Well, so far I have been lucky. Even though I said I would be staying one night, my hosts let me stay for three nights due to injury and weather respectively, and the weather outside, just for the record, is frightful. But there is no delightful fire, delightful hot chocolate on the other hand was available to me and I delighted in every drop of it.
I also found a somewhat kindred soul in the man I am staying with which is nice. I am trying to convince him to accompany me for a ways on my journey, but we'll see how that turns out, I could use the help with my (surprisingly) many non-walking tasks. I have a place to sleep inside through the end of the month which is amazing, but looking at the map of hosts my camping time is running up on me fast and I will be extremely glad for my NJ friends one-man tent as the weather turns against me. I've talked with him on the phone since and it seems a lot of the equipment he gave me was from when he was cycling across the country. He had made it pretty far in separate runs before he stopped. So it is easy to understand some of his investment in my finishing, if for any reason I couldn't finish I would hope that someone would. This week won't be bad though, I have only one 30+ mile day planned this week which will make my mom, and quite possibly my legs, very happy.
It continually amazes me with my experiences how quickly you become a part of a household, maybe not a relative, but welcomed in so completely and with such care. I will be (couch)curfing my way through the other side of Washington DC from here and I look forward to every experience more and more. Looking back I wish I could have spent more time the places I've been, particularly since I am so much more comfortable now in this situation. I look forward to a time when I can have a house and host travelers wild-eyed with schemes of adventure and discovery. It is nice for me to be that vicarious conduit to another world for others who long for it but are otherwise happy or stuck in their lives.
I am falling in love with couchsurfing. I know it sounds weird and scary with the strangers and because we are such a society of distrust and fear, but just for your own peace of mind, check out the sight, sign up, meet people on it if only for coffee. I hope you will be as blown away as I am by the incredible goodness that is still left in a world where we are bombarded constantly with worries of evil.
And on that note, I'm off to Baltimore . . .
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