Category: Oklahoma

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Roof Rack Dilemma (Post #308) 12/16/2012

I was visiting the Atlantic British website (Did you know that have partnered with British Pacific?) yesterday looking for springs and shocks. I think I have that sorted out and am ready to purchase them. Bilstein shocks and Old Man Emu/ARB springs, medium duty. I may still look at TerraFirma equivalents but short of that I’ll go with this solution. This should give me a little lift and still be able to be loaded a bit. Heavy duty springs would stiffen the on highway ride too much. I won’t be using the Range Rover hard enough or often enough to require springs of that caliber.

So after I was scoping out the springs and shocks I got to thinking about stuff to ready the Range Rover for our Circumnavigation of the Great State of Oklahoma. I’ve been thinking about a vehicle wrap and other such silliness. Sponsors? Hey now that’s an idea.

A realistic concern is getting too far from a petrol station. The range on the fuel in the tank is just short of 250 miles. I am thinking perhaps I should plan to carry additional fuel in jerry-cans. And if you are going to do that, you need a roof rack. Seriously, trust me, that is sound logic.

I was also thinking how cool a roof rack would look on the Range Rover. We are going on an expedition, we need to look the part! Am I wrong? I don’t think so!


So I was looking through all the great posts on making your own roof rack at Expedition Portal. Guys have made some seriously awesome roof racks. I know I could made a roof rack. I’d need a welding unit, some grinding wheels, cutting wheels, a ruler, some angle magnet thingies, welding goggles, pipe benders, and some material. It would have to be metal so should I use round stock or square stock?

By the time I spent the money on the tools and stock I still wouldn’t have a roof rack. I could go to my mate JagGuy’s awesome shop and have the welder, bender, and goggles sorted out. A four pack of Boddington’s and perhaps a nice bottle of wine and I’d probably have the basic training needed. But I still wouldn’t have a roof rack.

I could just buy a roof rack. WHAT? You have to be insane. Why buy when you can make? Well, time mostly, that’s why.

I am still in school and next semester is a busy one. Also I’m thinking weight is a factor. So I’m thinking of buying.

$199.95 50″x50″ Roof Rack
$54.95 Roof Rack Gutter Mount
$29.03 FedEx Ground Home Delivery

For around 285$(US) I could have a functioning roof rack. Easy-peazy. No welding, no sourcing steel, no new tools. Hotsy-totsy! I bet you thought hotsy-totsy meant something else didn’t you?

Doesn’t that look great? That rack would look great on my Range Rover. I’ll still need to fabricate some jerry-can brackets. The price on-line was a bit too much for what I saw. The brackets are more expensive than the cans. That seems a bit silly.

If I hit the lottery tomorrow I could probably drop 3000$(US) on kitting out the Range Rover and would probably be short a few items. As it stands I’ll be out shipping and nearly 800$(US) for springs and new shocks. The price above for the roof rack plus 2-4 fuel 20 liter jerry-cans. With all this bolt on poser stuff I still haven’t addressed some serious issues.

  1. The air conditioning is still non-functional.
  2. The transmission still needs to be refurbished.
  3. The ABS system is still in fault.

The repair parts for that stuff will probably run up to 2000$(US). At the end however, I’ll be pretty confident I have a rig we can use at some events. Perhaps I’ll even be able to get Mrs. OkieRover to go camping with me. Wait…how much more money will I spend for that?

On this day there was a terrible tragedy in Connecticut  Remember it isn’t guns that kill kids, sick people kill kids. That sick bastard was going to commit a horrible crime. If he didn’t have a single firearm he’d have used a car or something else.

Say a prayer for the families that lost their children, say a prayer for the people who will deal with this for the rest of their lives.

And finally say a prayer for our country to come together in these difficult times.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

Posted on

Circumnavigating the Great State of Oklahoma (Post #305) 11/24/2012

While we listened on the radio to Norman North High School defeat Owasso Community College* in the semi-final round of the state 6A football playoffs, my wife did some preliminary mapping of a route to circumnavigate the state of Oklahoma.

