www.warmshowers.org is a community for touring cyclists and hosts. It is similar to www.couchsurfing.org, but with an emphasis on bicycle touring. When traveling by bike, people can contact someone registered with warmshowers.org and request to stay with them for a night. And in turn they will be gracious and offer their place and any amenities they desire. It is based wholly on 100% hospitality and common courtesy is expected. Why do I mention this? Well, last weekend I had two such bicycle tourists stop by and crash for a night. One (Kai) was from Germany and the other (Marco) from Seattle. Kai, a bicycle messenger, flew into Seattle and met up with his buddy Marco, also a bike messenger. Together they rode their bikes south and met up with me in Salem on Sunday night. They were heading to San Francisco where Marco would fly back to Seattle and Kai would ride on, making his way to Mexico City where there is a bike messenger world championship taking place.
These two were very friendly and even shared their pasta and apple pie with me. Although, they did leave their beers in my frig which I don't plan on drinking myself. But I got inspired by their gung-ho attitude. They were not carrying much and were able to ride between 100 to 150 miles daily. They liked to see stuff, but they were all about the miles. If they can do that, I can surely average 50 miles daily. I enjoyed talking with them and accommodating another bicycle tourist or two in this case in my home. For, I don't have many, if any friends who share my passion for bicycle traveling. Hopefully things like this upcoming trip and the local bike club will help me gain some adventure-minded friends.
That said, I do enjoy camping out in the wild, but also, I would very much like to take advantage of warmshowers.org and meet people and have great conversations. Plus, I will be on a strict budget and this will help in cutting costs. A warm shower wouldn't hurt either...to wash off my bike grime.
Ah, adventure looms around the corner and the wind beckons forth...
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