This week-end Cooper Young had the pleasure of hosting four Nomads of the Couch Surfing tribe. If you haven't heard of Couchsurfing.com go check it out. As a former roadrunner of sorts I find the concept f****** brilliant. Here's the deal; you register your couch on-line and then people who are traveling and need a place to crash can book your couch and vice-versa. Of course they have references and all that and you can decline a guest if you don't like the look of their profile or just don't have the schedule for it. They even have a section for musicians! No more sleeping in the van for lack of hotel funds!
Eric & Bob, of the Couch Surfing Show hail from Arizona and are both ex-marines. They were sent to me by way of Kellen Kjera, local Cooper Young photographer and CS host veteran, who'd been boarding them for about a week. Eric and Bob are Couch Surfing the entire WORLD! over the next two years. Episodes air weekly on Couchsurfing.com; be sure to check them out. They were both great guests; cleaned up after themselves and were very respectful to my home. Eric even offered to fix things around my house. Nikga and Emily are from San Francisco and did not actually couch surf at my house but spent most of their time at the Cooper Young Youth Hostel. I had a chance to visit with them over dinner. Emily showed me a fantastic device for women called the "pee-style". It basically allows a woman to pee while standing. Emily confided "It took a little getting used to and the first time I ended up pouring it backwards and p***** myself, but now it's great and can't imagine peeing any other way." More gadgetry for road life; I love it. Where as, Eric and Bob had been mostly Greyhound bussing from town to town Emily and Nikga were doing 'Ride Share' through Craig's list. This in combination with Couch surfing is almost too much to fathom! Not even the most zealous 'Dharma Bum' of the 50/60's could have imagined internet thumbing? One thing to remember when you're hosting a couch surfer- almost everyone they stay with wants to party and make sure they have a great time- so- before you plan out all sorts of festivities, ask first, they might prefer to just do laundry, eat a home cooked meal and sleep.
Here are a few related websites of interest: Couchsurfing.com, Craig'slist.com, Hostels.com, Rideshare.com, Icarpool.com, Thewaronthem.com
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