* * Running the "Hotel Abraham"

Our daughter moved out of the house two years ago to an apartment in town as she started college at Virginia Tech. This has left us with a spare bedroom. We have begun to make good use of it.

As I have mentioned earlier, I spent five weeks in Bolivia as part of a Rotary International group study exchange program. There was also an inbound team from Bolivia. We hosted the team leader, Pedro Loza for several days back in February.

Shortly after my return from Bolivia, a friend that we met while motorcycling in West Virginia, Nic Tremblay, from Canada, came to stay with us along with two of his friends. I guided them on a ride the following day into southern West Virginia before they split from me and continued south.

I belong to two Internet-based services, one called Warm Showers, http://warmshowers.com/ and the other called Couch Surfing, http://www.couchsurfing.org/ that connect vagabond travelers with willing hosts. We live 3 miles from the original transcontinental bicycle route (Note: atop a very strenuous climb) that was established during the nation's bicentennial in 1976. It is now called the Transamerica Bicycle Route. We have had three groups of riders stay with us this summer who have connected with us through these sites.

We are approximately 7 days ride from the eastern terminus in Yorktown. This seems about the right distance for transcontinental riders to be ready for their first rest day. Each group of riders planned to spend the night and then continue on but all of them decided after their first night with us to stick around and spend another.

The first group was four young men. Two of them were from England, one was from Utah, and one was from California. One of the fellows from England, Graham, kept a blog of his trip which makes for very interesting reading. See, http://www.gonnaridemybike.com/

A month or so later a young man and a young woman stayed with us. On their day with us, it was a weekend and we were able to travel and play with them. We took them to Floyd County and we hiked to the summit of Buffalo Mountain. We then had a great Mexican dinner in Floyd and attended a concert of live music.

A few weeks later, another young man and young woman stayed with us. The woman was memorable because she had little more hair on her head than Michael Jordan. They were carrying huge amounts of photographic equipment and were doing a documentary of their experience.

Yesterday, we had still another new arrival. Phoebe, a girl from England, is staying with us this week. She is participating in an educational challenge sponsored by an organization affiliated with Virginia Tech. She is studying wildlife conservation at the University of Kent in Canterbury, just southeast of London.

It has been great fun having all of these visitors from around the world. Each has brought his or her own special charm and new ideas and experiences. Generally, the cost to us has been negligible and the only care we have needed to provide is just a clean set of sheets and towels. Additionally, they have provided for potential travel opportunities for us, to visit with them in their own in their home areas.

If you have a spare bedroom, consider opening your home. It has been entirely worthwhile.