Category: friends

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Guthrie and Beyond October 2013 (Post #406) 10/30/2013

I loved the lines.
High on a hill east of Guthrie.

Mrs. Okierover and I love a good road trip. So when our oldest daughter (Fireball) told us our oldest grandchild (Pistol, aka Tater) was cheering in Guthrie, Oklahoma, we had to go. Guthrie holds a special place in our family’s history. Fireball was proposed to in this city by our now son-in-law J-man.

From our home in Norman, Guthrie is a solid one hour drive on the interstate. The first grade football game began at 0830. This meant both Fireball and her brood would need to roll out of their racks around 0630 in order to be more or less on time for the game. It’s no small task to haul a 6, 4, and 9 month old anywhere let alone at 0630. I’ve done it, alone, with only 6$(US) in my pocket, so I know. (A story for another time.)

I am not fond of “rolling out” at 0730 on my only “sleep in” day of the week. Add driving an hour on the interstate on a OU home football game weekend. Not fun. So I ponied up the money for us to stay in Guthrie over night. The grand kids had never stayed in a hotel so we knew they would have fun. Continue reading “Guthrie and Beyond October 2013 (Post #406) 10/30/2013”

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HamrenDan Checks In (Post #403) 10/18/2013

One of the first people I met online in the Range Rover community was Dan Hamren. He had a sweet expedition style rig he named “Dubya” AKA “The Beast”. It was a 1993 Range Rover Classic LWB. His current project is a 1995 Range Rover Classic safari style rig. That’s it in the picture below.

Looking at the pic, I’m thinking zebra stripes paint job.
Yes that’s a bonnet up there on top, Dan says, “It’s a work in progress.”

It was good to hear from Dan and it’s always interesting to see what Dan’s been working on.

Thanks for reading and Happy Safari Rovering.

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Why? That’s easy, just look west! (Post #396) 9/30/2013

People often ask me why I live in Oklahoma. I usually respond with a smart-ass comment like, “I wasn’t really consulted as a child.” I was adopted as an infant and it just so happened that both my families, adopted and biological, came to Oklahoma…on purpose a hundred and twenty five years ago, more or less. Five of my first seven years I lived on the island of Guam, my family could have gone anywhere from there they came back to Oklahoma. When I grew up, I could have left. I left to be a United States Marine, but decided to stay in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma is famous for many things. 

  • The orator Will Rogers, 
  • The aviator pioneer Wiley Post (coincidentally Will and Wiley died in the same plane crash, so we named the airports in Oklahoma City after them), 
  • Indians or as political correctness demands Native Americans,
  • Country and Western (yes both kinds) Musicians (too many to name),
  • The Dust Bowl,
  • Land Runs,
  • The Oil Industry,
  • Domestic Terrorism,
  • Tornadoes,
  • Miss Americas,
  • and our state song is the only one almost all Americans recognize as a state song and can even sing a line or two from. Take that New Hampshire, keep trying.

I could go on by naming a lot of famous stuff non-Okies wouldn’t know anything about. (See also, OU Football, Mistletoe, Scissor-tail Flycatchers, bison, parking meters, shopping carts, etc…).

But this post is about….sunsets. No really, sunsets. The great plains have the most beautiful sunsets in our country. Bet you didn’t know that. Montana is famous for their “big sky”, eh, I’ve seen it. California and Florida have ocean sunsets and I’ve even seen a few of them. But they don’t rival the plains.

So, this gets back to the facts, as I was driving home last week and we had one of our more or less average sunsets, I captured it. When I see the sunset I stop and count my blessings. I have been blessed with a great wife (think about all those pretty Okie girls who didn’t run for Miss Oklahoma….), three great kids, three grand kids, and I live in a great land where I’m free, and the sun gives me a free show more nights than not. So as you can imagine I say thank you, a lot. I have all this in Oklahoma.

I lost a dear friend this week. Whit Edwards was a great historian, actor, husband, father, and a great friend. So tonight when you are wishing you had an Oklahoma sunset to watch, thank God for your blessings and try to treat others so they will remember you long after you are gone.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Rovering.

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Slow Down, Buy Fewer Tools to Fix Your Mistakes (Post #340) 5/14/2013

I’ve got to learn to SLOW DOWN. I was in a bit of a manic state Saturday. I had so much I wanted to get done, I didn’t know where to start. You’ve been there.

