Warm Showers List

AndrewA

I am interested in hearing from people who have used www.warmshowers.org?

I have been a member for 5 years, both when I lived near the Southern Tier route in La. and here in Colorado. I've hosted 4 cyclists and have been priviledged to be hosted by 4 families while on separate tours of Ontario and the US. All were amazing encounters with people I never would have met except for the warm showers list. Some interesting encounters I've had using the list:

- A few years ago, while in Louisiana we hosted Dick and Els from the Netherlands. They zigzagged across Mexico and, after hearing that we'd hosted a friend of theirs, made it a point to visit us in La. before heading to Graceland to visit the home of the King. Well, they ended up staying a week with us and Els sure could cook!!!, on two occasions cooking up Dutch fare that had our mouths watering after a hard day at work. Their visit ended with a quick trip down to New Orleans to catch Snooks Eglin perform at the Rock-in-Bowl. I wonder how they're doing raising money for that school house in North Africa...

- This past summer was a life changing experience when my teenage son and I rode 1,000 miles of the TransAm trail from Carbondale, IL to Pueblo, CO. We weren't just riding to ride, but were in the process of moving to Colorado to settle down after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Carolyn (my ex). The word on the road was...this incredible lady named Gillian Hoggard would put you up for free. So we stayed in town an extra day to visit Gillian, only to learn that she'd been hospitalized after her tractor's hydralics shot fluid into one of her fingers. She would later loose the finger, but insisted that we stay and rest at her place along with another family bicycling from Virginia. She insisted that we drop in again. And we did on our way back to La. to move our belongings to Colorado. It was at this point that we learned the extent of her incredible generousity when she loaned us her truck to move our things - from La. to Colorado! !

Does anyone out there have any similar stories to tell re Warm Showers members or others willing to lend a helping hand to touring cyclists???

islandboy

We are warm showers hosts and were lucky enough to have some terrific travellers stay with us last year;

James and Rebecca's Pacific Coast Bike Trip
A couple travelling to Mexico from Vancouver, BC

Larry, John and Alex trip in to Sooke
Three riders up from the Seattle area

Lotje en Koen
are a tandem riding couple from Belgium.

Bicicletos
a Spanish cyclist riding around the world since October 1999

I would recomend http://www.warmshowers.org/ to anyone touring or wishing to host.

__________________
Steve

Cycletouring through Victoria, BC, Canada?

websterm

Weve been a member for a year or so, had 1 request only, which we couldnt meet as we weere away from home. Seems like its not very popular or not well known in Australia (or at least in country Victoria) We do get a lot of tourers in town as we're on a very popular rail trail.

islandboy

We have had three www.warmshowers.org guests in the last few days. Rob (a physics/chemistry teacher from Ontario) has been travelling the world for 5 1/2 years and just back into Canada Tuesday. He regaled us with inspirational stories of cycling adventure before setting off to Vancouver on Wednesday. Last night two more adventurers, David (a retired graphic artist from South Africa) and Christian (a Swiss computer programmer) arrived on the first day of their world trip. Having started in Vancouver they are staying with us tonight before setting off up the back roads of Vancouver Island on their way to the Port Hardy ferry to Prince Rupert then Alaska.

This morning the three of us took a relaxed ride around the Victoria waterfront, a short detour up Mount Tolmie, then out around Mount Doug and home. My first 50+ km ride since surgery, and my first serious bit of climbing. The legs performed very well, I feel very capable of the 2 x 100 km weekend ride (my recovery goal) coming up in September. Ah, more training in the sunshine

__________________
Steve

Cycletouring through Victoria, BC, Canada?

WKB

I signed up as a host about six months ago. So far, no one has called. I contacted a few other hosts in my area and none of them had ever had a call. My guess is that the US Gulf coast is not generally a very hospitable place for cyclists. Hence, few come here.
WKB.