I have meet a wide variety of people at the hiker/biker sites on the Oregon and California pacific coast and started wondering myself where the line between a homeless (a.k.a bum) and a bicycle tourist/backpacker/adventurer is. Before I thought it was straight forward but now I can't tell anymore.
I'm not sure if anyone ever labeled me as a homeless but finding a place to stay in Coos Bay, OR was interesting. I needed to catch a bus early in the morning and the state parks were to far away. All hotels were booked out and the RV park wouldn't allow any tents. The person at the RV park called the police to ask if it would be OK for me to stay in the city parks just like the bums do. Of course it wasn't. A priest gave me directions to the homeless shelter when I asked him where I could setup a tiny tent for the night. I wasn't ready to go to the shelter or sleep with the local homeless. I'm not sure how welcoming they would have been. Finally someone offered me to stay at an empty adjacent empty lot in the middle of a residential area which worked out fine.
Last edited by cbike; 05-04-13 at 10:59 PM.