18:6  OK.  You all have not been guessing what these numbers mean. So I’m going to start giving you hints.  Remember, the winner gets a Frank Lloyd Wright design phone cover.

Hint # 1:  the numbers compare two different things.  They increase more rapidly in larger towns/cities.

I have been asked by some to provide a little more info on our Warm Showers hosts and experiences so here goes (sorry, no great photos).

As you know from our previous postings, our warm showers experiences have been 100% positive from a purely people perspective.  Our hosts have been welcoming, generous and warm.  So it will come as no surprise that most of them are in service related jobs, or were before they retired.  Hosts have included teachers, social workers (addiction, child welfare, parental instruction), physicians, hospital technicians, government workers (Federal, State and City).  In fact, we have had only one host that hasn’t fit into the service-related category in some way.  Many are active Christians and believe strongly in being generous towards others.  Most, but not all, had some level of cycling experience.

Our routine when we arrive is to be shown our room (we spent the night in a tent at one warm showers location) where we drop our gear.  We then take a shower, which makes us feel human again, and if we need to, do a laundry.  We then get together with our hosts to get acquainted and then generally have dinner together.  Sometimes we help.  Most often we are ordered to just relax.  Dinners have been without exception fabulous!  Pasta is generally the meal of preference, but we have had chili, bento boxes, and chicken with quinoa (which we actually fixed for one of our hosts who had had a long day).  We tend to turn in pretty early and get up at 6 am to be on the road by 7 am.  Our hosts have also treated us to yummy breakfasts–often including pancakes!  I am a pancake convert.  At home I eat oatmeal pretty much every day for breakfast but have only had oatmeal once since we’ve been on our journey.

Homes have ranged from farm houses, to lake houses, to apartments, to subdivision homes, to city homes, to houses in the middle of nowhere.  Everyone of them has been a unique slice of America and has offered us insights into the American experience.

Our dinner conversations have been the best part of our warm shower travels.  We have learned so much!

Three of our hosts have been involved in animal husbandry.  We could have talked about that all day long.  John and Mary raised Angus cattle, principally to sell the bulls and calves or to use the Bulls as breed stock. The day we were there, they had just finished the long and arduous process of artificially inseminating their cows.  Once that was done, they would also cover the cows with visits from live bulls, just to improve the chances of insemination.  The plan is that cows will give birth more or less at the same time, making life very hectic around calving time, but also improving predictability.  Insemination is done in the field with the cattle being rounded up on horseback and herded into enclosures. Andrew and Gretchen’s family raise turkeys and have done so for generations.  We had no idea that Minnesota is one of the biggest turkey states in the country.  They also focus on selling the offspring, rather than the meat.  In this case, they sell fertilized eggs and Gretchen spent some time for a couple of years gathering eggs from the nests, which involves lifting the turkeys off their nests and reaching in for the eggs.  There are several shifts of egg thieves every day and thousands of birds.  Amazing and incredibly hard work, I imagine.  Lifting one turkey from the freezer to the counter is about all I can handle!  And Jason’s family has been raising bees for five generations.  If they didn’t move the bees from California, where they pollinate almond trees, to North Dakota every year, they would have to feed the bees because there’s not enough pollen in California during the summer for the bees to survive.   Jason also said that his grandfather didn’t have to worry about all the diseases and hive collapse that bee keepers face today.  They lose about 50% of their hives every year, but they have enough hives that they can split to make up for the loss.  Smaller bee keepers have a much more difficult time.  We tasted some of their product, and it was yummy!

Bonnie and her husband Jeff have opened their house to others for years.  They live in an area that, until recently, had a baseball team that played in the league for college players to improve their skills during the summer–like the Cape Cod league and they have housed numerous players over the years.  Consequently, they know and have kept in touch with several pro baseball players.  Keeping in touch includes calling them for every home run and sending them home made chocolate chip cookies every year on their birthdays. Unfortunately, the team recently went belly up, but the upside for us was that Bonnie and Jeff are now warm showers hosts to fill some of the void. They also own a lakeside resort in Minnesota that they run on the honor system. You leave a check to cover your stay when you leave. Isn’t that wonderful? And they’ve never had a problem.

Ron and Joyce both had very challenging and rewarding careers in working with drug addicts and child services. They spent the evening after dinner with us driving us around Bismarck and being incredible tour guides. This was way above and beyond, but clearly they also enjoyed it so we didn’t feel too guilty. It was so nice to see things that we normally would not have from our bikes and to do it from the comfort of a car.

Joel was a man after Charles’ heart–a baseball fanatic, albeit a Cubs fan. So he and Charles talked for hours while I went downstairs and read. A rewarding evening for all involved 😉.

And of course we have always learned about the local environment, politics, and life in general.

I could go on and on, but won’t bore you. We can’t wait to get back home and become hosts ourselves. Phoenix is on the Southern cross-country route, so we’re hoping to be able to reciprocate in some small way for all of the hospitality we’ve received. If you’re interest, search for warm showers and you’ll find everything you need to know.