At the Saratoga Post Office

I was sitting on the ground outside the post office in Saratoga, Wyoming, writing post cards to friends, when a lovely woman approached. "You guys staying the night here?" She asked.

"Ain't no 'guys' with me," I replied stubbornly, "I'm traveling alone."

Thankfully my cheeky response didn't bother her, and she informed me that her name was Sheila, and that she and her boyfriend were hosts on Warmshowers, and invited me to stay the night at their place. I was happy to accept.

I continued to write post cards until someone pulled up in a pickup. "Hey!" Shouted the driver, "you traveling alone?"

"You bet!" I shouted back. I looked up to see a woman sitting in the driver's seat, beckoning me to the truck. She invited me to stay at her aunt's place that night. When I told her I already had plans she nodded. "Okay, just thought id check. See, there was an article published in the paper not too long ago, about catering to cyclists in the community, and now my aunt's all fired up to have someone camp on her lawn."

Alarms were going off in my head. "An article!" I cried, "is the newspaper office here in town?"

She directed me to the Saratoga Sun just a block away, and within five minutes I was standing in their office, asking for a copy of last week's paper. "Uh... yeah, sure. Let me grab Tom for you, since he's the one who wrote it. "

He returned in a minute, accompanied by none other than Tom... Sheila's boyfriend, my other host for the night.

(Don't you love small towns?!)

The article turned out to be a great one, entitled "Time to Welcome Two-Wheeled Tourists", and it cited the economic benefits to small communities who catered to Transam cyclists. "Saratoga has all the amenities cyclists need," wrote Tom, "and the most popular coast-to-coast route in the world is delivering tourists right to our doorstep. It is time to start taking advantage. "

Sheila and Tom were incredible hosts, and managed to get a glass of wine in my hand AND keep me up past 11. It was a memorable night... I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

Thank you, Saratoga, for everything. :)