Dirt Roads

[paulaswolfpack]

Do you live on one? How far down the dirt road do you have to drive to get to your place I have 4 miles it's not to bad winter it can get real rough and there are a couple of hills that are hard to get up if it's frozen.
But the dust in the dry months is bad,At least the home that I live in is about 1\4 mile up my driveway away from the mother load of flying dust.
I have to dust almost every day I hate the dust, But the price you must pay for country living,Paula

[sisterpine]

I travel 15 miles on a dirt road to get to my place and I agree with you about the dust - makes me a bit nuts. The last 7 miles are forest service road so the traffic is not bad up here. Except for the logging trucks, hunters, wood cutters, christmas tree hunters and other outdoor folks LOL. During the winter the road is not plowed and usually by christmas i am having to leave my blazer at the bottom and snowmobile up the seven miles. Makes for a lovely ride home from work! sis

[fordson major]

we live on the first dirt road going south from the big city. compared to the cracked asphalt and speeding cars on the other side roads we will keep ours thanks!

[midwsthomestead]

We live about 2 miles down a gravel/dirt road. Tis technically gravel lol but ya know how long that lasts. The dust can be atrocious, true...but like ford major said, I'll take it!

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http://flickr.com/photos/7611805@N07/

[Phantomfyre]

I really hope they don't ever pave our road - some people drive too fast on it now! Our house is pretty close to the road (less than 100 feet), so the dust is atrocious, but I'd rather be able to still ride the horses on the road than get rid of the dust! To get to blacktop, it's 3/10ths of a mile one way and 7/10ths the other way, which isn't long, unless you're riding a motorcycle...

[big rockpile]

We have a mile of Dirt and Flint,sure would love to have it graveled

big rockpile

[sisterpine]

I travel 15 miles on a dirt road to get to my place and I agree with you about the dust - makes me a bit nuts. The last 7 miles are forest service road so the traffic is not bad up here. Except for the logging trucks, hunters, wood cutters, christmas tree hunters and other outdoor folks LOL. During the winter the road is not plowed and usually by christmas i am having to leave my blazer at the bottom and snowmobile up the seven miles. Makes for a lovely ride home from work! sis

[Scrounger]

We only have about 3/4 mile, but our house is 475' from the road, with a tree line in between. The dust isn't too bad.

[deaconjim]

My gravel driveway is about 1/4 mile long, and leads to a gravel road. I wouldn't change a thing.

[Kmac15]

when we moved here we had 3 miles of dirt, but they paved part of it a couple of years ago and now have 7/10 of a mile.
My pet peeve is a neighbor that calls the highway dept each week complaining about our road not being paved, I upset her when I told her I did not want to live on pavement as I did not want to pay the higher taxes.
She knew it was a dirt road when she moved here, it is not like they took the road up.

[Quint]

It was dirt until a decade or so ago. New neighbors whined and complained until the county rocked it. I would have preferred it to still be dirt, rough and narrow. When it was like that it didn't get as much traffic. Now it has too much traffic and we get charged for the rock on our taxes.

[nehimama]

My place is on a paved road, but some friends live down some terribly rocky, jagged dirt roads. Can't go over 10 mph, or pieces of the vehicle fall off ! ! ! With all the bedrock, mudholes and tree roots making up the road, and neighbors to stop and chat with, it'll take me about a half an hour to go about a mile - LOL!

NeHi

[tnokie]

Since we moved to Tennessee five years ago,I kind of miss the dirt roads back in Oklahoma. The paved roads are nice and easy on the vehicles. But theres nothing like going slowly down a dirt road and watching nature reveal itself.You have to go slow so you notice the little things more.Like squirrel and deer crossings,blackberry patches,persimmom trees loaded in the fall,quail scurring up the road ahead of you.Yeah the dust is horrible but its something you get used to and you'd be surprised how you miss it!

[big rockpile]

Got a neighbor that tears the someting out of all his vehicals because him and his DW fly up and down our dirt road.He was telling me one time he called the Law on someone because they was driving the gravel road over by here and they was only going 40MPH All I could think is this Guy has to be kidding and he is a total idiot.

big rockpile

[nehimama]

There's a neighbor who regularly tears up & down the dirt roads at 40 - 45 mph - - - and complains about all the flat tires she gets ! ! !

NeHi

[DocM]

1 mile and it's nicely graded and covered with quarter minus at least once a year. In addition, my son takes the box scraper over it a couple times a year and pulls the gravel back the center and regrades it. I share the road maint. with several neighbors, ends up costing everyone about $100 a year. I live at the very end, so the dust doesn't bother me, but we all agree to keep it under 10 mph so the other neighbors aren't completely covered with dust all summer. It's flat so easy to negotiate in the winter too.

[Katrina26]

I HATE gravel roads, bug me to no end. I lost control on one and ended up having an accident. GA uses nasty big chunks of gravel so it's easy to fishtail. I still won't drive down dirt at all.

I prefer just dirt roads, except if it rains and then it's pure mud..that stinks too. I like Finnish dirt roads since they're sand and they oiltop them and usually keep them in good shape.

Kat

[quadcam79]

well if it's less than 1/8th mile I can deal , lived on one in PA for most of my life and it wasnt too bad except for winter. I also lived on one here in Fl that was miserable, either it was so dry it made a huge dustbowl or so wet it either created ridges that feel like your running over rumble strips on the side of the highway only bigger...or, it was mud/pothole city akin to driving in 6" of wet snow.

the worst parts were having just washed your car and as soon as you leave the house it looked as bad as before you washed it, neighbors flying by and leaving a giant dust cloud that either settled on your just washed car or bike or everything inside your house becomes covered in a layer of dust

[sammyd]

We only have to go half a mile on a gravel road to get to the house. The township sprays dust control every year. My folks have to pay for it in their township.
Grew up on gravel roads.
40-45 is fast? Only in spring when they heave and you can't be sure where the heave will take your tires.
I get a big kick out of the folks who build a McMansion on a half acre down our road and drive their big fancy 4WD 10 mph and complain about the gravel.

[fantasymaker]

Originally Posted by Kmac15

She knew it was a dirt road when she moved here, it is not like they took the road up.

My drive is where the road changes, to the north is oil/rock to the south dirt. The dirt road is the prefered route and at one point my road commisioner asked if I wanted it rocked and oiled NO WAY!!! It helps keep the traffic down and its not like I cant get out the other way if I need to.