Day of Dirt Adventure 2016

[prerunner1982]

As of about May 2015 I was driving a 2wd XJ as a daily driver with the intention of swapping axles and putting a lift on the old 93 4wd 2 door. Well that project is taking longer than I had anticipated and with it not being uncommon to have rain on/near the Day of Dirt I was not enthusiastic about doing it in a 2wd. As the convoy commander or wagon master I certainly don't want to be the one to get stuck. So I put the D.o.D. on the back burner.

After much poking and prodding from fans of the D.o.D. I decided to lead it in a 2wd anyways especially since I had some larger slightly more aggressive tires on it now.

And then this happened...


and this with my daughter..


I once again put the D.o.D. on the back burner though I had it pretty much all mapped out.
After more poking and prodding and getting back into an XJ...though also 2wd I went ahead with the plan and set the D.o.D. for Aug 6th... and here is how it went down.


0900 meet up at the High School in Cashion, Oklahoma (NW of Oklahoma City).
0930 roll out with 50 Jeeps behind me. Not as many as previous years but to be honest it was much more manageable and 50 Jeeps will likely be the new limit for future events.
We head south out of Cashion a few miles to the only muddy road in the county. I had been in the area the Tuesday before the event and this road was much muddier than it was this day, but with temps nearing 100* and clear skies this was expected though I had hoped there would be more.
We headed West to our first stop, a Chisholm Trail marker and abandoned house. The Chisholm Trail was a route used in the mid to late 1800s to heard cattle from Texas to Kansas to be loaded on a train and shipped East.
The house likely abandoned about 20 years ago still had household items left by it's previous inhabitants, including a library book. I wonder what the over due charges are on it?
From here we continued West to out first cemetery, the Mount Zion Cemetery.
After walking amongst the dead we continued West to the town of Reeding, or what is left of Reeding. The farming town died out by the late 60s and all that is currently left are a couple foundations. Rather ironic I think that a farming town that could not survive is now home to two large (1 new) grain elevators that are actively used. The town is still noted on maps and even has a sign on Highway 33 that runs north of the townsite a few miles.
From here we turned North to the next cemetery, the Grimes Cemetery.
We jumped a couple miles NW to an old one room school house. Most of the school houses I find in my back road travels are made of native stone with the roof typically caving in. This is the first wood sided school I have found that is still in relatively good shape, except for the missing windows. It was a great stop with it's old piano, chalk board, and teachers chair. Unfortunately I could not find any records for this school, the records I typically use were not as well documented for this county.
We turned and made a run South to our final cemetery of the day, the Clear Creek Cemetery.
From here we jogged a few more miles SW to cross a rickety bridge and then again headed back North to the town of Kingfisher where our final stop for the day was the Chisholm Trail Museum. We started at a Chisholm Trail marker so I figured it fitting to end at the Chisholm Trail Museum.

Without further ado here are the pics in sequential order (to the best of my ability).