bump in the road vs sticks

bump in the road

noun
  • A setback or obstacle, especially one which is relatively minor. 

  • A very small town. 

sticks

noun
  • Hurdles or other obstacles to be jumped over. 

  • rural terrain, especially a woody area; any rural region. 

  • crutches 

How often have the words bump in the road and sticks occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )