Day 60: Q&A Continued!

Thank you so much to everyone who has submitted questions so far, answering them is a lot of fun as it gives my memory a much-needed jog! Please keep them coming! We’ll gradually make our way through the list. Here goes:

Look how happy we are when you send us questions! Keep them coming!

What was the most interesting thing you learned or saw? (The TomKat Center)

 Learning to navigate conversations surrounding my workshop curriculum in different settings has been very interesting for me. I’m teaching on social identities and intersectionality, yet when I first designed my curriculum, I didn’t realize how controversial words like “intersectionality” and “pronouns” were beyond the Bay Area bubble. Before each teaching day, I’ve sent curriculum drafts to site coordinators and have had to adjust the curriculum nearly every teaching day to prevent controversy. From learning to exercise far more caution than I anticipated to run my hour-long workshop, I’ve started thinking much more about how school curriculums impact what conversations people are allowed to have access to as young children, and how much that may shape social and political views into adulthood.

What was the group's high point and low point of the trip? (Kim Ratcliff, Stanford Transportation)

 For me, a high point in this trip has been receiving gifts from the kids — often accompanied by the sweetest smile. These moments have seriously warmed my heart, and they remind me how rewarding getting to hang out with these wonderful kids have been. A low point on this trip has been the barrage of insect opponents we’ve faced: the mormon crickets of Nevada and Colorado, the biting gnats of Kansas, and the endless swarms of mosquitos and spiders and massive flies relentlessly tagging along for the ride.

Gifts from our amazing students! Thank you!!

Helen, if you could dangle an animal best friend out of your truck, what would it be and what would you name it? (Anonymous)

 I found this lovely Michelin Cat on Pinterest the other day. A few weeks back in Farmington, I heard from fellow bikers at the bike hostel that they had just met another biker who traveled with a grumpy cat named Marilyn Monroad in his front bike basket. Therefore, I would name my Michelin Cat best friend Marilyn Michelin Monroad, and travel down the southern Illinois highway with Marylin Michelin Monroad hanging out the window.

Meet Marilyn Monroad <3

For Helen: What has surprised you the most about this immersive experience in "American Culture" (as mentioned in the day 44 blog post)? (2022 Spokes Alum)

 Being able to have very long and wonderful conversations with people who were raised with entirely different backgrounds and values as me has been the best surprise from this trip. I can clearly and fondly recall all the late-night kitchen conversations with hosts with views across the political and religious spectrums, friendly encounters with strangers in rural gas stations who were curious about our van and bikes, and opportunities to share experiences such as cheering with Kansas City locals at the baseball game or having an in-depth conversation about tattoos with Denver locals in a thrift shop.

Near the thrift store (RiNo area in Denver!) where we had a wonderful conversation with some very well-dressed people with super cool tattoos :)

Thanks again for the questions,

Helen

Day 59: note from home

I’m back! (Not physically but on the blog). 

Last week, I flew back home to Pittsburgh. Two days later, I flew to North Carolina for rabbitholeathon, a weekend dedicated to wikipedia, library genesis, and notion.  One overnight stay at the Reagan airport later, I flew back home and have been there since. (There were some complications and moralistic undertones to this decision, but I dwelled on it for nothing short of six hours, so I will turn my focus elsewhere). 

It’s been long enough that I remember Spokes. Like some passive onlooker with faint recollections of a past—actually, their past. A month ago, I couldn’t even fathom an extended life devoid of adventure, or at least to the degree we were embracing each day. Yet, here I am, about to watch Forrest Gump with my family, adapted to a more sedentary, maybe even sustainable lifestyle of books, cooking, occasionally the gym, and random obligations. 

What to make of this?

I’m slightly skeptical of stark changes in short bursts, and even more skeptical of cries that announce it. So here’s what I’ll say:

When we’re younger, I believe most of life is “getting your reps in.” Some people might call it exposure or practice. And depending on the thing, the reps are different. Some more obvious; others more ephemeral. In the gym, it’s doing more sets with more weights. To find your style, it’s buying and trying and returning. But to live life? It could be interning, traveling, or doing something that discards our central identity as students, the stories we harbor at bay. For me, I chose spokes: exposure to America—the canonical (like, East of Eden!), subversive, and everyday—and practice in belief. I don’t want to belabor the gym language, but to do something every day, for each rep to affirm that people are good, that acceptance is peace, and things are and will be just fine is special. A special way to end 18.

See you all in Pittsburgh,

Victoria

Day 58: You Asked, Anna Answers

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.

Day 55: Rain in Kentucky

[Important Announcement: We’re soliciting questions for the team to answer in this blog—please submit as many questions as you’d like through this Google form! You hear a lot from us; we’d love to hear from you 😊]

We left Illinois today and entered Kentucky. This felt very abrupt as we only stayed in Illinois for a single night, passing through the southern tip of the state. The last bits of Illinois were quite beautiful as our route took us along and through Shawnee National Forest.

Biking through the forest.

