Without roads, cars would be little more than objets d’art, and they would be stationary installations at that, never even achieving the level of performance art. Thankfully that’s not the case, and roads today not only provide a raison d’être for cars, but also let us get places and make roadside dinners a heck of a lot more literal in their categorical nomenclature. Of course, not all roads are created equal.

There are roads, and then there are roads. Some as memorable as your last fart, while others not only etch a permanent imprint on your memory but may have been an aspirational goal before being experienced. Those are the roads in which we are interested today. California’s twisting Highway One is just such an aspirational road – clinging to the nation’s leftmost coast and coursing through some of the most rugged and spectacular scenery imaginable. Driving it is rewarding if not especially challenging  but it’s still a road that I think every car nut should experience at least once in their life – preferably in something small, open and quick.

Ever since the Romans popularized them as a means of access to Rome without having to suffer through airport security roads have criss-crossed the globe, giving people the opportunity to visit far-flung or otherwise inaccessible places, meet the interesting people who live there, and patronize their gift shops for refrigerator magnets with that locale’s name on them. Some of those roads are ones you have heard about – perhaps Top Gear plied it once, exalting in its challenge and glory, while insulting the local inhabitants along the way – or maybe it’s a small, secret back-road, mythical in both its existence and reward. Whatever it is, what’s your bucket list road?

Image: [dougmeek]