Sunday, July 21
After our luxurious quarters in the Utah Valley University dorms that Joe Jensen set us up with the past couple of nights, we were ready to head to Nephi, UT, where we *thought* there was an RV park we could camp in. I drove today because of my knee stitches, and rolling into the High Country RV Park, I could tell we'd be comfortable here too - nice showers, nice shade, and nice wifi gave us everything we needed to relax.
The bikers rolled in around 1pm with Joe Shadle, Joe J's neighbor, an avid biker who offered to accompany the team from Pleasant Grove to Nephi. It was a 60 mile ride that he proceeded to bike back as if it were nothing. He was so inspiring - and we loved his rainbow biking gear!
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It was a relatively uneventful day, filled with relaxing, reading, and catching up on trip logistics, our ever-present task. So now I'd like to finally finish Volume 3 of the Spokes Family Photo Album!
Up today are the twins, Bill and Erin (born in that order), and an update on Evan, the eldest. If you recall, I included Evan in Volume 1, where I had everyone on the team guess what he'd be like before he actually arrived. In Volume 2, we got to know the middle children Maile, Edgardo, and Devin. Without further ado, let's jump in!
Bill and Erin are our twin baby siblings. (An aside to real life: these two actually have the same birthday, Bill born in 1999 and Erin in 2000.) They're 8 years old, Bill born a few minutes before Erin. As with many twins, they bring out each other's competitiveness and stubbornness. They both love to drive more than anyone else on the team, and when we go on group outings, there's often a dramatic fight for the driver's seat. The first two photos are from the same moment, Erin photographing Bill driving on a ferry into Mammoth Cave, and Bill photographing Erin next to the car posing. On lucky days as in the next photo, the twins are twinning in their blue jerseys.
Together, the two are definitely the class clowns of our family. With the best facial expressions and possibly the least self-consciousness, we have so many photos like the bottom left, where their everyday goofiness can be seen. Bill and Erin bring a lot of laughs, lightness, and love to our family, and we were lucky enough to be able to celebrate their birthday on the trip - complete with cake and candles!
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Bill is a precocious, sensitive, and hilarious guy. At one point we as a team decided that he was secretly obsessed with horses. He denies it, but the first photo shows him cracking and satisfying this love at a ranch where we stayed. Next we see classic Bill, committing to a task and going all in - even if it means getting stuck in a narrow crawl-way at the City Museum in St. Louis. He loves to bike with no handlebars (probably pretending he's flying), and he also loves to annoy Leah, something he's very very talented at.
You can always count on him to be the goofball, in public or in private, including in this photo from early in the trip at Rancho Nuevo in Front Royal, VA. You can also count on him to volunteer to cook one of his classics, like breakfast burritos or Juevos [sic] Rancheros. As will probably not surprise you at this point, he also loves to ruin my candid photos, like at the Moose Creek Cafe in Walden, CO, where he dramatically gestured to this hanging plant until I gave up getting the candid. Like any younger sibling, Bill knows how to push our buttons, but he's too endearing to stay annoyed at for long.
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So much to say about Erin. A classic youngest sibling, she's adorable and she knows it. Just look at the gem in the top left where she points out that she is "the gift of deliciousness". Even in the middle of a hard day's biking, portaging our bikes around a flooded section of trail, she turned and took one of the best photos of the trip. Whether it's my crazy plan to carry our bikes across the rocks, or the task of putting all of our safety glasses on at once, Erin will never turn down a challenge - and she rarely fails to succeed.
This stubborn mentality extends even to her allergies. She is slightly allergic to cats, but loves to pose for photos and cuddle with them. I think this persistence will serve her well in her career, as it did building this Lego model of the Saturn V rocket with one of our host families. Another very important thing to know about Erin - she is obsessed with space and will be the first person to set foot on Mars. One more fun fact to wrap up: her head is very good for balancing things on, especially while taking a mid-ride nap.
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Evan's place in the family is as the oldest child, the mature, responsible one. Since he arrived, he's been the best about taking photos of important moments, and since we learned about bicycle maintenance, he's been the best about keeping our bikes cleaned and oiled. Often after a day of biking he immediately starts turning bikes over and goes to work on them - also very practical, because getting covered in bike grease is a good thing to do before showering.
Heavily involved with ESP (Educational Studies Program) at MIT, Evan is passionate about teaching and is very good at it. He's also passionate about food - just look how happy he is to be holding such a large quantity of KFC! His true food affair, however, is with BBQ. He's pictured here contemplating a rib at Pappy's Smokehouse in St. Louis, firmly in his happy place. Lastly you see him in a quiet moment of contemplation, a modified "Thinker" pose with his fist halfway in his mouth. I believe he's trying to fit the whole thing in, but in any case it says a lot about Evan as a person.
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This is our family, our quirky, disparate family. We don't always agree and don't always get along, but we haven't killed each other during this trip, and I think that says it all!
What happens when you take 8 random MIT students and send them on the adventure of a lifetime? They learn a lot about themselves and each other.
Happy Birthday, Pat!
- Caralyn