A straight line represents the shortest path between two places. A shortcut is never straight. How can these things be equally true? How is it that a shortcut through the American countryside, through any part of America, is more winding than its better-known alternatives.
I don’t have answers for this except to say that the Wayside, and nature generally, don’t really operate in straight lines. Accordingly, they both like to bend the rules.
Take ‘The Crease’ for instance.
‘Oh you thought that was nothing? A byproduct of taking a very large image and making it into something that could fit in a glove compartment alongside the car’s user manual, one glove, several opened but unfinished tissue packets, aging hard candy, a long-dead powerbank that needs to be recycled, a handful of automotive business cards, a stiff and dirty hand towel, a flyer for a restaurant that no longer exists, and a tool for breaking the windows from inside the car in case of an emergency, hidden well below everything else such to be essentially useless. We understand why you thought ‘The Crease’ was a byproduct of design and not an indication of landmass.
But you were wrong.’
‘The Crease’ is essentially a valley, non-descript except that it crosses the nation like a latitude line and is the setting for any number of regional legends, both modern and historical. Those roads that enter ‘The Crease’ are anything but straight. They are largely dirt and they twist like deer trails through the deep forest inside, sometimes riding the edge of the wall but slithering, more often, along the bottom.
Each of the three times I’ve cut through ‘The Crease’ myself, I have wasted the better part of the week extricating myself from an unexpected problem that would not have occurred if I had chosen, instead, to drive for some time in the opposite direction of my destination to access one of the many bridges the cross the gap. I’ve learned to avoid ‘The Crease’ to the best of my ability but, like it or not, the Wayside doesn’t avoid the deep forest like I do.
So, I suppose it’s time.
I’ve chosen a length of ‘The Crease’ that should be accessible to the RV, though I may have to hike out from a few curves and trailheads to see those things I need to see. My home sits heavy on its wheels, recently full of food and supplies in an amount I’ve never felt the need to carry before. I hope to check ‘The Crease’ off my list in one simple swoop.
But I don’t expect it to go well.
-traveler
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