Warm Showers

Here's a nifty site: www.warmshowers.com.

Warm Showers is an organization that connects hosts and bicycle tourists. As a host, you can offer anything from a lawn to pitch a tent in, to a meal and a bed. Significantly, you have to be willing to be a host at some point in order to receive hospitality at another point. Anyone can sign up as a host, even non-cyclists who are just nice, or interested in meeting people with great stories. I'm currently a host.

Back in September (before I was a member of Warm Showers), I met a Belgian couple at my bike shop. They needed some repairs done on their bikes. It was clear they were touring, so I asked them over to our apartment for a meal. They had loads of advice and stories about riding along the Continental Divide Trail. From the Springs, they were flying down to South America to finish their year-long tour. They were planning to pass through Bolivia, where one of my friends had worked for a year. She ended up offering them great local advice. It was a really delightful evening. That's the kind of thing you might expect by becoming a host(ess): a delightful evening. In my limited experience, it's the rare bicycle tourist who is a creep or a mooch. They are mostly a self-sufficient and gracious lot.