{"id":4176,"date":"2018-12-28T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T08:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeteaparty.org\/blog\/?p=4176"},"modified":"2019-01-07T13:34:32","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T21:34:32","slug":"north-american-tea-tour-ends-san-juan-island-wa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/freeteaparty.org\/blog\/north-american-tea-tour-ends-san-juan-island-wa\/","title":{"rendered":"North American Tea Tour Ends \u2013 San Juan Island, WA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

It’s only the end of one road.<\/p><\/div>\n

First, let me say this: This is not the end of the Free Tea Bus<\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Guisepi and Edna at Teapot Rock in Sedona, AZ (photo: Ally Rugge)<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the moment when I take the time to reflect on a dream I once had \u2013 a dream that I worked towards, with the help of many people, for many years, and just this month completed. This dream was to travel the country, from coast to coast, serving free tea to anyone and everyone as a way to cultivate community and inspire sharing. Often when we accomplish an idea or dream, we quickly move to the next one without taking adequate time to consider the impact. That is what this winter is for: reflecting on accomplishing a personal goal \u2013 the North American Free Tea Tour<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

During this journey, we spent 6 years traveling 45,000 miles from coast to coast, served 20,000 cups of free tea, and visited 34 states. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Texas Tea Festival in Austin, TX<\/p><\/div>\n

Nearly 11 years ago, I purchased a little empty yellow short school bus and named her Edna Lu. Even back then, I knew I was going to build her out and take her on a North American Tour. I had found this special thing in serving free tea that made people smile, inspired generosity, and helped fulfill my basic human needs for community and genuine human interactions. And I wanted to share this with the country!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Original Craig’s List photo and NOW!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Edna’s going away party on San Juan Island – March 20th, 2013<\/p><\/div>\n

I figured it would take 2 years to build Edna out, and another year to travel the country. Whelp<\/i>, it ended up taking 5 years to build her out (while simultaneously traveling the west coast and serving tea), and nearly 6 years to go from coast to coast. One of the greatest lessons in this has been that quality takes time<\/i>. It takes time to build something from mostly reclaimed materials, tangled in a web of systems like water, solar, and waste vegetable oil, while learning most of the skills necessary along the way. I had to build relationships with people, find mentors, collect materials, ask questions, and learn things. Also, when your pocketbook is thin, and you can\u2019t simply purchase your every need, relationships become the highest form of value. Quality relationships take time \u2013 another reason why slowness has come at every step of the way \u2013 especially when we were out in parts of the country where we knew no one!<\/p>\n

As the tour departure date drew nearer, I realized that I should also expect to take more time out there on the road, so I announced our 2+ Year North American Tour<\/a>. This tour began on the 5-year anniversary of buying the bus: March 20th<\/sup>, 2013.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Feature in The Western Front<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Blues Recess 2013<\/a> – Placerville, CA<\/p><\/div>\n

When I left, my plan was to have no plans, but I found that somehow I actually had to have more plans with no plan. When I was open to all possibilities, I would envision heading down this highway<\/i> to that event<\/i>, which meant I could go here<\/i>. But if I did it this way<\/i>, then I could go here<\/i>, and loop back around for this event<\/i>. It began to get too confusing, so I altered the modus operandi to: Make a plan or commitment to something down the road, but give plenty of time to get there. This way I would have the flexibility to do things on a whim and say yes <\/i>to invitations. In general, I began giving Edna and I a day for every hour of driving (a 7-hour drive takes about a week). Of course, this isn\u2019t simply 1 hour of driving every day, it\u2019s perhaps driving for 3 hours, finding a town to serve some tea, get invited to an event or school or radio show, meet people, dig in, get involved, find some vegetable oil, and then move on. It\u2019s been a great strategy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pacific Crest Trail<\/a> near The Sierra Buttes, CA<\/p><\/div>\n

The hardest part for me was to leave the West Coast, where I had been traveling for 7 or 8 years serving free tea. I had community and resources. It was scary to leave! For that reason, I stayed on the West Coast for the first year-and-a-half of the North American Tour. Finally, in September of 2014, we headed east into the Southwest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Village Building Convergence 2013<\/a> in Portland, OR<\/p><\/div>\n

As I was preparing for tour I was dating Ally. It was romantic and genuine, but when I left for tour, we waved good-bye. But not one week into tour, she surprised me in Bellingham. This began a stretch of wonderful short-term meetups. We\u2019d travel together, sometimes with her van too, and then part ways for weeks or months. On the West Coast and in the Southwest, this was easy, as coming and going were such short distances (she was based mostly in Nevada City, CA). Finally, as Edna and I were preparing to leave Austin for Boston<\/a>, I asked her to come with me on the 30-hour (30-day) journey. At that point, Ally came aboard for a full year-and-a-half and our romance blossomed into partnership. From then on, Ally became an integral part of the journey for the 4 to 12 months of the year she spent aboard Edna. For her support, I cannot thank her enough.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ally, Guisepi, and Edna Lu in Colorado Springs, CO
(photo: Andres Romero)<\/p><\/div>\n

