You Can’t Get Anywhere From Here

All of us are used to seeing orange barrels, heavy equipment entering/exiting the highway, Larry, Daryl, and Daryl; the whole road construction thing.  But this year, life behind the corncob curtain has more than the usual orange decorations, detours, flaggers, and road closures.  Worse, it’s become a huge hassle trying to get anywhere without going through a construction zone.  Much of it is due to the U.S. 231 project, which has bisected the major road routes to town. 

For you out of town readers, the three major routes to town/campus for those of us living in the northwest quadrant of the corncob are a U.S. highway, a county road, and a state highway.  The U.S. highway has two construction zones impacting travel to the twin cities.  Currently, there is a lane closure which starts at the intersection of our road and continues towards town.  Traffic coming towards campus is funneled to one lane, which is a nightmare for the morning commute going anywhere.  Even worse, the same U.S. highway has a longer section under construction and takes four lanes down to two for approximately one mile.  This bigger project has been going on for at least two years.  Imagine, a simple trip to the interstate (my escape route to Florida) used to be about a seven mile drive.  With the detour, the trip now takes me through three different construction zones covering eight+ miles.  Depending on the time of day, one quickly learns alternate routes around the construction, which adds to the miles and drives my GPS crazy.  I found it was just easiest to disable the thing rather than listen to her recalculate. 

The county road is closed just west of another county road, which often serves as another route into campus.  Unfortunately, the traffic is re-routed to our road where one can either head to the U.S. highway or the state highway to drive to town.  I am now living a video game:  Frogger!  Since going to the mailbox is high risk activity as is backing out of the driveway!  

In fairness, the state highway is mostly open, but still has trucks loaded with dirt moving about and across the road.  There are occasional traffic stops while trucks, cars, etc. share one lane in a dosey-do kinda fashion.  It is the best option for getting to that large midwestern university, normally a three mile commute.  However, with the detours and the traffic, it might be quicker to simply walk through the cornfields since any mode of transportation is guaranteed for a slow ride. 

So, each time I venture out by car, I have this little ditty running through my head.  Song written and performed by Todd Yohn as heard on Q-95’s the Bob and Tom show.  Fellow Corncobians will know it, but my out-of-state buddies may not.   I swear the video could have been shot here behind the corncob curtain.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L7UAyQ83Yg