We biked through and between towering trees, dense vegetation, and mist filled valleys. I still cannot get over how different this is from our biking west of the Mississippi.

A playground structure modeled after a John Deere tractor.

About halfway through the day, it started raining. The visibility was tough and my shoes were uncomfortable while wet, but given the 80+ degree weather while exercising, I found the rain to be pleasant.

A dry patch in a parking lot left by one of our bikes.

The going is a bit treacherous between the rain and the free-roaming, aggressive dogs we have encountered in the area, but I enjoyed the scenery regardless.

-Leo

Day 54: Out of Pocket!

[Important Announcement: We’re soliciting questions for the team to answer in this blog—please submit as many questions as you’d like through this Google form! You hear a lot from us; we’d love to hear from you 😊]

“Out of pocket!”

This phrase is an exclamation of slightly amused exasperation in response to an unexpected situation or interaction — not only have I been introduced to this phrase for the first time on this trip, but I’ve heard this utterance far more frequently than any other sentence on this trip. Admittedly, I relish in the out of pocket. These past 24 hours have contained an unusually high rate of instances that deserve to be labeled as such, so I’d like to share these moments with you to guide you in your own journey with the out of pocket.

 August 7, 2023, 8:00pm: Jordan’s Engagement

[We are eating dinner with Katie, a Stanford alum, who very kindly took us out to a restaurant in Farmington. We are in the middle of dessert when my life changed forever because Katie ordered us gooey butter cake, a St. Louis staple, and the best cake in the world. As I’m demolishing far more cake than socially appropriate…]

 Helen, mouth full of cake: “Jordan! We know now! You’re ordering gooey butter cake at your wedding.”

Jordan, whips head around: “Wha-“

Katie, delighted and sincere: “Oh! Jordan, are you engaged?”

Jordan, side eyeing Helen: “Haha! No, I’m not!”

Katie, chuckling: “Oh! Helen just spoke with so much certainty!”

Jordan, side eye intensifying: “Oh, I know!”

 [Cue laughter from entire table and the side eye simultaneously intensifies throughout the evening. End scene.]

Essentially, I’ve now become the self-appointed wedding planner, and Jordan will in fact be having gooey butter cake at her wedding (as well as my favorite food ever, which will be catered from Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant, see blog post day 48). This interaction is important because it reflects my dedication to this job, as my sincerity towards gooey butter cake is so apparent that this wedding plan appears entirely real and in the foreseeable future. While an individual (who shall not be named) has been side eyeing and continuously muttering “out of pocket” as I proudly announce these plans, I know my intentions are only the best.

Wedding planner (left) and client (right)

August 7, 2023, 10:00pm: Birth of Bertrand  

We’ve had several rest days in Farmington, which have become treasured chunks of time to call loved ones. As I’ve spent more hours sitting on curbs and talking on my phone, I’ve come to realize that my hands grow restless during these calls and have been creating on their own accord. I’d like to share my most recent child, Bertrand (you can call him Bertr, pronounced “Birch,” for short). Bertrand is a seed spirit who touches rocks and pebbles to transform them into magical, glittery trees.

Bertrand was born in the Al’s Place Bike Hostel’s parking lot

August 8, 2023, noon: Textured Grapes

As we crossed the Missouri-Illinois border today in Chester, Illinois, we stopped for our lunch break. As per usual, we had sandwiches. I was so distracted by seeing Anna and Leo’s wonderful smiles, general feelings of excitement of being in a new state, and giddiness from hearing the surrounding bushes alive with cicadas, that I did not look into the bag of grapes before plunging my hand into them and shoving a handful into my mouth. As I did so and realized they tasted more textured than usual, I looked up right into Jordan’s horrified glance as she took a bushel of grapes from the same bag and rinsed a thick layer of dirt off them.

Innocent smiles and cicada-filled bushes preceding grape consumption….

August 8, 2023, 5pm: The Snake Whisperer

We were driving near Harrisburg, Illinois when a red pickup truck pulled up next to our van. There was something tan and long sticking out of the driver’s side window, which we first thought was a very thin tattooed arm. Suddenly, the “arm” twisted and curled, and at closer glance, we saw a very muscular young man holding a snake out the window with one arm and waving at us with the other. He beamed at us and held the snake out in different angles, all the while driving entirely handless. We all whipped our heads towards Anna, our resident Illinois resident, who appeared equally confused. We continued to enjoy the view for a good 5-10 miles, pulled away, never to see the snake whisperer again.

The snake whisperer, in action!

May the out of pocket be with you,

Helen

Day 52: Quirks in the Kitchen

A number of our hosts have introduced us to some unique kitchen and dining related practices during our trip that I have really enjoyed learning about, so I thought I’d share.

