I really like solitude but I also have a need for adventure and stories. Meeting random people and talking to them can provide both, like the Mainland Chinese trans woman who I gave a very long ride to San Francisco while she told me all about how hard it was to be trans in China, especially with the family rejection. Lots of stories I would not hear otherwise.
You could drive a bus in Las Vegas if you want to be around people in an environment you control and not have to talk to them. It's my pinned post on Twitter, which I'll copy here so you don't have to go to Twitter.
After the dot com crash in 2000, I did solitary travels around N. America by car. When my software money ran out, I got a job driving The Deuce on the Las Vegas Strip, which I did for a year before eventually returning to software. The Alan Watts quote is accurate.
Zen Philosopher Alan Watts
Imagine if you were a bus driver, a bus driver is ordinarily considered an absolutely harassed person. He’s got to watch out for the laws, the competing traffic, the cops, people coming on board giving him fares and he has to give them change, and if he has it in his head that this is work, it will be hell.
But let’s suppose he has a different thing in his head, suppose he has the idea that moving this enormous conveyance through complicated traffic, it’s a very subtle game, and he has the same feeling about it that you might have if you were playing the guitar or dancing. So he goes through that traffic, avoiding this and avoiding that, and he makes a music of the whole thing. He’s not going to be tired out at the end of the day, he’s going to be full of energy when he gets through his job. So the point is, therefor, that you can do everything you have to do in this spirit, don’t make a distinction between work and play. Regard everything that you’re doing as play and don’t imagine for one minute that you have to be serious enough.