The First Thing We Ever Overtook: Woody and the Steamroller
PublishedJune 15, 2004
I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.
“It gets slower than me, mule Woody…?”
It’s a blast being escorted through road repairs on a mule.
Outside Parkton they were giving the highway a new coat of asphalt. They had the usual guys in safety orange spinning their “Stop” signs to “Slow.”
Woody didn’t mind those but what did catch his attention was the steamroller.
I call them steamrollers for want of a better word. Have you ever felt them? I mean really felt them up close on foot while they’re working? I never have because until now the rubber tires on my car have insulated me from the experience.
I can’t tell you just how they operate but after the guys in the dump truck dump that hot black asphalt out on the road they chase it down and roll it flat with a steamroller. It’s like a giant steel rolling pin. Except instead of coating it with flour they dribble water over the drum to keep it from sticking to the asphalt.
What you don’t feel unless you’ve ever walked by one, even without a mule, is the shaking.
While that steamroller is crushing steaming asphalt flat into a ribbon, there’s something inside it shaking it for all it’s worth. There’s water rolling down the face of that giant steel roller, I guess to keep it from sticking to the road. There’s enough shaking of the Earth going on out there to send a shiver up through a mule’s shoes and there still be enough left to wobble his ears.
It’s like they’re paving Hell over out there.
Steamrollers are slow though. Woody and I passed the one in Parkton. It’s the first internal combustion device we’ve overtaken aside from broken down cars.
Halfway through the paving project we met this guy with his “Slow” sign. Woody lived right up to the pace and kept his toes out of that hot steaming ribbon of new black road.
If you ever get the chance to walk next to a steamroller I think you should.
Sign up for The River, the RiverEarth newsletter, for occasional doses of rambling and homestead life. Plus you'll get a free copy of my 155-page illustrated ebook 19 Million Mule Steps.
Leave a Reply