Category: blogging

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A new decade of driving Land Rovers (Post #163) 1/6/2010


I received a comment recently to one of my posts which was

很讚的博客……………………………….

I had the characters translated by a Chinese friend and it was roughly translated into English as good blogger. Sadly the dots following the comment were each a link to a different porn site. So it was not so much a compliment to me as a SPAM for some porn sites and that got me thinking.

And it made me curious to look and see where my users come from. The StatCounter.com software that tracks my hits can give you some really fun statistics. Like how much time users spend on my site. A lot of the links are 0 (zero) seconds. I guess after they see the picture Google directed them to my site to see they click Back and go on to another site. Or it could be the random Blogger Next Site link they just clicked and then clicked again when they weren’t interested in my content. It’s all good though.

As the site says about the stats page…

What use can the Country Stats have?

Well the best thing about the country stats, is the ‘kick’ you get out of seeing how many countries from around the world are visiting your website! But after the initial kick has worn off, it can also let you decide whether you should be targeting your international visitors more.

I posted the chart of the current visitors. As this new decade begins I’d like to thank all the readers out there for visiting my blog. I don’t make a single dime from this site. I love Land Rovers and the feeling I get with helping others is all I get out of it.

So when you read the last line on a post, believe me I really appreciate it.

So to the guy in Heredia, Costa Rica who checked out my post of Marilyn Monroe in the Land Rover. You were my only visitor from Costa Rica. You weren’t the only visitor to that page as it seems it was one of the most popular.

And to the guy in Gaborone, Botswana who checked out my blog. You were the only person in Botswana who did that, so you are pretty special in an elite sorta way as well.

I’m also comfortable in saying that my visitor from Perth, Australia in November should update his Mozilla and I hope you also liked the picture of Marilyn. I am also pretty sure you are my most remote user depending on how you calculate remoteness.

I have another Australian visitor that is a fairly frequent visitor. Info about you didn’t come down but you are on Westnet Internet Services. I hope the article about Rust on the frame of my Discovery 2 was something you could use. You are my most frequent Australian visitor.

And to the guy in San Jose, California, coming via your Comcast Cable ISP, you are my most prolific visitor. And for that, thank you very much!

And to my second favorite visitor in Brewster, Massachusetts with a few more clicks you will pass the fellow in San Jose.

And to the visitor from London on the 6th of January, 2010 13:14:21 (Central Standard Time) I’m sorry you missed this post and hope you come back to see it soon.

I hope to update the Blog site a bit more often and I have some ideas for some new pages on the parent site www.OkieRover.com. I have been collecting Google Street Views that have Land Rovers in them. So when I’m really, really bored I electronically drive up and down the streets of the world looking for Land Rovers. Yes, I know it’s a sad existence. If you know of a street with a Land Rover on it, send me a link. I’ll add it to the site.

Once again thanks to everyone out there. I know there are a million other things you could be doing instead of reading my blog. I hope 2010 brings you good fortune and a lot of maintenance and repair-free driving.

Thanks for Reading and Happy Rovering.

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New Blog (Post #78) 7/27/2007)

I have finally moved the Rover Log over to a blogging site. It gives me a lot of freedom and a little more exposure to the blogosphere. Like that matters.
Anyway.
All the post from the old blog are here and with the labels at the bottom you can see related posts. Neat-o, right?
Thanks for reading, and happy Rovering.

Posted on

June 26th, 2007 (Post #76)

June 26th, 2007


Not much going on
I haven’t been on to post in a few months. Mostly because, there hasn’t been anything going on. The price of fuel is outrageous. RovErica is driving the Range Rover now. She is quickly learning that like a Sherman Tank, it’s not far to empty in a Range Rover. The sunroof is no longer going back. You can still vent it. But it is jams on when you try to retract it. I’ll have to take it our of the truck I fear to diagnose the problem.

She also reported a screeching sound. But cannot reproduce it. I think it’s brakes but she says it
is not. We also heard a strangle thumping sound under her when we were driving around 50mph on Sunday. Sounded like a tire with a bubble on it. But the tires are still perfect.

