Episode 243: Country Roads

To see the show notes and article click HERE

Transcript

spk_1:   0:00
Hello everybody

spk_0:   0:01
take me on country rooms. Two plays. There's a reason we don't sing way, Can't say But we're on a country road We're on highway Whoa highway

spk_1:   0:16
and it's the biggest road we've been on in a while now we're it's got pavement,

spk_0:   0:22
It's got pavement. Everything. Now it's it's what you would call not the biggest road. The world has got, like one really in bridges and stuff like that. But it does have pavement. Sort of. It is paved.

spk_1:   0:33
It's probably impassable during high water. But, you know,

spk_0:   0:37
we've talked about this before. We're gonna talk about it again because we've been doing that thing. We d'oh! We were coming back from Iowa and we decided to go out and take a look and see if there was anything left of the Memorial. Four. Purnell. That's Barnett, which, if you read my Memorial Day article and wow for Lincoln show notes, you read the Memorial Day article. You understand who that ISS but used to be the soldier in the field, out in the middle of nowhere. So we decided to go back there. Okay, There used to be a road out here that one of the roads, The road that to the south and west of it. Um, everybody would always warn everybody else. Do not take that road That is a mud road that is not a gravel road. If it has been raining at all in the last week, you will get stuck. And you know, it would be impossible for you to get out of their short of a tractor.

spk_1:   1:46
But what if you're driving your big, expensive SUV four wheel drive,

spk_0:   1:51
you'll get really stuck. You get

spk_1:   1:54
deeper in before you get stuck.

spk_0:   1:56
Whoa, Yeah, these their roads out here. You don't mess with that. We're gonna put a couple pictures, links to a couple pictures on. We'll put him in there sometime. We taking pictures of mud roads we're gonna here. We want a country. If I you people about traveling in the country. We have talked about this once before in our road to the bug out. But we're we're explorers. We love exploring. We love driving through the country, finding things that it's cool. I got a burden

spk_1:   2:26
it over the head of the whole place. That's

spk_0:   2:29
very cool. It, Burton added a whole garden back there, which makes sense of Europe. Very good. But anyway, long story short, you know, we love just turn and I've never been down this gravel road. Let's take a look at it. We just did one right back there and we just went through the mud. Rode. It has not rained here in this county. I don't think in a couple weeks,

spk_1:   2:50
according certainly thinks

spk_0:   2:51
not. Yeah, it's and everything's drying. Great. So we're coming down that road. We're like, OK, we can get through there were just driving a car right now. Um, I am. I'll tell you what state was almost kind of one of those.

spk_1:   3:06
We were still eyeing every love spot suspiciously. They were like, Hey, I think we can

spk_0:   3:11
get through here.

spk_1:   3:12
You never try anything. You past the point of where you could back out of on these roads now salty has backed out of some three miles of one of these roads once when that was the nearest turn around because the road suddenly devolved into a pool of water. And, you know, that wasn't happening,

spk_0:   3:32
right? So anyway, we're we're we got out of there because we knew the road. We knew how far at least been down there before. We do have one

spk_1:   3:42
by looking at that GPS. How could you tell that it wasn't a real road?

spk_0:   3:47
You could No, you have no idea.

spk_1:   3:49
It's marked exactly the same as all the gravel roads in the county.

spk_0:   3:54
Yeah, um and this is a county that is just in the process of switching over to 911 I know people in the city, their minds are blown by this, but ah, lot of these rural counties are not on 911 And they used to have old county roads like numbers will be numbers. County road off three t 3323 Yeah, Kenny Road 3 to 3. Now. Why in the world 911 can't work with County Road 3 to 3. I have no idea Working with dyslexia, is that it?

spk_1:   4:28
Really? Transposition errors will lead you completely down the wrong path if you try and follow a bunch of road numbers.

spk_0:   4:36
What about, like 100 and 37th street? Which is what they change a lot of these two. What about 15 4 35 137th street.

