If you are going somewhere and have the nice car and the money for gas, why don't you offer a ride share on Craig's List or somewhere. If you don't need the money, give it to some nice humanitarian project. (I'll be happy to give you suggestions if you need them.)
We liberals moan and groan about how the conservatives don't believe in global warming, and yet sometimes we skip some simple steps we can take to lesson our own carbon footprint. Like filling up our cars with other people so that there are fewer cars going the same places.
I have lived through the nightmare of car pooling. It is really hard. But ride share can be so simple. "I am driving from Boston to Scranton, PA Wednesday. Leaving at 10 AM. $25 gas donation. Room for 2." Done.
I used to be a great fan of hitching. Having been a high school and college kid in New England, it was the thing we all did. First we would start asking around our friends and if that didn't work out, then we'd just go on the road and stick out our thumbs. With 80 colleges and universities in Boston and tons more in the surrounding area, this was easy stuff. Somehow I don't think it is as easy, safe or popular anymore. Is this because half the kids arrive at college with their new Saab convertible? Maybe it is much less safe these days. Maybe ride share is the new hitch hiking. I don't know. I do know that out here in the wild west, distances are so great from city to city, that a little planning is necessary. I also know that public transportation (between cities) out here in the wild west couldn't be more inconvenient, expensive, and down right stupid.
Many of my friends who are recovering hippies were very happy with the ride share story because our memories of the early hippie days were memories of great innocent crazy fun and Charlotte and Wisconsin reminded us of the days of wonder and innocence when it was all mind blowing "Oh Wow, Far Out, Blew My Mind" dawning of the Days of Aquarius. Yup. Those were our good old days. My younger friends considered my story and came to the conclusion "mushrooms." They could be right. Mellower picture than meth or coke or heroin.
Becoming childlike once in a while is really fun. Watch a little kid watching you blow a bubble some day and see her eyes getting big and her utter fascination and her hands opening up. We all can experience this with or without the mushrooms, don't ya think?
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