# How Long has it been since you drove a Gravel or Dirt Road? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 12, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628 "2011-05-12T05:32:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/1 "2011-05-12T05:32:41Z")
Another thread got me thinking back to the gravel road days. Rocks flying and breaking the windshield. Fishtailing the car or truck if you hit a curve a few miles too fast. Drive on a rainy day and your car/truck is covered is dirt. Gravel roads aren’t fun. I learned to drive on a 15 mile stretch of gravel road. Every day I took it into town and high school. Had lots of dings in the windshield too. It’s been about 20 years for me. Our county got most of the back roads blacktopped a few years ago. With effort I could still find a gravel road some place. I have no desire to look. 😛 In Australia they are called corrugated dirt roads. Still just as unpleasant. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/2 "2011-05-12T05:34:08Z")
About a week - the highway between Calgary and Saskatoon has a stretch that’s under construction and is currently a washboard road. I hate those friggin’ roads. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/3 "2011-05-12T05:40:22Z")
I should have said **Within** x years ago. It you still drive gravel roads you can choose Within 2 years on the poll. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/4 "2011-05-12T05:48:48Z")
I _wish_ it was two years ago. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/5 "2011-05-12T05:53:26Z")
I’m not entirely sure…I guessed within the last 5 years, as I think the last time we were in Newfoundland and headed up to the northern peninsula and smaller islands is the last time - that would have been 3 years ago… Even if all those roads are paved (may have been, though I think there’s still a couple dirt stretches), I’ve been up north to the unpaved road about 15 minutes drive from here in the last 5 years. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/6 "2011-05-12T05:55:59Z")
Just yesterday, and not far from this city. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/7 "2011-05-12T06:14:28Z")
A couple of weeks ago, in rural NSW. Minor country roads here will never be improved. We don’t have the population to justify it. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/8 "2011-05-12T09:15:05Z")
You don’t have a category for this past weekend … Nations Rd in western NY is a sort of shortcut from my parents to Genneseo and 390 southwards [we decided to come home on rt 17 this time] ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/9 "2011-05-12T09:34:24Z")
I choose 2 years as the nearest option, seeing as it was last week. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/10 "2011-05-12T10:13:02Z")
Within the last month. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/11 "2011-05-12T10:46:37Z")
'bout six hours ago. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/12 "2011-05-12T10:46:39Z")
Very, very regularly, seeing as how two of the three roads that border my Mom’s house are dirt (within city limits where we both live,) and several other friends live on dirt roads in the next county. In fact, the family and I are moving next month back to my hometown, in a county that had the distinction of having the most miles of unpaved roads in the state of Georgia when I was growing up. (Don’t know whether it still holds that title, but I do know that, within a half-mile of the lovely “Leave It to Beaver” neighborhood where we’re moving, the pavement ends on the secondary roads leading out of town.) I learned to drive on red Georgia clay, which prepared me well when I lived in parts of the world that actually had snow and ice - much easier/more predictable driving than a wet clay road! ---
**Author:** ![horsetech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dec6dc/32.png) [@horsetech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/horsetech)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/13 "2011-05-12T10:56:52Z")
I’m guessing that gravel driveways a mile or less don’t count, but that would be less than 2 weeks ago. The last time I drove on a named dirt road was on a horse vet geek volunteer trip last summer in the foothills of the Sierras, and even that was only a couple slow miles. Earlier in the summer, I was blasting around the reservations in ND and SD with the same geeks, castrating horses. Good times. I’m glad my car survived the time we had to drive across a field and it bottomed out, though. My Subaru Legacy is great for that sort of driving unless I encounter big lumps in the path, whereupon it starts seeming rather low to the ground. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/14 "2011-05-12T11:05:09Z")
The road to my favorite beach is several miles long, and less than half of it is paved. So, the last time was less than a year ago. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/15 "2011-05-12T11:10:20Z")
Two weeks ago, to pick my dog up from the boarding kennel. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/16 "2011-05-12T13:16:06Z")
There are still some dirt roads in Douglas County, IL, about 4 or 5 hours from Chicago. I saw some this year. There are plenty of dirt roads in Appalachia (at least VA and WV). ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/17 "2011-05-12T13:23:59Z")
An hour and a half. I come to work on an atrocious red-dog/gravel road when I am in a hurry and it isn’t snowing. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/18 "2011-05-12T13:26:19Z")
Every weekend when I head north to the mountains. There are plenty of gravel roads in the greater Boston area but I don’t generally drive them on weekdays unless I’m visiting someone who lives on one. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/19 "2011-05-12T13:46:10Z")
I drive on gravel a few times a week. I live in a rural area and a lot of the roads are gravel. I can get from my house to work or to civilization without taking a gravel road, but some other running around requires it. Speaking of which: over the last few years some of the gravel roads are being replaced with a type of gravel that compacts into an asphalt-like base after many compressions from vehicles. What’s this stuff called? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628/20 "2011-05-12T13:47:22Z")
All the time. Anybody who lives in or near the desert drives them with some regularity, if they’re lucky. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-has-it-been-since-you-drove-a-gravel-or-dirt-road/581628.md?page=2)