Day 26: Taking the less-traveled path

Scene from a hidden back road

Driving home from work is something I do five days a week. But it's not something I do the same way every single day! Know what I mean?

I have tried many, many different routes to get home over the years, sometimes out of mere curiosity - will this way be faster than the usual way?; will it be more scenic, or less clogged with traffic? Sometimes, I take a different route because I need to stop somewhere first, like the grocery store, or the panadería, or when I give someone a ride home; and sometimes, I must take another route simply because my usual way is blocked and there's a detour.

There's a route that I sometimes take when I give a fellow teacher a ride home. I go through a little town, then get on a small highway which takes me home. As I'm driving down that highway, there's a certain curve where I can turn into the cobblestone streets of another small town, drive through it and get back on the highway to continue home. More often than not, I do this in order to go to a tiny bakery I know there, which has hot-off-the-line tortas de agua every evening about the time I leave work. So I get them still warm. (They also make cuernos de sal and huesitos de manteca that are extremely delicious!)

Every time I connect to the small curvy highway after dropping my co-worker off, as I come to the first big bend, I notice a smaller road connecting to it and looking as if it would eventually lead into the small town of the panadería. I always eye that road and say to myself, next time, I'll try it.

Well, last Friday was the day. I turned onto this little road and started down it. As I traveled, the pavement turned first to cobblestone, then to dirt, and then to a very rough, muddy, hole-ridden path running between huge cornfields. I was driving the Crossfox, which is supposed to be excellent for this kind of terrain, so I wasn't too worried (except for the possibility of rain), and I was curious to see where I'd come out; so I hummed along in second gear for awhile, enjoying the scenery, until I came upon the scene I've captured in the picture above. It took my breath away.

I stopped the car, stepped out, picking my way through the less muddy areas, and took a picture of it, while a pick-up loaded with produce passed slowly by, the two girls sitting on the edge of the let-down tailgate lid stopping their animated conversation to watch me curiously as they swung their legs to and fro from their perch.

I don't know why that house in "obra negra" is standing out there all alone... but I wonder about it. If you click on it to make it bigger, you may notice some other houses way in the background. One of them is also only the shell of a house.

The trip turned out to be much longer in time than I had thought it would be, and when I finally saw the connection to the highway (with secret relief), I realized that I had only advanced about a kilometer in terms of the highway I had yet to cover.

But that house... I'm going to keep my eye on it to see if it gets built. What do you think?