By: Bethany Cates
Hi blog readers! I have a treat for you today. And by a treat, I mean really bad poetry. Turn back now if you do not want this. You have been warned.
Whenever things get pretty miserable on the bike (which is pretty often for me, as my natural state - i.e. my state before this trip - is couch potato), I like to mentally list all of the things that are making me miserable. You might call this brooding, and write it off as unhealthily dwelling on situations that cannot be changed, but I find it cathartic.
So! Here are some haikus that I thought of while biking today. It was actually a pretty pleasant ride, a mere 78 miles with only-moderately-defeating headwinds. And it was only 95 degrees. But that's better than 100, right? Seriously, though, I actually did enjoy this ride. I started to feel a bit defeated around mile 50, but some fried green tomatoes and my 5000th listen-through of 22, A Million later, I felt like I could have done another 30 miles. I didn't, but I could have!!!
Anyway, brooding haikus. I have decided I will write one for each state we pass through, summarizing its most important features. So you can look forward to that! Here's the backlog.
Virginia:
Beautiful paved trails,
scenic views and friendly hosts.
You're cool, Virginia.
Kentucky:
Even more friendly hosts!
But why are the dogs so mean? Also gravel roads?
Missouri:
My allergies don't
like Missouri very much.
Plus, scary coal trucks.
Kansas:
Oh Kansas... Kansas.
Why are you so flat and - wait,
there's hills, also wind.
And there you have it! I told you they would be bad. You thought I was being humble, but now you know better. Anyway, we got into Newton today, where we'll be teaching another round of workshops! Our hosts Janet and Orvin are remarkably interesting people, and they made us a (very large) spaghetti dinner that somehow managed to be one of the most delicious meals of the trip so far, despite the fact that we eat spaghetti about 3 times a week.
Over dinner, our hosts often ask us some standard questions: where are you from? what year are you? what's your major? Today, in addition to these, Janet and Orvin threw in a really thoughtful inquiry: What is the thing that sets you apart from the people around you? The thing that makes you, you? I really liked this question, and getting to hear my teammates' responses to it. We obviously get to know each other's quirks pretty well living in 24/7 contact, but it's interesting to see which quirks people identify most strongly with, and how their perception of the things most important to them diverges from the strongest traits as I might identify them. It's a neat character study, I guess. In case you're wondering (just kidding, I know you're not wondering, but I want to share and it's a clever transition okay???), my "thing" was that I think a lot. Not about the normal day-to-day stuff, but about life and self and universe and all that. Am I slightly concerned that my most identifiable quality (and indeed the one I'm most ?proud? of) is also probably the most pretentious thing a person can say about themself? Also that I just used the word themself which is not a real word and will inevitably make some grammatically-inclined readers cringe? Yes and yes - thanks for asking, rhetorical Bethany!
This post devolved into something of an internal monologue and I'm kind of vaguely sorry about that. It's late. I'm going to stop before this goes any further downhill. Goodnight!
P.S. I'm writing a post-script on this even though I'm on a computer and can very easily amend the body of the text, since I can't find a good place to put this update-y blurb amongst the mass of rambly blurbs. Cool! So today was also the Fourth of July, and we got to spend it pretty near the geographical center of America, which is neat, I guess. It was really nice - there was live music, and watermelons, and also the longest fireworks show I've ever seen, I think. It was 45 minutes. Here are some pictures from the evening festivities - enjoy!
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