On the old highway maps of this country, the main routes were shown in red and the back roads in blue. Which is where William Least Heat Moon got the title for his best-selling book of the early ’80s, “Blue Highways.”

It is a captivating travelogue about the small towns, the narrow routes, the near-forgotten boondocks; a book that just as easily could describe a journey on the back roads of Down East Maine as it does a visit to Umatilla, Ore., on the Columbia River.

Maine has more than its share of blue highways, and these are the roads causing state leaders to sing the blues, not necessarily in harmony, but at least on the same tune.

Everyone agrees Maine’s roadways need to be fixed, even more so now after the severe flooding in York County, where bridges and roads have washed away.

But long before torrential rains wreaked havoc, the roads through rural Maine and coastal sections had been in need of major repairs while state highway funding evaporated.

Now, the situation has become so critical that Augusta is fighting about what to do: repay the Highway Fund from the General Fund or borrow $60 million to solve the Maine Department of Transportation funding shortfall.

With the political posturing going on, one would think the crisis just occurred. But the deterioration of many of Maine’s roads has been under way for longer than Augusta state solons would like to admit.

A little patching here, some white lines there; rolling hot tar here, replacing a culvert there. That’s about the extent of road work in some areas.

Residents of one town after another have lambasted state officials for their monetary neglect of the highways and byways, and the public pressure has had an effect. Several long-overdue projects have indeed begun; others have been postponed yet again.

Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner David Cole has tried to explain the funding deficiency, but that hasn’t satisfied most Mainers – who all argue they have the “worst road” in their town. Everybody has the worst road, according to Commissioner Cole; he hears that all the time.

And they may be right. Traveling on the “quiet side” of Mount Desert Island recently, we decided that a long stretch toward Southwest Harbor and Tremont was the worst road.

On a subsequent drive, we voted the winding road through Jonesboro the worst; or was the worst coming into Milbridge from Harrington?

Or was the absolute worst Route 186 from Gouldsboro to Winter Harbor?