By Dar Williams

Performing Songwriter Magazine
November 1998

Performer to Performer
 

Things had to change.  On one doctor visit, I noticed that my blood pressure had risen. Six months later it rose again.  And then again.  I had a short fuse.   I believed that all ill-tempered airline attendants, muddled sound people, and lighting designers who bathed me in green light were in league against me.  I never had enough time.  I was not traveling with ease.
Look at me today!  I’m gliding through the airport with my wheeled luggage, well compartmentalized purse, and all needed documents ready for presentation.  The flight was delayed, the rental car wasn’t ready, and the woman behind the counter has responded to this problem with a quick and hateful smile, explaining that there is no sign whatsoever of my reservation.  No worry! I’ve flown in the night before the gig, not the day of, I peed before I got to baggage claim, and I have a book. “Take your time,” I say.  Ten minutes later she finds my reservation…under “Williams.” I smile with compassion.
I want to share my best road tips with you, because we all meet somewhere on that big road, so the happier you are, chances are the happier I’ll be.  Whether you take the road less traveled or the L.A. freeway, knowing where your pen and your rental agreement are will improve the quality of life on both ends of the journey.  And that really does make all the difference.

Le Car

    Let’s start with the car.  It’s good to feel a sense of kinship with your car.  Before I got a diesel (I highly recommend Volkswagen TDIs; diesels that give you more mileage, less maintenance, and safer emissions), I put 90-octane gas in my tank.  Apparently over 90 doesn’t make much difference. Higher octane pays for itself in higher mileage and a happier car. Correct tire pressure also increases mileage and confidence.
    Spiritual maintenance of a car is also very important.  It’s helpful to feel like you’re on the same team.  I highly recommend looking at a map before you go anywhere, even (especially!) when people have given you “excellent” directions.   When you’re supposed to go south on I-90, it’s good to find out that it’s actually an east-west highway before you get to the signs.  This simple modus operandi can save you hours and ulcers and that sense of “dis-ease” with your car.
    Three simple things will also reduce stress: a flashlight, an atlas, and an auto club membership, which pays for itself in the first towing or in three car rental discounts.  And a parking Buddha.  And Northampton massage therapist Jeannie Dodge recommends three tennis balls in an old sock for self-massaging your upper back.  And I suggest a designated place where you keep extra toiletry items, like tissues, soap, tampons, and a brush.  Okay, that’s more than three things.
    Another important tip: keep all your food in one place. My friend Anne Weiss channeled the Great Squirrel and found all the food I’d scattered over my car.  A half eaten bag of popcorn, pita bread, tomatoes, honey, a bottle of wine and chocolate.  Keeping all your food in one place gives you the sense of options, allows you to find food in the dark, and saves you from having that really unprofessional feeling Mystery Car Smell.
    And I will give you this blanket advice: only buy as many bananas as you will eat within the hour.

Rental Cars

As for rental cars, Hertz is one of the only companies that will rent a one-way car without a penalty.  However, you have to rent a midsize or bigger.  I’ve found that I can pay the midsize rate, but get a smaller car.  People think I’m crazy for paying more for less, but smaller cars will get you 10-20 more miles per gallon of gas, and if you don’t need the midsize, why waste the money or fuel?  If they hassle you at the rental place, just say what I say, “It’s my gift to the Great Mother Earth.” Calms them right down.
     Another great rental tip is to get a preferred customer club membership. They’re awesome.  It’s so luxurious to step right into your car and drive away instead of waiting (for the fifth time that day) in a long line.   They’re about fifty or sixty dollars annually (though for the last two years I’ve gotten mine free, because I’m such a loyal capitalist pig), and they’re worth it.

