Warmshowers is a website that functions as something along the lines of couch-surfing for cyclists. People sign up to host (or be hosted) non money is exchanged but many laughs are. As a result we sometimes get to host people for free, giving them a space to sleep, a shower, a little bike-maintenance help, maybe a meal. When we travel by bike we look for places to stay not only because it is free but because it is lovely to be hosted, to be reminded the world is full of great people, to share wine and stories with like-minded folks.
The other day we had a young couple, these couples seem to get younger every year, at our place. They came from France and are riding from Montreal to Vancouver, or they hope to anyways. They bought their gear here when they landed, they were fairly inexperienced and I helped them set their equipment up better for the long journey ahead. He was from Burgundy and begged off drinking wine saying when you work in vineyards you lose the taste for it, she said they needed to not drink so as to be able to cover their daily mileage. Over our dry dinner we chatted about their plans, why they are cycling (he for adventure, her out of love for him), and mostly revised their planned route for the next coupe of days (to avoid cars and hills better).
After the meal, we were watching playoff hockey and he said, “I saw this hockey once, it looks like a great game, all that fighting…” and told us about the epic bench clearing brawl he saw on the ice the one time he attended a Junior game. Since this game did not appear to have any Rock’Em Sock’Em to it, they were off to an early bedtime. Honestly, it was a let-down of a hosting experience. It turns out I prefer people to sing for their meal, to connect, to hear stories, though I understand their fatigue.
I understood it better in the morning as I guided them to the start of their next day route. There is a bunch of construction near us that makes getting to the start of a route less than obvious. Anyways, as we were going the woman was nervous on her bike. We got to the path by the river, essentially pancake flat as it follows the river… and on the slightest of inclines she was riding her brakes. I silently prayed for her to get better at cycling because if the non-hills of the bike path by the river make her nervous she is in for a LONG cross-Canada adventure.
We wished them well, and off they went.
Later, our middle child, a propos of nothing, said he likes being part of our family because we do weird stuff like host random woebegone cyclists. Then he said, “and you don’t even have tell us that there will be cyclists around, because we are so comfortable hosting them.”
Which made me realize
1- I really must get better at communicating with my children
2- we might be doing something right.
Hebrews 13:2 says, Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
I don’t know if these were angels, but I do know that hosting has become a primary value in our house, and our children are learning through it, whether the guests say much or not.
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