Once in a while when I go on a small adventure, I post an ad to rideshare on Craigslist, and hope someone interesting will come my way to share gas and make the trip more bearable.

I’ve shared rides with men and women, mostly up and down I-5 in California, but also across the state of Massachussetts on I-90 from Boston to Northampton. Only one time out of a dozen or so did I feel unsafe, but I walked away unharmed, and I learned a lesson for the next time. I’m curious how others’ experiences are.

This time on my way to Santa Barbara from San Francisco, I got really lucky. On the way down I shared rides with two women from Vermont, one of which had spent many years growing up in the cute town I visited called San Miguel de Allende. Then on the way back I a gave a ride to a lovely couple on a permaculture tour of California.

Ethan and his girlfriend told me a bit about their experience starting with Quail Springs near Ojai, a “learning oasis and farm,” where they were impressed with the sense of community. They taught me a thing or two about the landscape off 101 as we made our way north. Turns out they know friends of mine from Omega Institute in NY, and were heading to the Harmony Festival, where Ethan would be speaking on permaculture, and my friend Hannah from Santa Barbara would be capturing him on video. The two are crossing paths again at the training in Laytonville Ecovillage and both mentioned the Regenerative Design Institute to me as a great learning center. Small world! I look forward to spending time at one of these in the future.

The sense Ethan gave me is that permaculture is much more than making environments around us sustainable, but also about making communities sustainable using concepts like Slow Money.