Road Conditions

One of my least-favorite things about living in "the hollow" are the road conditions. Potholes big enough to house a family of four. Rednecks who drive too fast on the wrong side of the road. A lack of maintenance by the road department.


{Of course, I should point out that we are lucky: there's usually very little traffic, it's a gorgeous setting -- especially in the summer with the shady canopies created by the trees.}















No. 1 on the list of Thomas Hollow complaints has been a big dip in the road that's been there since March or April. And I'm not exaggerating -- it's like a giant reverse speed bump. When we had all that flooding this spring, a culvert was washed out by my house. The road grader stopped by a day or so later and pulled out the big steel pipe that lets the water run under the road (vs. over it). He set it by the side of the road, and that was the sum of the repairs.


And so it's been painful to watch out my kitchen window as people navigate their way through! Some are unfamiliar with the road and are going way too fast, risking breaking an axle. The UPS and FedEx drivers don't really care if they wreck their vehicles. And people pulling trailers for construction work or transporting cattle have to crawl through the dip, dragging their trailer through.

Finally, yesterday, relief! The road department came out and -- in the span of just a few hours -- fixed the culvert. No more dip in the road. It only took a few months to get 'er done.