Last week Tom and I tried to get from our house to the grocery store. It turns out, you can’t get there from here. Or, at least, not on the day we were trying. Or the way we were trying.
They shut down the road we live off of several weeks ago. We knew it was coming, but we live on a cul-de-sac with 11 other houses. No matter what they did for road construction, they had to leave a way for us to get in and out of our street. And they have – mostly. When we exit Treeline, we can normally turn left or right on Lewis Center Road. During the road construction, we can turn left while they do the majority of construction on Lewis Center between Treeline and Worthington Rd.
On the day we were going to the grocery store, they had dug a big hole in front of our street. We could still turn left, but there was a 12″ drop in front of half our street. If we didn’t get the tires perfectly on the narrow strip of dirt lined up with the left side of the street, we would fall into the hole. Once we got by the hole, we had to dodge a backhoe, a dump truck, and a road grader to get to the intersection and turn right on OH 3.
We headed south because then we can make another right turn onto Big Walnut to get back on the part of Lewis Center not affected by construction. We can’t turn left on Big Walnut because they are building a roundabout and Big Walnut to the east is closed. A new development is going in on the west side of Big Walnut (the direction we turned) and that road is occasionally closed while they are working on the development. On the day we were going to the grocery store, one lane was open and we were able to get by.
We got back on Lewis Center and were driving cheerfully down the road when we got to a sign that said “Road Closed at the Railroad Tracks.” We knew that road was going to be closed for a week. Tom and I had even talked about needing to remember it was closing. Of course, we didn’t remember until we got there.
Turning around, we headed north and then took the next road west that would get us over the railroad tracks. When we arrived at the tracks, however, that road was also blocked off. Now we had to backtrack two miles south to get to Orange, which had the closest open crossing of the railroad tracks. Finally, after negotiating some backroads, we made it to the grocery store. A journey that is normally six miles took us 20.
It was easier getting home because we already knew which roads were closed. I had to remind Tom not to turn to take the closed part of Lewis Center. And, when we got back to our small, open part of Lewis Center, the strip of dirt leading to our street had gotten even narrower. We got an Amazon delivery an hour after we got home, and the delivery person said she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to get to us.
I appreciate what they are doing to Lewis Center. They are widening in and we are finally getting a stoplight at Lewis Center and 3 which will make it much easier to get out. But there are some headaches that go along with the improvements. And sometimes, we have to say, you can’t get there from here.