Originally Posted by
SethAZ
Most of the roads around me have never been that great, and unfortunately some of the ones that are part of almost every route I ride haven't been maintained in years and years, and in the AZ heat that means they're crumbling.
When I was a young lad, the main streets in town were paved, but the side streets were gravel. The U.S. and state highways were paved, but most of the county routes, National Forest roads and the roads on the Bad River Reservation were gravel. Every summer, in town they would spray the gravel streets with waste oil (petroleum, not cooking oil) to keep the dust down. I bet they don't do that anymore.
In the winter, the state road (along the south shore of Lake Superior) was often closed (snow), so to get to our friend's house in Cornucopia, we would have to drive through the National Forest (inland, less snow/drifting, easier to keep plowed).
After the McDonald's in town closed, the closest McDonald's to us was in Superior, 65+ miles away, a 1.5 hour drive in good (summer) weather. (We didn't go during the winter.)
It's a different world now.