Road Cycling - Riding a road bike on gravel and dirt roads

I plan to purchase my first road bike, a Trek 1500. My concern is that I live off of a dirt road and have a long gravel driveway. There is 1/2 mile of hilly dirt/gravel road between my house and the start of the paved road. My first instinct is to avoid the gravel and dirt roads altogether, to avoid flats and possibly slipping and falling on some loose dirt.

Am I correct in my assumptions? Or... will tires like the Specialized Armadillo (kindly recommended to me from a previous post) be able to handle the dirt/gravel roads? Having to drive to get to the paved part of the road so I can ride my bike will get old quick.

Thanks, and I look forward to any feedback.

I have ridden my road bike on both gravel and dirt. The only thing to remember is to take it slow. After a few trips down your driveway you will know which path to follow. Just avoid deep gravel and "deep" loose dirt.
Here in Florida they have whats called coquina roads. These are basically crushed sea shells and packed sand. It sounds pretty similar to what you have.

Like george says, a road bike is fine on packed gravel, but just about impossible on the loose stuff. Usually gravel driveways and roads pack down really well under the wheel tracks from cars, as long as you can stay in the wheel tracks you're ok. If you have to move over for lots of traffic, things could get interesting for you.

You shouldn't have any trouble with flats unless there's lots of glass and metal mixed in with gravel.

My drive is .2 mile gravel, and I've lived on gravel roads in situations similar to your several times. I agree with George. It'd be better to avoid them, but if you make sure your tire pressure is up to snuff, don't go too fast, and avoid obvious obstacles, you'll be fine.

And for what it's worth, I'm not sure that Armadillos will help that much in this case. The type of flat you usually get from riding on dirt/gravel roads is a pinch flat, often called a snakebite flat (because of the way it looks, almost always two adjacent holes about 1/2" apart). It's caused by hitting an obstruction, which mashes the tire and tube against the rim, puncturing the tube. I'm just sayin... Armadillo is a good tire....