Travis and Maceo start off the morning in matching zebra gear.
Anna rides daringly into the sunrise (towards Starbucks).
Sean rides towards the WASHINGTON MONUMENT!!!!!!
It’s 5 am. An explosion of alarms blares relentlessly into the darkness. I sit up and slam my head into the ceiling. OW. Right, I had slept on the top bunk in our Madison Warmshowers last night. Head pounding, I guesstimated my way down the stairs to silence those dang alarms. There’s an air of anticipation this morning. IT’S DAY 70!!!!! AHHHHHH!!! We had overnight oats and eggs for breakfast (a spokes classic) and were out the door by 6:22. Yeeeheeee. It’s our last day sleepily cramming our bags into the backseat of the car. Our last day of filling up that HEAVY water jug. Our last day of coating our sensitive butts with chamois cream. Our last day of slathering on thick coats of sunscreen. It’s the last day of our 10 week journey!!!! I biked the first 22 miles with Anna, Maceo, and Travis to a lovely Starbucks where we enjoyed a second breakfast. YUMMM. Biking was real nice in the morning with a little bit of an ocean breeze giving us a slightly hard time. But WOW!! We are almost at EAST coast. Crazy. We then biked another 30 miles to a gas station (Cole joined the little biker huddle at this point). We did this in approximately 2 Radiolab episodes (sidenote: highly recommend this podcast!!!!) which is insanely fast. That last day adrenaline really got us pedalin’. The next 20 was a pretty long stretch; we were biking along the sidewalk of a pretty busy highway heading into the city so the road was quite bumpy (to say the least) and unpleasant. This time it was also 2 Radiolab episodes long. We stopped at a shopping center for a water break. I had gone into a restaurant to use the bathroom and on the way out I had seen a dog that looked exactly like my dog hanging out around the corner, I looked up to ask his human if I could pet and I saw my mom! My mom had driven down from New York to surprise me and brought us some pizza! We did some snackin’ and we were off for the last bit. The last bit of biking was super nice–we got bike trails, nice city paths, and a lot of red lights. I was feeling a little sentimental when I clambered into a Starbucks anxiously looking for a bathroom one last time. I biked the last bit without any music or podcasts (not even the silky voice of the Radiolab host Jad) and took a moment to think reflect on this summer. The day before this 10 week journey, I had sat nervously in my room on campus, very anxiously worrying about all the biking that was ahead of us and the hard days to come. And here we are! Having biked about 3600 miles with the Washington Monument within sight. Weaving through the crowds at the National Mall, we finally reached the Monument!! AHHH!! Jumping up and down and exchanging sweaty hugs, WE MADE IT!!! Rachel (Spokes ‘18) met us at the monument to celebrate before we headed to a celebratory buffet dinner hosted by our host, Andrea. There were a couple Stanford students (incoming/current) from the Maryland area there to welcome us as well! All so exciting. We did some car packing before settling into bed for some well deserved sleep. This was my last biking day (a few people will be biking to the ocean tomorrow– pft those lame-os) and I’m feeling quite bittersweet about it. I’m desperately looking forward to the cushy palace I call my bed but I’m also going to miss the dependable rhythm of pumping my legs to Radiolab for 9+ hours a day, the warm string cheese sticks kept in the steamy pocket of my jersey, the satisfying ‘click’ as my cleats finally clip into my bike (I’m not very good at clipping in–still struggling after 3600 miles), the deliciously scrumptiously creamy taste of Fairlife chocolate milk, the revitalizing cold breeze of gas station AC that has replenished my tired aged soul, the everchanging landscapes of our Eastern route, and, of course, my awesome, contrastive, kind, funny, compassionate, curious, silly, courageous, persistent, sincere, and “thoughtful” team. Following in Anna’s footsteps (Day 72 blog post), I wanted to thank all the wonderful souls who opened their hearts, homes, and churches to us along our journey as well as all our supporters who made this journey possible. I also wanted to thank the generous people who shared their kindness along our journey as well as their stories and tall glasses of ice water. I also wanted to thank all the kiddos that were so excited to take the time out of their summers to learn and explore with open minds. I am eternally grateful for this unique opportunity to see and discover this beautiful country and the amazing people that live in it. Finally, I’d like to take a moment to appreciate the team that I spent almost every single waking moment with for the last 10 weeks. To the patient burpy audiobooks.com fanatic Cole, the ever upbeat flat tire fixer-upper Sean, the kindhearted Subway-fanatic/premature dad Travis, the jubilant personal wake-up serenader Maceo, and the resilient coffee support system/amazing lyricist (and she will always go onnnn) Anna, thank you for everything and I’ll catch ya on the flipsiddddeeeee.
WE MADE IT!!!!!!!
Lots of love,
Asia