Musings on an overnight bus

Moisés in Lancaster

We had a couple hours to wait for our train so we walked around Lancaster and laid our tent out to dry from the rain storm the previous day.  Back at the train station, we waited with a small crowd for train #666 straight to NYC, the belly of the beast.  We were going out of our way, northeast, for a few hours to catch a cheap overnight bus heading southwest from NYC to Nashville.  In Nashville we had reserved a rental car to take us to two Amish-style communities, both just north of the border in rural Kentucky.  As people who are attempting to live life without a car, renting a car to go to two car-free communities was humbling and came after much research into other scarce public transportation options.  After making stronger connections with these communities we learned about their long-trip driver service, which they were happy to share contacts for.

Our most on-time train yet dropped us off in the big apple mid-afternoon and we made our way to the bus station in Chinatown.  Those waiting for the bus were majority Chinese and all the announcements on the bus were made in Chinese.  On the bus we sat near Tim from Australia, replanted in rural New York for the last decade, and a cosmetologist named Tarik, who was returning to Tennessee in the process of moving from Chattanooga to NYC.  Later we were joined by a handful of Latino folks.  When announcements were made to the diverse patrons filling the bus, those of us that didn't understand Chinese would all look at each other and exchange glaces of "I wonder what's going on and what city we're in now..."

Nico and the boys in Lancaster

Moisés and Yanni did ok on the bus.  The seats were much smaller and closer together than the train, and when the person in front of us put their seat back, our play space was about halved.  Luckily for baby-entertainment and the passengers around us, most of our riding hours were overnight.  Soon enough it was time to put the kids to sleep and they went right down with the sway and rumble of the bus.  We talked with Tim a while and found we have many similar interests.  His kids attend a Waldorf school and he lives on a farm in rural New York where it sounds like they try to minimize technology and maximize human connection.  He was on the way to meet up with his wife and kids for his wife's family reunion in Nashville.

Our big adventure came around midnight when the bus stopped in good ol' Harrisonburg, VA.  We had learned of this $60 NY to TN bus from a friend who accidentally discovered it to get from Harrisonburg to New York City.  Knowing that it would make a short stop in our hometown, Nico had arranged for Jake Cochran to meet us at midnight to relieve us of our tent and sleeping bags, which we no longer needed and made up about 40% of the bulk on our backs.

The bus stopped at the anticipated gas station, Nico hopped out and got our gear from the compartment under the bus, and as he looked around for Jake the bus driver motioned that it was time to move on.  To our surprise, the bus dropped folks off at the gas station very quickly and immediately needed to go!  Sad and confused at this rapid transition, we thought we should send Jake a defeated text to tell him we weren't able to make the transfer.

Tarik, seated behind us, quickly and graciously shared his smartphone so we could communicate.  As I was fumbling around with the teeny tiny on-screen keyboard, we stopped again, still in Harrisonburg, this time behind an apartment complex near the gas station to change bus drivers.  Tarik said, "Does your friend have an iPhone?  I can send him a GPS of our exact location."  I answered affirmatively and returned the phone to the owner.  After Tarik sent the location, I went back to thanking Jake and apologizing that he had to come out so late since it wasn't going to work out... but as I finished typing, he drove up to the alley where we were stopped!  The driver let Nico hop off the bus long enough to connect with Jake.

So, thanks to technology we completed our task!  I couldn't help but notice the juxtaposition of our earlier conversation with Tim and the quick footwork of how we solved our problem.  We started the evening in discussion about the dangers technology brings and a few hours later our pre-arranged plan wouldn't have come to completion without the use of commonplace state-of-the-art wireless pocket computers reading invisible internet waves to share a pinpointed location, thanks to around 660 satellite machines positioned around the planet, zipping through outer space, blipping more invisible waves at each other and back to earth.  Not to mention Jake's quick fingers and Toyota Corolla.  :)

Now, what would've happened if we had chosen not to use one of these magic communication devices when our bus left the Harrisonburg gas station?  We wouldn't have met up with Jake.  We would've kept things we didn't need, which would have been burdensome but possibly not something we'd even remember we had to cart around.  The worst thing would be that Jake would've probably waited at the bus stop a long time thinking we hadn't arrived yet and eventually gone home unresolved.  I never want to leave people hanging and unresolved, which is why I borrowed Tarik's phone in the first place.  Though I assume not being able to communicate a change in plans would have been frustrating in any era, in the information age not being in constant communication about changing details is becoming almost unheard of.

In trying to live less connected to technology in a society where technology reigns, I find myself not knowing what to do when instances like this arise.  Choosing to move away from certain things would, and already has, cut me off from people I dearly love.  On the other hand, Martin Prechtel calls me out when he says towards the end of the linked podcast interview, "very few people are courageous enough to do anything they say." And I'm humbled by Romans 7 where Paul laments, "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate... I can will what is right, but I cannot do it."  Thus a struggle came for me when, in going to a largely internet-free community for a year away from everyone I know and any languages I speak, I wanted to write a blog to stay connected to the people who are dear to me and to whom I plan to return.

Nico pointed out that because the information superhighway seems to encourage distracted multi-tasking, it's easier to glaze over a blog while a physical letter seems to lend itself toward undivided attention.  We tried to think of alternatives to using the world wide web, which gobbles 70 billion kWh per year, but I was unsatisfied with anything we brainstormed.  Nico and I have pushed each other toward our shared goals over the years, sometimes I'm keeping us on track and sometimes he is, but this time I elevated my need for relational connection over our goals.  And Nico supports me in this!  I don't know what it will be like to be stripped of my systems and far from my friendships in France, but I felt that if I could at least connect easily to my loved ones I could weather the difficulty of the transition.

Our bus left Harrisonburg to carry us toward a couple communities of folks who have strength in their critical mass, intact lineage, and functional systems to live contrary to the slippery slope of the dominant culture that surrounds us all.  I was excited to see how they're doing it; how they provide for their needs.  And as I mentioned in Horse Progress Days, Day 2, I was so interested to see how a community functioned that wasn't rediscovering everything from scratch.  They're so true to what they believe, through the generations, that the mainstream culture's false promises are not even in their basket of possibilities.  What is that like?