Good Rude and Cool

Travelling across west central Ohio yesterday I came across Rude Road. Even our highways and byways are losing their sense of decorum, it seems.

But there's hope. Not too long after that I discovered Cool Road. It's all cool, man, we just chillin'.

Along the cool road there also happened to be the Good Farm. Who's a good farm, who's a good farm? You're a good farm!

I am glad I got the rudeness out of the way early.

Road Worthy

I have always liked how Canadians, or at least those Canadians in Ontario, often call their roads 'lines'. There's Huron Line, Michigan Line  (an appeal to their nearby friends, maybe?) and my personal favorite, Chalk Line. Yes, it exists.

But the U.S. has its share of interestingly named byways. In southern Indiana yesterday I saw Sample Road. What, if we like the sample we can get an entire road?

Then there was Washboard Road. I had no desire to check it out because, you know, a washboard road is stereotypically so rutted and pitted (like an old fashioned washboard, get it?) that going ten miles per hour rattles your teeth so bad it loosens your fillings. Perhaps it was just truth in advertising though.

Uh, um, that's all I got today. Thanks for reading!

Simmons Road

Simmons Road is a nice drive. It runs maybe 15 miles north and northwest of Hessel, Michigan in the eastern Upper Peninsula. I think what I like the most about it are the areas where the trees form a canopy over the road. They are thick enough at points where the sunlight is noticeably dimmed. I don't mean dimmed like shady. I mean dimmed like twilight. It's a rather nice sight at two in the afternoon. If I tended toward the horror genre I could describe it as foreboding. But that would not be fair. It is serene and quiet and deserves to be mentioned as such.

There are other areas both in state and out of state I'm sure which are as compelling. M-119 in the tip of the Thumb is close. It is as I understand the least used signed highway in Michigan. The one time I drove it it was definitely unhindered by fellow travelers. I seem to remember (help me out, southern family) some dirt back roads in North Carolina which were similarly tunnelish. I enjoyed walking them as a youth.

Simmons Road runs through what used to be the town of Simmons. As near as my feeble research can tell, it disappeared from state maps in the middle 1960s. I have a Michigan map from 1964 which still notes it (it shows Islington too, just south of Cedarville which is east of Hessel) and a 1955 road atlas which shows it as well. The only reminder I noticed last Friday is the Simmons family cemetery. It appeared kept up and had graves marked as recently as 2016. Someone still has eyes for Simmons. That, I will argue, is good and well.

Anyway, I like driving the road less traveled and Simmons Road is a great example of one. If I get back in the fall I will aim for the time of the changing leaves. I have to believe it would be an especially beautiful drive then.