Tag Archives: road work

Round and round we go…

When our state began implementing traffic circles (or roundabouts if you prefer) I didn’t see the point. Part of the problem was that the first traffic circles we encountered with any regularity were in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I’m talking intersections where if two vehicles reach the intersection at the same time at any point in the day, it’s a traffic jam. Once we moved to The Cabin and we began navigating the traffic circle that’s a little over a mile from our house – we got it. The traffic circle is so much better than the four-way stop it replaced. Around six months ago, a second traffic circle opened about a half mile from the first one.

There are basically two roads to take when leaving our house. One has the two traffic circles discussed above. Now, a new traffic circle is being installed (implemented? constructed?) on the other road, about a mile from our house. I’m excited about this one. I navigated this intersection frequently; especially on days I worked. Through traffic on the road doesn’t stop so certain times of day, the traffic entering from the side roads backs up, especially when someone needs to turn left. The pavement in one area was really in need of repair as well. With other traffic circles in the area, the roads were kept open during construction. This time, the roadway is closed and the contractor has thirty-five days to complete the project; so, it should be completed around the Forth of July.

Image from depositphotos.com

Now, when I say the roads leading to the traffic-circle-in-process are closed, there is no doubt that the roads are. closed. There are big signs barricading the roads and plenty of bright orange detour signs. However, this apparently isn’t enough to stop some people – including my husband.🙄 Kenn came home one day about a week after the closure and casually mentioned that he had driven down to check on the progress of the project. Upon questioning, yes, he had driven around the barricades. No, he didn’t think it was a big deal. I begged to differ, but, whatever dude. Then, a little over a week ago, Kenn came home from his Saturday morning errands and confessed that he, along with the drivers of two or three other vehicles, had driven around the barricades. However, this time, the police were waiting on them. So, my dear hubby came home with a ticket and a court date. I told him he may as well not try to talk his way out of it because he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Kenn agreed and also promised that he will not be violating the barricades again. I also explained to him the definition of FAFO – the non-PC version of “play stupid games and win stupid prizes.”

So, what do you call these: traffic circles or roundabouts? Or, maybe something completely different? (One of my former coworkers calls them “roundy-rounds.”)

Stormy Weather

I love the Progressive Insurance commercials about turning into your parents. I absolutely LOL’ed when they released the weather commercial; it perfectly describes both Kenn and our oldest son. Every morning, Kenn gives me a weather report including the high temperature expected and any chance of rain. Yesterday’s weather report was basically, “Things have changed. The rain now isn’t expected in this area until around 5pm. Radar shows a big blob of rain over Birmingham, AL.” With that, we went about our morning.

It was a muggy day, so we elected to sit inside at church. Inside was a good call; when the service ended, it was obvious that a pretty good rain shower had moved through and it was still sprinkling. Kenn and I said our goodbyes and headed home. (He volunteers with the parking team, so we usually drive separately.) As I drove, the rain picked up enough that the intermittent wiper setting wasn’t enough and I switched to the lower “continuous” setting. Then, about halfway home the rain changed from a steady, semi-hard rain to what my youngest would call a “wrath of God” rainstorm.

Y’all it was horrible. I switched the wipers to the fastest setting, turned on the defroster just in case, and turned on the hazard lights. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the two-lane road I was on. It was one of those storms where it would probably have been best best to pull over, but doing so was impossible. That stretch of road has no shoulder to speak of; pulling over would mean going down an embankment and into a field. There’s also a section of road work where a traffic circle is being installed. So, I hugged the center line and kept my eye on the white line at the outside of the lane. However, even with the wipers at the highest setting, I could only get a glimpse of the white line every few seconds. The rain was blowing across the road in sheets – which occasionally included small limbs. Since there are a lot of pecan trees in the area, I prayed that, in addition to staying on the road, no limbs would come in through the window. I have never been so glad to get home. I made a dash inside, then stood at the window watching for Kenn. He and I take different routes home from church so I had no idea what he might have encountered. He did arrive home safely. It turned out that his route had several trees and limbs blocking the road.

I have to say that yesterday’s storm is in the Top Three worst storms I’ve ever driven in. One of the other worst storms was also in the local area. I had headed out to pick up my oldest grandson for a visit when a horrible rain storm moved in – equally as bad as yesterday’s storm with hail thrown in for good measure. I did find a place to turn around so I could head back home, but that time, I actually wasn’t on the road and didn’t realize it until a sign suddenly appeared ahead of me. I veered to miss the sign and wound up in a field. Fortunately, I was driving the Tundra and I managed to get out of the field, back on the road, and crawl home. The other Top Three storm occurred in Fort Smith, Arkansas when I was driving to Estes Park, Colorado. There I was, on the interstate in an unfamiliar town, and I couldn’t see a bloody thing. As soon as the rain let up and I could find somewhere to pull over, I did so and just sat in the car and shook for a few minutes.