1) High Tech Technique

I consider myself somewhat of an ice cream connoisseur. That being said, when a host of ours shared an ice cream serving technique with us, I was greatly dismayed that it was my first time learning of this genius technique. Our hosts showed us how to deal with ice cream that may be overly frozen and kind of tough to scoop. Instead of wrestling with the scoop, simply whip out a bread knife and saw through the container an inch from the lid. Now it may sound odd but it really is brilliant. When you put the lid back on, it prevents that pesky layer of ice that sometimes forms between the surface of the ice cream and the lid when it is served the traditional way. Additionally, this way of serving ice cream is perfect for pairing ice cream with other desires like pie or cake, as the ice cream comes out in neat, flat, circular sheets of deliciousness, the perfect mount for a brownie or slice of cobbler.

2) Marvelous Mug Cake

Apparently the secret to a good mug cake is using a cake mix with angel food cake properties and topping it off with dove chocolate, at least according to one of our hosts that we had a few weeks ago. After making and trying mug cakes this way, I can confidently endorse this advice. As a college student whose meals during the school year consist of dining hall food and microwave cuisine, information like this is invaluable. Quick, easy, accessible desert-making advice? I’m all ears.

3) Plate of Honor

This quirk differs from the other two in that it doesn’t concern food. One of our more recent hosts introduced us to a dining tradition within their family which centered around a “special plate.” The concept entails setting the dinner table with one plate that differs from the rest of the plates. When the meal begins everyone at the table has until the end of the meal to share one thing they appreciate about the person eating from the special plate. I thought this concept was really neat and thought it would be fun to do it again sometime.

~ Jordan

Day 53: Passengers From Anna’s Train of Thought

[Important Announcement: We’re soliciting questions for the team to answer in this blog—please submit as many questions as you’d like through this Google form! You hear a lot from us; we’d love to hear from you 😊]

I’ll be honest: this blog will be briefer than what I typically post, mostly because some health problems that were happily haunting me at the start of this trip have popped up again to say hi. For the sake of being kind to myself, I’ll leave the serious reflecting for later in the three weeks (!!) we have left. Today, I present to you:

✨✨ Passengers From Anna’s Train of Thought ✨✨

Teaching day at Lab:Revolution, a 4H makerspace in Farmington, Missouri! The more we teach, the more quickly I pick up on the group personality of the students in our workshops. Today’s personality is best captured by this video of the students playing a game during Alex’s workshop—the goal is to get everyone’s post-it back to its original owner without anyone moving from their seat (to demonstrate the way computer networks route packets of information).

Paper airplanes and other hijinks ensue.

We have so many extra 1-liter bottles of soda. Enough to build a small boat.

Laura Ingalls Wilder (author of the Little House series) lived in Missouri for part of her life. I had no idea, not until a student found photos of her and her writing desk in the State Historical Society of Missouri’s online archives during my workshop. Amazing! I am amazed.

Many of our students today are homeschooled—I wonder how common that is in this part of the country.

Source: The State Historical Society of Missouri

Alex practicing for the circus, part II

Over these past 53 days, Alex has (in no particular order) acquired a unicycle, expressed interest in acquiring a harmonica, balanced himself on a random pole, and—today—balanced a broom on his hand. I feel like there’s a pattern here….

This summer, I have probably met and had longer-than-brief interactions with more strangers than I have in the past 3 years (4 years?) combined.

Observations on St. Louis specialties, over dinner with a very sweet Stanford alum (thank you, Katie!) from the St. Louis/Farmington area: Toasted ravioli is crunchy. Gooey butter cake is gooey. How many bites of normal cake is equivalent to one bite of gooey butter cake, on Anna’s sugar and richness scale? 20, give or take.

Sometimes I forget that when I blog, I’m writing with an audience. I think the blog Q&A form will give you all more of a voice and help me remember that’s not the case—please send us your questions! Ask away.

The team has been in a pretty good mood here in Farmington—maybe because we’ve had more space and time to relax than we have in a while, maybe because familiarity has made the daily tasks of Spokes easier and more efficient, maybe because 3 weeks left together is, in the grand scheme of things, very short. I’m not sure what the reason is—but I’ve enjoyed laughing hard and feeling lighter after.

Anna

Day 50: Al's Place

Today we left St Louis for Farmington, MO. We went almost directly south along the border with Illinois. Farmington is not on any direct route from St. Louis to DC, but we are going there to teach.

Farmington is small, fairly rural town — though it is the capital of the county Francois County. We biked through the downtown and some of the neighborhoods when we arrived. There was a short but very charming main street with many restaurants and local businesses. Farmington contrasts very strongly with St. Louis.

We are staying at Al’s Place Bike Hostel, which is a really nice bike hostel that gives cyclists a great place to stay. Farmington is on the TransAmerica Bike Trail so there are a lot of bike shops and facilities for cyclists here. The hostel was founded in 2005 in memory of a well-liked local cyclist, Al Dziewa. The hostel is in a very picturesque building that used to be the county jail.

The main room of the bike hostel. The jersey on the right is Al’s and the jersey down the hall on the wall belonged to an Olympic gold medalist.

In fact, the building is prominent enough that it showed up as the first image in my Google search for “Farmington, MO.“

This is the first bike hostel our team has stayed in, but we are all really liking it so far!

-Leo