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Faith and Robert
We had no idea what to expect. We were in the middle of nowhere Iowa and here we are going to meet these two people we know nothing about other than that somehow they have an affinity towards cyclists. So we roll up to their cute little house still not knowing what to expect, and we're greeted by an extremely cute couple who give us the short tour of the house. They turn the whole basement over to us to make ourselves at home in and then give us a little bit of space. We take showers and get laundry going, of course, because those are always our priorities once we arrive somewhere, and then tentatively head upstairs to talk to our hosts still uncertain of the host-hostee relationship here. They immediately offer us an assorment of drinks, wine for Stumbles and bourbon for me. And they launch into these awesome stories of all the things they've been doing together all these years. You see, Faith is a school teacher and Robert is a school nurse, so they both have their summers off every year to go adventuring, which they take full advantage of. They have us help them cook up some dinner and we have a little dinner party and swap adventure stories with them telling us about El Camino de Santiago, and us telling them about the Appalachian trail and South America. Then, as if all this isn't grand enough, we all go out to soak in the crazy awesome hottub outback after dinner! I can't tell you enough how much that does our aching muscles. Which isn't even the cherry on top because we go sit around the fire with drinks after that!
A great nights sleep and pancakes for breakfast, then we were off telling Faith and Robert goodbye. It was an amazing first experience with Warm Showers, finding amazing people in the places you expect the least.
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Kevin
We finally make it into South Dakota. It'd felt like we were in Iowa forever! It was our first long state, not to mention we did a lot of northward jogging through the state. It was a relief to have another state under our belt and it was starting to feel like we'd made it somewhere on our bikes as we approached the halfway point of the trip. Anyways, all that, not important. We'd decided to try our hand at warm showers again and after a short day rolled up to Kevin's place. We're greated with some amazing homemade salsa and incredible prison wine that Kevin enjoys making. We get some time to chillax on the couch and watch some Netflix (Kevin quickly gets us hooked on Wilfred). After a few (or a few fews) episodes of that we all go out for a quick game of disc golf. Anything of the bike seems like gold at this point in our ride, it's just nice to get on our feet and do some goofing off without wheels under us. Plus, I just love disc golf. All of this is followed by dinner and a little hike over in Nebraska!
I know it's all common place stuff, but the incredible part about it all is that we'd never met Kevin before. He just opened up his home completely to us like all the Warm Showers people've done. Yeah, we don't do anything extrordinary at anyones house, but we do have a good time meeting new people and having new laughs. It's actually quite incredible and if you need a little faith in humanity this is a sure way to find it.
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Jess
Jess welcomed us into her home even though she was supposed to have for other Warm Showers cyclists coming through PLUS a hosueful of kids. We did a solid 96 miles to end up in Rapid City that day. We rolled up to Jess's house to find 5 or 6 kids sitting around the outside patio and at first I couldn't even identify Jess because she looked just like one of the kids despite being around 40. She was wearing a tealish looking beanie over her hair, a loose fitting shirt, and some torn up jeans. Instantly you could tell she is a super hip person. She owns the bike shop in town and loves to do art, living a little more on the free spirited hippy side of life. Which is completely awesome. She introduced us to everyone, got us some beers, chatted it up, and then let us go take some showers. Once we got out we continued to chat it up because she is such an insanely interesitng person. I seriously loved some of her life philosophies and the things she was doing with the house she was in and all the kids. The whole place was like a safe haven, sheltered from the rest of the world. It was one of the most relaxed nights I've had on this trip. Jess made dinner for us and all the other kids as well. The other four Warm Showers cyclists didn't end up coming so it was just us there and it was just great.
I can't emphasize enough the magic of just meeting someone and being welcomed into their home and their family. There is some special nugget of spirit inside those sorts of people that speaks to you and puts you comepletly at ease. There is nothing like meeting a stranger in this world. Nothing like it.
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And those have been our three Warm showers experiences so far! In a nutshell of course. Each of these places we stayed went above and beyond the calling of the program and it speaks wonders for the type of people living the sort of lifestyle where they help complete strangers. Gotta say I love it!
Be happy everyone,
Beacon
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