Day 19: Bryce Canyon Rest Day (Puja)

We all slept through breakfast at the Econolodge and quickly packed our things so we could check out of the room in time. This morning was part two of Operation Cargo Bag which went as swimmingly as it could have gone.

We then had a hearty brunch at Denny’s (we’re basically brand ambassadors for them now) and Nancy drove us to Richfield so we could store our bikes and gear at Matthew’s family’s farm. Then Adam drove us to Bryce Canyon National Park. The drive was long and we were going a little crazy without Matty, so we yapped about morality, love, and pork amongst other things. When we finally arrived at Bryce Canyon, we set up our tents and departed on the Sunset Point hike where we saw incredible views of the hoodoos (which Sasha had thought sprouted out of the ground).

Once we got back to the campsite, Adam, Sasha, and I began cooking dinner. Although they were skeptical of my bell pepper and onion-cutting methods, the pasta turned out delicious! Then we got FOMO from other people’s camp fires so we made a last minute run to the General Store for firewood and ice cream. We shared ice cream and toasted marshmallows around the fire and went to sleep. The night got very cold, and I was wearing shorts so I had to sleep in fetal position because I didn’t bring sweatpants oopsie

Bonus Material: As editor-in-chief of the Spokes 2025 blog, here is my review of each of our wonderful writers

1. Nancy Bao: her blogs are always well worth the wait, each of Nancy’s blogs will take you on a wondrous (and often frightful) rollercoaster ride!

2. Sasha Balasingam: her blogs are always so full of personality and charm and reading them always makes me smile <3

3. Matthew Sullivan: he is the only one (besides me) who posts his blogs directly on the website. Thanks Matty!

4. Daniel Pack: he is always on top of his blogs and texts me his blog and photos within a couple hours of the day being over :)))

5. Adam Hussain: reading his blogs feels like admiring a piece of art—there is something profound about his reflective writing style, I guess being a D1 yapper comes in handy sometimes

Day 18: Delta to Salina, UT (Nancy)

Foreword: I've somehow regressed to a 7-day delay, much to Puja's disappointment (writing day 16 on night 23).

Last night, one of our team members told our hosts we would be rolling out at 8am. Now, for the recurring motif of my blogs: I woke up, looked at the clock, and it was 8:12am. We rolled up our sleeping bags and moved out of the school auditorium that we’d colonized for the night and went to the Home Ec classroom for breakfast. Poor Dick had been sitting in the sunlight for 1.5 hours by the time we got rolling.

The day of riding was extremely boring and characterized by strong headwinds, my ass hurting, and some hills. So, fast forward to when Puja and I arrive in Salina ~15 minutes ahead of the rest of the crew because she really needed the bathroom (a real toilet—readers, use deductive reasoning).

After bumming around the gas station for a bit, we all head over to the Econo Lodge. Pause for a headcount: Daniel checks in, Puja and I roll in, and then Sasha and Adam get there after us. First, the motel owner (who we'll call VJ) asks Daniel how many people we have. 4, of course. He makes us upgrade from a 2-person room to a 4-person room for another $40. Fine. Whatever. We pull in and get ourselves situated. Sasha gets mad at me for swimming in the motel pool without her (I'd literally went for a swim and back before she was ready even though it was HER IDEA to go swimming).

Sasha therefore drags Puja to the pool and I go to grab something from the car. Uh-oh. VJ appears out of NOWHERE and first asks me how many we have. 4, obviously. How many ladies? 2; 2 ladies and 2 men. Oops! How many ladies are visible at the moment? |{Sasha, Puja, Nancy}|= 3. I insist that Puja isn't staying with us the night, so that's 4! VJ gets angry and accuses us of having SIX PEOPLE. (We deduce he must've double-counted me, because me in bike clothes ≠ me in normal clothes?).

