a little *too* bonded
We all go to sleep, some sweatier than others. Apologies for the late blog, and until next time!
Yo yo yo! It’s Joseph, back at it again from Kansas City (the one in Missouri). I’m finally out of the trenches, and all my deep thoughts and introspection go to a complete halt unless I’m in complete misery and questioning my life. That’s why this time I’m doing a bit more of a silly blog. I’m sure as you will have heard from Greta (when she eventually publishes yesterday’s blog), we had a great learning festival followed by an awesome dinner out with some of the sponsors of the program we taught at. Meeting influential members of the Latino community anywhere is always a treat and our VIP level treatment has elevated Kansas City to my favorite stop on the trip so far. Kansas City continued to be a surreal trip even after last night, though.
We awoke with plans to go to The Children’s Place, a specialized trauma treatment center for very young children. The visit was set up by the aSteam Village sponsor. We were given a tour of the facility and then split up into groups of two or three to play with the children for an hour, followed by a little fireworks show. We weren’t allowed to take any photos and aren’t at liberty to talk about many details, but I can personally say that the kids were great and everyone had a blast. The adults there are doing some very important work and have my full respect.
We got back to our Airbnb and had a couple of hours to spare before our dinner plans with the learning festival sponsor, supposedly some amazing barbeque (Kansas City is known for it). Charles wanted to run some errands, so me and Ruth joined him. There were a few errands to run, but one was more important than the others. Enterprise said that we had to renew our car contract every thirty days and wow would you look at that we started Spokes a month ago! So, we drove to the nearest Enterprise thinking this would be a 15-minute errand. Then everything went wrong. For the past thirty-something days, our car rental process had gone too smoothly. No car breakdown or troubles with authorized drivers. Of course, all good things must come to an end. See, our 2024 Chrysler Pacifica had very recently been recalled due to a side airbag malfunction, along with 250,000 other Pacifica’s in Enterprise’s nationwide fleet. Enterprise told us we could keep the van until the end of our trip, but when it came time to renew our contract, the local branch said they could not renew a contract on a recalled vehicle. The only option here would be to get a replacement minivan and renew the contract with that, but it just so happens that those 250,000 Pacifica’s are most of Enterprise’s minivan fleet, so there were no available minivans or any seven-seater SUVs in the entire Kansas City area. We drove across state lines to two more Kansas City locations including the airport in an attempt to find an available vehicle, but no dice. At this point, our only option was to forego the Cambridge Enterprise’s pleas to get our car switched and continue on with the recalled Chrysler Pacifica with an overdue contract until we can eventually get it replaced, maybe in Denver… The legality of this decision is dubious. One might even say that we’ve committed Grand Theft Auto™.
Cool Bridge
Driving to Enterprise
After our quick errand turned wild goose chase, we came back to the AirBnB with nothing to show for our efforts. Our barbeque dinner with the sponsor was cancelled for unrelated reasons, but he instead generously doordashed us food from the barbeque place. It was quite delicious. The team all gathered together for our fourth iteration of the Spokes Movie Night, where we watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I had been wanting to watch the movie for quite some time now and I was not disappointed. The main female lead’s name in the movie was Ramona, so it became a running joke that our Ramona had seven evil exes and all that. The best thing to come out of it was probably the song in the movie called Ramona. I had the bright idea of making a three minute long edit with the song. Please enjoy the fruit of my labor.
What’s up everyone, it’s Charles, here to recap our rest day in STL! After our first century ride yesterday, we all seized the opportunity to sleep in this morning. Everyone fixed themselves a breakfast as we mapped out our plans for the day, eager to explore our first major city since DC.
Nora, our host, had recommended we check out the farmers market in Tower Grove Park the night before, so we all set out for that around 10:30. Even though we’re a biking team, I’ve found a strange reluctance to tour the places we visit on my own bike. Part of me is trying not to spend any more time than I have to on the bike. But the other part of me likes to separate the biking aspect of Spokes from my rest day adventures because of the other hassles — pedaling on clip-ins without biking shoes on, having to find a spot to lock my bike, wearing a helmet. We all opted to walk the 1.5 miles to the farmers market, so I think the other Spokies were also happy to spend some time walking for once.
The farmers market was lively. A jazz band was playing music. There were a lot of booths selling all sorts of things. Sweets, BBQ, pet food, plants, art, woodworked pieces, earrings, and on and on. I bought baklava at a Mediterranean treats booth and the seller threw in an extra Oreo finger for me. Ishaq “got clocked as Nigerian by a Ghanian couple” and bought their algae lemonade. (Review: “it was ass”). Ruth, Ramona, and Joseph cooled down in the fountain water and probably doubled the average age of the population frolicking there.
Biking mural!
A few booths where we entered the farmers market
Live music 🎷
The fountain and more booths
I keep taking pictures of my food after I’ve devoured half of it
After walking back and sweating profusely in the deadly Missouri heat/humidity combo, the Spokies ate a few bites and split up for afternoon adventures. Tian crashed out and started swinging a pillow around violently. Greta went out for a run (yes, she is not right in the head). Joseph, Sarah, and Ramona went to a coffee shop to get some work done, then biked to the park and did some more work. Ruth biked to the art museum and got tacos. Ishaq, Tian, and I went to the zoo.
We didn’t really feel like biking to the zoo, so we were going to walk, until we realized we literally have a minivan. Instantly buoyed by this revelation, we made it to the zoo in high spirits with cool body temperatures. Since I was the most excited about the zoo, I guided us. We only got lost a few times. (I’m directionally challenged). The zoo was great quality bonding; we yapped so much at times we hardly even realized we were trying to see all the sights in the zoo. We had a great couple of hours; and best of all, the zoo was free! Shoutout St. Louis.
Tian crashout Tian crashout
View from Forest Park
The art museum
This weird warthog thingy (forgot already)
Tortoise!
Bro might be the thinker
He just like me fr
He just like me fr
He just like me fr
He just like me fr
He just like me fr
The giraffes
Greta made her famous Thai quinoa salad and lime ginger chicken+tofu for dinner and we chatted with Nora and her husband Alex. Two of the buffest dudes I’ve ever seen — friends of our hosts — came over and said hi. Ramona, Sarah, Joseph, and I worked on the bikes for a bit and then we all wound down for the night. If only we could stay another night, but alas…
MIT Spokes 2025 