County Road

In Iowa county roads are designated by an “F” prefix, as in F21 Clinton County, and are mostly gravel. If you aren’t familiar with gravel in the county road context it is yellow, made of crushed limestone of varying sizes and dusty. Not just dusty but pea soup fog dusty if it has been dry for more than two days in a row. Coat the corn leaves tan dusty, make you sneeze until your sides ache dusty. Need I go on? I thought not.

It is also hard and has a nasty habit of forming washboards on its surface. Washboards are just what they sound like; little hills and valleys that resemble the venerable washboard of yore and will try their damdest to rattle your eye teeth out if taken at too high a speed

County roads aren’t always dusty though. They are dusty unless it rains or snows or a combination of the two and then they are “muddy”. It’s a yellow mustardy color that forms a mist that clings to the side and bottom of your car. When dried the mud spray forms yellow cement that “requires” a chisel to get it off. Oh, and the roads aren’t hard anymore either. They do still maintain the nasty washboards, only now the washboards spend less time jarring eye teeth and more time scooting you ever nearer to the so soft shoulder. No, now the gravel becomes the consistency of thick plaster in spots. I don’t recommend stopping in those spots, unless you have a buddy with a 4 wheel drive that can pull you out. It’s not pretty.

So why hassle with county roads? What, you haven’t taken a look at the picture yet? I thought not.