Driving--Roadside Memorials

I thought I could write about something that I do often--driving. This semester I am driving almost every school day to Wichita Falls. This is about 3 hours out of my day. In previous semesters I was usually driving between 2-4 days a week. Then before going to Wichita Falls, I was attending Cameron University in Lawton. This is about an hour drive. So I've been driving a lot for the last 6 years. At one time I thought I might just quit school and become a truck driver!
Driving is not so interesting most of the time, so I try to make it interesting. I listen to music, talk radio (usually preachers), look around at different things and do a lot of thinking. I thought maybe I will show things I see while I'm driving and tell you what I think about it. Then you all can let me know what you think.
First I want to talk about "roadside memorials." These are the crosses and such that you might see on the side of the road that show someone died at that spot. Sometimes the crosses have names on them and/or pictures, and sometimes they don't have anything. At times someone puts flowers, wreaths, or ribbons on the cross. I suppose this happens around the time of the anniversary of the person's death.
On the way to Beaumont, Texas I saw two large crosses with a smaller one in front. I felt a little squeeze on my heart when I saw that.
I wondered before if these roadside memorials were something that only Oklahomans and Texans do, but recently I heard a Christian song that mentions these types of crosses. I call them "roadside memorials." I don't know if this is the proper wording, but I've never heard anyone else talk about them.
I've often wondered when I see them as I'm driving, "Why are they there?" I guess they are there for the loved ones left behind, sort of like a grave marker. A place to go visit where it's okay to cry and talk to the deceased person and remember them.
Or could they be also for other people that pass by on the highway? Maybe they show us how fragile life is, and the crosses are there to remind those of us driving on the road that life is so important. Although sometimes they remind me of living, most times they remind me of death. I remember those loved ones I've lost. Especially I think of my friend Amber who died in a car accident on the highway to Altus back from Lawton. I think about her other times, and honestly I don't like being reminded of her death when I'm driving down the road.
I've also thought of the roadside memorials as warnings crying out to me, "Be careful! Don't add your cross to this highway!"
Well, I guess I may be a sad type, or realist type, of person, and I've thought, "What if I did get into an accident and die on the highway? Would I want a roadside memorial?" The answer is a certain "No." I don't want a cross on the side of the road so that people can wonder, "Who died there?" I don't want anyone to put flowers and ribbons on it. (That's littering!!) And I especially wouldn't want anyone to forget about my cross...let it fall down and become faded like the cross that I took a picture of on the side of the road by the Red River. The cross has fallen over, and it has no name... just a picture of a rainbow with a white dove and what looks like a bundle of wheat. It has been lying over on its side since I've been driving by it for the past 3 years.
Well, are there these kinds of roadside memorials anywhere else? Have you seen any? What do you think about them?