My New Rover Buddy (Post #375) 8/9/2013

I was privileged enough to take my grand daughter, we’ll call her Pistol, to her first cheerleading camp in Newcastle. The lack of an air bag in the 1993 Range Rover affords her the ability to ride in the front seat. She cheekily borrowed a pair of sunglasses to complete her look.

Her mom, Fireball, was none to pleased about her riding position when I posted this picture to Facebook. +Mrs. Okierover  had to point out that it was safer than when Fireball was riding on the armrest in her grandpa’s 1984 Ford LTD. The only thing holding her from going through the windshield in the LTD was grandma and grandpa’s arms as they instinctively went up when they had to brake hard.

Looks safe to me, wink, wink

Pistol was perched on her booster seat in the Big White Bus and belted in. I remember the days before I was married to Mrs. Okierover and little Fireball was learning about safety in school and we had to all start wearing our “belt seats”. So we made a game of it to see who could get their “belt seat” on first. Before this I NEVER wore my seat belt. The legislature eventually would get around to passing a law requiring seat belts. Our youngest two children do not remember a time before mandatory seat belt wearing.

I had to remind Fireball that if we were going to discuss dangerous and unsafe behavior, that it was illegal for six year old kids to operate motor vehicles in the state of Oklahoma. She drove my 1974 BMW 3.0s on at least two occasions. I would let her drive the car across the field that served as the softball field for a women’s softball team I was helping coach. She’d drive us up to the gravel parking lot behind the Indian Hills Steak House (as of this posting it is now a bar called Mooney’s (Maps.google.com street view) . There she would stop the car and we would swap places.

I wish we still had this car

So as far as safety goes, Pistol was as safe as a bug in a rug in the front seat of the BWB. And comparing her riding position to our habits just 20 years ago she was about as safe as you could ever expect to be. Besides, the air conditioning works better if you are sitting directly in front of the vents when it’s 106 degrees outside in Oklahoma.

I also posted on Facebook that RovErica was out and Pistol was in, as my new Range Rover buddy. This brought much scorn from RovErica and many sad and mad emoticons were exchanged.

I’ve had a quiet month of correspondence with Land Rover owners this month. I have made contact with a fellow Range Rover owner in my home town. We are trying to arrange a meeting to talk Range Rovers. More on that later.

The maps came in for a new trip I’m planning. I plan to drive across Oklahoma on all gravel and dirt roads. More on this later as well.

Buckle up, thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.