As I have mentioned before I would like to drive around the entire state of Oklahoma. My ultimate goal would be to drive exclusively on county roads. This would simulate as rough a passage as any jaunt around Africa. Oklahoma has notoriously bad roads and bridges (#6 on the Business Insider Website).

Mainstreet.com has us at #3. Sweet! Well, not really sweet unless you like driving on crappy roads.

Mrs. OkieRover took down some preliminary distance and time calculations. The initial route is on highways that edge around the state. It looks like it would take at least 4 days to accomplish the feat. We plan to make lots of stops and take lots of photos and video so this may morph into several more hours of travel per leg. The best part is if we run out of time we are at the most eight hours from the farthest point directly home.

I am thinking where possible we would use the state line roads. I know there is a lengthy section on the western border and across the northern border. The southern border is the Red River and has a good part of it lined with county roads. We will use these as we can.

The eastern border is mostly “mountainous” or what passes for mountains on the plains of Oklahoma. As such, the roads are a windy passage around the peaks and through the valleys. Not a lot we can do there.

I am thinking the trip will require us to outfit the Range Rover with a roof rack and fuel cans, “just in case”. It would be really awesome if I could figure out how to get the trip sponsored and some coverage by the local news. I will think about this more as we get closer to finding the dates for the trip. Spring Break would be ideal.

As far as the Range Rover mechanically, I think she would make the trip today if I wanted her to. The fuel mileage is not ideal but as I discussed in a previous post we have some things to work on in regards to that. I would like to get the radio outfitted. Having some boss tunes would be good but not absolutely necessary. The Mrs. and I most go radio-free on long drives. We just spend the time talking. And lastly, I don’t think the trip would be possible without air conditioning. Mrs. Okierover is fond of conditioned air.

To recap, it looks like 4.5 days of driving with a moderate level of stops. If the Mrs. is working the numbers she is game to give it a try. I really like to have 100% buy in and I believe I have it. I wish I could say we would sleep in a tent in the fields “expedition style” but that is not practical considering I would not want to “camp” in some farmer’s field without permission. This is Oklahoma and I can tell you I would not appreciate it if I found someone on my land.

Now I’m off to secure some URLs and to plan the next phase.

Thanks for reading. Go Timberwolves and Happy Rovering.

logo*This is an inside joke in our state. A joke the east side schools don’t appreciate. There are four east side schools that are enrollment-wise, twice as big as the biggest west side school. Each of these districts refuse to split like the west side schools have. The largest of them Broken Arrow has 4500 students enrolled 9-12th grades. Therefore the media on the west side of the state calls each of them either a college or university. There is even talk at the OSSAA, Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (the sanctioning body of high school sports) of making a 7A class, just for those schools. We on the west side of the state are all for this, of course. Since 1996 only Jenks High School or Union High School have competed for the state title in football.

UPDATE: We did not win. We were proud to have the chance to play though. Heads are up.

Posted on

The Great State of Oklahoma (Post #300) 8/24/2012

Here’s a song from Ali Harter about The Great State of Oklahoma. And when you are listening, yes, she mentions Mike Morgan’s bedazzled tie and the Gary England Drinking Game.

Songs like this make ya proud to be from the middle of the land of the free, Oklahoma.

Here’s another version that is a bit saltier.

Thanks for reading listenin’ and Happy Roverin’.

Posted on

Fun to see a Defender in OKC (Post #292) 5/22/2012

Its not every day in Oklahoma City that you see a Defender especially a diesel left hander. The owner was very gracious to allow me to take a picture. I followed her several blocks. She said, “I figured I did something to annoy you or you wanted to see the Defender.” Funny. Her husband really likes Land Rovers and it has seating for twelve. Awesome.

I really would like to get one of these…maybe someday.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

Posted on

God Bless Oklahoma (Post #248) 2/21/2011

My son’s friend Briana capture this photo on a recent road trip. She posted it on her Facebook page and titled it “Yay, Oklahoma!”

It’s a sad fact, but I’m afraid it is accurate. Bri has an interesting way of looking at the world. It is sad that she sees this in our state. But it is good she knows the dangers are out there and she avoids them.

God bless Oklahoma.

Proudly powered by WordPress