Hosting InnerTuba

Or, “My house is your house” ……..

About to cut the cake, made by InnerTuba hosts Phyllis and Jerry Miller, in celebration of my visit to their home – thank you so much, Phyllis and Jerry !……

Once InnerTuba is ready to roll – on the starting blocks of a tour, the entire itinerary ahead – the journey itself is relatively inexpensive. After all, food is roadfuel, and we all eat, whether touring or not ! InnerTuba is self supporting in many ways; I carry full camping gear, and am not averse to wild camping in the middle of nowhere….

However, hospitality, and the comfort of a home from home are always welcome – and sometimes essential. Tour budgets don’t allow for regular hotel and hostel fees, and it’s just not cool for InnerTuba to turn up to perform in, say, a school, unwashed and in dirty clothes, having just slept in a field, and expect to be welcomed by teachers !

People who host InnerTuba are true sponsors, or supporters in kind, of the entire InnerTuba venture. By welcoming me into their homes, they also help me to understand much about the life and culture of the regions I pedal through….. meet all the generous hosts from the Midwest USA Tour of 2019….

Dave and `connie Hendricks, Chariton, Iowa
“What’s ours is yours”, as I’m taken under the wing of Team Roadshow, at RAGBRAI Journey’s end, Keokuk, Iowa.
“Rest and recover with us” – Marlin and Susan Mangels, Keokuk, Iowa
Diana and TJ on their porch in Carman, Henderson County, Illinois.
I can’t remember her name – Sorry ! I stopped to ask for water. Next minute I was cooling off in the pool, charging the phone, washing my clothes and pitching the tent. Perfection in Muscatine, Iowa !
Snappy the snapping turtle makes me welcome in the home he shares with Barbara, John and Alex Lester in Davenport, Iowa. Snappy stays calm under pressure.
Dustin, (right) saved the day with a last minute invite to his home in Davenport, Iowa, through the very fine www.warmshowers.org network.
That’s Jerry and Phyllis Miller again – celebratory cake makers, musicians and tin can campers, in Moline, Illinois.
Lee Stofer aboard his beautifully restored John Deere tractor on his farm near Low Moor, Clinton County, Iowa.
Krista Burich and Simon Maurer responded straightaway to my www.warmshowers.org request to stay, at their home near to Iowa City Centre.
The delightful Barbara and Keri, with whom I spent around a week whilst performing extensively in Rochetser, Minnesota. Lovely, folks, lovely house to pedal back to each evening!
And last, on tenor sax, Michael Jackson who put me up in Chicago, Illinois, the night . before my flight home.

What goes around comes around. Anyone reading this is can contact InnerTuba – you’ll be welcome to a place to stay here in the Far North of Scotland, whenever I’m home. In this spirit I’m an active member of www.warmshowers.org – a hosting network exclusively for people traveling on bicycles, tricycles and the like. I enjoy meeting and helping along folk from all over the world – See you here !