BUSINESS OF LIFE

Jim Stone, center is photographed with traveling companion Noemie Cliche, left, from Montreal, and Sierra Melcher at Melcher's home in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 27, 2006. Stone, a 29-year-old from west Texas, has been traveling nonstop since March of 2004 through the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Europe. But he's slept in a hotel just one night because he is part of a growing network of people online who sleep on each others' couches. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)