Bike Life: Flash Memoir on 2 Wheels
Bike Life is a podcast from Warmshowers.org, a non-profit group that connects bicycle tourists to hosts. The organization is world-wide. For example, I was able to stay with hosts on my Rhine River ride in Koblenz, Koln, and Karlsruhe, Germany as well in Strasbourg and Egsheim, France. Doing this allows me to actually pursue international bike travel. After the costs of airline tickets and surcharges for bringing the bike, I can save some money not having to stay in hotels the entire time and ALSO connect with locals. My host in Strasbourg, Florian gave me great tips for getting out of the city, told me all about Egsheim and how great is is, then proceeded to help me by saying to stay on the German side of the Rhine after visiting my friend in Freiburg. These kinds of “insider” info has at time made all the difference in a trip. I go from just following directions to understanding a place or region, clued in as it were to only stuff a local cyclist would be able to share.
I was a host for Warmshowers in Chicago and have continued to do so in Okemos, Michigan. I know—who would expect anyone would be riding through? But, no, I’ve had cross-country travelers stop here. Apparently I am close enough to an established route that takes cyclists all across the state before going onto Canada or south of Lake Erie into New York State for the Erie Canal route into Albany, etc. Last June we had a young man from northern Germany for a night. He’d recently graduated from high school and before starting university was doing his version of a round-the-world tour (only promising his parents he wouldn’t do any countries ending with –stan. So after Istanbul he flew to southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia) then onto New Zealand, then to the US West Coast to ride across America.
Usually I give guests the Tiny House and I stay in my daughter’s basement.
Anyway, I saw that Warmshowers had a podcast and serendipitously sent in an application. Thereafter, I was contacted and did a pre-view chat with the podhost Tahverlee. After which, she set up an interview time. I’m a little embarrassed how hold I sound in the clip—but also how great production made me sound.
The whole interview is 27 minutes. The clip is about 50
seconds—a taste of the talk: At age 61 I decided to do the ride I wanted
desperately to do at age 16, except my parents wouldn’t allow me. Click on the
links below to find the interview and clip.
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