Hobos on Bikes

This trip has found us at our most nomadic in our lives. We bike from place to place, with our tent, sleeping bags, pillows, clothes, gas burner, food, toileteries, basically our whole lives, packed onto our bikes. Every night, we sleep in the same place, but in a different place. The tent has become our home and the rituals we keep are the same that you might keep in your house or apartment. I sleep on the left, Howard on the right. My pannier bags on my side, Howard's on his side. My watch hangs from the hook on the ceiling of the tent. The food goes on the right side, outside the door. The shoes and water bottles on the left. Toileteries are on my side, the packing gear on Howard's. Every day we have a routine of setting up and taking down our little home.

The places where we have stayed have varied. From municipal campsites to 'aire naturelle' to 5* campsites with a free night provided by Keycamp. But no matter where we stay we almost always utter these three words when we arrive..."one night please!". This nomadic lifestyle has led to us both developing some interesting characteristics. Let me explain.

Our 'hobo' moments....

- No matter what building, room, area we are in, we invariably walk into a place and immediately start searching for the nearest power point to plug in our stuff. Bars, restaurants, bathrooms, gas stations. It's all about 'Can we charge the netbook here?'

- Yesterday morning, we found ourselves eating spaghetti bolognese out of a plastic bag at 8am. Those were classy leftovers.

- We're still surprised and excited every day when we find a toilet with toilet paper in it (French campsites do not provide TP, but Spanish ones do)

- Howard demonstated his true English hobo-ness the other day when we found ourselves without any bread for the morning. Passing by a creperie in town, he noticed an unattended basket of uneaten baguette, left over from the previous diners. Howard deftly pocketed the bread from the basket and we were thus provided for. I love that my man is such an accomplished hunter-gatherer!

- After 3 weeks on the road, we have found that some of the most comfortable and scenic toilets are off the highway, in the forest.

- After setting the tent up one warm evening, Howard commented: "did we accidentally leave the cheese here?" I responded: "Nope it's outside with the other food". But then we noticed we'd put our cycling shoes inside the tent. It was then that a new rule was adopted 'Shoes go outside the tent...ALWAYS'

We were talking about various home comforts that we miss and some that we don't miss, Howard suggested we buy fold-up chairs to use instead of sitting on the floor every night in camp. My immediate response was: "No, I'm totally cool with sitting on our plastic bags".

I'm writing this from out tent (check it out, wi-fi INSIDE the tent and the night is costing just ten euros!), with a massive thunder and lightning storm going on outside. We're safe, warm and dry in our trusty tent, address - '5341b Golden Gate Ave' if you want to send us a postcard.