A Blog About Land Rovers in Oklahoma
My new job has me eating in some new places. I went to Tucker’s Onion Burgers on the “Classen Curve”. It’s basically a high-end strip mall west of Chesapeake City in Oklahoma City’s north side. I snapped the picture while waiting for my onion burger…mmmmmm, onion burgers.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
any of various activities involving the re-enactment of historical events or the recreation of living conditions of the past
Some people think living history is just a bunch crazy people dressing up in old-timey clothes and hanging out at historical sites. You’ve seen the popular media make fun of living historians. Conan O’brien did a segment on it. (I laughed.)
There are some seriously dedicated people who IMMERSE themselves in their hobby. I’ve met some of them and even I think some of them over do it a bit. Whether it’s trains, model air planes, doll collecting, knitting, Land Rovers, or whatever. Some people really dive into their hobby. Whether its the trekkie learning the Klingon language, or Lord of the Rings fans learning to speak Elvish, or the train enthusiast that photographs all the locomotive engines in North America, it’s no different with living history buffs. Continue reading “Living History Season is Upon Us (Post #457) 2/27/2014”
I was eating at VZD’s on an unusually pretty day back in January when I spied what appeared to be a Cord pull up in front. The owner came in and I asked him if that was indeed a Cord. He said it was a 1969. Four hundred were made.
He told me about them being made in Oklahoma. I found this snippet along with a Youtube video.
These cars were made on an assembly line in Tulsa and later Mannford, Oklahoma for three years. It is a production of the original Cord inspired design but gone is the Lycoming V8 and front wheel drive..instead there is a 5.0 liter Ford power plant. A Chrysler 440 engine was also offered. The body is made of a fiberglass like material, apparently scaled down from the original dimensions of Cord. An earlier version by another company had a Corvair power plant and front wheel drive…it did not last in the marketplace…it was replaced by these Lear models.
I found a history of the Cord company and its principals on this site.
http://www.stutzbearcat.com/cordhistory.htm
According to Hagerty’s has an average value of 21,000$(US). The owner said it was a toy of his and he had only owned it six months.
I wanted to share this little piece of automotive history, history of Oklahoma, and a rare car with you. It’s an eclectic bunch that eats at VZDs in Oklahoma City and their cars reflect that.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
We have had what passes for winter weather in Oklahoma the past week. This is a picture of my drive through Oklahoma City’s Crown Heights neighborhood on the way to VZDs for lunch on Tuesday. You can see what’s left of a light snow from a few days before.
This morning I woke up to 9ºF, light winds (thank God), and very dry snow falling. I snapped a picture and took a short video that wasn’t worth the trouble of setting it up. 9ºF is so cold that the little ceramic heater I have set up in the Range Rover can’t keep the snow off the windows. It’s probably time to upgrade the little bugger next year. I like to get into a warm car in the morning and I don’t like scraping ice.
When I got home last night I was greeted by Sophie and my son’s dog Bo. He had managed to get one of their blankets stuck on his head and he was dragging it behind him like a cape. I wonder how long he’d been doing that. In this picture you can see Sophie greeting me with what can only be described as a “wailing cry, punctuated with slight growls”. She is talking to us. I imagine she is telling us how happy she is that we are home and how much she missed us and about all the people and dogs that passed behind the house during day. It goes on for 5 minutes or more. The more you talk to her, the more she goes on. She usually stops when I give her a “final pat” on the back and tell her “that’s enough”.
I have to confess, I quit paying attention to the weather forecasters on Sunday of this week. I have to mention that they refrained from telling us that we were all going to die. They have actually said that in the recent past. Our news channels are all trying to sell commercial time for cars and furniture and will say just about anything to get you to turn in to the next broadcast. You’ve read my Snowpoxyclipses posts 2009’s Snowpocalypse, and 2011’s Snowpocalypse 2: Electric Boogaloo so you know what they are capable. We are all lucky to still be alive after those weather events. wink, wink
The Big White Bus performed excellently today. I saw several lesser vehicles spinning their wheels and several less sure drivers putting along on the interstate. I try not to be annoying and I give a wide berth when I drive in this type of mess. It just proves the point that when you are picking out tires PRICE is the LAST THING you should be concerned about. Performance is far more important. My current set of Firestone’s have the Revo 2 rubber in them and I’m pretty sure Spiderman is jealous of the grip these tires provide.
Stay warm, thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
What a great bit of advertising. I love the dog not moving when called with that, “I’m not getting back in the truck” defiance and little girl at the end trudging on behind her mum. Where do I get a #Hibernot bumper sticker? I’m all in.
I first saw this video on the Hooniverse website. I snagged this snippet from Land Rover UK’s website explaining Hibernot (Land Rover UK).
Winter. Hibernate? No Chance. #Hibernot
#Hibernot is about embracing the British winter, about enjoying winter in all its glory.
Explore what other people have been getting up to, tell us what #Hibernot means to you and search #Hibernot trails in your local area.
Doesn’t that make you want to go out in the 30 mile per hour winds with 48 mph gusts and experience the -10 F wind chill of the southern plains circa January 26th? Well no. But it does make me want to take my Land Rover somewhere remote and get out and enjoy, if only for an hour, the crisp clean air of winter and the sting of winter cold. The sting that reminds you of February, 1987 the winter that you stood in knee deep water running barbed wire for Dr. Kammerlocher. The sting that reminds you of the weekends you stood on the back of a M110 howitzer in freezing rain while serving your country in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. The sting that reminds you of camping with your friends (just for the fun of it) in period clothing from the 1750’s on the the Javine Farm near Barnsdall, Oklahoma when it dipped to 12 F overnight. The sting that reminds you of the cold air and snow down on the river below the dam at Bull Shoals Lake, Arkansas when you took Mrs. Okierover on her first camping trip in 2013. Simply, hell yes.
Hibernot means not shunning exposure the elements, but embracing them. You would not know winter if you did not have summer. If sweat had never run down your brow while you were standing in the 120 F heat of the high desert of 29 Palms, you could never appreciate the winter blizzards on the southern plains.
We will never be as “hard” as we thought we once were back in our youth. We will never be as foolhardy again either. So get out and enjoy the winter. Get out and let the snow or cold rain fall on you with a “devil may care” (Idiom) attitude. Then get in your Land Rover, turn on the heater, and if they still work your heated seats, and drive to a coffee house or diner and get a warm drink, then drive home remembering the good old days.
Toby Keith said, “I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.” (Youtube video)
Get out and enjoy your old self.
Thanks for reading, Happy Rovering, and Hibernot.
We were blessed again last night with yet another ice storm. An inch of ice was predicted, I think we got 3/4 of an inch here in Norman. The bands of temp changes from freezing to thawing affected the ice in an interesting way by freezing then thawing again giving the ice a shattered look. The sides of the tires look like china plates.
These little storms are exactly why I wired the Range Rover with an extension cord. This is so I can have a portable ceramic heater blowing all winter. I plug it in and only the worst Icepoxyclips and Snowmagedons have me scraping. So last night all the freezing rain just ran down the sides leaving the windows clear and the inside toasty warm.
All that water has to freeze somewhere so the icicles look great.
This is the Chevy Sonic. As you can tell there was not heater inside.