Anyways, off we go to the rodeo. I have never felt so out of place in my life (and honestly a little scared) in a sea of white people. Some horse stuff happens (cowboys on a horse try to lasso a calf and then tie it up; cowboys try to stay on a horse that's trying to buck them off; cowgirls also try to lasso a calf; a bunch of women go in the arena and take off their shoes and socks and run around like crazy people trying to grab some tags from some bulls also running around like crazy); Adam and I kill a 12-pack of juice boxes; fireworks; and we go to Denny's for dinner afterwards.

In the Denny's parking lot, we proceed to take our camping gear bag off the roof and load up Puja. At the motel, we very nonchalantly carry our bag of camping gear in; same deal in the morning. When we were checking out, VJ accused Danny of hiding an extra person in the back of the van. But our Danny boy stayed strong, and avoided the $50 fee for an extra person. Spokes: 1, VJ: 0.

Day 17: Baker to Delta, UT (Daniel)

Waking up in Great Basin, we packed up camp while enjoying the beauty of our campground and drove to state line. The ride today was beautiful, with a couple of climbs into the Utah valley that eventually led to Delta.

At lunch, the winds picked up, and luckily they were in our favor! With that, we cruised the last half of the day and ended up in Delta High school. Our warm showers host was a teacher, so they let us stay in the high school auditorium and use the showers there. The school was huge and looked like it was out of a movie.

Our hosts, the Dziuks, graciously made us dinner in the school’s kitchen and we sat around and chatted about their experiences and our journey.

After dinner, Adam and I worked to secure the roof rack with bolts as it shook loose after all the driving we have done. With this work completed, the fireworks around town had started going off, and we decided to get some for ourselves. We drove over to the fireworks stand in town and grabbed some the owner recommended, came back, and set them off!!

With this excitement concluded, it had gotten late and we headed to bed for the night.

Day 15: Ely Rest Day (Puja)

Today Nancy, Sasha, and I slept in while the rest of the Spokies left around 10am to drive to the Las Vegas airport so Matthew could attend a family wedding in Puerto Rico! After we finally rolled out of bed around 11:30am, we went to Denny’s for brunch. The pancakes were delicious and we had lots of leftovers for breakfast before the next day of biking!

Nancy left to switch the laundry while Sasha and I explored a This & That store which had a very curious assortment of items. Then we went back to the motel, got some more sleep, and caught up on spokes planning stuff. Then we got hungry so we went to Happy Garden to order takeout. The menu was really long (one page), and Sasha faced great difficulty in selecting her meal—especially when she discovered that the menu had another side on the back. She finally settled on shrimp fried rice, and I got chicken fried rice. Then Nancy put clipless pedals on Sasha’s bike and Sasha practiced riding around the motel parking lot while clipped in to the bike. Around 6pm, Nancy and I departed on the singular hike on AllTrails in Ely. The hike was quite interesting and some stretches were treacherously steep, but we (and Nancy’s crocs) persevered. The views from the top were beautiful and Nancy ordered takeout from the summit.

The gorgeous sunset really set the mood for Nancy’s many near-tumbles during our descent. On the way down, we passed by a dog that I thought looked like a cow and Nancy thought looked like a pig. We also stopped by a playground and swung on the swings which hurt Nancy’s biceps so we stopped. Then we went back to the hotel where Sasha and I watched Private Practice. Overall, it was quite a fun and peaceful day without the guys. Jk—we missed them terribly  and were very happy to see them when they returned at 10pm.

Day 14: Ely Teaching Day (Sasha)

BLOG!

We are back at it again. I missed you all but so glad we are back. Today was the wonderful day of June 30th and we are teaching at the White Pine County Library in Ely, Nevada. A super fun fact about this town is that we were featured in their weekly newspaper so I guess all the people of Ely have seen our faces. I will include a picture of that newspaper article down below. 

We started the day in the morning sleeping in the motel which was a nice way to get some rest in, except for Adam who woke up bright and early due to his unfortunate circadian cycle so he actually helped himself to Denny’s. 

The rest of us woke up and went to this pizza buffet in Ely that was pretty good (unlimited pizza and breadsticks and salad) and then we all met up at the Library to set up for our teaching sites. 

