monument, co → karval, co
read about the same day from mit’s perspective
no, i’m not talking about avengers: infinity war. i’m talking about the day that 13 scrappy, (mostly) college students from mit and stanford decided to meet up halfway through their cross-country bike trip. we picked the most regal of locations to rendezvous: the subway (there is only one) in ellicott, colorado.
but, before any of that, let’s begin with joel’s morning musing: “i wonder,” he said, “if today will be a smooth, event-less day.”
it was not an event-less day.
last night i texted simone (an mit spoke) that we planned on reaching ellicott by noon if we left by 9am, like we planned. this morning, we left around 9:30am — which the mit team later teased us about (our mornings tend to be slower than others, it seems).
that wasn’t a huge biggie—we just shifted our meeting schedule back by half an hour—until ody got a splinter in their foot.
a flat. ody got a flat.
and, although the team in the car (aja, katherine, and sophia) dealt with the situation expertly by finding a nearby tire service and retrieving the spare tire from under the floorboard, this certainly threw a wrench in our plans.
while that was happening, we (bikers) reached our first rest stop (sans ody) and a very kind gym employee let us use their restrooms, fill up our water, and we bought some snacks for lunch. joel, who has been dealing with many of the car problems, was more tied up, calling his dad and the car team for almost the entire rest break.
it occurs to me that, as ody’s nine lives have been ticking down, joel’s parents have been facing several logistical issues. in addition to providing realtime car support, they’ve had to deal with an insurance claim. and, a good portion of joel’s conversations with his dad are probably less “how was your day?” and more “what should i do if the transmission fluid smells acrid?”
so, from all of us, to dan and rose: we appreciate you so much. if we’re spokes, you’re the hub, keeping us well-supported on our journey.
the hole in the tire added another half hour to our rest stop, and we rolled into the subway around 1:15pm. as i was propping my bike against the side of the restaurant, i heard a voice behind me say my name — who i recognized as mariela.
moments later, the other mit spokes arrived. and, having studied our bios on the car ride over, they greeted everyone by name. if you were there, you would have agreed: it was adorable.
a beautiful picture of our cars outside the subway; we’re not sponsored but, come on, with this kind of photography, we should be (someone has quite a—what’s the word—passion? for photography)
i warned the subway employee that some bikers would be coming in to eat lunch and talk, but i don’t think she was prepared for the chaos and interior re-design that we wrought upon that small place.
i like to imagine that, after agreeing to the arrangement, she watched nervously from her perch at the sandwich-making stand as more and more people gathered in the parking lot and started to excitedly compare car organization arrangements (it’s bizarre how many snacks we have in common).
we drifted inside and started eating, at which point the mit folks shared that they’d made a buzzfeed quiz for us: which mit spoke are you? if i’m remembering correctly, we have 3 maxwells, 2 franklins, and 2 sophias.
it was surreal and cathartic to compare experiences with the mit team. throughout this trip, we’ve had so many intense challenges. and we’ve gotten used to relying on each other to get through them. for me, it was incredibly fun to meet an entirely different group of folks who had learned to similarly rely on each other to face similar challenges and grow in similar ways.
we talked about our best and worst days, recounted some of our traditions and inside jokes — but even though we had almost three hours together, it was over in a flash.
a flash of lightning, that is.
because, just as the mit spokes left, a hailstorm arrived. this seems to be a trend in colorado: we leave late, run into afternoon storms, and spend several hours delayed looking at radar forecasts of the storm.
when i got to the subway at 1:15pm, i did not anticipate that i’d be there until 7:30pm. but that’s what happened: we stopped biking at the subway and shuttled the spokes to our final destination. we did the operation in two trips: aja, vincent, and katherine went first. they cleared out the car, then vincent brought the car back, and then joel, sophia, timothy, and i hopped in.
deciding what to do, with the storm looming
the four of us who rode in the second shuttle
while we were waiting, we played several card games, including a new one that my friend alena taught me in high school. it’s a variation of a game called canadian fish which i would highly recommend to anyone reading this post who might have the occasion to play cards while waiting out a storm.
aja wrote about the importance of remembering the small moments on the trip. to me, it’s these sort of in-between (liminal?) moments when that often feels the most pronounced. there’s so much to do on this trip, but every now and then, there are moments where all we can do is wait.
wait for the car. wait for the peloton to catch up. wait for mit to arrive.
and in those moments, i often find the most special connection with others, free from the hustle and bustle.
of course, those moments end. and the world comes crashing in. today, “the world” was the sink i was showering in. and “crashing in” meant crashing down:
the plumbing behind the sink
the broken sink, outside the church
so, um. i broke a sink. in a church.
i’m really hoping god also remembers all the good things i’ve done on this trip. like, it’d be great if i could get some brownie points for all the sinks i didn’t break, maybe?
39.37mi, 2:28:16 moving time
—parth