My Missouri county seems to draw a lot of people from other places. Most of them are city people who don’t really want to live in the country so the county is busy paving their gravel county road system.
Me? I like living on a gravel county road. Like anything else, it has advantages and disadvantages.
Disadvantages of a Gravel County Road
Dust, lots of dust is kicked up by passing vehicles and the wind. All that dust drifts away to settle elsewhere – like in the house. It coats everything in a brown layer.
Every rain storm seems to leave pot holes behind. Occasionally the road grader comes by to fill them in, but never address the reason the pot hole appeared in the first place. This is usually a ditch choked with branches, dirt and rocks or sloped so the water doesn’t run off.
Loose gravel can be a problem too. It rolls under the tires letting them slide. Or the road develops washboards – a series of small mounds across the road – that challenge the shock absorbers which are another casualty of a gravel county road.
Gravel wears out tires. The best tires are all terrain or have mud and snow tread. The good ones are costly. Cheap tires with city tread can be deadly.
Advantages of a Gravel County Road
My road has springs all along it and is no candidate for paving. That’s just fine with me. It discourages lots of idle traffic.
And that is the biggest reason for choosing to live on such a road. When the weather is bad, there is no traffic, only country quiet. Even many nice days have little or no traffic.
I can walk a mile or more up or down the road enjoying the wildflowers, spotting the wildlife that also use the road. And have no one drive by.
