Accomodation and Venue Requirements

Contents

Introduction

Keep in mind that we will essentially be holding our Play-Fun-Shops free for attendees. We are not charging hundreds of dollars for each individual student for each session. On the other hand, a bit of help would be encouraging. Parts of this trip will be our vacation, but it would be a lot less stress and expense for us to simply vacation, and not schedule Play-Fun-Shops along the way.

So it is a bit discouraging when I hear someone complain that we’re “Just trying to get others to pay for our vacation!” Well, isn’t that what you’re doing when you go to work? You go to work, do a service for someone, they pay you, then, hopefully you can afford to go on vacation. We’re simply doing some work, providing some form of service (instruction, encouragement, inspiration) for others along the way to help us pay for our travel. I mean really, we live in Southern California, where many people come for vacation. If all I wanted was a vacation, I would just stay home!

So, if you’re interested in learning, being inspired and encouraged to walk and run barefoot, learn yoga (in ASL), standup paddle-board (SUP), or SUP Yoga, and helping others in your community do the same, then help us out a little.

Venue

Even if we have a host in your area, you might be able to help the primary host with organization, locating a venue, spreading the word, etc. So let us know and we’ll put you in contact with our primary hosts in your area.

Described in more detail below for various events, but essentially a grassy park (possibly with shelter for rain) would cover the running and yoga events.

OPTIONAL: Stand Up Paddle-board events would, naturally, require a body of water, as well as paddle-boards, life jackets, paddles, etc..

Barefoot Running and Walking Play-Fun-Shops

Ken Bob will need a location (indoors or out – with shelter from potential bad weather) to hold Barefoot Running and Walking Play-Fun-Shops, as well as a variety of terrains, trails, and/or sidewalks to practice barefoot walking and running techniques. Public parks may be acceptable as long as permits are reasonable, free, or not required. Terrain should include both barefoot friendly (groomed lawns, smooth sidewalks, hard-pack sand or dirt), as well as barefoot challenging (gravel, rough pavement, twigs, etc.). A grassy hill to practice uphill and downhill techniques would be a wonderful bonus.

Yoga

Cathy can teach yoga at same locations as Barefoot Running and Walking Play-Fun-Shops (indoors or out – with shelter from rain).

SUP Yoga

Optionally, if lake, paddle board equipment, and time is available, Cathy also teaches Stand-Up Paddle-board (SUP) and SUP Yoga

Dogs:

Dogs must be welcome in both the venue and lodging. Attendees are encouraged to bring their dog running and walking partners.

Lodging:

Hotel/Motel

In many cases a local pet-friendly hotel with non-smoking rooms is the simplest solution. We’re not opposed to cheap hotels, and many chains now have Pet Friendly Hotel Pet Policies. Be aware that most hotels have size limitations for pets. Kay weighs more than 50 pounds which may exceed the limits of some hotel policies.

Your Home

The least expensive option is to let us stay at your home. But there can be some other issues there.

Ken Bob is sensitive to the smell of smoke, vape, coffee, and melons. While these sensitivities are not severe, Ken Bob will want to relax and rest before and after any Play-Fun-Shops, and he can’t do that if his head aches, or if he is coughing, nauseous, and/or vomiting. Melons aren’t much of a problem since they aren’t generally steaming hot, but don’t try to feed a melon smoothie to Ken Bob, or there could be big trouble!

Psycho Kay, our new-ish puppy (February 2017), will be traveling with us, so if there are any members of your household who have allergies, fears, or other issues with dogs, then we don’t want to impose ourselves on you either. Also if your dog is aggressive with other male dogs, it may be better to simply find a pet-friendly hotel nearby.

If you have a room to spare, and no one in your household smokes or vapes tobacco products, and if everyone in your household is willing to abstain from brewing and/or drinking coffee while hosting us, and if you can welcome a dog,

Cats are okay, as long as they have a place/room to hide from a young playful 50-ish pound puppy who would love to chase or race with any animal who runs.

Food:

We are Vegan, so we’ll usually bring or shop for our own food. Kay (the puppy) is not strictly Vegan or vegetarian and will probably accept occasional meaty treats from friends. (note: rawhide chews may cause vomiting). If you insist on preparing a meal or two for us, let us know, and we’ll work with you on what we choose to eat and not to eat (either for ethical reasons, dislike, or simply because some foods make Ken Bob physically ill – eg: melons, coffee – even the smell of coffee makes me nauseous.

Costs

Lodging:

Inviting us to stay at your home would help save a lot of money in these travels. See requirement above.

Donations:

Visiting our family and friends is, of course, a vacation. But we’re not asking you folks to pay for our vacation. We live at the beach in Southern California because we love being here. We love the climate. We love the people (most of the people, most of the time, anyway). If we didn’t live here, we would certainly want to vacation here. Contrary to popular misconceptions, people do not vacation here for the warm winters (they’re actually a little chilly). People come here for the cool summers at the beach. Other than getting to visit with and meet other folks, traveling to most places is not a vacation for us.

So we’re not asking you to pay for our vacation, but we are asking if you want us to come talk, teach gentle running techniques and the true benefits of actually walking and running barefoot, along with some Yoga sessions, maybe some SUP? If so, donations are not required, but would certainly be appreciated.

All plans are subject to changes
until after they occur
So you might want to wait to donate
after you have enjoyed
Ken Bob’s Play-Fun-Shop

BarefootRunning.com, YogaBarefoot.com, and PsychoKay.com and me personally, are footing the bill for the travel on this trip (which means it will likely be operating at a loss). However, It would be nice to receive some form of voluntary contributions from attendees at Ken Bob’s Play-Fun-Shops in each location. Keep in mind that in most cases we would not be holding these Play-Fun-Shops unless you invited us and because you believe there would be some value in learning from or being inspired by Barefoot Ken Bob and Cathy (and maybe PsychoKay too?). If you went to almost any other coach, for such an event they would probably charge hundreds of dollars per person per session.

In other words, if you ask us to stop in your area, don’t gripe that we are asking for donations. We do not enjoy asking! But we do enjoy meeting with you, and would rather ask for donations than to send bills for several hundreds of dollars from each participant, and leave out those who cannot afford.

There will be no minimum attendance, no minimum donations required at each stop. However, we will determine which cities we stop in, based on how far out of our way they are along the way, and how many people express an interest.