Touring Without Cars or Airplanes

On 2/20/20, I released a new (very long) song called “The War On Cars.” This single was meant to accompany the announcement of my Freedom Tour 2020 Project: to bike the 3,500 mile Lewis & Clark historical trail, playing shows along the way. 20 days later, Tom Hanks announced that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and the pandemic suddenly became very real. Consequently, The Freedom Tour Project was put on hold.

Since then, I have only been in a car twice (to/from a camping trip). I have not been on an airplane. I have been moving at human speed — assisted by my bicycle machine — for over 400 days.

This has been a radical change for me. At the end of 2019, I flew to Europe and rented a car and drove all over the place playing shows. I flew back, rented another car, and did a December tour of the west coast. Glen (my Honda Civic) went over 267,000 touring miles before Glen retired. For twenty years, I have been in a constant pattern of coming and going. For two of those years I did not have an address.

Among the many things I have learned during this period of not traveling is the concept of human supremacy. I have become obsessed with the idea and my obsession has resulted in a life altering paradigm shift. I still want to tour and travel and perform, but I want to move forward from this moment with intention. I want to tour without using cars or airplanes. I like trains with the bike on board for longer trips when necessary. And maybe boats for international touring? I will cross that bridge when I come to it. It’s a work in progress.

Last weekend was a trial run from San Francisco to Sonoma to Vallejo and back. I’ll be posting videos about this journey as it unfolds on my YouTube Channel and here on the blog (which will make it an occasional vlog?) so here is the first one: