day 49: when life gives you gravel

it’s been a running joke throughout this trip that seeing each other on campus upon our eventual return is going to be awkward - or, at the very least, strange - after experiencing the absolute best and worst of one another, living and breathing cycling for ten weeks straight. spokes has become its own entity, a microcosm of human vulnerability, of selflessness and at times selfishness, of collaboration and at times an intense desire for solitude. it’s become, in some insane roundabout fashion, a stable, joyful presence that i almost can’t imagine leaving behind.

but soon we are going to be back to normal life, whatever that means. class registration, dorm packing (sleeping in one place for months at a time??), staying up too late for essay writing instead of culver’s custard runs and thera-gun fueled giggles.

as much as i have enjoyed my time at stanford, that thought makes me sad.

i played beach and indoor volleyball for six years throughout middle and high school, and it was my life. before that, theater performance was my life. after that, indoor cycling was my life. and then one day i quit those things and they just weren’t anymore. seasons of life fade away and before you know it you’ve let connections with people you once spent hours every day with become transient memories. and that’s okay - it can be really healthy. but i truly hope that the connections our team has made this summer can continue to provide comfort and joy when spokes is no longer our entire life.

several of our recent warmshowers hosts have encouraged us to write messages in their guestbooks dating back years and years, a few of which have hosted multiple past spokes teams from both stanford and MIT. i think its a beautiful thing to hold onto connections like that. one thing i absolutely love about cycling (albeit in my limited experience) is the community it fosters. the fact that the generosity of warmshowers even exists, the fellow tourers you meet who have stayed in the same cities as you and offer their wisdom about routes and restaurants, the stories of cycling reunions with old friends from old trips all over the country and all over the world. i don’t plan on quitting touring anytime soon, and i want that to be me one day.

in case you missed parth’s blog post yesterday, i’m a little bit clumsy and managed to bruise my tailbone *after* getting off of the roller skating rink on saturday (don’t tell my mom), so i’ve spent two days in the car entertaining/ bugging/ soaking up the lovely presence of katherine. today we plotted the perfect way to get back at your mortal enemy (i will not disclose the entire plan, but it does involve fire ants and the AC vents of said enemy’s car). we also talked about hay. and other important things, timothy.

while my day consisted of car time, iced coffee, airpods, and sitting in the brutal missouri humidity, the bikers seemingly had a much more eventful stretch from our starting point of warrensburg, MO to our current stop of columbia, MO. i’m sure you’ll get a much more detailed report in tomorrow’s blog, but here’s what i do know. today was our first day on the katy trail, an almost 240-mile gravel recreational trail spanning a portion of the missouri river. parth has reported a claim from google that an “experienced road cyclist” who averages 50-100 miles a day on paved roads should only be able to do 30-50 miles a day on the katy. gravel really packs a punch. (and some idiot planned not one, but two, hundred-something mile days in a row on it. oops.)

beyond the gravel and a few consequent flats, the bikers encountered a pebble mountain of sorts, ankle-height plants that were hopefully not poisonous, a cave??? and enough humidity to nearly turn them into amphibians. did i mention it’s humid here?

in all seriousness, i’m bummed to have missed it. i’m hoping to get back on the road tomorrow - do love me some gravel action.

till next time,

aja

Stanford Spokes