The Road to Nowhere

One thing I have discovered in my excitement for this project is that you can’t just go out looking for descansos in the same way you can drive to the store. There is a zen to it, although, at least this far there is no real rhyme or reason to the zen.

That’s probably why it’s zen.

Case in point: when my oldest, who is a pretty good photographer, was in town for the holidays we went out together looking for descansos. I’m no sure so much that they were into the idea or just wanted to play with dad’s fancy camera but I’ll take time with them when I can get it given that they’re one of my favorite people and I don’t see them all that often.

I digress.

We went looking for descansos and I figured that dangerous, winding roads with blind curves would be the perfect “hunting ground.” People die all the time on twisting roads due to driver error, weather, road conditions, you name it, so I figured we’d drive for a few minutes and start shooting.

Alas, it’s not that easy.

We drove for an hour and saw nothing, so much so that I was starting to worry that the kid would think dad was finally starting to lose it, so we started to head back into town. Since I was somewhat dejected I opted to get off the backroads and take Highway 14 back into town … and within minutes we came across not one, not two, but four memorials.

My companion, who is sometimes wise beyond their scant few years, observed that, like so much in life, it might just be a number’s game. The more traffic, the greater the likelihood of a deadly accident, which increases the chances of a family who wants to honor their loved one. So while my lizard brain insists that “fun driving roads are more deadly” — perhaps it’s really just the law of averages and me playing the odds on the back-end.

So now, rather than hopping in a Porsche and going to the “best” — and most dangerous — driving roads I know, I’m hopping in the XC90, cranking up the Talking Heads, and getting in line to get from point “A” to point “B”, scanning the sides of the roads while the miles go by.