I grew up in a big family with 9 siblings, we were limited in our travel experiences because travel resources were scarce. In college, my travel experiences began to bloom as I finally saw the Pacific Ocean on one winter trip, was in a coop program in Virginia and tore down a barn in ND with a friend to salvage the lumber and earn some money to explore Montana, Yellowstone, and the Black Hills of SD.

After college, my first job was in Washington State where I was able to explore some of the beautiful places in the Pacific NW while my first wife and I raised our daughter.

Engineering job changes got me back to the east coast where my love for the outdoors and travel continued to grow.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

My wife is retired and I am nearing retirement. We've traveled to South America Australia, New Zealand and Europe together, Christie has two dozen more countries she's visited prior to our marriage. As we get more time in life, we plan to explore more of this wonderful world and meet more of the lovely people in it. Couchsurfing will enable us to share what we know about our part of the world with travelers we host and enable us to reach more destinations.

Interests

We love meeting people, especially those from different cultures and backgrounds to learn about all the interesting things in this big world. We met contra dancing, so of course that is one of our favorite things to do and share with others.

The outdoors is a wonderful playground for all ages so we take advantage of it whenever we can and participate in many outdoor activities such as paddling, hiking, cycling and camping.

I am working 3/4 time and Christie is retired so we are expanding our travel opportunities and hope to visit Africa, Asia and the Black sea area in the near future.

Although neither of us are musicians, we are active volunteers at music festivals and seek out all types of live music to feed our souls and recharge our spirits.

We love all art forms and those that bring this interesting aspect to our lives. We enjoy art shows, galleries, and purchasing art for our home.

• arts
• music festivals
• festivals
• dancing
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• live music
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• hiking
• camping
• engineering
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Pretty much all music is enjoyable although my heart is currently closest to folk music, bluegrass and the music of my youth from the 70's and 80's.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hosting English and science teachers from other countries and getting to know many others through a Teaching Excellence and Achievement program at Appalachian State University. So far we've hosted teachers from Bangladesh, Argentina, Columbia, Cote d'Ivoire, Guatemala, India, Mongolia, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Lithuania, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Ukraine and spent significant time with others from more than a a few dozen other countries. The experiences have been heartwarming, lasting and addictive so we are always looking for more to host.

Teach, Learn, Share

We've got a couple spare bedrooms and a spare bath so you will be comfortable with your own space. We always welcome showing our guests interesting outdoor and cultural things in our area as well as involving our friends to broaden their life experiences.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Warm conversation, the experiences we've lived and enthusiasm for life.

We're not looking for an overwhelming amount of work; however, Christie and I are both very handy maintaining a few rental properties we have and may be open to offering advice or lending a hand as time permits. I have helped an airbnb host with a gate latch issue and the removal of an obsolete appurtenance on her house during one stay.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States