Today was going to be the longest bike ride of my life. During my recovery from a previous fall, I had happily taken up van mom duties for two of the longer biking days, so today was going to be the day I finally broke the 50 mile milestone. I was excited to have 50 miles worth of road to sweat and think and figure out my life. I quickly realized that there wasn’t a lot of spare brain capacity to have such deep introspective conversations with myself while riding because the majority of my brain was like, “AH possum get out of my way!…. Keep going just keep pedaling, whooooo go quads… oh dear I forgot to downshift…. Need to signal okay don’t lose balance now oh geez that’s a big pothole go left? Right, definitely right…WOW those bales of hay are huge!” and so on. The heat was cruel but the views were breathtaking.
One of the things I wanted to think deeply about on this trip was why I was doing this trip (ironic, I know). Making the decision to join the Spokes team felt so right at the time, so I did, and now I’m trying to figure out what my gut was trying to tell me. I knew one of the reasons I wanted to do this trip was because I wanted to meet people along the way, whether it was locals or fellow cyclists to hear their stories. Now I’m discovering that the kindness of strangers on the road is something I could’ve never expected ahead of time. As my group was taking a break on the side of the road at the beginning of the day, a nice man rode up in his golf cart to offer us water and recommend a sandwich shop farther down the road as well as route advice. Later on a bigger road, another stranger in a car slowed down next to me and shouted, “Where are you all heading!” which startled me at the time, but as we pulled over to talk more, I discovered that he was a cyclist and had previously done a cross-country cycling trip as well.
The afternoon was a bittersweet time. An was heading out to fly home. She will be dearly missed, but we all hope that she can make a full recovery in the comfort of her home and rejoin us when she is capable and ready. She will act as our remote social coordinator and guardian angel in the meantime. We love you, queen! Matt was the champion who drove through rain and thunder to drop her off at the airport.
Simultaneously, we were greeted by our hosts John and Patty Brenner, who welcomed us into their home with snacks and dumplings and promises of the most delicious dinner of our trip. They bought the dumpling skins from an Asian supermarket around 60 miles away from their home! It certainly made me feel like I had arrived at a home away from home. The rest of dinner consisted of watermelon tomato salad, coleslaw, beef, chicken legs, baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, rice, homemade bread and dip, and more served on top of bicycle-themed plates. They also told us miraculous stories of people they’ve hosted in the past ranging from people who rode a tandem bike cross-country, to a man who rode across the whole world, and even a man who rode in only corduroy pants and flip flops! As we sat there thinking about our padded pants and hurting butts, we all thought those people were crazy and amazing. Thanks to the Brenners for opening up their clean and cozy home as well as sharing their wonderful stories to 7 doe-eyed, tired, cross-country MIT students and cyclists.
