By: An Jimenez
Hello, reader! Welcome to the official Spokes 2018 blog where we will keep a detailed, daily account of all of our mishaps, successes, and adventures over the next 75 days as we scale the United States. Remember to subscribe to our blog to receive an email notification with every post!
Today, we all woke up around 7am to check out of our dorms (bye Maseeh!) and load our personal belongings + sleeping stuff into the gear van (van #1). Had a couple complications in the morning, but we were on our merry way to D.C. at 11am where we will start the biking trip. In van #1, we had the Matt Luerman behind the wheel, Bethany handling navigation in the passenger seat, and Lisa, Alex, and I in the back - mostly sleeping. We drove through some crazy rain in Baltimore, stopped to grab a bite at Subway, and arrived D.C. at 6:30pm.
The five of us met Annie for the first time at our hosts' home since she had been in Chile up until today, and we met our hosts Elizabeth and Gerry who happened to be professional bikers. First thing upon arrival, Elizabeth showed us her extensive and incredibly bike collection in her garage and explained to us some of the lengthy routes she's been on and how she bikes every day here in Virginia.
Before dinner, the six of us set up two large tents in the backyard. It was my first time setting up a tent ever (even with 8+ years of Girl Scout and camping experience), and it was much simpler than I imagined it to be. Took a little under a minute for each tent. Dinner consisted of a huge vegetable pasta bowl prepared by Chef Gerry, sliced bread with olive oil + balsamic vinegar, and turkey sausages on the side (pictures to come). Elizabeth and Gerry gave us some pro tips over dinner ranging from how to combat saddle sores to taking on the dreadful uphills to ideal snacks for on-the-go. They were incredibly helpful and friendly, and we are grateful to have started off the trip on such a high note in terms of hosts!
After dinner, we washed up, chatted a bit more with Gerry, and went to sleep in our cozy sleeping bags and sleeping pads. I was too tired to stay up and wait for Kate and Delia to arrive with the other van, but thankfully, Kate wrote a nice summary which I've attached below of her adventures today. Anyways, thanks for following us on the road! Stay tuned for tomorrow's crazy stories.
A few words from Kate, who handled the bike van (van #2) with Delia:
"7:15am outside Maseeh. We headed off to Kendall, taking the T to South Station. Suffice it to say it wasn’t very crowded. We walked a little ways, and then we arrived at the car rental location before its 8am open.
After complications yesterday, we called in our hero Sandi Lipnoski from the Edgerton Center at MIT for backup. She was an incredible help, and her presence helped us sort things out with the car. Our to-be rental, arranged a month in advance, had been taken away in the night after they had not followed through with awarding us the rental the previous day.
We were upset to say the least, but had faith we could figure something out. Many phone calls later, we found ourselves at Logan airport with a new Chrysler Pacifica minivan. The Budget rental team at Logan was incredibly understanding and helpful. Special shout out to Diana Heard, Mark, and associates who really pulled through. We’re excited about the van!
Then came the other challenge. The gear group was leaving for DC separately in the single day rent car. Our task was to get all 8 bicycles into the minivan and transport them and ourselves to DC.
The car rental chaos had set us back. Plus, checking out of our dorms for the summer by noon put on a time pressure. We had to fetch 8 bikes from the 11th floor of MacGregor. Thank goodness for elevators! We ran to REI for some last minute provisions, and Ben was a help with making sure the gear would work for us.
We strategized the bike loading, removing the quick release front wheels. All in all, we were able to fit all 8 bikes with the seats folded down in the vans and some creativity! After some delays, we finally set off for DC, following behind the other team members. We had a fun drive down, through some rain and darkness but all in all smooth sailing. Arriving in Alexandria (right outside of DC) pretty late, we regrouped, reuniting the two teams into one MIT Spokes. Our first night had arrived! With two four person tents, we were ready for a refreshing night before our next day in DC."