The infrequent visitors to Troublesome are most generally tourists who are lost. People seen pouring over a map in the vicinity of the Five Corners that lie in the center of town, have usually come off the highway to the east, turned the wrong way at the bottom of the ramp, and eventually missed the white-on-green sign tucked back from the road near the much larger sign for Newly's Auto Salvage. Their presence in the middle of the community also means they have avoided being stopped by Troublesome's finest who sometimes lie in wait in the parking lot alongside Troublesome's Farmers' Market across the road from Newly's.

In days gone by, visitors (read: out-of-towners who turned the wrong way) were guaranteed to quickly find out where they were. As soon as they entered the village. having missed the Troublesome sign and its accompanying-but-smaller: Speed Limit 30 mph sign in black-on-white, one of Troublesome's finest would flip on the lights and siren and pull them over. This was because there is a natural tendency for motorists to accelerate up the hill at the east end of Troublesome in order to maintain the posted highway speed of 55 and it is almost impossible to drop 25 mph upon cresting the hill and entering the village.

That happens much less frequently anymore, which is a sign of the times. Not only have soaring gasoline prices cut into travel by those from out of the area, but Troublesome is one of those communities that nature forgot, a place to be from rather than a destination. Where other towns and cities have broad or rushing rivers, scenic lakes, gorges, or mountains, Troublesome's river is more a large, sluggish creek with an even smaller creek feeding into it. Its one lake, Gulby Lake, resembles an overgrown farm pond bordered at one end by a swamp and Troublesome itself resides in a long, narrow valley ringed by hills that roll onward, seemingly without end, to the north, east, west, and south.

It is the sort of town, in sum, that as one out-of-towner so aptly and crudely put it, "has a %#&* it! This is far enough feel to it."

Granting that the view expressed may have been colored by the speeding ticket he had received, it nonetheless is an apt description for a village whose main reason for existence originally was to give neighboring farmers someplace to go every now and again.

Those farms still exist.

Next: More Troublesome