Spring and Summer Road Trips, 2008
Posted on April 17, 2008
Filed Under Entertainment, Personal |
Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
I am a big fan of the road trip. A road trip is a way to escape the hustle and bustle of daily life, and to experience an different sort of reality, with a different set of rules from those we are constrained by on a day-to-day basis.
I suppose I’m a bit of an odd duck in that I also think of the road trip as a somewhat spiritual experience. I am not religious, and I tend to toe the line between atheist and agnostic most of the time, but I do have a spiritual side, and I embrace it most fully when I’m on the road.
Being on the road, and travelling to places that are a bit alien to my regular experience often feels like a pilgrimage to me. This is truest when I am driving to the mountains, to Elk Island, or to other “wild” places.
Being in nature, to me, is one of the most spiritual experiences there is, so when I drive 4 hours to the Rockies, I sometimes feels as though I’m making pilgrimage to a holy place.
As the snow has mostly melted in Alberta, I’ve already made a few road trips. Some have been shorter than others, but nonetheless, I have been on the highway a few times already this season. Here is a list of places that I would like to take road trips to this spring and summer.
The ones that I’ve struck out are places that I’ve already visited this year (though, I will likely to return to many of these places throughout the year). I’ll try to keep updating this post and striking out the various locations as I visit them. I’ll also likely be adding locations throughout the year, as I think of new places that I want to visit.
- Jasper, AB
- Banff, AB
- Field, BC
- Calgary, AB
- Dawson City, YT
- Vulcan, AB
- St. Paul, AB
- Elk Island, AB
- Drumheller, AB
If you can think of any places that I should visit this year, please leave me a comment to let me know. However, keep in mind that most of these trips have to be weekend trips, because the Dawson City trip will use up most of my vacation days until the winter.
That said, if you suggest a trip that will take more than a weekend, but it seems really worthwhile, I’ll definitely try to either make the trip in future summers, or bank some enough overtime that I can take the trip this summer.
Finally, one more request: if you know of any places that I should stop off at on the way to or from Dawson City, please let me know. I want this trip to be a great and memorable experience, and I have 10 days to fill (approx. 1.5-2 of which will be filled with driving, if I were to simply to straight to and from Dawson). Let me know.
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9 Responses to “Spring and Summer Road Trips, 2008”
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St. Paul? Honestly? Why?
For the sole purpose of visiting the UFO landing pad. Of course, once I’ve done that, I’ll be bored, so I’ll have to make it part of a trip to somewhere else.
I don’t think it’s odd to view a road trip as a spiritual experience. That’s what they are. I love road trips. I love driving. I’d love to drive across Canada some day.
A cross-Canada trip is one that I’d like to make someday as well, Mike. To do it justice, you’d need a bare minimum of 3-weeks, I think. Anything less, and it would be more about driving than about experiencing the country…you’d just be trying to “make good time.”
Oh yeah, 3 weeks is the bare minimum if you’re talking St. John’s to Tofino. I always envisioned an eight-week trip with no set schedule. Hard to do if you work full time, though. Ah, the dream…
8 weeks would be awesome. Even if I have to wait until I’m 65 and no longer working, I will make that trip one day.
tee hee. i’m doing a cross-canada trip this summer! 5 weeks! wheeeeeeee!! *twirls*
at any rate, some friends have suggested waterton as a nice weekend getaway before i hit the ocean (i’m going through withdrawal). so, i’ll pass that suggestion on to you.
Ah, cool. Thanks Pragya. I’ve never been to Waterton, but I’ve heard good things from friends and family. Maybe I’ll head down that way sometime. But, it’s a long drive, isn’t it? That’s the one on the US border, no?
[...] road trips. I’ve spoken about this in the past, most recently when writing about some of the road trips I’d like to take this summer. Despite the ever increasing price of gas, I still hope to do all of these trips. But, my main [...]