Alone Excerpt: The Warmshowers’ Community
NOTE:
I will not be blogging about my experience on the Camino de Santiago during the months of September and October. You can follow me on Facebook where I will be posting occasional pictures and comments. To follow either “friend” me on Facebook or use this link: https://www.facebook.com/brian.heron.73/
Every Monday during this period I will post an excerpt from my book, Alone: A 4,000 Mile Search for Belonging—excerpts that I believe reflect many of the assumptions and experiences that have become the basis for this current Pedal Pilgrim work.
Alone Excerpt: The Warmshowers Community
From pages 47-48 in Boise, Idaho:
Rachel and Patrick, Warmshowers hosts and new friends
My thoughts turned to the unique community of people called the Warmshowers network. With no prior knowledge of me at all, except for my profile on the website, Rachel and Patrick had trusted me with their home. The truth is, I also trusted them; I was sleeping in the house of people I had never met before. In this age when people appear so separate and cautious, Warmshowers seemed like a throwback to a more innocent time. Maybe it’s actually a forecast of a new and more trusting time. Shouldn’t the world be more like this, where strangers share stories and don’t hesitate to take care of each other?
From page 111 in Thermopolis, Wyoming:
Chris and Jennifer with a dream of “something new.”
Having dried and dressed, I made a brief survey of places to stay: the campsites were crowded and the motel was too expensive. I rode back through town and found Chris working out font of his driveway. Taking up their kind offer, I set up my tent on their perfectly manicured, thick lawn. I shared dinner with them and their two children and we had a perfect biker’s meal: pasta and meat sauce, salad and garlic bread. They concluded the evening perfectly with Oregon’s finest—Tillamook marionberry ice cream.
Over ice cream, Chris turned pensive. “You know, Brian,” he said finally, “we had another cyclist come through a few weeks ago. I’m thinking I could set up a social networking site for touring cyclists that would work a lot like couchsurfing.com.”
I let him continue, though I was pretty sure he was describing what Warmshowers had already done.
“Cyclists could be guests when they’re touring, but act as hosts when they weren’t. It would be like a national cycling community based on trust and a shared interest in touring.”
Now my smile was too broad to hide.
“Isn’t that a great idea? You’d participate, wouldn’t you?”
I was almost laughing by this point. “Warmshowers, Chris. You just described Warmshowers. I’ve already stayed five nights with their hosts on this trip.”
“I love it! We’re signing up!” he exclaimed. “I had no idea.”