Unsolved Roadside Mystery

Weird STUFF along the road

Tomorrow the husband/lover/chauffeur and I will be heading out on a two day "Seek and Destroy" mission, but more on that later.

Thinking about road tripping, and about the 4 1/2 hour drive we will be making to get to our destination, brought back to my mind an unsolved travel mystery that has plagued us for many years.

If you have done any amount of road tripping throughout your life, you certainly have seen an extensive and bizarre variety of items along the roadways.

Oh yeah, we've all seen the STUFF.

There are plenty of shredded truck tires to avoid:

We often pass by loads of trash, and the college fraternities doing a service project, or prisoners doing time cleaning it up:

Memorial crosses are left by grieving family members:

Of course there is roadkill of every variety:

There is one thing my driver is adamant about - he will always swerve to avoid any closed containers, like bags or boxes, and here is why:

He claims you'd never know if those trash bags or cardboard boxes might contain somebody's pet, or worse yet, a baby.  There are stupid people out there that do stupid things.

So yeah, we've seen a lot of STUFF over the years along the roadways.  But here remains the mystery:

A shoe along the side of the road.  Yes, just ONE shoe.  I saw this just the other day on my way to the mall, and I had to pull over and document this anomaly.

How does a shoe get out along the highway, sometimes miles and miles from any civilization, and why is it always only ONE shoe?  

In all the years we have traveled, I don't believe we have ever seen a PAIR of shoes.  Actually, I think I could more easily come up with an explanation for a pair, than for just one shoe.

So there it is, folks, this mystery is out there for solving.  My husband watches every CSI episode ever aired.  He even has an OFFICIAL DETECTIVE CERTIFICATE from the Las Vegas CSI Experience in the MGM Hotel, and he still can't figure this out.  

May the best sleuth win.