The Road Not Taken: Changing Roads

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Robert Frost 1920

Kakabeka Falls, Thunder Bay

 

It has been over 2 years since I last drove along Highway 61. I have been attending a conference in Thunder Bay on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Our hotel was 10 minutes walk across a busy road intersection from the main conference venue. The cold biting wind of an early Canadian winter tore at us as we waited for the traffic lights to change and distinguished the many international delegates pathetically trying protect themselves from the inevitable march of an arctic winter from those warm hardy locals.

The little walking figure replaced the red hand, I started to cross the road and there it was. It was unmistakable, a small familiar heart shaped road sign (this time with a crown over the top of it). Highway 61 and I was walking across the “Blues Road”, across the road the bluesmen took to escape the poverty of the Delta, across the road that Dylan took to escape his Minnesotan boredom and across the road that those intrepid travellers took in April 2010 to follow the music to the heart of America. I was crossing the “Mother Road” of American music, in Canada!

The Mother Road of American Music. (In Canada!)

All roads have to stop somewhere; they just can’t go on forever! I had not thought that our road crossed the border, gained a crown and became a royal route. Surely most of our music heroes stopped in Chicago, some like his “Bobness” escaped south from the bitter cold northern winters but I asked myself whether any ventured this far north. What a contrast the icy cold wind blowing across the intersection is from the hot southern sultry primordial musical soup that became blues, jazz and eventually rock and roll. Robert Johnson would not have had time to stop and barter with the devil on these frozen crossroads!

No bartering on this crossroads

Time to start travelling once more. Time to try and learn something about the nature of all things Americana, at a crucial time in its history. Is it going to remain the great power that it has been and will it continue to be the global creative force that it was in the 20^th Century? We travel during the last 3 weeks of one of the most important elections in the country’s recent history. We are flying to Seattle with the intention of following Route 101 along the spectacular West Coast of America.

Martin Green and I have been attending the World Rural Health Conference in Northern Ontario. Conferenced out and exhausted, we move on to Seattle to meet our wives (Jacqui and Liz) who will be joining us there.

Martin Green at Thunder Bay

Me: Some hard conferencing

The sight of Highway 61 and the prospect of travelling the length of Route 101 has inspired me once again to log on and restart the Blog. The “Blues Road” will sing out once more and I hope that you will join us on our journey.  Feel free to connect either through the blog or by email (johnwj@irh.ac.uk)

To finish with Robert Frost, I would have loved to go back to the the Mother Road but 101 beckons us!