YE'LL TAK' THE HIGH ROAD
by
Barb Hagreen

The fascination of the road is as old as time. Whether it is a beaten footpath between ancient European villages, a superhighway across North America, the grease trail of the Pacific Northwest, or a Roman road in their far-flung empire we have trodden them forever.

The oldest highway in the world is The Appian Way, built by the Romans in 312 B.C. and leading to Greece and the East. This and other Roman roads were built to last, comprising 4 layers, the uppermost of which was a pavement of flat, hard stones, concrete or pebbles, set in mortar. Remnants of these roads are still in use throughout the parts of the world that the Roman Empire spanned.

The longest highway in the world is the Trans-Canada Highway. It is 7,821 km long and runs from Victoria, BC to St. John’s, NF and was built largely between 1950 and 1962. Of this distance, I have traveled 4,546 km of it at least 6 times. I always leave it at Sudbury to drive south to Toronto or meet it at Sudbury on my way home, although I have driven the portion from Ottawa to Montreal as well. As with many of the pilgrimages people have made throughout history, I feel a compulsion to finish this trek from Sudbury to St. John’s one day.

These various roads of the world are arteries of commerce, social contact & military exploits. They lead us to the known and the unknown, adventure, loved ones, good food, and work. Along these roads are often refuges for the tired and hungry. Of old, these may have looked like simple small hotels, taverns with rooms above, or the farmhouse of a kind individual. Nowadays, the basic needs of the traveler are still being met on the road from here to there. Modern accommodation is undoubtedly more ubiquitous than in the past due to our modern appetite for travel, but the needs are the same: shelter, rest and sustenance.

Our fascination with what we may find around the next corner has had a great influence on our written word. Both ancient and modern metaphors about roads abound: ‘A fork in the road’ signifies a deciding moment in a person’s life; ‘A green light’ denotes the ability to move forward. Idiomatic expressions such as ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’, ‘on the road to recovery’ or ‘hit the road’ are commonplace and universally used. Our literature is replete with references to roads, pathways, voyages and pilgrimages.

Lao-tzu said around 550 BC, ‘A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step’.

Robert Frost said in 1916,

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
and then in 1923,
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
The former Frost quote has been printed on many a poster in the past few decades, decorating teenager’s bedroom walls throughout the English-speaking world; the latter is not so well known but familiar from high-school English classes nevertheless. Of course, we all know Bob Dylan’s “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?” The list goes on and on, endlessly fascinating.

The dangers of the road are as old as the roads themselves and cover a lot of ground from thieves, to accidents, to weather. In Canada, we tend not to worry about ambushes and hold-ups but there are still places in the world where these are daily worries. Here at home we concern ourselves more with the weather, road conditions and wildlife.

We will be undeterred, however, in our quest to ‘hit the road’. We will continue to travel the world’s roads and pathways, discovering on our way perhaps what it is we are looking for, but journeying on nevertheless.