Teaching was wonderful- Fenet and I started the day with teaching about the brain and ice cream and oobleck. Then Adam and Puja taught their respective lessons on Tragedy of the Commons and first-aid wound training. Lastly, we ended with a bang with Nancy and Matthew’s YGA kits with the electric cars. 

Teaching is a whole lot of fun, but also lots of energy to interact with the kids and keep smiling. So we all walked downtown to an old-fashioned soda/ice cream store called Economy Drug where we made friends with the waitress and ate delicious ice-cream sodas, milkshakes, and sundaes. Then, we walked right back to our motel and took a lovely little nap before heading for a group dinner at one of the only other restaurants in Ely that wasn’t closed or only open for take-out called RACKS. We probably would have had to eat our frozen pasta meals because we already killed our budget for the day on food but it was my mom’s birthday and she kindly offered to get our dinner for us so we ordered burgers and fries and onion rings and enjoyed the lovely dinner- Shoutout to my mom, Happy Birthday Amma I miss you so much. 

Then we enjoyed a nice van-cleanout and ended the beautiful day.

Day 13: Eureka to Ely, NV (Adam)

Nevada has many ups and downs, both literally and metaphorically. It’s quite melancholy to ride through what the locals call ‘the loneliest highway in America’. There’s quite literally nothingness, although it is admittedly a very beautiful nothingness. A sheer expanse of desert landscape which makes the sky look bigger than it does back in California. But, because of the nothingness, the only thing you can see is the mountain ahead of you. And then you go up. And then you go down. And then there’s another mountain. Rinse and repeat. A cyclic kind of cycling which allows one’s mind to spin its wheels in wondrous ways. 

The day started on the up - we woke up in our church accommodation and made a breakfast of cinnamon roles and party eggs (shoutout Sierra Camp). Just as we were rolling out, a few Eurekans meandered through the door in their Sunday’s best, wondering what a bunch of spandex-clad college students were doing in their church. Matthew, our resident ambassador for Middle America, chatted them up as we expeditiously loaded up our gear. The van was momentarily stuck in the gravel driveway, but was quickly pulled out with the assistance of one of the many Ford F150’s pulling up to the church parking lot. 

Daniel and I have now been riding together through most of Nevada, and I have enjoyed both his spoken and unspoken company on the high desert roads. We ride at the same cadence, but more importantly, we like taking breaks at the same cadence - a pretty frequent cadence in case you were wondering.

We were pretty tired from the past few days and decided to pace ourselves for the 77 mile, 4500 ft ride. It worked well for the most part, except for when a passerby driver asked Nancy “if those bikers behind you are okay - their pacing is pretty slow”. It was already 65 miles into the day, and that guy had the audacity to comment on our pacing from the comfort of his A/C cooled car. I’d like to see him on next years team and then see what he has to say about pacing. 

We rolled into Ely, the biggest town we’ve been in since Carson City, around 5pm. It has a nice Western charm to it, with low brick buildings and everything cowboy or casino themed. To save on housing budget, we booked one motel room for the whole team, and obviously the floor space was extremely limited. Nancy managed to store seven bikes in a small little corner of the room using one of the most elaborate stacking methods I’ve ever seen. Frankly I have no idea how she came up with this, but it is undeniably genius and we simply would not have fit in the room otherwise. Shoutout Nan-queen, without whom our bikes would all be broken twice-over. 

The day ended with burritos, enchiladas, and the promise of a restful sleep with no 6AM alarms. Looking forward to our teaching day tomorrow! 

Some songs that have gotten me through Nevada: 

100% by ATW

Housebroken by Hotelier 

Verdansk by Dave 

Vermont by Fail Better, Heal Faster 

North Memphis by Pharmacist 

Day 12: Austin to Eureka, NV (Matthew)

We woke up today to the sounds of sprinklers. Yes - that means our morning started with wet underwear and tents. To be frank, my sleeping bag was out of the splash zone, so I was able to get an extra 30 minutes of sleep while the others dealt with the Bert T. Gandolfo Park sprinkler system.

