Need for Speed

Sometimes you realise that life has been a little sedate. This can mean that you've been fairly sedimentary and staying clear of that type of activity known as exercise. Your heart rate hasn't risen above just enough to keep the blood flowing and your muscles are forgetting they have a purpose. Life and you ambles along. Then something happens and sedate is no longer an option.

I went hiking today. For all those doubters, I can hike. I grew up with a forest in my backyard. I think this is why I never think of going hiking. It seems so organised, so planned. I was used to taking the dog, a jacket to keep the mosquitoes at bay and heading out the back gate. Today, we went hiking by a waterfall and it was straight up for most of the way. This was different from normal trails and so much more fun. The rocks formed a natural staircase and when they spread into a rock outcrop, we had to scramble across the rock face. We lost the path several times and coming down at one point, we had to slide along the rock face. It was great.

However, more to the point, it was a gorgeous day. It wasn't hot, yet the sun was shining. The sky had just enough clouds to make it picture perfect and there was a slight breeze. The cherry and apple trees were starting in blossom and with the right wind, the scent carried. In short, it was perfect touring weather.

To make it worse, the way we took to get to the waterfall was a perfect touring road. The road was paved, there were slight hills and the road twisted and turned through the hills and valleys. Except there were two massive problems: I wasn't driving and we were in a Toyota Yaris.

There is nothing worse than having perfect touring conditions and

no

car.


Not that I normally get to drive while touring. I do however get the experience. The driver is concentrating on holding the wheel steady, no power steering here, there's the slight touches to the spark and gas, and the easing of the brakes at the stop sign. As you start back up again, the driver puts the car through her paces until she's back in third gear and you're again flying along.

Flying would be key. When you have the wind in your hair, the sun on your face, the smells of the spring in the country wafting through the air and the feel of the road underneath you, you're driving.

The road was perfect. It was the type where you ease her into the corners and accelerate out of the turns, taking the crests of the hills and letting up on the dip down. Maybe not quite what you'd do with the average touring, but surely in a speedster. In my mind, I was flying though the countryside while in actuality, I was being driven sedately along in air conditioned comfort.

I'm agitated tonight. I want to drive. I want to go back to this road. I want to be driving my speedster. I'd take it into the turns and over the hills. I'd come back with a sun and wind burnt face. My hair would be a mess under my aviator hat and my sunglasses would be dusty. It could rain and I would still be happy.

I realise I've been sedate. I haven't gone at relative high speeds in a car without seat belts, doors or a full windscreen, with my shoes off and my feet resting on the running board. I haven't been rained on. I haven't gotten lost and had to ask at a farm house where the main road was. I haven't been worried that we couldn't stop at the end of a hill or make it to the top of the next one or that the rain is going to cause the coil box to short out.

Next summer, I'll be ready. Everyone else will go hiking. I'll look surprised. That's tame stuff, I'll say. I need to get the ole heart up. I'm going touring.