This is just the start—we’ll keep working our way through the questions we receive (in our blog and elsewhere…stay tuned!). We promise to leave no question unanswered. So. Keep the questions coming! (If you want to ask but don’t know how—click on the tan banner above, or here or HERE or h e r e.)
Any kids stand out that you see staying curious about learning?
Yes! At every teaching site, I’ve met students who are curious and excited to learn. Curiosity manifests in different ways—there are the students who ask questions within the framework of the lesson, students who question the lesson itself, students who stay quiet until the hands-on activity and then go all out tinkering with the materials…and there are also students who are not particularly invested in the lesson but eager to tell you about their love for drawing or animation or coding, or the horse their family owns, or some other thing that fascinates them. Their excitement is always genuine, and it’s lovely to be around that kind of energy.
Any students that might bike across the U.S. when they’re in college?
Hard to say—we’ve received many a question about what the biking part of Spokes is like, but usually students react with some combination of amazement and disbelief; they think it’s cool, but they don’t think they can do it themselves. That said, I probably would have reacted the same way two years ago, so it’s certainly possible we’ve met some future Spokes this summer….
Has the trip been easier or harder than you thought? How are the bikes holding up?
– from Chris the bike fitter at The Bicycle Outfitter in Los Altos (For those of you who don’t know, the bike fitters at The Bicycle Outfitter assembled and fitted our Trek Checkpoints the day before departure—they’re amazing!)
This is such a good question. In Nevada, I probably would have answered harder. Back then, each day felt like a year—I was drowning in the million mundane details that constitute the Spokes routine, from locating things in the van to adjusting to my teammates’ sleep and eating habits to carving out an unexpectedly long period of time to be alone each day. Now, I think I would say easier—because we did find and settle into a routine within a month and a half, and I’ve adapted so successfully that the absolute craziness of Spokes feels normal.
I’ve also had more time to notice and appreciate the difference that good equipment has made—this year’s trip is definitely easier than it could have been. For example, having a large Stanford Athletics van that can fit 6 bikes and bikers all at once has saved us countless times from thunderstorms, heat waves, and general exhaustion. And riding on six brand new bikes (with a tune-up at the Denver Trek store) has meant that besides flats and a few minor derailleur adjustments, we haven’t run into any major bike problems. The bikes are holding up beautifully :)
What do y’all think about when you’re out biking on the road?
I tend to spend a lot of time focusing on my surroundings—this is also why I prefer not to listen to anything while biking. If you were to hop inside my brain during a leg, you’d probably encounter some variation of the following: pedal pedal pedal huh is Alex biking faster than usual today pedal pedal sweat is getting into my eyes pedal everything here is so lush and green pedal how did junior year go, really pedal pedal pedal pedal the wind is howling pedal COW pedal pedal COWBOY pedal are we there yet.
No road revelations for Anna, clearly.
Anna seems like she's been struggling with lots of health issues... Is she okay? Is it hard to take time to recover? I'm sure every moment feels so important and this is a pivotal experience.
A view from yesterday: simultaneously mundane and majestic. Worthy of wonder, I think.
I am okay, thank you for asking. It is hard to recover during Spokes—in order to fully heal, I need a long, unbroken stretch of time to do nothing but rest, and there simply isn’t a way to rest with any consistency on this trip. But, as I said, I am okay—I promise.
Describe what being on Spokes is like in the form of haiku?
A comfort to know
that even all this can be
utterly mundane.
Good night!
Anna
P.S. Yesterday was Jordan and Helen’s first century (100 miles🎉), and today was Alex and Leo’s! Conditions finally lined up just right. The team is feeling accomplished but also sore and tired—so if the blogs are rolling in slower than usual, now you know why.