The Disco is still going strong.
I think I’m getting a little bit better gas mileage of late. I’m
not sure what to attribute it to though. Could the summer formula of gas make any difference?

I’m still looking for a trailer.
I’ve run into some interesting possibilities. I know where two M116A2 and one M105 trailers are for sale in OKC. The owner wants 450$ each and 650$ if I want the tarps. The M116A2’s formerly had 10kW generators on them. I have looked through the government surplus site at Government Liquidation and see them for sale there but usually with a generator on them. Now I’d love to have a generator on my property. Especially one I could run the whole house on. But I don’t have the money for that type of project.

The M105 trailers are plentiful right now. They have sides and a tailgate. They are also very high up. I’m not sure lowering them is possible. These things are really big too. I used to pull them behind my M554 Kaiser when I was in the Marine Corps. We put the powder for the artillery rounds in them.

The Tool Trailers will probably escape my purchase this time as I don’t have the money right now to do this project. But for an almost ready to go storage trailer/camp kitchen I don’t think you can get any closer than these Pioneer Tool Outfit trailers. They are selling right now for under 400$ on the auction. I’m not sure how high these would go.

Of course the perfect trailers are these Ammunition Trailers. I would like one of these for the pure utility of them. For the most part the adventure of camping is just getting your stuff to the site. And they don’t make trailers this tough.

These sell for around 300$. I know they are available at Surplus stores in North Carolina for this advertised price. Some people put frames on trailers like this and mount their roof top tents on them.

The possibility of getting an M116A2 is still in the works. A fellow here in OKC has them as I mentioned before. M116A2. These trailers have definate potential. The bows are
steel and would support nicely a tent for the tent over style of expedition trailer. Boxes for the kitchen and storage of other stuff would need to be bought or made. This and fact that the two I see will need a few hundred dollars of paint stripping and painting make them the more expensive of the possibilities. You can see they sit pretty high too. That picture is of a lifted Toyota pulling it. The front stone shield would have to be fabricated. But it could be built to hold the spare and the fuel cans and the jacks and the Hi-Lift jack.

Tents are easy to come by. There are several out there. Most of them start around 1500 and go up. I recently found an outfit on eBay that was selling a rooftop for under 800$. I will probably get one if I go that route. I still haven’t ruled out getting a pop-up camper. But the same deal applies there. How cheap can I get one and how much will it take to get it in shape and fixed up to use? Something tells me I should probably get a pop-up if I want the wife to go along with me on these trips. But who knows, we haven’t even been out yet.

You can see the possibilities are nearly endless. With a budget of around 2000$ you could make a pretty nice outfit. But, sadly, I don’t have 2000 dollars right now.

Blogging
As this is a “blog” by definition. The possibility of moving this to the Blogger website has come up. I currently blog on Devil Dog’s Daily News. It would be much easier for me to post things up if I used this format. And easier for you to look up items and subjects.
So look for that soon.
Posted on

September 19th, 2002 (Post #4)

September 19th, 2002
I just finished the entire diary (took me 3 days reading) for the
ihana.com guys and their trek around the Americas in their Ex-British Marine 109. If you haven’t checked them out, do. They are on the adventure of a lifetime. They have been on the continent for over a year, touring in their truck. I don’t know if I could do that trip but it looks like fun. Their Ex-British 109 is
very interesting and oh man do I want one. My next vehicle will be one of these trucks. Maybe a four door.
I know I can’t afford the Defender 110 NAS. Their owners are very proud of them. But I could get one of the more spartan vehicles the are EX-MOD. There are a few importers out there.Dude, your getting a Series.

Badges we don’t need no stinking badges….

Actually I think having badges would be cool. I have been poking around the internet and found some links to badges. There are just about a million different badges. Everything type of design you could think of is out there. What would we have on our badges? It’s Oklahoma, maybe a representation of Oklahoma. I was thinking of a cartoon caricature of a Scissor-tail Flycatcher behind the wheel of a Rover like the South Carolina Rover Club, they have a Gator. We could go more “high brow” and have a badge like some of the MG clubs. Maybe the shield from the Oklahoma State flag as the background with some lettering. Think about it. Your input will certainly be required.

Here’s a link with some examples.

Car Badges from Around the World

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
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