travel

Adventure (and why it’s best together)

July 10, 2012 by Jessica Leave a Comment

I have been traveling for the past couple of weeks, and I just wrapped up six days in Portland, OR for my second World Domination Summit. I have a post about the event that’s mostly written up… but like all truly good things, it needs some time to simmer before I post it up.

So instead, I’m writing this short post today from my hostel in San Francisco – I arrived this morning via the last leg of my cross country train trip, and spent the afternoon walking around the city. I’m headed out shortly to attend an environmental talk and to catch up with some friends from 350.org.

My mini lesson for today is this: surround yourself with amazing people. It’s like I wrote earlier in the year, about making alliances that allow you to live a powerful and impact-ful life. Life is short, and beautiful. Grab your friends, keep them close, and go live life to the fullest!

Stranded (or: going with the flow when you’ve got no other choice)

July 3, 2012 by Jessica Leave a Comment

For the past several days, I’ve had the Aerosmith song “Amazing” stuck in my head. Well, to clarify, I’ve had a single line of the song stuck, which has resulted in the rest of the song bouncing around inside my skull.

Life’s a journey, not a destination – and I can’t tell just what tomorrow will bring.”

I left Charlottesville last Friday, a sunny, hot (99 degrees and a heat index above 106 degrees) day on a train that was running less than 30 minutes behind schedule. We had to go slower than normal due to heat restrictions, and were running several hours late by the time we hit the West Virginia line.

I was relaxed in my seat, reading the book I brought along for the trip, not worried about the delay – I wasn’t leaving Chicago until Sunday afternoon, so my schedule was pretty darn flexible. As the evening progressed, I noticed dark storm clouds up ahead. I thought it would be pretty cool to experience a nice solid thunderstorm from a train – it’s not like airplanes, where weather can cause delays, reroutings and cancellations, right?

Right?

As the storm whipped by overhead, I realized that I might have underestimated the power of the dark clouds above. For a short time, I was even a little concerned that mother nature might have conjured up a tornado, just to make things extra fun. At around 8:00 pm, straight line winds blew through the valley, tossing tree limbs through the sky like tiny specs of fluff. The train had stopped completely because high wind warnings had been issued, and they were concerned about getting derailed by the wind.

(I learned later that the storm had produced wind gusts up to and above 80 mph, and the type of storm was a derecho.)

As darkness fell and the worst of the storm passed we started to move forward again, this time even more slowly, so that the conductor could see any detritus in the track ahead. As we rolled along, huge chunks of tree scraped along the side of the train, bumping and grinding down the cars. We left the Hinton station just before the storm hit, and it took us four hours to reach the next station at Prince, WV. I fell into a fitful sleep across two seats sometime around midnight, expecting that by the time I woke up, we would be moving again.

Dawn broke, and through heavy dry eyelids I peered out to see how much progress we had made. Looking around the train, and then looking out station-side, I saw that there were people out and about, despite the early hour. I pulled my shoes back on and walked forward through the train until I reached the open door. Hopping out, I went to find out what was going on.

Already-long story short, we sat at that railway station in Prince, WV for 20 hours waiting to continue on our journey. The storm had torn up trees and power lines, depositing them on the tracks for miles and miles ahead of and behind us; it had washed out roads, took out power to most of the state (and beyond), and caused a “state of emergency” to be declared in multiple states (including Virginia and West Virginia).

At 8:00 pm the next night, buses finally arrived – they took us to a rest stop in Kentucky where we boarded a second set of buses that eventually took everyone to their final destinations – most of us on board bus 63 were bound for Chicago, with a few others headed to stops prior. We arrived at Chicago Union Station around 10:00 am (central time), around 24 hours late, which left just enough time for me to head to the hostel, take a shower and walk back to Union Station to catch my 2:00 pm train to Portland.

*Sigh of relief*

Side note: apparently, 232 passengers stranded in the middle of West Virginia is a big enough story to make national news.

Now that I’ve laid out the background, let me explain more why I decided to share this particular experience here:

Note: I wrote this post on Monday afternoon, aboard the westbound Empire Builder, and it is now being posted from a hotel room in Seattle after another thwarted attempt at reaching Portland. The past few days provided some amazing social commentary for me, and put to the test some of the key tenants of my current life.

