I activated my Warm Showers account thinking it might be useful while on the road. Warm Showers is a website designed to connect bicycle tourists with safe places to stay. I never thought someone would want to stay with me. Enter Bill.

Bill contacted me early last week and asked to stay a night. He said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet a liveaboard. This gave me the boost i needed to clean up the boat before the trip. He was in his first week of touring on his way to the gulf coast.  He ate dinner with my family and hopefully put them a little at ease about my cross country trip. It was nice to talk with someone that could understand the want and need to travel in this manner. Saturday morning we rode 50 miles down the road to the top of Petit Jean Mountain, camped out, and then parted ways the next morning.

Getting to talk touring and to see someone else’s setup and gear prior to me taking off was treat.

Notes from the trip:

First, i feel much more comfortable using Warm Showers. I did facebook and internet stalk Bill prior to agreeing to host.

Through Bill, I am no longer worried about running out of water. I have a Sawyer Mini filter that he taught me to use. Me being prone do dehydration was a major concern.

I have been debating which hammock to take, and after trying to sleep in my Grand Trunk Ultralight I have decided to go with the ENO Doublenest. The Ultalight is just too small. I felt like i was about to fall out everytime i shifted positions.

I have also been debating which sleeping bag to use. It got cold last night and I am glad to have had my 900 fill down sleeping bag. Much better than the 600 fill down blanket i had planned to take. My butt and shoulders got cold, but I was too tired and lazy to grab my sleeping pad. Next time i will know better.

Few updates to the bike. I got the fender intalled, webbing sewn for tie downs, and a couple of fanny packs to make into saddlebags.

It was a good weekend. I got the boat cleaned up, go to meet and ride with another “crazy” person, logged 50 miles on Saturday (up a mountain), and 30 miles on Sunday. And had time to do my laundry!

Taking a rest and charging the phone at the Gazebo. Only 10 miles from the boat, but tired.