Touring Without Cars or Airplanes (Update)

A year ago, I made a commitment to myself to tour without cars or airplanes. How is that going so far? I’d say good not great? I’ll give myself a C (which hurts…my last C was in “Home Economics” in the 90s because my group forgot to pre-heat the oven for the final).

Perhaps I failed. I wanted to tour without cars or airplanes, but I used both cars and airplanes in the last year. So: F? Maybe. But this is a work in progress and we’ve inherited 100 years of car dependency and I had some pre-pandemic Southwest vouchers that were already paid for and a wildfire destroyed the train tracks in Northern California last summer and…excuses excuses.

There have been some great successes too. I toured the Northeast in March-April entirely by Amtrak train and bus (but I flew to get there in the first place). All my local touring has been done entirely without a car. I did a bike tour to Washington and back down last year and I took the Amtrak train to/from California to Texas twice and brought the bike. Strikes and gutters.

I performed at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas in June and I flew to and from that. I have one other commitment forthcoming that will also include airplane flights: going to Florida with Face the Music to support volunteers who are fighting for progressive causes and candidates down there. There’s also a distant trip to Europe materializing in 2023. So year two is already a somewhat mixed bag.

Which brings me to a growing understanding that this concept and commitment will require a deeper change of focus and routine. My friend Andrew says: “the grass is greener where you water it.” For twenty years, I’ve been traveling to far flung places by car or plane and building friendships and followings in those places. It makes sense that a friend in South Dakota would send me a Facebook message about playing his young and growing festival there. But South Dakota is a long way from where I live. So do I just shrug and fly there and rent a car? Do I take a train with my bike and turn it into a grand three month odyssey?

Maybe. I have not abandoned the cross country bike tour idea and I’m imagining that 2024 may be the ideal time for such an undertaking. Maybe. Maybe not though. Maybe what I’m realizing is that staying and playing closer to home is the next chapter. Maybe watering the grass that is a bike or transit or Amtrak ride from my apartment is what’s next. I’m beginning to think that it is. Carrying on as we always have is not an option anymore. At least, it’s not for me.

That is not meant as a slight or a judgement about how anyone else is dealing with their lives in the present moment. And I am not naive enough to believe that my decisions here will make a global impact. I am making these changes simply because I want to and because it’s fun and interesting and challenging to find new ways to do what I love in harmony with my growing and evolving values.