Airplanes

 On to planes; toxic, dehydrating, impersonal vessels of modern convenience.  If you don’t think it looks too goofy, put a wet washcloth over your face.  Drink a ton of water.  Definitely take your own. I rarely eat airplane food anymore.  I’m really not a food snob, but I’ve finally faced the reality that airplane food makes me feel sick.  I’d rather have two hot pretzels, a bag of potato chips and a chocolate bar from the airport.
    I told you I wasn’t a food snob.  If you get nauseated on flights, definitely make sure you have something in your stomach besides your fear of flying.  I’d even take airplane food over an empty stomach.
     Call me a pagan princess, but I’m overwhelmed by “Air Culture.” Racks and racks of magazines about people I didn’t think I cared about.  All that “news” in the high hung TV’s; informing us of the latest clothes that look good on anorexic people and about train crashes.  In-flight magazines. Skymall magazines.  Billboards on the wall. Gift shops. USA TODAY everywhere.  It makes me feel like a drone at the heart of a corporate hive.  Forewarned is forearmed.  John Irving, Tony Hillerman, Jane Austin, and the Bronte sisters can provide good antidotes.  They’re not trying to sell you anything (relatively speaking). Also, don’t be embarrassed to walk barefoot outside on the day you travel, weather permitting, before or after a flight to get grounded.  Of course, your impersonal motel may not have any grass in sight, but any simple connection with the earth can help with a sense of air displacement.

Luggage

 As for luggage, wheeled luggage is a must for the frequent traveler.  My whole band got Eagle Creek luggage that can become a backpack in a pinch and has a detachable knapsack on the front. It rules. I wanted to get an endorsement but was afraid I’d have to pose with it on a CD cover.  Another luggage thing: your friggin’ instrument. Even with new restrictions, I’ve been able to take my guitar on most planes.  When checking attendants shake their heads, I say, “You know, I checked my guitar with American Airlines, once, and they lost it, once.” That said, gate checking is different from counter checking, and I’ve never heard of a person losing a guitar on a gate check.

Trains

 Trains are the least subsidized, most fuel efficient way to travel.  Amtrak bends over backwards to offer interesting travel packages, like tickets that let you stop at three places along the way.  You definitely need to take your own food, but otherwise, trains are super comfortable and less dehumanizing than air culture, in my opinion.  Since many promoters in singer-songwriter-dom are supportive of alternative economies and underdogs, I’ll bet they can find someone to pick you up at the station.

Hotels, Motels, and staying with Friends

 And now, welcome to your motel, The Desert Fountain of Fluorescence.  Whether you’re moteling or hoteling, I have some thoughts.  First: don’t look in the mirror when you first get in your room. Second, when you check out, I have a suggestion that is kind to your room cleaner and to you: clean up the room; put the TV remote back on the TV, put the phone book back, put all your towels in one pile and pull the comforter off the bed.  It’s a great way to idiot check.  More often than not, there’s a pair of earrings under that pile of tissues you weren’t going to throw away. Also, please leave a tip for the person cleaning your room.  I try to leave a couple of dollars for every day I’ve spent.  This compensates for my asking for “No Housekeeping” when I’m staying more than one day. Housekeeping uses a lot of detergents and water, which seems like a waste. I don’t clean my house like that!
    Late at night, there are lots of things to do when you’re alone in your room, postgig, even though it’s too late to call a friend to talk about the guy who fell asleep in the front row.  If you get online, definitely take your own phone card. Sometimes it’s impossible to extricate the phone line from the phone. That effort alone will raise your blood pressure.  A lot of people take little candles on the road.   If you want these for ambient songwriting light, Aveda and the Body Shop make them with lids, which I prefer.
     If you watch TV, I recommend the Animal Planet channel, especially if your ego needs mending. There’s nothing like watching a family of hippos, not to mention the kind-hearted, safari-hair naturalists, to remind you that the world is a wondrous place and you are a part of it.  I have a list of activities to do while I watch TV, such as emptying my tote bag and purse and organizing them.  It’s so helpful!  Receipts, garbage, napkins, addresses, money…it’s great to deal with this stuff before you get home.
     My favorite activity, however is to curl up in a little nightie and call…American Airlines.  Forget with they say about artists being flaky. Get your frequent flyer accounts set up now!!  If you want to hear another human voice at the end of a long night, kill two birds with one stone and get your accounts going.  You can dump all sorts of miles into them; rental car, credit card, phone, and some hotels.  My latest favorite mile builder is a prepaid phone card through AT&T.  If you call 1(800) PREPAID and ask for the United Airlines AT&T card, you’ll get 25 cents a minute with no surcharge per call.  Otherwise you get an MCI at 35 cents a minute.  Setting up frequent flyer accounts makes good use of late night boredom and angst, as well as our ancient hunting and gathering instincts.
     Or perhaps you’re staying with friends. I used to plan my tours around friends and family, so if the gigs were bad, I’d at least get to meet the roommate from hell or see the new significant other (sometimes also from hell). A few suggestions: one, let your loved ones know that the more greens they feed you, the better you’ll be. A big salad, steamed kale, whatever.  Make your friends your allies in your well being.
    In return, I recommend taking utilitarian gifts, such as a decorative pyramid of recycled toilet paper, or a festive assortment of bulk pasta. It will endear you to a household if you take gifts for the whole house.  And finally, watch the bedtime thing.  Guests are a novelty.  If four friends in a row want to keep you up until three a.m., it will take its toll on you, not them.

