The word of the week is "e-road-sion." Every Spring in North Idaho (and probably anywhere else that has a lot of dirt roads) the dirt roads turn to sucking mud bogs and a lot of the road washes away, hence my new term: eroadsion.
I grew up in a land where roads were made of asphalt or concrete. I never knew much about dirt roads and basically never thought about roads much at all. So I didn’t know that roads could be such an endless source of conversation. Here in the land of dirt roads, the current state of the road is a big topic.
When the road grader guy comes through on his giant machine, it’s a big event and people talk about it for days or weeks. This level of excitement is partly due to the fact that the road grader guy is busy grading all the other roads too, so he doesn’t get up here very often. As a result, the roads are generally full of teeth-jarring holes. James calls these potholes "kidney-busters" because you feel like you’ve taken a shot to the kidneys when your rig hits one. (Here in North Idaho, you refer to your vehicle as a "rig," not a truck.)
The big holes are a source of great consternation in the neighborhood. So are "washboards." This is another term you might not be familiar with if you’ve never lived on a dirt road. Before washing machines, to wash your clothes, you put them in a tub of water and rubbed the clothes on a board that had evenly spaced ridges on it. Similarly, a dirt road with lots of evenly spaced ridges on it is said to have "washboards" or be "really washboard-y." The combination of washboards and holes is not easy on the average automobile suspension system (which is why most people in our neighborhood drive trucks, SUVs, Subarus or other equally hardy vehicles).
In any case, thanks to good weather, this season’s eroadsion is subsiding. The road grader guy came through yesterday and neighborhood chatter is high. Life with the road is good. At least for a while.