How’s the road?

Photograph taken by Jared C. Benedict via Wikipedia

There are a variety of greetings out there. Some are dependent upon nationality of those involved or age or in our case, geographic location. See, there’s this time of year here in Vermont called Mud Season. It’s between the end of winter and spring. The ground generally gets so frozen deep down that you get frost heaves (another post all together) but as the snow melts and the ground has yet to become unfrozen, the water wells up on top with nowhere to go and turns all our dirt roads (of which there are many) to mud. A greeting you will commonly hear when someone is coming to your house is “How’s the road?” An odd question to ask someone, or to start a conversation with, but you see, us folks up here in the land of eternal winter (and yes, for those of you asking even despite almost 60 degree temperatures for the past three days, we still have snow) know that when the sap starts flowing, Mud Season is usually upon us. Anyone traveling to your house will undoubtedly need to know the condition of your road. It is not uncommon to also ask “Do you have 4 wheel drive?” If the answer to that question is “no”, chances are, you’re probably not visiting. It is not unforeseen that your vehicle (even if it is equipped with 4 wheel drive) might find itself buried halfway up the wheels in mud. There are warnings placed on the commonly trafficked and hardest hit by mud roads, warning heavy vehicles or those over a certain weigh load to steer clear, way clear until after mud season ends… or deal with the consequences.

Today we had a delivery truck coming to our house (as my friend Patty from Where Did the Time Go? blog wonderfully puts it, we were under delivery house arrest) and the first question out of their mouth when calling to give us a time frame was “how’s the road?” When they arrived the driver related to us that only days earlier they had been stuck up to their box truck tires in mud unable to get out. Not a fun way to spend the day, I am sure.

Mud Season does have its own amusement since a common thing for teenagers and college kids to do is pile into a car or truck and find the worst dirt road and drive until they get stuck and then push their way out, kind of like Vermont mudwrestling I imagine. Aside from getting stuck in the mud, it’s actually like a really cool roller coaster ride, since there are ruts, like ruts from hell, and when your vehicle is drawn to them (and it will be drawn to them) you get pulled in like when the car on the roller coaster track clicks into place — and you’re off…going wherever the road takes you.

There’s also another really cool thing about Mud Season when you live in Vermont – you know who really loves you. As my husband likes to say: Everyone wants to visit Vermont, but the people that come during Mud Season, they really love you, because there is nothing to do here then, nothing to see – unless of course you like pushing your car out of the mud.

So….how’s your road? Ours, well its pretty muddy.