Soon afterwards, I began driving behind the crew towards Eureka. We passed through the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest for a bit. That is definitely one of the most beautiful spots we’ve seen in Nevada.

After some time on the road, Daniel had a flat tire that needed repair. I drove over to give the relevant supplies to Daniel and Adam, where they worked their magic.

While Daniel’s tire was being fixed, Nancy and Puja zoomed off into the distance. I had to drive nearly 30 minutes for their resupply. By that time, they had almost reached Eureka.

We met up in Eureka with our contact Galen, who generously offered us housing at the newly built Eureka Community Church. This was an amazing spot. My favorite part of the church was the interior wood finish from recycled 1880’s lumber!

We ended the night with me making burnt, but greasily delicious Quesadillas (disgraceful, I know mom). Here is also a picture of our beautiful Eureka sunset.

Day 11: Middlegate to Austin, NV (Nancy)

Foreword: Thank goodness I am constantly blessed with the most intriguing days to blog about. Even then, it seems like I still struggle to be on time…because I’m writing about day 11 on the night of day 17.

It was another fairly standard morning: I wake up late to Adam making scrambled eggs and people packing up camp. Puja and Daniel roll out first at around 7:30am, followed by Matthew, Adam, and Fenet (separately; this is important). I’m about to leave at 8am when Sasha, who’s driving, can’t find the car keys. 

We search the van, our camping spot, the restaurant and bar. The airtag tracker is unreachable, and last seen at 7:36am. Since there’s no cell signal after leaving Middlegate, we deduce that someone must’ve ridden off with the van keys; uh-oh. It’s now 9am, Puja has gone 1.5 hours without a refill, and she is panicking. She satellite texts her dad, who in turn hounds Sasha, missing the key (haha) fact that we cannot drive to Puja without the car keys. 

So I set out with 4 extra bottles of water stuffed in my jersey to retrieve the keys from whoever has them and ride back to Middlegate without dying of thirst. Off I go. 

About 50 minutes into my pilgrimage, the support van pulls up behind me. Score. Turns out one of the team members put the car keys in their backpack this morning. Sasha resupplies me and relieves me of my 4 extra bottles of water. I’d come to deeply regret not hanging on to them.

Sasha drives off, then passes me going the other way after about 1.5 hours. I gave her the thumbs up and figured she’d find a turnaround point to fill me up (we needed refills every 1.5-2h). 

10 minutes passed, then 15. No Sasha. Odd; it shouldn’t have taken that long to turn around. After 30 minutes, I figure Sasha must’ve gone back to Middlegate. Uh-oh; that’d put me at 2.5 hours without a refill. I start rationing my water (don’t do this). Thankfully, I have a lovely 1200 ft climb to distract me from my thoughts of dying. I notice brown crickets appearing with increasing frequency on the shoulder. To my horror, I realize that the brown tire tracks on the highway are from a bunch of cricket corpses. A couple driving an RV also seemed to notice my suffering and handed me a bottle from the RV, Tour de France style. Score! 

Unfortunately, with no more climbing to distract me, I start crashing out. Instead of waving down a passing car for water, I record a voice memo of my timeline that day (because the numbers were starting to mix up in my head). It started: “Today is June 27th, day 11 of Spokes. I left camp at 9:15, …”. Quite dramatic. I start thinking about how I’ll say goodbye to my friends and family in my next voice memo. 

Then, I hear a notification ping. Could it be? Cell signal? Score. I check Sasha’s location, she’s 15 minutes away, and at long last, three hours later, she pulls over to give me a refill. 

Where was Sasha? Turns out one of our team members had mistakenly biked 20 miles down the wrong road from the start, so Sasha had to drive 20 miles back past Middlegate to stop our team member from biking further down the wrong road. 

Anyways, all’s well that ends well. We made it to Austin, a tiny town of ~60 and had a lovely swim in the public pool. This 10-year-old kid, Alex, made us feel old when he said that he loved playing Black Ops 6. The lifeguards let us play chicken in the pool, etc. etc. I savored my canned chicken and ramen for dinner. Case closed.