The Fine Grey Lines: Mule Travel on Oklahoma Dirt Roads
PublishedSeptember 25, 2004
I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.
The DeLorme road map of Oklahoma looks like a sheet of graph paper.
Woody and Maggie ready for some early morning dirt road navigation, Wetumka, OK.
The roads are set out on a grid. The fat lines are your major interstates and highways. I-40’s the big blue line. Highway 9 is red and slim.
The dirt roads are the fine grey lines.
I like to follow them because they cut right through the heart of Sooner Country. That means few cars and time for big thoughts. To really soak up the landscape, I turn Woody and Magnolia loose and they trundle faithfully behind me.
Sure it’s dusty, but grit tastes good when you’re free, west of Wetumka, OK.
Woody lags Magnolia by a dozen steps to snag the weeds she finds disagreeable. She goes for young growth Bermuda, he likes those raspy wild sunflowers. Two hours after sunrise, their bellies are full of wild fiber. I have to lead Magnolia if we’re to get anywhere at all. Woody follows her until their shadows go from long to fat. Then we break for lunch in a not-too-dusty clump of dirt road grass.
There’s no accounting for taste alone on the back roads.
Sign up for The River, the RiverEarth newsletter, for occasional doses of rambling and homestead life. Plus you'll get a free copy of my 155-page illustrated ebook 19 Million Mule Steps.
Leave a Reply