Seeing the New Through the Old (Post #402) 10/14/2013

A newer model Range Rover was parked at Big Truck Tacos a few weeks ago. I snapped this with the thought of the old giving way to the new.

We all are aging and the old ways and old things are becoming newer. The harder I try to hold on to the old things the quicker they seem to pass.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

Lines and Food (Post #398) 10/7/2013

I loved the lines in this photo. If I were a better photographer I think this photo might have been even better.

Uptown has really changed. The building behind the BWB has been having a “Going Out of Business” for more than 13 years. The building will be razed later this year and a new shopping center put there. Kathryn of the Big Truck Taco, Mutt’s, and Back Door Bar-B-Que group told me they were venturing into pizza and putting the restaurant in the new site.

When asked, “New York or Chicago style?” She replied, “Italian.” So that’s gonna be nice, I’m looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading, seeing something different, and Happy Rovering.

Way Too Dangerous (Post #392) 9/19/2013

Seriously?!?
I guarantee someone while loading this said, “It’ll be alright.”
Every time he made a minor adjustment in steering the entire truck tipped to the right. We were going between 65-70 mph. When we had to brake your could hear the tires making the rubbing sounds and the grown of tires about to fail.

If he’d had a blow out or had to turn suddenly he’d killed dozens of people. If you haven’t looked closer the truck is full of boulders the size of desks.

He had no tag and I did not know the color of the rig so calling the Highway Patrol *55 was fruitless. I passed him as soon as it was possible, on a straight away.

Stay safe! Thanks for reading, and Happy boulder-free impact Rovering.

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.

Diet Mountain Drew (Post #347) 6/5/2013

Back in September of 2005 we went out to a friend’s farm in Newcastle. We went to shoot and generally just hang out in the country. I let the kids drive the Range Rover.

We moved the seat all the way forward and all the way up so Diet Mt. Drew, then age 12 and small for his age, could reach the peddles. I was passing around the front of the Range Rover when Mrs. Okierover asked him if he was ready to go, he said yes and let off the brake and nearly ran me over.

He recovered and had a great time driving.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

A Late Winter Drive (Post #322) 3/6/2013

Sometimes the best drives are the laziest drives. I was able to sneak away to the South Central Coalition of Historical Trekkers winter gathering at Fort Gibson. The weather was dreadfully cold Friday night but there was a glimmer of hope it would warm up at least during the day on Saturday so off I went.

The drive out was uneventful as I was in the dark most of the way. I’m trying to preserve my annual leave so I left after work on Friday and made the 2.5 hour drive. I still have the dash apart looking for the relay that is buzzing and thus the lights that illuminate the gauges are disabled due to a missing rheostat. The Range Rover was really humming along and I thought I’d check the speedometer so I flipped on the map light under the rear view mirror. The indicator was hovering around 92 miles an hour. “GOOD GRAVY!”

I thought as I slowed her down, but realized, this Rover can still run.

I got to the Fort and made the customary greetings, observing all the protocols of a 19th century gathering and unloaded my stuff. The frost was already settling but as fortune would have it, my mates had us in the north end of one of the dog-trots on the site. Sleeping indoors even when it is cold is a blessing. Having a roaring fireplace was a godsend.

View Larger Map

I put my dinner on and will now give you a recipe to try. This is an OkieRover first on this site. Perhaps I’ll share more of my culinary secrets in the future.

Pan Poached Catfish
Heat a cast iron skillet on coals. Insert two half pound catfish fillets. Add a cup of apple cider. Poach the fillets until the liquid begins to evaporate. Allow to crisp just a bit for texture and serve.

It was a happy accident that the apple cider was in the coffee pot and not just water. Everyone had already eaten so I enjoyed the pound of catfish alone except for a small part that David wanted to try. We all went to bed with bellies full of wine and food, and with smiles on our faces from our palaver.

We woke in the 19th century and went about our day. We took a walk down to the Arkansas river. We spotted several birds among them black vultures, red-headed, downy, and red-bellied woodpeckers. We returned to the dog trot and cooked two hens on our squirrel cookers over an open fire while the flocks of ducks and geese headed to their nesting areas. The troop of pelicans was a nice treat to see as well.

Saturday night was more of the same as Friday and we all had a great time. As Sunday began we were all back in the 20th 21st century. With the Range Rover all packed and my salutations offered I headed home.

My intention was to do a little birding on the way home and to generally wander westerly until I got home. I added a half dozen more birds with a barnacled goose being probably the most unusual of them.

This a view of the fort from the road which passes to the north of the fort. 

This is the bridge that passes over the Arkansas near the fort going North. A great relic of the 1930s. Passing to the right you can see the railroad bridge. A mile up this road is the site where Sam Houston built his cabin and lived while with the Cherokees (Wikipedia). There is only a rubble field and a mound where the cabin once was.

Oklahoma does a pretty good job of telling the story of our state in road side markers. I had never heard of the Nuyaka Mission nor of the Green Peach War (RootsWeb). It was a civil war between two factions of Creeks in the 1880s.

My good friend Mike Segroves often seeks out the Dairy Queens while on his travels. I spotted this one in Okmulgee. My Great-Grandparents on my father’s mother’s side of the family, the Fishers lived in Okmulgee.

Okmulgee State Park and Dripping Springs State Park are found just past the outskirts of town west of Okmulgee. It was nice to wind through the parks at a leisurely pace.

Oklahoma, before integration was fashionable, had white towns, Indian towns, and black towns. I’m not going to regale you with politically correct terms here, it was what it was. There were many prominent men and women in each that from the surface were exactly the same as their counter parts in the other races.

One of those towns was Boley, Oklahoma (Wikipedia). To say it has seen better days is an understatement. But where many dozens of towns are just a burned out building here or there, Boley is still in the fight.

I would have loved to have seen this town in its hey day. To be there when they fought off Pretty Boy Floyd and his gang in 1932 would have been epic.

I ran out of places I’d never been just after Boley. I made my way to the more traveled of highways and made up some time to get home before dark. The leisurely pace was good for the pocket book too. I averaged 16 miles per gallon on the way home. Not bad! Imagine what it would have been if I had a transmission that didn’t slip in fourth and some new oxygen sensors.

This was another lengthy post, so first thanks for hanging in there with me this far.

I’ve received a few emails from folks this week looking advice and help finding other Land Rover services. I am always happy to help when I can. I’m thinking positive thoughts for Casey in California and Tom in Maryland, I hope you both can get your Range Rovers back on the road in short order.

And lastly, Land Rovers USA contacted me about a picture I posted to their Facebook page. They were very keen on it and want to use in an upcoming project. Keep and eye out for it.

Thanks for reading, thanks for writing, and Happy Rovering.