I've taken nowhere for granted

It always never fails to amaze me how easy it is to really get away. Now, you need to understand I am in a very unique situation to all of you who may read this. By that I mean every day at some point I get a bucket of time to myself. Think about it... when was the last time you had something like 6 hours with just you and your heart beat? Now combine that with a bit of a bike and, in the immortal words of Bowie.... wham, bam, thank you m'am... and you are in the middle of nowhere.

To make my addled thoughts clearer, as I am most likely not making much sense right now as I have just come home after a lengthy workout, let me tell you about my afternoon.

So I come home and hop on my bike and within 20 or so minutes I am at the start of Highway 26 in St.FX. From there I wound my way through the perfectly peaceful hamlet of Pigeon Lake (by the way... I have been out there many times, and I have yet to see a Pigeon or a Lake... but that 's for pondering on another day) to the South turn to highway 226 to St Eustache. By the way if you ever get out to this beautiful spot there is the nicest little bridge.

I stole this picture off of Google Earth.

You look around and you are literally in the middle of nowhere.... just you and your thoughts and the big Manitoba sky. I really think I took this for granted for a long long time. I mean the whole idea of being able to get away. Sure we all go out on the perimeter now and then and think, "WOW it's flat!" But when you are on a bike travelling along at 30kmph with the wind and the bugs in your hair it truly is the most relaxing and inspiring thing. You get lost in your thoughts for 40-50k and then you look up and inevitably think..... "where am I?"

Then I return home and head out for my run and again about 1 mile from my doorstep, I get onto the Hearte trail.... with all the trees growing over forming a fantastic canopy of leaves and birds. If I blindfolded you, you'd be hard pressed to guess you are in the middle of Winnipeg.

I guess I am just lucky... within just a few minutes and a little effort, I can truly be nowhere.