Almost anyone who goes down our driveway and turns right down West Shore Road will scrape the front of their car on the road. There's a dip where the blacktop - originally put down in the 1960s and resurfaced numerous time since - leaves off and the town road begins. Actually, the blacktop extends way too far into the town's right-of-way, but short of tearing it out of there, there isn't much we can do about that. It was a mistake, but not ours, although it's now part of the problem. Also, over the years the road has been built up so that it is much higher than it was back then. 

People who live along West Shore Road are saying, "So what's new about that?" They have had this problem for years. Some have had to raise their garages up in order to be able to open the doors; some others have apparently said too heck with it and cut a door through on the side or back of the building and use it for storage. The highway is four feet (or so) higher than the approach to their garage, which effectively renders it useless. Garages built back in the 1920s and 30s aren't big enough for today's cars anyway - unless you are lucky enough to be driving an MG or maybe a "Bug."

I have to say, though, the road being raised as much as it has been over the years has made it so much better in mud season, we who live here year around and have experienced mud season in the 70s, 80s or earlier, really appreciate what a difference there is in the condition of the roads these days. People who don't know what it was like complain when there are potholes or a few muddy spots that slow them down; but they should be thankful they aren't walking in from Route 2 to wherever they live. Been there, done that! So I'm not going to complain about the road being built up too high.

So, back to our driveway. We keep forgetting to tell people to "keep to the left" when they leave our steep drive, and wince when we hear their front scrape in the road or their rear end grind along on our paved driveway as they leave. The dip has gotten worse because the gravel that was leveling the approach a little keeps washing out because there is a lot of water coming from our driveway and our neighbor's that doesn't make it into the culvert. So we asked the town road crew guys to take a look and offer suggestions. 

Aldo came by last week - the same day we called, and had some good suggestions. He said someone would come by this week, and sure enough, they came this morning. They did a remarkable job of cleaning off the shoulder of the road beyond our mailboxes so the water (theoretically) won't rush along the foot of our driveway quite as much. They also cleaned out the ditch below our driveway - where the lupins grow every spring - which I thought was a bit of overkill, but didn't want to interfere. I can spread lupin seeds there this fall and have more growing next spring, I think.

The rest of the job looks really good. Only thing is, the dip at the end of the driveway is still there. The problem is that our driveway is too steep and the lower end, being paved, is non-negotiable. We're going to put some fill in, but it won't stay put in a heavy rain - and unless the operator of the grader spreads some extra material our way down there, we're still going to hit bottom every time we leave home - unless we go left towards Walden. We think the next best step is to get a sign - "Keep Left."

I'll be anxious to see what happens next big rain storm we have.