Shoes on the highway

While traveling, I see a lot of stuff discarded off the highway. McDonald's food (where it belongs). Roadkill (Kansas has some dang big raccoons). Trash from people's unwanted lifestyles.

But it's the shoes that baffle me. Never a pair, always one. Usually a tennis shoe.

How does this happen? Is someone driving along, decides they don't like their shoes any longer? Tosses one out, chooses to keep the other as a keepsake.

Or is a hitchhiker smacked so hard by a car, his shoe flies off?

Maybe there's a crazy guy who drops a shoe at every state he passes through, a signature of sorts.

I don't know. But I tend to like to keep my shoes in the car while driving.

While out for a walk the other day, my dog sniffed out a ballet slipper. Just one, mind you. Again, I tried to understand how this occurred. It saddened me a little bit, thinking about a little girl out there somewhere, crying over the loss of a single slipper. Wouldn't it be much better to lose both and just get over it? Instead, she's holed up in her room, holding onto the surviving slipper, mourning what could've been. Another ballet dream down the drains.

In fact, there are a lot of strange things tossed out windows. Diapers. Well, other than not keeping things very green, I suppose I can understand not wanting to travel with a dirty diaper. But come on! Take it to the next rest-stop. Until truly biodegradable diapers are invented, this is a no-no.

What about underwear? Lots and lots of underwear along the highways. Now there are several options as to why underwear ends up in ditches, each one more unsettling than the last. I'd truly hate to think that truckers are so locked into their deadlines, they squirm out of their dirty tighty-whities (or is it "tidy-whities?") without leaving the highway. "This one's for you, Marge!" and whoof! out the window it goes.

Large appliances baffle me. Once I saw a dishwasher. Now you'd think that if that fell out of your truck, you'd likely notice it. 

What's the strangest things you've seen discarded along the road?

Speaking of strange, check out Secret Society, my killer thriller: One click away!