spk_1:   4:49
They don't change most of the numbers to that out here. They change most of them, too. Watch the flames like

spk_0:   4:54
well, here they don't. But a lot of places you go to, like making her mobile early counties. That's

spk_1:   5:00
supposed to be the theory of why you have to have named Rhodes and not

spk_0:   5:03
number drugs. Well,

spk_1:   5:05
I didn't say they implemented it perfectly. I said That was the theory. The one that the memorial is on is now called Barnett Road,

spk_0:   5:12
which is good because that was the guy's name and you read the story. If you don't know what we're talking about, that's fine. It's good story, anyway. It's for the best we have on our side. But here on the highway, I'm like we're driving south on the highway and I could see the road here is we're just trying past almond, and that's fine. But when you get out on out into the country, they haven't gotten that far yet. So there's still got the old County road signs. They got the new five number signs there at the People's Driveways address, so that's that's good. Actually, we had we had to get a name. 11 address at the place. We got that simply because if there's an accident somebody misses with the chains are something we have to call in a meals. We wanna have a address for them to come, too. So that's why we did that. But you know, through these old roads, you know, just because it has a name on it doesn't mean you should be driving down it. And so these names are really bizarre, and some of them are historically interesting. There's one in a county near us called Democrat Phil, and why in the world? So I actually called the county to find out why they call that Democrat Phil, and that's because there was The Democrats took over the county court and filled in the low lying area and raised up the highway so that it would no longer be underwater in that spot. It used to be a spot on the main highway that used to go underwater during high water, so they raised it up with the films, and that's how the area got to be named Democrat Phyllis by Phil. I mean, h i f i l l, and it's been well. But

spk_1:   7:15
after a Democrat named Phil

spk_0:   7:17
know anything. That's what they named it. I did not know that there's another county that has a has a name called a rebel run Rebel run. Now Missouri, which is where we're at, has a lot of Civil War stuff in it. We were very much a border state. There were Civil War battles, fought all over the state skirmishes, tiny bushwhackers, but violent and bloody and terrible, acrimonious. And so I was like, Why in the world is this called rebel run? So I asked somebody in that county is historical society. Who's a friend of mine? Oh, that's easy. Is it? When the When the rebel army came through here, that's the way they went. Oh, okay. They,

spk_1:   8:03
like, actually ran. They went into that particular county seat, raised the Confederate flag, blamed it for the Confederacy while the town's people stood around and watched camp tonight or two and left daughter upon, the people took down the Confederate flag and raised the union flag back up and said, Well, no, sorry. We're actually union. We just I didn't want to mention it while you're here, guys. Uh,

spk_0:   8:28
yeah. What? You know. There you go air stairs America Civil War for you Strain your strange thing. Yeah. So, yeah, and another thing to on these these country roads were in the process of driving over the, um, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. This is a pretty main track. We got three lines going right underneath us there. And people may not realize this if they're driving around on country roads. But if you're driving down a gravel road at best, you're gonna have a railroad crossing sign. At best, that's the best you're gonna get Is a railroad crossing sign. You're not going to get the drop gates. Those are expensive. You're not going to get the flashing red lights. So if you're cruising along at night and there's a train going past, you may well not see it. We've had several people in this area killed over the last five or six years just because they didn't see the train that was on that rural road. They drive right into it

spk_1:   9:47
very little in the way of running lights along the middle of the train. You can see the front of the train and you can see the back of the train, but if you're in the middle of the train in your car, sealed up tight so you can't hear it. It's very difficult to actually see the train. So if you're just barreling along,

spk_0:   10:04
especially if it's carrying like oil, those oil cars, they're black, and everything about it was black. The only reflective things on the entire train are like the hazard hazardous material signs,

spk_1:   10:20
which are often on the back.

spk_0:   10:21
But you're often on the back or dirty or, you know,

spk_1:   10:25
yeah, so you can't trust the roads in the GPS is to warn you when you're getting into this stuff, you better keep your own watch out for the railroad crossings because Uncle Sam didn't gonna be doing it for you. And if the road starts to get a grass median and I don't mean between two different lanes of traffic because there is no two different lanes of traffic. There's about Elaine and 1/2 on most of these roads. So both people squint over. You can get by somebody, um, most if your road starts to get a grass median between the right wheel and left wheel. Start to think about getting concerned. If it goes completely to dirt realize that it may just end in the middle of nowhere. It may end in a pool of water. It may go through a low spot that's still mucky. Even though it hasn't rained for three days.