This time I cross-threaded one of the bolts that holds the right rear brake caliper to the hub. So Monday on the way home I have to make a stop at J&B to buy another tap. I won’t be surprised when they tell me they don’t have that “weird bolt pattern”. But I’ve got to try. When I told my future son-in-law about this, he told me he owns a complete set of taps and dies, but it is at his father’s house. A LOT OF GOOD THAT DOES ME!

I told him he needed to store that in my garage. He was smart and didn’t commit to bringing it to my home to be “stored”. I just created a new definition of the word “store”.

store [stawr, stohr] noun, verb, stored, stor·ing, adjective

17. To use discretely when I screw up a bolt or threaded hole, especially on a Saturday when all the stores that might, even remotely, have the tool I need are closed.

I’ll get around to submitting that definition to the committee over at Webster’s after finals are over later this week.
More after the jump….

I did manage to get my sandblasting cabinet into use. I blasted some of the rust off the brake caliper I was complaining about a few posts ago. I also de-rusted the bracket that holds the air conditioning dryer. It was bad. It is now coated in gray primer and re-installed.

I have to complain again about the crappy selection of fittings available at the two Lowe’s stores in my area. Seriously?! are they trying to reduce stock so they can pull those cabinets out? If I was their hardware vendor I could retire on the order that would need to be filed to replace the stock that was missing between the two sites. I’m not kidding. They should just pull the sections of stainless fittings out. MOST of the drawers were empty.

Lowe’s in Moore Oklahoma

Ridiculous. I’ve complained before, I need to complain more. Maybe they will send me a coupon. I know they will never fill their drawers so I’m not really sure what I’d buy with the coupon.

It’s almost like I’m living back in 1975. Back then, if my dad wanted any kind of hardware he had to drive to Oklahoma City. So we would drive 30 minutes (one way) up to the 74th Street Expressway and get what he thought he needed and anything else he might not. I was a lead-pipe cinch we would not make another trip to OKC if he needed something. One trip would kill half a day. Who has that kind of time?

To be absolutely honest…I was pretty sure they wouldn’t have the hardware I needed. In fact, it was just a whim I decided to check.

So back to the sandblasting cabinet, I need a new plexi-glass window and I need to replace the media inside. Overall it worked pretty great. I need to sort out what setting to set the air compressor on. Hopefully full blast will not be the setting necessary.

I like to give a shout out to one of my good friends and fellow Marine. I saw Scott at church on Sunday and he told me he always reads my blog. He mentioned trouble with commenting. Mrs. OkieRover mentioned the same trouble. In Mrs. OkieRover’s case its probably a “how to” in Scott’s it was something else. More on that, later.
Ooo-rah Scott, keep on truckin’ brother.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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The Great Google Donkey Controversy (Post #315) 1/18/2013

If you follow any weird and unusual news you’ve probably saw this story which is “going viral” as you read this.

It seems there is a controversy brewing that a Google Street View car ran over a donkey in Kweneng, Botswana. I personally don’t believe that happened. Donkey Fact: Donkeys take dirt baths.

What on earth does this have to do with Oklahoma or Land Rovers? Good question.

It’s a weak link, but we have donkeys in Oklahoma too. Bet you didn’t know that…hehehe, whatever.

Donkey Fact:

 If you want to protect your livestock from coyotes you put a donkey out there with them. This is evidence all over central Oklahoma.

One of my best friends lost their family donkey just a few months ago. He was most likely attacked by a cougar or perhaps less likely, a pack of coyotes or wild dogs. It’s only marginally less dangerous to live in Oklahoma than it is Sub-Saharan Africa. Once you hear one of these big cats at night, you’ll think twice about camping on the South Canadian River overnight.

The Land Rover connection is much easier.
The Google Street view car passes a Land Rover Defender just before it encounters the donkey in the road. The Defender is from Africa Insight. You can see Africa Insight’s Chairman Christopher Race driving one of their Defender 110’s pulling a Sankey trailer. I don’t know the good people at Africa Insight, I just know how to use Google.

If you backup from the donkey lying in the road with the Google Street View application, you will see the above Land Rover Defender pass as you proceed down the road. This is why I love Google Street View, candid images of every day happenings, frozen in time.

This is a link to the Google Streetview in question. You are free to navigate around and see the sights.

