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My husband and I arrived in Oregon two years ago on our tandem bicycle. Oregon was State 44 in our quest to visit all 50 states. In the year that we spent on the road, we never had a bad encounter with anyone (other than some angry drivers and dogs!) and we were invited into people's homes all the time. We stayed in homes of people from New York City to Athens, Georgia, to Elkton, Missouri.

Some of these we found through couch surfing, some through warmshowers.org (a hosting site for touring cyclists) and most through good old serendipity. (In almost every state, we would get invited home by someone we'd met that day at a local cafe, library or rest stop) We still keep in touch with a lot of the folks we met and consider them to be dear friends. We even had to hitchhike to the nearest town a few times when our bike or limbs broke down. Since we've settled in Eugene, we frequently host cyclists coming through the area.

We're in our early 30's and traveling and hosting in this way has helped us feel hopeful about the "State of humanity" in an era where mainstream media heavily covers only what goes wrong with human interaction. (Many times with a sensational spin). 

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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