I’ve had several people ask me now – what made you decide you wanted to “travel on kindness”?  Well, it’s sort of been a culmination of a lot of things.  For one, I love to travel.  I’ve driven to the west coast, (half-way) to Alaska, and taken a motorcycle trip out to Las Vegas.  They’ve all been pretty fun, but there were two things about them I didn’t care for.  We took the trips way too quickly to really get a feel for the areas we visited, and let’s be frank – driving is expensive!  Even more expensive when you drive an SUV that gets 14.5 MPG highway if you’re lucky.  I wanted to get away from the quick 2-3 weeks trips I’ve done in the past, really meet and get to know the people I run into, and avoid the money hole of a gas tank to fill.

Something else about me is that I’m extroverted.  I love interacting with people.  However, I’m awful at starting a conversation with someone I don’t know, and typically stick to interacting with people I already know.  I’ve had the same three friends who I hang out with for years now and maybe a fourth person added to the mix from time to time.  Don’t get me wrong, they’re great and we enjoy each other’s company immensely, but I feel like I’m missing out on something.  I’ve wanted to overcome my difficulty with interacting with strangers, and what better way to do that than need to rely on interaction with strangers to make it from day to day?  Well, there are probably better ways… but this one is more fun (right?).

One of the things I’ve noticed about people, and I have a feeling this is an American trend, or maybe a trend in my local area, but Americans seem to be afraid of everything.  We’re always freaking out about things that people didn’t think twice about 40 years ago.  The first things out of everyone’s mouth when I even mention this trip are “You’re going to get murdered!”; “You’re going to get raped!”;  or at the very least I get a “That’s scary!  How are you not scared of doing that?”  You talk to most anyone and they’ll tell you not to pick up hitchhikers because they’ll probably kill you.  The fact of the matter is, most of them are no different than I am.  Just a dude or gal traveling without a vehicle.  They’re no more scary than anyone else.  They just have a big backpack and their thumb sticking out.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m well aware of that fact that there are whack jobs that I need to be mindful of, but I feel I’m taking plenty of steps to protect myself from the crazies.  I’m looking forward to proving that there is far more kindness around us than bad intentions.

Another thing, until about 8 months ago, I’ve had a girlfriend pretty much solidly since I was 14.  That kind of changes the whole way you view the world and live your life.  It’s been really weird adjusting to the single life for me; you can just ask my ex-girlfriend – I definitely went into it kicking and screaming (metaphorically… mostly).  It’s not exactly a shining moment in my life, but it’s one of those things you figure out and get past.  I’m pretty well adjusted now, and being single lets you do cool things like traveling for three months with no money without any concern of an unhappy girlfriend.  Plus it totally eliminates the daily calls you get about how you’re a jerk for not bringing them or wanting to go home and try and fix things with your ex-girlfriend who thought it was a great idea to dump you unexpectantly the day before you left on your trip.  Not that I have ever experienced that and am still bitter or anything.  So yeah, I think a trip like this is a great way to solidify the fact that there isn’t anything wrong with being single and has lots of perks.  Oh, and ladies, I’m single. That’s right.  Accepting dates where you pay for the next three months because, well, I ain’t got no money.

Lastly, a couple books I’ve read and films I’ve watched have continued to build up my desire to do this.  First, I saw this movie called Into the Wild.  I’m sure this movie must not be well known, because not every single person I talk to about my trip brings it up like I might not have heard of it before doing a trip like the one I’m doing.  Yes, he dies at the end.  I’m aware.  But you know you thought the first half of the movie where he’s traveling the country with nothing and running into all sorts of interesting characters was about the coolest thing ever and you thought to yourself “I want to do that.”  The only difference between you and I is that I remember saying “I’m going to do that,” which was promptly rebutted by my girlfriend at the time saying something like “not a chance.”  Which was awfully depressing… and made me want to do it more.  A year or so later I read this great book called A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins.  It’s a really fantastic true story about Peter Jenkins walking to Louisiana from the New England area with his dog.  It was awesome it further fueled my desire to do something similar.  I actually started “training” to do a walk across America with a friend, but one training day later, twenty miles under our feet, and ten blisters on our feet, we said screw that.  And finally, most recently, I watched this fantastic documentary called Craigslist Joe.  Joe traveled the country and lived for one full month solely off what he could acquire through Craigslist.  Once the documentary ended, I just turned to my friends and said “That’s what I’m doing this summer.”

So this combination of factors is the long version of why I’m Traveling on Kindness this summer.  And if you skipped all that and are just reading this last paragraph – the short version is, “because it’s an awesome idea.”