I also created this animated GIF for you to enjoy…yeah, I’m a full service website.

This page is dedicated to my friend Tom Pecore’s donkey, 
“Cowboy”, 
so named by his grandson Jace.
Cowboy was attacked by a cougar in rural Norman
and had to be put down last year.
“A gentle and sweet animal.” – Tom
Cowboy and Tom

Okay, let’s review. Two donkey facts. One Land Rover Defender. One family pet. One best friend. That’s a full post if I do say so myself.

Thanks for reading and hoping you have thousands of miles of donkey free contact in your Land Rover. Happy Rovering.

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Its all about the miles, no…it is not (Post #291) 5/20/2011

When you have deer running in front of the truck you’ve probably left what most people call “a road”. I’ve been thinking and planning some upgrades for the Range Rover. Springs and shocks are among the things I’ve been putting on a list. But, I was reading a blog post on The Last Great Road Trip. I got me thinking that perhaps one of these needs to be some cameras. 


I’ve seen so many things I wished I had taken a picture of. The deer galloping up the trail when Jack and I were on our so called “adventure“. The antelope on the side of I-40 on our trip through New Mexico. A random cat perched on a fence post. Lots of different wild life, perhaps too many examples to mention. I need a camera that is ready in an instant. 


I think I’d like a GoPro camera, or something similar. You know the ones for extreme action! I’m pretty boring but if it took good pics and could capture my adventures why not? I imagine a camera that was running all the time, sorta like a dash cam in a police car. If I wanted to save the last few minutes I could hit a button and store the video. So the next time a moose crosses the road in front of me, I’ll have a digital short to share with you. This is going to take some investigation.

I need to slow down on my trips as well. The trip is more than the destination. The trip is the adventure getting there. It has always been so. I need to plan less time driving and more time for stops to see stuff. The  overwhelming desire to get where I’m going has to take a back seat to the drive. (see what I did there? back seat…we are driving…yeah I know, why don’t I have a Pulitzer already?)


We are going on a road trip this summer for our vacation. It is mostly about the destinations and not the trip. The destinations are epic so the trip will be full of stuff to see. We are traveling with another family so the convoy rules will apply.


I’ve got to think about the math of the drive more. Take this in. If you are traveling at 60mph you are traveling one mile a minute. Historically that is an impressive distance and rate. Have you ever thought about why towns in the central plains are all generally about 15 to 20 miles apart? Imagine trying to travel from one to the next with a wagon or horse. With a decent road you are talking about an entire day to go from Purcell to Norman Oklahoma. You stay the night and go home the next day. We do a very similar thing today except we cover hundreds of miles. It is a highly debatable theory that the automobile has done more to destroy towns than an interstate highway system.

Now consider if I see a historical marker on the side of the road, like this one captured by Oklahoman Joy Franklin….



when I pull over and read it, it might take me three to five minutes. If I take a picture, first compared to Joy’s it will look like I gave the camera to a over active twelve year old, secondly I will easily add a few more minutes to the stop. So if it is five minutes…I’ve decided to take five miles (minimum) off my distance for the day. Add up three or four stops and you’ve seriously adjusted your arrival time or distance covered for the day.


I’m a history NERD (and proud) so you can imagine every time I see [insert historical figure’s name] stopped here for a tinkle and a piece of hard tack on [insert date and time] during the [insert historical event or period] and five of their family members perished. Dammit! I’ve got to have a picture.


Joy’s pictures are a lot more than just the place. Her pictures talk to you. She has a great eye and captures America’s road side beautifully. My pictures are just fun for me. My kids couldn’t care less about them and some day they will get to delete them off a hard drive like I’ve had to toss a hundred items my parents collected that meant a lot at the time that today are not valuable to anyone.

Driving less, seeing more. Yes, I think that will be my new motto for Mrs. OkieRover and I’s road trips. All I need now is a camera that doesn’t shut down and takes pretty good pictures. Should I take a class…probably. No, I meant a class on photography…I KNOW how to drive. Don’t say you didn’t think it!


Browse ExpeditionOklahoma’s website to see what pictures are supposed to look like when you are photographically documenting your trips. Thanks too Joy for letting me use the Carrie Nation pic. 
I think I’ll go get a beer now…on SUNDAY….yeah, that’s how I roll…
That’s a joke only if you know who Carrie Nation was, here I’ll make it easy for you.


Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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