My life is full of responsibilities. I am responsible for employees, budgets, financial plans, paying school tuition, making the mortgage, and flossing regularly. My weeks are full of regularly scheduled meetings, scheduled phone conversations, and serious policy discussions, strategic planning sessions, and budget allocation decisions. My mornings start with a schedule for the day, and every minute of the day is always scheduled. My schedule is usually full 6-8 weeks in advance, so spontaneity needs to be scheduled as well. Even my wife calls my assistant to make appointments.

In the midst of this life of schedules and responsible, adult behavior, there is a Friday every once in awhile when an e-mail goes out to my driving buddies: How about a drive this weekend? We have the good fortune to live in a state with superb roads in beautiful places with very few people. These are the roads where we are headed, roads where a driving a Porsche is a cathartic experience and the wail of the flat six is often the only sound to be heard for miles and miles. They are wild roads, put down on top of the landscape rather than bulldozed through it. Porsche roads.

Friday, July 16, was just such a day. We agreed to meet Saturday morning and head down to the Energy Loop, a Utah and US Scenic Byway in Central Utah, then head back to Salt Lake City by way of Indian Canyon, the Duchesne River Valley, and Wolf Creek Pass. Michael, Adam and Mike were all in for the drive.

The Energy Loop includes Scofield Reservoir, Eccles Canyon, and Huntington Canyon, all in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The roads through this part of Utah do not go anywhere; they are a destination in their own right, and they are a destination a long way from major population centers. In addition, the weather looked threatening, so the weekend campers stayed home. As we headed along the shore of Scofield Reservoir, it was immediately apparent we were in the middle of nowhere with no one else around.

We were all running top down this particular day. It is invigorating driving in the mountains in a Porsche top down. The sounds of all the cars in the caravan are immediately apparent, and you can smell the surrounding forests, the dirt, and the moisture in the air. With the sky spreading out above you, there is a sense of being in the landscape as well as in the car. It is a liberating feeling, a feeling that responsibilities and schedules are part of another life that does not matter a great deal at this moment.

The road up Eccles Canyon is a jumble of turns running through heavy forests of pine and aspen. The trees soak up all the sounds of the road, so there are no echoes. Without the sound bouncing off rocks, the note is pure and the total sound of all the cars harmonic in a way that you will never experience on a track or in a town. The feeling is of being completely in the moment and at one with the car.

Once we passed Electric Lake, we found ourselves navigating the high alpine meadows of Flat Canyon. The winding ribbon of road works its way across the landscape purposefully, but it also meanders where the landscape dictates, which gives it the logic of an asphalt streambed: all twists and turns with an occasional cascade of rapids before again meandering to along for several more miles. We were the only souls for miles, bobbing and weaving along the asphalt streambed with the glee of that comes running a challenging stretch of white water.

Climbing out of Eccles Canyon and heading down Huntington Canyon, we found ourselves surrounded by millions of wild flowers, mostly yellows and light blues. We found a place to pull off the road a few miles down Huntington Canyon where we could drive into the middle of a meadow of wildflowers. We stopped to take some pictures of the cars and talk about cars and life. We lingered for quite a while, not on schedule and without any responsibilities.

On the road again and heading down Huntsville Canyon, we found ourselves in the storm we had seen in the distance. After a quick lunch in Helper, we headed out on the Indian Canyon Scenic Byway, which stretches from Helper to Roosevelt, Utah. This is a great stretch of canyon road through a primitive landscape of rocks carved by Willow Creek.

It was in Indian Canyon, as we neared the crest of Reservation Ridge, that we encountered the heavy air of an approaching storm. We stopped to put up our tops - well, two of us did - just before the downpour started. The other two cars immediately started looking for a place to pull over and put up their tops, getting soaked in the process. With the wipers pounding out the drum line, we worked our way carefully through the pouring rain and down the Canyon to Roosevelt, where we headed north to follow the Duchense River Valley to Wolf Creek Pass.

It would rain on and off the rest of the drive, but it did not seem to matter much. The stillness of the forest surrounded us as we worked our way methodically over the rain slicked roads. Once we got to Francis, the rain had stopped and we could drop the tops again. Heading back towards Salt Lake City, we decided to stop at the Jordanelle Reservoir Overlook and chat some more. I am not sure what the passing cars made of us. The answer was simple: four buddies talking cars on the side of the road. With no schedule and no responsibilities. Sometimes the simple answer is the best answer.