On the Road Again 2013 # 29

And so that is my story of how I went from Sudbury to Vancouver Island, travelled around a bit and then came home. Nothing particularly extraordinary or amazing - just what I have been doing for the past few years. Actually when I think about it, I have been travelling for quite a few years. If perhaps the stories are getting a bit boring to the reader or that eventually that all of the rides start to seem to be the same, that is only because I lack the ability to find the words so that I can share the feeling I get when I am on the road. It is, in part, the sense of absolute freedom combined with the total lack of control over any part of my existence that I find so exhilarating. But that is only part of why I do it.

It may be that hitchhiking is just my way of finding adventure. Perhaps people who get involved in extreme sports or climb mountains or kayak in the Arctic Ocean get the same kind of high as I do when after a few minutes or eight hours standing on the side of the road, a vehicle stops and some kind soul offers me a ride. Maybe it is just a simple as I am spending an extended time in my second childhood. I don`t know what it is - Lord knows I have lots of time to think about it when I am on the road and yet I don`t. Whether my pack is on my back or beside me on the shoulder; whether I am climbing what seems an impossibly high hill to get to a safe spot to stand or rambling along a pretty logging road I don`t think very much at all about why I am doing it. I am just doing it and that seems to be a good enough reason. There are times when it is raining, when a cold wind is blowing, or when I am stuck in a spot where I know (or at least I think I know) that I am not going to get a ride for awhile that I curse my stupidity or my silliness at some decision I have made. But I never regret doing what I am doing.

If I have to define myself - I tell people that I am a dad, a granddad and a hitchhiker. All of the other attributes don't really matter to me; they don't define me. At some point every year I wonder how much longer I will be able to travel this way; for how much longer will my body be able to manage the walking, the pack and the hard ground. But I know that every year sometime around February the urge to pack my bag and start travelling will be all consuming. I know I will have no choice but to start travelling again. It is what I am.


I have however, thought a lot about why it has taken me so long to get this story done. It is now almost mid-November and I have just finished the tale. It feels as if I have taken twice as long as I normally do. There are perhaps a couple of reasons. One is that school continues to consume me. I have a great schedule and I am teaching subjects that I like but the marking and the preparation takes a lot of my time. Secondly I have been occupied with wool a lot this fall. I started going to the Saturday Farmer's market to sell my wares and much to my delight I have been selling stuff. So much so that I have had to work relatively hard to replenish my stock. Because I had to get ready for a craft show this past weekend - I have spent most of my free time especially in the last month playing with wool. But I think the primary reason why I have been so slow in writing is that I have been wearing headphones and my capacity to think about what I want to write has been limited.

I live in an apartment with my landlady below me and a couple of young people above me. I am respectful of how much noise I make and therefore I like to keep my stereo fairly low. However, carding can be noisy and the loom room is quite far away from the speakers. So my choice has been to either have the music or the talking book on really loud - or to wear my wireless headphones. I have chosen the latter option. Because of the headphone,  the words or the music are so totally within my head that it is difficult to think about anything other than the physical task that I am doing. I wonder if that is why the arts of conversation or of political debate are dying out. People have in their ear buds and  the capacity to think is destroyed. I wonder if that is why so many of my drivers absolutely crave conversation. So many people spend all of their free time with the music being directed into their brains to the exclusion of all other stimuli (the best headphones are designed to cancel out all other noise) that they don't need to think or to talk with anyone else.

At any rate I am done for another year. I am glad that I am finished that story. In a few months I will start thinking about the next one. I am thinking about going to the Yukon nest year.........