Introduction: A Year on the Road
Hello from Chicago! It’s Andrew here. Lindsey and I are now one month into our year-long adventure. For those who missed the memo: we’re exploring the US over the next year by train and bike as we work remotely. Or, to borrow a new phrase we recently learned, we’ve become #DigitalNomads. (Pretty sure you have to pronounce the “hashtag” part when you say it out loud.)
We’ve created this blog so we can share some of what we’re thinking about and discovering along our journey. We’ve been sharing photos and videos on our Instagram, but I wanted to kick things off on the blog with a post about how we’re approaching this trip. In particular, I want to talk about how we’re trying to engage with the communities we visit and how we’re doing this trip without a car!
Connecting Over Touristing
Most tourists take what they can from a destination: photos, souvenirs, and perhaps a quick chat with a local, leaving nothing of value behind. In a recent essay titled “The Case Against Travel,” Agnes Collard hits the nail on the head, identifying the problem with tourism.
“A tourist is a temporarily leisured person who voluntarily visits a place away from home for the purpose of experiencing a change.” This definition is taken from the opening of “Hosts and Guests,” the classic academic volume on the anthropology of tourism. The last phrase is crucial: touristic travel exists for the sake of change. But what, exactly, gets changed? Here is a telling observation from the concluding chapter of the same book: “Tourists are less likely to borrow from their hosts than their hosts are from them, thus precipitating a chain of change in the host community.” We go to experience a change, but end up inflicting change on others.
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From “The Case Against Travel by Agnes Callard
We read this article as we were packing for this trip and this idea stuck with us. We certainly have some goals around personal growth with this trip, but we want a more collaborative exchange of experiences with the communities we visit. In particular, we want to join these communities, albeit briefly, and engage with them as partners, not backgrounds in a social media post. We’re making the following intentional choices as part of this journey to help us achieve this goal.
Slow travel: Instead of dropping by every place we’d like to see for a quick visit, we’re trying to spend 2-4 weeks at each stop so we have a chance to acclimate, explore, and make meaningful connections.
Work, not vacation: we’re both still working our 9-5 jobs just like we did at home in Boston. The only change is where we go for coffee when we need a break. Since we’re working around that schedule, we’re not looking for a day-long adventure every day, instead we’re trying to get out and explore after work – just like what we’d do at home and what our friends in these communities do. As such, we’re hoping to engage with these communities in a way that supports what makes them special (e.g., visiting a cool and convenient neighborhood bar after work) and not just supporting their tourism industry. Of course, on the weekends we’re still trying to fit in bigger trips like we’d do at home – but for us this usually looks more like a long bike ride or hike.
Homes over hotels: we’re pet sitting when we can instead of renting a place. By taking care of pets while their owners are away and staying in their homes, we’re giving something of value to the community without contributing to any local housing crises. And, most excitingly, we get to hang out with some awesome animals.
Respect the journey: as semi-frequent business travelers, we have our airport routines down to a t and know just how easy it can be to hop a plane to your destination. But for this trip, we’re avoiding that mindset (when we can) and rolling across the country by train. America’s lackluster train infrastructure gives us time to reflect on our journey and what’s next. Also, it feels different to think of a destination as being a full day’s travel away (and I mean a full day; the train from Boston to to Chicago took a full 24 hours!)
Conscious community engagement: we’re pushing ourselves to get out of our comfort zone, sign up for events, and take in the world around us every day. It turns out “I’m new here” is a great conversation starter, at least in the Midwest where everyone is so kind! We’ve also had great success in Chicago through a local climbing gym, an AcroYoga class we’ve started regularly attending, and some local coffee shops we’re now addicted to.
Trains and Bikes over Cars
For the past few years living in Boston, we had been enjoying a car-free life. We settled into a routine of mixing public transit and biking and found we quite preferred it (except when it rains). No stress around traffic or parking and it’s a fun way to see the world. Early in our planning for this travel year we realized we needed to make two big decisions: if we bring bikes and if we get a car for the journey.
Our first idea was to take trains around the country with our bikes. We’d be able to continue our bike-centric lifestyle within the cities and just bike between train stations and our local destinations. Plus we’d be able to go on long bike rides within the cities! But we quickly realized a big problem with bikes – it would be hard to get a ride anywhere with all our stuff if we had two big bikes with us. If we ever got off a train in a new town after dark and it was raining, we really wouldn’t want to ride with our stuff, but we wouldn’t be able to squeeze into a rental car or cab. And we were also worried that a full train might not have room for our bikes and through an unexpected wrench in our travel plans.
After considering an embarrassingly long list of potential solutions (cars without bikes? car with a bike rack? buying and selling bikes in each destination?), we remembered the mantra that every bike owner swears by: “Got a problem? Buy more bikes!” and solved our problems by buying a pair of Brompton folding bikes. They weigh about 20 pounds each but fold up small enough to be considered carry-on luggage – easy to fit on a train or in a car trunk.
So far we’ve been having a great time with these bikes. The shifters sometimes get messed up, but they ride like a normal bike and they’re certainly a conversation starter! We were able to a 50 mile ride on them and we weren’t too sore afterwards! We’re able to ride them with all our gear (that’s a post for another day), but also fold them up and carry them when necessary.
Lessons and Experiences: Sharing As We Go
We’ll be documenting our experiences on this blog and our Instagram if you’re interested in following along. We see this as a way to stay in touch with our Boston community (we miss you already) and also a fun way to meet new people. We have lots of posts planned; some posts about logistics and gear are next in my pipeline, but Lindsey has some other ideas too. I hope you’ll come along on this journey with us, dear reader.