The more time we spent off the west coast, the more I realized that the main premise of the Free Tea Bus was true \u2013 that relationships are the highest form of value<\/i>. On the West Coast I knew where to park, where to find waste vegetable oil, where there were good dumpsters to dive, where I had community, where to get towed if I broke down, where to fill up water, where to find work (paid or not), and so much more. As we ventured out into the unknown, it became much more effort to get basic needs met. We were spending more and more time sharing, gifting, and building relationships with people, as well as more and more time exploring dumpsters, finding springs, and looking for resources. It became a lot of work!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Edna getting towed outside Asheville, NC<\/p><\/div>\n

I realized how much more effective money is in places where you haven\u2019t built relationships. <\/p>\n

The apex of this was when Edna\u2019s transmission went out in North Carolina<\/a>. I am forever grateful that this happened just 20 miles from my stepsister\u2019s house, where we could get towed to. But at this point in the journey, we were scraping by financially. I tried to find shops to let me work-trade or participate in the rebuilding of the transmission. No luck. At this point I didn\u2019t know what to do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A guest fills out a Share Card for the Gift & Take in Philadelphia, PA<\/p><\/div>\n

One of my personal obstacles has been in receiving. And this is from the beginning of serving tea. Back on Hollywood Boulevard, where I first started serving tea and food from my tailgate, my then newfound friend Geraldine forced me to confront this obstacle. When I turned down $5 for all the food I\u2019d fed her, she asked, \u201cHow can you be so selfish to think that everyone else needs, and you can get the satisfaction of giving, but won\u2019t accept anything in return.\u201d And of course, this is traditional human economy \u2013 to practice non-calculated reciprocity with those we are willing to build or maintain a bond with. Still, over the years I\u2019ve always been hesitant to receive. I\u2019ve never accepted monetary tips or donations while serving tea, and I always get choked up when someone asks what I need (though traveling through the South, and how often people ask there, made me aware that it\u2019s a good idea to have an answer). I\u2019ve turned down thousands of dollars over the years, usually directing people to put it in the Gift & Take<\/a>, which acts as a community bank (it\u2019s fun to think about the Robin Hood element of this \u2013 encouraging those in excess to share with those in lack).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Why do I only envision myself as a giver?<\/p><\/div>\n

For these reasons, I was hesitant to ask for financial help with the transmission. But one day I posted a photo on social media asking for help. In 36 hours, people gifted $3600 and I had to ask them to STOP!<\/i> Every notification of donation I received in my email made me cry. These were people I hadn\u2019t seen in years, family members, people from around the world who I had never met, folks who I\u2019d only ever served tea to once, and close friends. The value of this experience was not only in the money people donated, but also in the bonds reinforced and how valued I felt in this project. I can\u2019t thank people enough for this!<\/p>\n

Money is truly a useful tool when you don\u2019t have relationships, when you need to transfer value to a stranger, or to get an item from far away. While this was handy when Edna\u2019s transmission failed, it also makes for a certain amount of disconnect between ourselves and the resources we use and consume (think: purchasing something from halfway around the world). This was a balancing point for me. The condemnation of money as a tool wasn\u2019t right, even though I had some of that surface for me sometimes. Instead, it reinforced that relationships are the highest form of value, and that those relationships can be reciprocated and reinforced with all kinds of resources, services, time, and yes, even money.<\/p>\n

On a similar note, being out there in the world, and doing paid work for people who I consider friends, I learned one very valuable thing: that highly calculated modern exchange is fine to do with friends, but that gifting still needs to occur in order to maintain the bond. I am so thankful to people like Gwen, Justin, Evan, Gil and others for helping me come to this, as well as practice it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Building a straw bale house in Terlingua, TX<\/p><\/div>\n

In order to keep the bus afloat Edna and I built relationships, both with people as well as the resources we used and consumed. This meant gathering water, finding waste vegetable oil for fuel, dumpster-diving\/work-trading\/wild-harvesting food, collecting firewood, and more. For the $6,000-$8,000\/year that Edna and I need, I fixed and built things like: a straw bale house in West Texas; installed solar on a double-decker eco-education bus; did all sort of small-scale salvaged building; installed a few wood stoves in tiny spaces; helped build a pole barn in Maine; was the lead builder for a small-scale, solar-powered, natural grocery, wood-fired bakery and kitchen<\/a> in a food desert of West Virginia; and did a couple house deconstructions to salvage the materials in Texas and North Carolina. <\/span><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Some of the places I fell in love with were the places that I simply showed up, didn\u2019t know anyone, thought I was only going to be for a few days, and got so sucked in by the community that I didn\u2019t leave for a week or months! Some of these places are: <\/span><\/p>\n