Touring - Have you ever invited a tourer home?

About 25 years ago I was in Gila Bend Arizona and ran across a young couple doing a tour from Alaska to where ever. They were looking for a place to camp for the evening and I told them they could camp just about any where they wanted in Arizona, which is true.

Looking back on it I wish I would have ask them to my place for a rest and lay over for a day or two. They were interesting to talk to.

This is one of my big I wish I would haves.

Joe

My wife and I have offered tourers a place for the night, week or whatever because we were afforded such luxury a number of times during our around Australia trip and it is nice to repay the kindness. We have made great friends with many of those who took up our offer and now have offers for accomodation and the like for when we tour overseas. What goes around comes around.

Following people's travelogues on the Internet is a great way to find people, get to know them, offer them a service and have much in common when they get to your front door. It also makes following them on the net so much more fun afterwards as well.

Regards

Andrew

http://www.where2pedalto.gr8m8s.net

I can recall 3 touring cyclists I've had in my home. Two of them found me on a hospitality list. One, a British cyclist, was very nice and fun to chat with. The other was American and was a bit strange, but harmless. I also met a German cyclist a couple of blocks from my home and invited him back. He turned out to be a real jerk and secretly used my phone to call Germany. This was back when it was expensive to call overseas.

On the flip side...

On an early tour in the 70's, 3 friend's and myself were coming down the Mississippi River from north of LaCrosse (Ettrick, to be precise). the wind was with us and we were on a mostrous day... well over 100 miles.

We just kept going and going and then dusk was upon us...
At a town called Schullburg we came upon some sort of local Cheese Festival... people all around, carney rides, funnel cakes...

a bunch of kids run us to us, asking what the heck we are doing, treating us like celebrities. We tell them we are touring, and immediately one asks where we are staying. We shrug and ask about camping... he comes back with his dad, a banker and town elder, insisting that we stay with them. The place is one of the nicest houses in town where we are fed, directed to the shower, bedded down for the night, awoken in the morning and directed to the best county road out of town.
Sweet.

If I ever come across a wayward tourer... I always return the kharma

On the flip side...

If I ever come across a wayward tourer... I always return the kharma

I am in great karmic debt on this point. I would never hesitate to take in a tourer - here's an excerpt from a travel story my wife wrote about our experience in France:

As we pulled into Tremolat, a speck of a village with red geraniums bursting from golden limestone windowsills, two sets of elderly people ambled out of a restaurant and headed straight for the tandem. Jokes and questions ensued, and they asked where we were from and where we were headed.

The French couple offered to let us stay in their guest house when we arrived near Sarlat. The wife insisted on giving us her phone number and describing the route, to the dismay of her friends.

“You can’t just invite strangers into your house, especially not Americans, they’re ready for war and armed to the teeth,” said the English woman accompanying them. Our soon-to-be hostess waived off the words of caution and told us she hoped to see us. And she did.

We wheezed up the hill outside La Roque-Gageac to the ancient farmhouse they restored into their home. The guest house was once the bergerie, where the sheep slept.

They insisted we dine with them in the main house, where we learned they lived in America for 30 years after World War II. They said Americans were so open and wonderful to them, they felt the least they could do was treat us with the same graciousness.

They even offered to loan us their car so we could visit the area around the Lascaux caves. We declined the car but were forced to accept a basket of breakfast food handed to us as we set off for the bergerie. When we left the next morning to head to Rocamadour, the husband stood on the driveway and watched us leave, like any father or uncle.

When touring across the country in the late 70s my friend and I were offered shelter, food and rides on average once a week. The first time it happened, it was a great surprise. It always seem to come just when we really needed it: out of daylight, no place to camp, out of food, etc. All any of them wanted was a postcard when we finished our trip. We sent each one a detailed letter of our adventure. I've since had the chance to return the favor a couple of times.

One of the strangest and funniest things which ever happened to me while touring took place in southwestern Utah about 10 years ago. A friend and I were headed south on route 89 between Bryce Canyon & Zion. A van passed us and pulled over on the shoulder. A couple jumped out of the van and flagged us down. My friend & I stopped and the vacationing couple told us that their college-aged son had biked across the US the previous summer. Their son told them that people everywhere had been wonderfully kind to him. So, when this couple saw us on a bike tour, they wanted to do something kind. The man took out his wallet and took out two $10 bills which he tried to give us "for dinner" that night. We tried to refuse the money, and the man eventually took the two bills and shoved them in a pocket in my friend's jacket (my windbreaker had no pockets). He and his wife quickly ran back into their van and drove off.

Two maybe three times a year we invite someone passing through the area to stay with us. We were on a hospitality list for a few years but unfortunately we had some bad experinces with people who were using the list to mooch so we dropped off the list.