Ice Gal's: Pool Party

In South Dakota a section of highway 14 from Pierre to aboot Miller the pavement had been milled. It was a rough surface, grooved, not a smooth ride. When we were east bound on this section of road I just thought it odd that this section of road was rough and grooved. When we were west bound on this same section of road I found out why.
Just a few miles west of Miller I spotted the sign. “Road Construction Ahead” The next sign was “Flagger Ahead”

Stop Construction Ahead

When you ride in the north and you see these two signs and then see vehicles stopped ahead, you want to take a deep breath, look your bike over real good and then prepare for the worst, because you could encounter mud, rocks, heavy equipment moving the mud and rocks right next to you as you negotiate the primitive road these machines have created for you to ride on.

As we pulled up to the stopped vehicles Peppermint shouted to pull ahead. The flagger was signaling us to come to the head of the line.

This same thing happened several years ago in Canada on the Alcan. Well maybe the flagger didn’t motion us ahead but we did anyway.

Cushman Riders From Texas

We pulled to the head of a long line of very large motorhomes, some with support vehicles in tow, several other large vehicles with trailers, and then the pilot car came and off we went over the usual thick mud and gravel road.

After several kilometers the pilot car turned around, we were on our own except for the heavy machinery that was still building the road we were on.

The road was nothing but rocks, and gravel. We pushed ahead with the line of cars behind us. Up ahead I could see two workers standing by a parked car, along the road. They were at a junction with one road going left and another veering off to the right. I took the veer to the right.

For a bit the road got smother, I thought finally the worst of the construction was behind us. It wasn’t long before the road narrowed, and got rougher. Up ahead I could see a huge excavator in the middle of the road. Aboot then I realized that I had turned off the highway and was now on my way to the gravel pit.

I gave the signal to reverse course, as I went around the giant excavator.

One of the riders with us fell over. We quickly got her back up and proceeded back out to the road, only by now every motor home and pickup that was behind us not was heading straight into the dead end pit.

Some of the motor home drivers realized this mistake as we went past. They were not very happy with their decision to follow me into the gravel pit and even their little dogs that usually ride on the dash boards of the motor homes were flipping me off.

Finally back on the Alcan I believe we had a word with the construction workers that watched us all drive into the gravel pit. I think they enjoyed watching a line of traffic pull into the dead end pit road.
Construction on highway 14 was nothing like that. We waited with and chatted up the flagger, and when the pilot car came we followed it over the grooved pavement past a large crew paving the closed east bound lane. The same thing happened a few miles down the road at another flagger, and then just before Pierre we were stopped by an information only flagger who told us they would be working on this section of the road in the morning, and tried to hand us a paper aboot the construction. Thank you we said....