1. Life’s a journey.

This one’s pretty self explanatory – I planned on arriving in Chicago with over 24 hours to explore the city, but Chicago wasn’t my destination. I was just passing through. In fact, even though I’m stopping in Portland for a week, it’s not my destination. San Francisco after that? Nope. Charlottesville once this particular trip has concluded? Not so much. Seattle wasn’t even in the plan, until a split second midnight decision when I found out that there had been a derailment on the tracks headed to Portland – and yet here I am.

It’s all about the journey. It’s about what we’re experiencing at this very moment – there is only now. I’m not guaranteed to even make it to Portland (though it’s the plan) and if I waste the moments I have worrying about how things aren’t going to plan, then I’m wasting my life. The experience makes one heck of a story, and I’ll add it to the list of life memories that have brought me inevitably to the space that I occupy at this given moment.

2. People are community oriented.

It’s weird how sharing an intense experience can bond you with people who would have otherwise stayed strangers. I’m not the kind of traveler who sticks to herself – I generally connect with the people around me as I travel, sharing stories. Most of these people won’t become a major part of the fabric of my life; I spend time connecting, and our paths cross for some small segment of time. After that, we move on with our respective lives. Chances are, we won’t cross paths again.

But then there are those who we bond with in times of struggle. Much like my sisters with whom I bonded during our shared time in that DC metro holding cell, I forged connections with those who shared our common time aboard that stranded train. There are likely a few who I will keep in touch with moving forward, creating and weaving our own separate stories, but we will always have those threads of shared experience in common, connecting us.

3. You can learn a lot about a person by how they act in an emergency situation.

I’ll admit, this part was challenging for me at several points. When you’re faced with an uncertain situation, different people will handle things very differently – the more secure people are in themselves, the better they handle unexpected challenges. I kept having to remind myself that the adventure of life comes with a heaping helping of, well… adventure. Otherwise, it can get pretty boring. Everyone had different ways to handle our unexpected delay, but most handled it with compassion to the strangers around them.

I know sometimes it can sound like woowoo bullshit, but I truly believe that a person has quite a bit of control over their lives – not so much in the “what is happening” part of life, but in how you react to your circumstances. Upon realizing that there is nothing you can do to change the here and now, how do you react to it?

Taking things in stride is far easier said than done, but I have made it a point recently to try to do just that. Would I have rather spent the night in Chicago, exploring the city and eating amazing food? Duh. But did I let what could have been ruin the experience for me? No – that’s the difference.

When life hands you lemons, right?

The next time life takes an unexpected turn, take a deep breath and let yourself experience it. If there’s something that you can do to change the situation to be the way you want it to be – by all means, make that change! But, if the situation is totally out of your control, give yourself the freedom to experience it fully.

It may suck for a while, but I bet it will make one hell of a story. Allow yourself live your story – you’ll thank yourself for it later.

Trains, Buses (and automobiles)

April 10, 2012 by Jessica Leave a Comment

(Yes, that was a pathetic play on “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”… but air travel doesn’t really fit with today’s topic!)

At the end of last year, I finally sold my car, after months of attempting to do so.

While I was initially unsure of how my first foray into the car-free lifestyle would work out, I was hopeful. The choice was a conscious one, from both an environmental and financial standpoint.

So, now that I have spent the past three months sans vehicle, I wanted to give an update on where I stand with my decision.

While it has made certain aspects of my life more difficult, my hands-down response to the car-free life: I LOVE IT!

Yes, I have to think ahead when I’m going somewhere, to make sure that I leave enough time to walk. Or, I have to check the transit schedule, to see what buses are running when.

But, overall, the choice has absolutely set me free.

Now that I work completely for myself, I don’t have to commute to an office. I get my groceries from the farmer’s market, grocery stores close to downtown, or from the awesome folks at Relay Foods. I have everything that I need within walking distance, and I couldn’t be happier.

I occasionally borrow a car from a friend, if I have to make trips out somewhere that transit doesn’t reach (like my accountant’s office), or for a last minute trip to Washington, DC when Amtrak was sold out.

