prerunner1982
Adventurer
I know this isn't as grand an adventure as a lot of reports here, but none the less...
If you aren't familiar with it the Day of Dirt Adventure (sometimes just referred to as the D.o.D.) it is a back road tour of Oklahoma's forgotten history. A group of mostly Jeeps convoy along a 50-80 mile route of as many dirt roads as possible visiting old homesteads, early statehood schools, almost abandoned towns, old bridges, and pre-statehood cemeteries. It is an easy day worth of driving, but a good time to meet other like minded people and even learn a little local history. A lot of people live in an area forever and not realize the history that is a short drive away.
This years D.o.D was held April 11th with our start point being Stillwater, Oklahoma. With Stillwater being about the same distance from Oklahoma City and Tulsa it allowed Jeepers from North Eastern Oklahoma to attend just as easily as central Oklahoma Jeep owners. It did however require an early wake up for those coming from a bit further away such as Lawton and Enid.
We all gathered in Stillwater at 0900 and it was impressive to see about 100 Jeeps pull into and take over the parking lot. It is hard to believe that the first Day of Dirt was held Oct 13, 2012 and had 15 Jeeps and 2.5 years later 100 Jeeps roll in for this non-wheeling event. It rained on the drive to Stillwater and that was okay with the hope that it didn't rain all day and would keep the dust down. With about 100 Jeeps in attendance the convoy was split in two and since the route was a circle it was decided that one convoy would run the route backwards and we would cross paths somewhere on the other side. With the drivers meeting out of the way and singing Happy Birthday to Olivia, a young Jeeper who celebrated her birthday on the D.o.D. we headed east out of town. This writing will be from my point of view running the route the “right” way.
A few miles out we caught our first dirt road, now earlier I mentioned that it had rained on us on our way to Stillwater and we had hoped that it would keep the dust down, unfortunately the Northern part of the county must not have received any rain as the road was quite dusty. We headed north a few miles to our first stop, a large abandoned school house. It was built in 1910 and was just over 3500 square feet and for a rural school is quite large. There was also a gymnasium next door. It must have served a large area as most schools from that time frame were typically small one or two room buildings. We had to be careful though, the school was heavily guarded by............... a Llama?
If you aren't familiar with it the Day of Dirt Adventure (sometimes just referred to as the D.o.D.) it is a back road tour of Oklahoma's forgotten history. A group of mostly Jeeps convoy along a 50-80 mile route of as many dirt roads as possible visiting old homesteads, early statehood schools, almost abandoned towns, old bridges, and pre-statehood cemeteries. It is an easy day worth of driving, but a good time to meet other like minded people and even learn a little local history. A lot of people live in an area forever and not realize the history that is a short drive away.
This years D.o.D was held April 11th with our start point being Stillwater, Oklahoma. With Stillwater being about the same distance from Oklahoma City and Tulsa it allowed Jeepers from North Eastern Oklahoma to attend just as easily as central Oklahoma Jeep owners. It did however require an early wake up for those coming from a bit further away such as Lawton and Enid.
We all gathered in Stillwater at 0900 and it was impressive to see about 100 Jeeps pull into and take over the parking lot. It is hard to believe that the first Day of Dirt was held Oct 13, 2012 and had 15 Jeeps and 2.5 years later 100 Jeeps roll in for this non-wheeling event. It rained on the drive to Stillwater and that was okay with the hope that it didn't rain all day and would keep the dust down. With about 100 Jeeps in attendance the convoy was split in two and since the route was a circle it was decided that one convoy would run the route backwards and we would cross paths somewhere on the other side. With the drivers meeting out of the way and singing Happy Birthday to Olivia, a young Jeeper who celebrated her birthday on the D.o.D. we headed east out of town. This writing will be from my point of view running the route the “right” way.
A few miles out we caught our first dirt road, now earlier I mentioned that it had rained on us on our way to Stillwater and we had hoped that it would keep the dust down, unfortunately the Northern part of the county must not have received any rain as the road was quite dusty. We headed north a few miles to our first stop, a large abandoned school house. It was built in 1910 and was just over 3500 square feet and for a rural school is quite large. There was also a gymnasium next door. It must have served a large area as most schools from that time frame were typically small one or two room buildings. We had to be careful though, the school was heavily guarded by............... a Llama?
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