Image from depositphotos.com

Fortunately, Daisy waited until yesterday evening to act up. Kenn and I met friends for dinner and on the way home, Daisy lost her mind. She started beeping and displaying error messages. “Eyesight disabled.” “RAB disabled.” “Check engine.” Simultaneously, the engine lost power and began running erratically; we managed to pull into a parking lot and began doing research. I thought I was going to have to call our friends and ask them to circle back and take one of us home to get the truck. We were able to eventually get the engine running smoothly enough to be able to make it home. Once at home, we disconnected the battery for about fifteen minutes and removed and replaced the gas cap making sure that it was sealed correctly. One or the other of those things fixed the problem. I’m convinced that some sensor got wet and temporarily malfunctioned. As of today, Daisy is still running fine. I’m just so, so thankful that whatever happened didn’t happen during my drive home earlier in the day.

Now that I have the song stuck in my head, I’ll leave you with a link to Lena Horne’s version of Stormy Weather.

Road Trip: Changing It Up and Lessons Learned

During all of our previous trips, we have kept interstate travel to a minimum. The idea of towing in high-speed, bumper-to-bumper travel didn’t appeal to either of us. All of that changed with our recent trip; with as many miles as we were traveling, interstate was frequently the simplest way to get from Point A to Point B. Of course, interstate travel also meant that I didn’t do much driving on this time around.

This trip was a learning experience for us in many ways and one of the things we were learning was just how far we could comfortably travel in a day. The most we traveled in one day was 377 miles; we started the morning in Blountsville, Tennessee and stopped for the night in Williamsport, Maryland. Biggest lesson learned: 377 miles in one day is bit much. Going forward, somewhere between 250 and 300 miles a day will be our goal.

Most of the 377 miles mentioned above was spent crossing Virginia on I-81. If you are ever traveling the same route, I have two things to say: 1) Bless your heart and 2) I’m sorry. Virginia is a beautiful state and I would love to spend some time there NOT on the interstate. What makes this stretch so bad? First, it’s the trucks; there are semis everywhere. Second are the rest areas. Or maybe I should say, the lack of rest areas. Many of the rest areas in Virginia are Cars Only, which rules out anyone towing a travel trailer. The rest areas that do allow trucks (and therefore RVs/travel trailers) tend to be overflowing with semis. It was often easier to just keep driving than to find somewhere to stop and stretch our legs (or get away from the trucks) for a bit.

Sunset at the Unadilla / I-88 / Oneonta KOA in New York

Much to our surprise, the day we “only” drove 282 miles on mostly non-interstate roads was the day that really took the wind out of our sails. We started the morning in Unadilla, New York and stopped for the night in Lake Winnipesauki, New Hampshire. I was so looking forward to a day without being on the interstate but driving the back roads of Vermont with road work around every other curve was not a relaxing experience at all, LOL.

Another thing we learned is how much the condition of the roads impacts your travel. As native Georgians, most of our trips are in the Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina area and its a running joke with us how bad the roads are in South Carolina. Seriously, as soon as you cross the border into South Carolina, the roads become absolute garbage. (Unless you’re near Clemson University; those roads are pristine.🙄) However, the roads in the south aren’t exposed to the same weather extremes as those in the northern states. Not only do the northern roads take a beating from the weather but there is a shortened season for repairing that damage so there was roadwork absolutely everywhere. (One of our neighbors at a KOA in Maine used to pave roads in the state for a living and he said that they were required to have all road surface work completed by October 1st or October 15th depending on the location.) Also, after a day of taking a beating from the roads sometimes you go to bed and still feel like you’re being bounced around, LOL.

I try to think of each trip as an opportunity to learn. Our trip out west in 2019 taught us to take the weather at our destination into consideration when planning a trip. (Some areas actually have winter weather that lasts more than a couple of weeks. Who knew?😂) This trip we learned not to over-estimate how far we can comfortably travel in a day and also that other things such as road conditions or other unexpected delays may impact our plans and that that’s okay. We haven’t quite made the mental transition from traveling while working, which meant that we had a limited amount of time available before we had to be back at work, to traveling while retired which means that our schedule can be adjusted as needed. We’re working on it.

Until next time, take care and happy trails.