Highways and interstates paint sweeping arcs and pin-straight lines across the landscape. Multiple midpoints exist as rest areas, travel plazas, picnic areas, pit stops, or welcome centers. I find these utilitarian places interesting for many reasons; their banality, their need, their glamour or dinginess, their desire to please, and yet their cold utility. Highways sterilize our experience of the landscape, and rest areas aid in our un-infringed travel. It is their structured beauty, tended gardens, and contemplated views that provide moments of solitude to the weary traveler. These places are interesting and useful physically, sociologically, and emotionally. We need them.
