Just when you thought you could beat the odds and speed up the highway travels – the back road gremlins arrive.

I mean by that contractors are now seal coating the Fairview-White Lake Road above Secrest. This has been the almost-secret roadway for locals to bypass the highway down in the valley that is getting the hot pavement “re-do”.

The delay for me was 15 minutes and a lot of rocks on the bottom of a relatively new car. Maybe better to wait for the signal person near Gallagher Lake.