I chose a route for my drive out to Shepherdstown, WV last Friday that took me out to Leesburg on highways, then I took a series of two-lane roads for the rest of my trip. These were the sort of old country roads that exist throughout the country, particularly here, that may have originally been dirt carriage paths that were eventually paved. They wind around and go up and down hills, rather than cutting through them like modern highways.
As I drove those winding roads, I realized that they resembled quite strongly the roads we drove throughout Ireland and Scotland. In fact, if we never developed our crazy American car culture, which included building the modern highway system in the 1950’s that grew to gartantuan proportions by the 1980’s, we might still be driving our cars around the same sort of winding roads here that they have in Ireland.
Ireland, of course, is modernizing its highway system, too, now. In 2003, we saw the first step in that system with the highway that we drove across the middle of Ireland to Dublin. That system has been greatly expanded. The next big step is the M3 motorway that is the subject of so much protest because it may potentially damage Iron Age sites around the Hill of Tara that haven’t even been discovered yet.
I suspect that if I return to Ireland a decade from now, I will find an even more expanded highway system and fewer of those winding roads we enjoy so much.
Interestingly, we can find a few of those winding roads here. We just have to get off the highways and take the “back roads” in order to drive these gems. Most of us haven’t the time or patience for such a trip.
