Yesterday began three states away.
One last hug, squeeze, and admiration of the happiest almost six-month-old baby.
Another thanks for the great extended weekend with family-filled events: soccer practice, shared meals, a soccer game, a birthday party, meals, time in the pool, tic tac toe, and book shopping together.
The forecast was okay for daylight hours as far as we looked.
The forecast does not contain those diamond-shaped orange signs.
Those signs with three words.
In our 519 miles traveled yesterday across multiple states, I counted 102 of those signs. 102. I could have miscounted because we had a lunch stop and two refueling stops and we were chatting and I just might have missed a few. That 102 count could be low if I missed some. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t high as I didn’t need to “pad the numbers” to get to 102.
Have you guessed the three words?
Many other orange diamond-shaped signs informed our travel. Some said, “Right lane closed ahead.” Others said, “Left lane closed ahead.” I appreciated the ones where the signs matched the side of the road so I didn’t have to think hard about right or left while driving!
Have you guessed the verbiage on the 102 signs?
A clue. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Traveling by car can be entertaining and efficient when airlines don’t directly connect the right towns. The weather varied from sunny to cloudy, to rainy (about 30 min.), to clear, to cloudy again. A fairly pleasant drive. An hour gained with the time change as we headed west toward home.
It’s April and it’s already that season. The season of orange, diamond-shaped signs. Perhaps the same signs that were out in December when last we trekked eastward. Is this the new normal? 12 months each year of infrastructure work?
What do you notice when traveling by car? What patterns do you notice? What makes you curious?
Were you correct?
These were the signs.
It’s road construction season!
_____________________________________________________________
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers here.
Resource - Full 
Some days it seems like I see that many just driving across town. We have major projects on the interstate loop around the city, and a major project adding bus only lanes and bus centers all around, too… not to mention the annual pothole repairs!
My observations: the signs always came in pairs, they had reduced speed limits, and seldom had any workers.
Often true. At least there is actual work going on here. Unfortunately some major backups, too.
I enjoyed the format this piece took with the green rectangles getting the reader to think. When I travel by car, I often flash back to the alphabet game my family would play when I was a little girl. The drives were long, but they flew by faster as the game progressed. Signs that start with the letter q are still rare and hard to find, but when I do, I think of Mom and Dad.
We used to try to find license plates from all the states.
Cant believe you counted them, but having data added to your story! I like how you tell it, with suspenseful humor.
I am such a counter. And I did wonder on the way out about halfway there how many I saw, so it was NOT a totally new question.
It is always construction season on some road here in PA. I have often been on roads where the signs are up but no construction crews around. Makes me wonder what kind of work is being done and when are they doing it.
Seems like planning to work on it is when the signs go up. Not necessarily time to work YET.
Fran,
It is “the season of orange,” and this year is sure to bring more of those signs as the Biden infrastructure money gets put to work fixing roads and bridges.
It’s a really good thing. I just wasn’t prepared.