Finding The Right Vibe

     There is one determining factor that outweighs all the helpful hints for healthy traveling.  It has to do with that one dated word with eternal significance: vibe.  Finding the vibe of a city can foster a sense of meaning and community for a traveler.   If you want to raise your long term standard of well-being on the road, I would keep careful notes or mental tabs in this intangible quality of being.
     Four years ago, I compiled a book called The Tofu Tollbooth, a directory of natural food stores.  I thought I was just trying to find politically correct chocolate, organic apples, and acidopholus.  I realize now that the book was important because it helped me to find that elusive thing – call it cultural resonance, kindness, awareness, vibe – that every city has once you’ve penetrated the three or four layers of standardized consumer culture that’s geared to outsiders.
     Take Indianapolis, for example.  I found the natural food store there in the part of town called Broad Ripple. Down the street was a theatre where Laura Love was playing.  A block beyond that was a great Indian restaurant with a cheap lunch buffet.  At the natural food store, the staff told me about other places in their neighborhood, such as the wonderful Three Sisters bakery and restaurant, where the service was better than friendly.  It was familiar.   That’s what I love about finding the Broad Ripple of any city.  These places give me the sense that things are done with care, and that my shopping and eating dollars are helping to build communities, not strip them.
     Natural food stores aren’t the only indicator of a traveler-friendly neighborhood. At the heart of the southwest are in Portland, Oregon, there is a legendary indie record store, Music Millennium, a few blocks away from the huge used and new bookstore, Powell books last week. It’s a must-experience vibe.

In Closing

     As travelers, we weather hostility, cultural dissonance, bad coffee, and worse directions. We see remarkable acts of community in the places we perform, only to leave at 6 a.m. the next morning. We miss our homes.  Thus, a corollary to finding the vibe of a place is to know that it’s hard out there.
    Yeah, yeah, it’s vital that we get out and explore the museums, neighborhoods and wilderness of this country.   It’s equally necessary to hole ourselves up a in dreary hotel rooms and make sixteen calls in a row from time to time. We are allowed to respect our needs, as un-exotic and tedious as they may be.
     As a performing songwriter I know so many little disjointed things about surviving on the road. And so do you.  How we travel will affect every other aspect of our lives.   Someday, I hope to be that zen-voyager, whose journey is her life and vice-versa.  She finds a flat rock in a city park up which to make her own nori rolls, folding blades of grass into original origami crane as an impromptu centerpiece.
    That’s not me…yet.  For now, I know that baby carrots will keep for days, often without refrigeration and unfrosted Pop Tarts aren’t a bad option at 1 a.m.  I accept the nurse’s comment that my blood pressure is so low, and I’m thankful that I still love my job, as well as my friend at the Hertz counter.

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