Foundations

 

We're off. Out of Austin by 7 a.m., we're headed north out of Texas, pitting this sprint through the Hill Country and southwest corner of the Great Planes as the leap to the start of our travels out of Denver and through the whole of me the American West and Western Canada.

There are three of us on board; Mark Christian, and yours truely, Dylan. We're rolling out of Texas to live on the move, finding the most dynamic aspects of life in the passing of the world out the window in the gap between sunrise and sun set. We've got clothes, food, beds, an assortment of insturments, and everything we've imagined we'd need to sustain ourselves for two months on the road.

Liberty in America has long been a beacon for pilgrims and pioneers from all the world round. But the concept has changed. Freedom, by definition, means not having anyone to tell you what to do, and its price is not war or death like we're led to believe, but hard work and independence. From the Mayflower in Plymouth to the wagon trains out west, to Daniel Boone and Lewis and Clarke on Texas cattle drives down the Oregon Trail, newcomes to America has defined freedom as the condition they attain by heading out into the unknown, over the Appalachians with a wagon. They had no need for money, only sustanance and survival, and they set out knowling only they if the went the same way for a good long time, and if they were smart enough and strong enough, and if they could find food to eat and water to drink and places to stay along the way, then they'd get to a place where they could probably find what they need to build a home and live their life. Then they would be free. Zero reliance on government or committies, just on ones self to provide and take care. That's the freedom we're trying to find.





In my journeys of the past I've engaged in heavy speculation regarding the things I'd learn and all the accompanying morphs in paradigm and perception. It's been all but futile in almost every sense. By now I've gathered that the ways our world can change, spurred by a heavy dose of exposure, are conceivable in retrospect and nothing more. So, I won't even take a shot at pinning down just what we'll all become after months of communal life roaming man's wild in a rolling home we've built to lilve in. I can, however, confidently say what I expect to encounter.

We'll meet people. Everywhere we stop and go brings with it a new bundle of personality in our fellow people who've made it their walk to get as far. In the places we'll be, people tend to let their defenses down. Strangers aren't danger, and the idea of a person being threatening by default melts away, yielding a sentiment more towards the side of one big human tribe. Strangers, until proven dangerous, are friends, and as interests and ambitions gravitate towards the common grounds at every point along our way, we'll get the chance to know our species through a thousand individuals peppering the spectrum of our kind, highlighting the massive variation the goes undetected in communities made homogenous by stationary tradition.

Money will be held with new regard. We've all contributed equally, and all funds have been consolidated to a single account, from which we draw for all of our needs. There are no personal posessions in this way, as everything we acquire becomes the property of the bus, and of the small tribe that inhabits it.

There's alot of energy to encounter along the way, and the drive spurred by waking up with the sun and seeing the world change around you in a day, from desert to mountains to forests to hills, showcases the possibilities in just a day on earth.

It really puts into perspective exactly how much every 24 hours is worth.

I believe as well, the there will be alot to gather from the sheer amout of effort we'll put into sustaining ourselves. Contrary to modern life in the places we're all from, it takes alot to take care of one's self when you're far out and on your own. Little things, like getting food, preparing meals, filling up on water, finding our way, setting up camp, and caring for our home will soak up the majority of metabolic energy normally unused in life in the suburbs, where ease is in high value and people like things set out for them.

And thus we've layed the foundation for all the inconceivable and all the unknow that lies ahead. More to come.