spk_0:   11:19
It may end in a gate,

spk_1:   11:22
a locked gate

spk_0:   11:23
or just a closed case. Okay, country etiquette. If it's not your gate, don't open it and go through it. Okay? If you're invited to a country place, leave all gates as you found them. If they're open, leave them open. If they're closed, go through them and open up. Go through them. I am close them. It is the duty of the person riding shotgun to get out and open the gates. That is the law.

spk_1:   11:55
Beautiful law of the country.

spk_0:   11:57
The person riding shotgun, not somebody in the back seat, even though they're not. You know, if you call shotgun in the country, it is your job to get out and open the gates.

spk_1:   12:09
And if you don't, that means you're sitting in the passenger seat beside the driver came just not where the guy with the shotgun used to travel on stage coaches.

spk_0:   12:19
All right, now, here's another thing. And this week there's a very funny country song that this is, but it is very true, very accurate. Don't mess with the bull. He can get real mean he can get real mean and by bull. I don't just necessarily mean the big Angus bulls that you see from here there, although I certainly do mean that they

spk_1:   12:44
have so much hate to give.

spk_0:   12:47
If you see one of those cute buffaloes, people raise them in the country. For me, right? It doesn't matter if it's a bull. If it's a cow, whatever, Do not approach one. They will trample you and kill you.

spk_1:   13:04
They are in entirely harmless and sedentary until they decide not to be. And then it's too late

spk_0:   13:11
This time. They're faster than you,

spk_1:   13:14
and they'll pick you up on your horns and throw you into next week. So don't trample you. Um, don't mess with the bull. You get real mean, closed the gate and stay out of the beans.

spk_0:   13:24
That's right, so simple. There's nothing in the beans for you, so stay at home. Oh, excuse me. That's not necessarily true. In the corner. There is a reason to go into the corner, as everybody who's ever ridden a bicycle across the state of Iowa knows there is a reason to go into the court. The corn is a perfectly substance perfect substitution for a bathroom. So if you have to have your riding rag dry, which is held in the summer, the bicycle ride across Iowa I've done it. She hasn't done. She's done, uh, Wisconsin. But she hasn't done Iowa looked idea Wisconsin and work Summers. I thought I did both of it back to back, which try that some time. That was That was 1000 miles in two weeks, but on a bicycle. Um, for some of the year, I had almost 9000 miles on a bicycle. But anyway, long story short. If you need to in your in Iowa, it's perfectly acceptable to pull over and go out into the corn and take care of business that sze fine. Nobody's ever going to arrest you for doing that in Iowa. They might Missouri, but not in Iowa, because that's where the tall corn grows. Islands where the tall corn Illinois is where the big fish come from. Iowa is where the tall corn grows and Missouri way might just shoot you

spk_1:   14:53
who make a big lies.

spk_0:   14:56
Very stretches. Very stretcher, and we'll have to talk about Missouri stretcher sometime. Ah, it's a tradition. Okay, just a quick little hitter. We were just hoping toe go back on the way. See country roads all the time and and we live in a small town and we're friends with the people who own the wrecking service is and we chuckle it, laugh at some of the stories they tell about city people getting stuck because city people get stuck all of the time doing silly things out in the country

spk_1:   15:33
like trusting their GPS is that something named Road is actually a road

spk_0:   15:38
and that what a. G. P. S says it goes there. You just keep going until until you get to know you, Carl, get hung. You, you're there you are. GPS is lying during accurate when it comes to the country, and so don't trust them. This is why you learned to read a map. If it's on a map, it's generally road generally

spk_1:   16:03
or used to be a road

spk_0:   16:04
or used to be around.

spk_1:   16:06
Occasionally you'll run into a place where somebody was a road that almost nobody was ever using. The farmer said Heck with it Clouded under.

