We are just weeks away from departing for the Camino, so our training is waning as we try not to suffer any injuries from overdoing it. We were looking for one more simple challenge, something which would be different. We settled on our local road to nowhere.
Nearly everywhere we have lived, there has been a road to nowhere. Built by a local government for reasons known but to God, such roads seem to pop up in the middle of nowhere and run some indeterminate distance before ending just as suddenly. Sometimes they were predicated on a future development which did not occur. Others were custom built for some single benefactor. All seem strange and out of place. Just so with ours.
Our road to nowhere is visible from just about anywhere, lakeside. It snakes up the mountain range, being the only local road which does so. You can imagine how expensive it is to put in such a road, even if you save money by not putting in extras like guardrails(!).
Like most roads to nowhere, ours spawned several legends. One has it that the cartels paid for it, and planned to build a casino/resort on top of the mountain. Another holds it was part of a land swap deal with the local indigenous peoples (ejidos) who often own mountainside property. A third story was that it was a failed housing development spawned during the last housing boom. Quien sabé?
We just wanted a short walk which was steep, not cobblestone, and provided some nice views: three checks for us. And of course, it wouldn’t be a road to nowhere if it didn’t just STOP.