Now, any time I sit in traffic, I realize how much I dislike driving. Sitting on Interstate 66 on the way into DC several weeks ago, I ended up suppressing a ridiculous amount of rage as traffic crawled, stopped, and lurched. It was such a relief to finally park at the Vienna Metro and sit down on the train.

What used to be an uncomfortable proposition has now become my preferred mode of transportation.

Yes, you heard that right. I used to be scared to take the bus.

Let that sink in a moment. I grew up in a small rural area, where the only way to get anywhere was by car. I spent most of my life relying on a car to get where I needed to go. Even when I was in college, I still had a car. I (gasp!) used to be a member of a motorsports club, and a grid worker for the National Auto Sport Association. I never rode the bus, and had no idea how the system worked – I was scared because it was an uncertain.

Now, I dread getting behind the wheel. Traffic, gas prices, the whole process that lies behind the scenes of vehicle ownership – it just doesn’t appeal to me any more.

And, let’s not forget the environmental impacts of our dependence on individual automobiles. I was struck by this piece, by the Center for Investigative Reporting, titled “The Price of Gas” – though it was written almost a year ago, it was making the rounds again recently.

With gas prices rising at the pump, and with the knowledge of what our dependence on fossil fuels is doing to our planet, I can’t help but think that my decision was the best one – both for me, and for the planet. I know that buses and trains also use petroleum based products, but it’s at least a step in the right direction. Mass transit, done correctly, can have a huge impact on the health of our planet. (Look at Europe.)

So. For the foreseeable future, I’ll be that girl walking around Charlottesville. I need to get my bike out from under its cover and pump up the tires now that the weather has warmed up. And maybe I’ll see you on the bus!

Location Independence (and how I’m shaking loose)

October 11, 2011 by Jessica Leave a Comment

One of the great realizations that came out of the World Domination Summit this past June (future posts pending about that amazing experience) was the concept of creating your own life, writing your own story. The idea of not really being tied to any one place has always been a bit foreign to me given my deep roots in the mountains of Virginia, but as I examined my life direction, I came to a realization. Much of what I have attempted to do recently has been to shape a life that I want to live, to do the things that make me happy and to do some good along the way.

It wasn’t until recently that the pieces fell together – what I really want is location independence.

I had never put the term together with what it would actually mean for me. While some digital nomads focus on how to spend most of their time traveling, my real goal was to structure my work life so that it could be modified to fit what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

When I moved to Asheville this past summer, it provided the perfect opportunity to leap into a fairly unstructured work schedule, working from where and when I chose. It was my first real step into self employment, and the opportunity for which I had been waiting.

Now, in the name of full disclosure, let me say that a large portion of what made the transition more plausible and less scary was that I was able to keep about 15 hours of steady work a week for a current employer. Having that financial safety net has been what has allowed me to squeak by during my transition. Some people swear by keeping a 40 hour a week job until you’ve saved enough to make a clean transition, some say you should just leap – I fall somewhere in the middle, leaping with a small safety net under me.

Now that I’ve made the break from a traditional work schedule and my divorce is close to being finalized, I stand at what is perhaps the perfect moment to launch into my version of location independence. While I’m dealing with all the legal matters of a divorce, changes and paperwork and all that comes with it, I am taking the opportunity to make some preparations for my impending location independence.

Moving forward, I will “legally” reside in a rural mountain county in Virginia – I’m transferring legal address, voting records and the like to my parents’ address. (I was planning to do the same with car registration and insurance, but I’ve decided that it’s time to try being car-free for a while as well. I’ll let you know how that goes!)

For the time being, I’ll be living close to downtown Charlottesville while I continue to solidify some projects and income streams. If I had to guess, I’ll stick around for another year or so. Then, who knows? I’ve thought a lot about traveling and working my way around Europe or the US, or moving to the west coast for a while. I’ll know when I get there. For the time being, I’m looking forward to laying out the groundwork that will allow me to head whatever direction I choose when the time comes.

I’ll document my progress as I go, writing about any challenges I run into as I try to disconnect from place. I hope that maybe I can inspire someone else to think outside what they foresee as possible or plausible, and start out on a journey of their own making. Will it be you?