Summer growth along a county road waits for nobody: the ditch banks come up thick, shoulder grass leans out into the lane, and the corner where two roads meet narrows a little every week. Hot Spring County Road Department mows that ground around Bismarck, cutting back rights-of-way and shoulders, trimming out the ditch lines, and knocking brush off the corners so a driver can see what's coming. It is long, hot, dusty work done a mile at a time under the pines between DeGray Lake and the Ouachita foothills. In fall the pace eases and the leaves and fallen limbs get cleared from the edges before the cold sets in. A road that has been mowed feels different to drive, even if nobody can quite say why.