Carefree Highway

I guess it must be wanderlust or tryin' to get free
From the good old faithful feelin' we once knew
Carefree highway, let me slip away on you
-Gordon Lightfoot

Driving home in the dark, and listening to this song. It's winter, cold, stark, and beautiful. And I'm reminded of how much I love Canada. And being on the road with no constraints. And I get in a not uncommon mood where I contemplate the thought of simply driving straight north for hours. I love driving. I love being on the road. And I love this song because I know that Gordon Lightfoot is from, and sings about, Canada.

Canada. I've been to British Columbia, driven across the Canadian Rockies, seen Quebec. More than anything, I love the hills and pines of Ontario. They're raw and majestic and solitary. To drive winding roads over hills covered with dark tall pines gives me a sense of ancient calm. It comes from having hiked through these forests and knowing the silence of walking on inches-deep pine straw covered with snow. Of knowing the light that can come from stars alone when there are no city lights to dim them. Of the beauty and brilliance of winter. I love how primal it can be and after having been to both Scotland and Canada, I can see why so many Scots settled in Canada.

When I want to really get away, the times I'm tempted to leave everything behind and run away, to find that carefree highway, it's Canada I think of. It's not a warm beach with white sand. It's not a five star hotel with a top-notch restaurant. It's not a place where my every need is tended to. No. Just a place that's solitary and majestic and primal. Like the unsettled areas of Ontario.

Now the thing that I call livin' is just bein' satisfied
With knowin' I got no one left to blame