Sneaking In

I took my daughter to the dentist on the bike a few days ago, and in taking the long way home we came upon a major road with a detour sign and orange cones all over the place. There was no reason within sight that would explain why anybody would have blocked off a section of the entire road so my curiosity was piqued. After I dropped off the girl and had lunch I ventured back to the same road from the opposite direction and sure enough, it was blocked from the other side as well.

By riding into a nearby shopping center parking lot and making my way to the far end I discovered a small space that was way too narrow for a car to pass through, through which I could drive the bike into an adjacent lot. Two more times of doing the same thing, and I was parallel to the reason for the detour...


Parked in the lot into which I'd ridden was the punch line for an old Pennsylvania joke: What's big and orange and sleeps six? A PennDot truck. Sure enough, the commonwealth had sent out an "Emergency Incident Team" - a truck with a trailer that apparently holds detour signs and cones - and a crew of dedicated public servants to put up those obstructions and then to sit around and watch the other guys work.