By: Lisa Peng
(This is a super late blog post, but I figured better late than never! I’m terrible, I know.)
Today was an eventful day full of unexpected surprises!
First, we crossed the border from Illinois to Missouri (this was planned). Crossing a state line is always a cause for celebration because it’s reminder that we’re making huge progress on our journey.
A couple of miles across the border, however, Matt got a flat tire. Here’s him holding the offending tire up in outrage. Bethany stayed behind with Matt to wait for the van moms to come drop off a fresh tire as the rest of the group continued onwards.
Pretty soon after Bethany and Matt caught up, the gravel roads began. There was a condemned bridge, a “dangerous hill” sign, sections that were not bikeable, and rain. Lots of scattered rain showers. Let the chafing and squealing disc brakes begin, folks!
We were almost at our second lunch break when we came across a small grey meowing kitten in the road. Annie immediately dropped her bike and picked up the cat to cuddle. Why? Because Annie’s heart just makes her do things like that sometimes. The cat was quite an acrobat, climbing from my rear wheel up to my seat and then jumping onto my handlebars as we stood there deliberating what to do with him. We couldn’t just leave it... right? But there was no way to carry him with us. Our group members eventually started reluctantly peddling away, one by one, until it was just me and Alex standing there. Just as we were about to take off as well, I saw a jeep pull onto the road in front of us. I eagerly flagged it down and hoped some kind stranger would be willing to take the kitten to a shelter or offer up any advice. I had barely gotten the words, “We found this kitten…” out of my mouth before a small girl jumped out from the passenger seat of the vehicle, scooped up the cat, started showering it with kisses, and proclaimed, “We’ll take him! We have lots of cats at home!”
It was a tough last 13 miles to Al’s bike hostel, but we were so happy to have arrived at the wonderful space.
We were greeted by Lab Revolution for dinner, and then we met up with Kate’s dad who drove all the way from his home in Illinois to treat us to ice cream!
In the evening, we had wonderful conversations about geology and climate change with an MIT alumni, Fred, who was also staying at Al’s bike hostel with his biking group. We could tell he was very passionate about his work and loved to talk about it. Fred also gave us great advice and left us lots of biking essentials in the morning. We are very grateful! Tomorrow, we begin teaching at Lab Revolution in Farmington, Missouri.
Comments