spk_0:   16:12
Yes. In fact, I know of a of a case in North Missouri where that ended up in murder charges. Somebody got so mad, or the fact that that there was this road dispute to neighbors, they didn't like each other and it came to shoot. But that's kind of a different sort of.

spk_1:   16:29
Near here, near near near

spk_0:   16:30
near near truth only shot it came to a shootout over whether this was actually an open road or the guy control gate over and the guy who threw the gate over and ended up debt. So there's that righting wrong. Yeah, it turned out he didn't work out very well, but I really don't know whether the road is actually open at the moment or not. And I'm not gonna drive.

spk_1:   16:57
I'm gonna

spk_0:   16:57
get shadow. I'm not gonna drive down there and find out. So

spk_1:   17:01
I have scouted a route on old maps, Old County plat maps, and gone out on my mountain bike to ride those small county roads and found some of them devolved into cornfield.

spk_0:   17:16
You remember that one? We're It was Ah, uh, over somewhere near Kirksville and we were trying to see if there was a county road that went through that area just for the fun of it. Yep. And we got to where there was once a bridge and there was once a bridge. And that was it. There was just that there was once a Bridger.

spk_1:   17:40
Yes, actually, there were still two rows of planks across there. I would have felt good about walking over it with my bicycle. But as for a vehicle Oh, no, very no.

spk_0:   17:53
Yeah. And watch your load of water crossings. You're OK as long as you're going over low water crossing. If, of course you could see how deep the water is. You should be able to You need to be able to see through the water into the bottom of the crossing. Um, because if you can't, that means it's Judy. Even in Missouri, it's too deep because we'll have a foot of visibility. If it's more than a foot deep. He really don't want me. It's not low water anymore, especially in the car. But ah, if you see concrete on the low water crossing, you'll be fine as long as it's not too deep

spk_1:   18:27
as long as you see concrete in the middle of the low water

spk_0:   18:29
crossing. Right. And one more thing when you're seeing roads that you start seeing signs impassable during high water. Okay, if it's been raining, just take a different route. Trust me. Yeah, because they don't necessarily get the signs up before they're closed.

spk_1:   18:48
And ah, a lot of those guys in the lowest spot, they have a water gauge, which they set the sign in in the in the low spot. And it shows you how many feet of water you got by reading how far the water comes up on the sign. But I've noticed they don't know. We set those with the right height so they

spk_0:   19:08
can be misleading. Yeah, so don't trust us. Also, one more thing. If you think you're going to take one of these back roads and get a drum, W W t a t t. Um, especially this time of year. Always plan. You're how you're going to get out of this mess when you get down there and you find the State Department says rode out or road close to three traffic. One mile, and you've just driven the 15 miles down this road. Do you really want to turn around and go back the 15 miles and then take the other route? Always keep planning multiple routes when you can't or just stick on the main highways. If you're. If you don't know the area and it's not in a survival situation, either stick on the main highways or keep a sense of humor.

spk_1:   20:04
If a bridge goes out in a place with low traffic, it might be six months or a year before the county gets around to fixing that

spk_0:   20:11
right. Or if it's like like one of these state roads, they may just be inspecting it or removing debris. You know, for fixing a guard rail where somebody's head it, they're gonna close the bridge to do.

spk_1:   20:22
I went for a hike this morning and hit a gravel road that was closed because they were cutting the brush, and it's more efficient to just go through, cut it all, let it all fall down in the middle of the road and then come back the next day and pick it up with a truck. But, you know, it was a Friday, so they let it sit there impassable all weekend.

spk_0:   20:43
No, we should take a picture of of that one. Look, Water crossing south of here. Next time you're out there walking, take a picture that this one because we have a perfect

spk_1:   20:52
theoretically closed not to lock

spk_0:   20:55
somebody. People may not even know what a little water crossing is what we're gonna show you. Yeah,

spk_1:   21:01
it's actually quite passable at the moment.

spk_0:   21:04
Yeah, well, we haven't had much rain soon

spk_1:   21:07
for a bicycle.

spk_0:   21:08
Okay, we're gonna We're gonna head out. This is, uh, salty.

spk_1:   21:13
And this is Spice who didn't get caught in a little water crossing piece.