bump in the road

• bump on the road

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bump in the road (plural bumps in the road)

1. (idiomatic) A setback or obstacle, especially one which is relatively minor.
   • 1998 October 18, “We Need A Little Christmas Now”, in Businessweek, retrieved 21 July 2014:

     "The stock market has gone down, but it's just a bump in the road," she says.

   • 2003 January 13, Eric Goldscheider, “Victim Looks for Meaning In Random Subway Slashing”, in New York Times, retrieved 21 July 2014:

     Ms. Leopold . . . said today that she saw the attack, for which she received more than 50 stitches, as more of a bump in the road than a serious deterrence to her goal.

   • 2012 December 4, David Lengel, “NBA commissioner David Stern talks Christmas uniforms, YouTube and TV”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 21 July 2014:

     If there is a potential bump in the road for the NBA in the UK, it is its lack of a television deal.

2. (idiomatic) A very small town.
   • 1995 June 25, “Wired In The Woods”, in Newsweek, retrieved 21 July 2014:

     "We're such a small bump in the road that driving through Sylvester is like hitting an armadillo at 60 miles an hour," drawls local businessman David Register.

   • 1996, Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Blew the Whistle, →ISBN, page 28:

     "Believe it or not, that ugly little town was the county seat originally, when Pickax was only a bump in the road."

   • 1998 December 6, Marilyn Thompson, “South of Atlanta, 'Fried' and True”, in Washington Post, retrieved 21 July 2014:

     The town of Juliette, Ga., wasn't even on the map until after 1991. . . . Now, the one-stop-sign bump in the road is officially marked along Georgia's long and lonesome Highway 16.

   • 2000 September 6, Andrew Gumbel, “Fortune was not manna from heaven, just money from mugs”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 21 July 2014:

     The Lord has been a good provider in the small farming town of Mattoon, Illinois. . . . The scheme, which began in 1994, proved a bonanza for Mattoon, no more than a bump in the road halfway between St Louis and Indianapolis.

• (setback or obstacle): See Thesaurus:hindrance
• (very small town): backwater, one-horse town, See Thesaurus:remote place