Category: road trips

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Honey Springs 150th Anniversary, Going Home – Part 4 (Post #413) 11/14/2013

After I finished checking out the 1960’s Series 88 inch, I got the Range Rover back on the road and sorted out my route home.

I wanted to head for Dripping Springs State Park. It is a heavily wooded park with a small but idyllic lake. I knew the trees had recently begun the change and thought I could get a couple of nice pictures. I started out of Rentiesville and headed north on a two lane blacktop N1040 aka North Broadway street. I took it up to what is called County Line Road  aka E1010 road. This road is the border between McIntosh (Wikipedia:History) and Muskogee (Wikipedia:History) counties.

It was a rutted dirt road and I thought it perfect for a “shakedown” of the Range Rover. This is a representative picture of what I drove for a dozen miles or so. Continue reading “Honey Springs 150th Anniversary, Going Home – Part 4 (Post #413) 11/14/2013”

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Whiskey Creek Ford (Post #354) 6/17/2013

Crossing the Whiskey Creek Ford in Marshall County, Oklahoma. I diverted down Whiskey Creek while I was sight-seeing on the way to Fort Washita for their annual rendezvous.

The county has built a bridge over Whiskey Creek and the ford is no longer in use. RovErica totaled the Disco a year later bumping into a big pickup truck on the way back to Norman North during lunch hour.

View Larger Map

Thanks for reading, take the road less traveled even if they build a bridge over it, and Happy Rovering.

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Branson, Missouri (Post #294) 6/6/2012

I had never been to Branson, Missouri before this last weekend. I have never had any interest in going to Branson before this last weekend. And sadly, after visiting, I still don’t.

My wife and I needed some alone time. We’ve been through a lot in the last 8 months and decided to treat ourselves to a trip. My wife has been trying to get me to “stay in a cabin by the lake” for 15 years. I’ve told her a dozen times I stay in cabins by lakes all the time and that she should come with me some time. But my kind of cabin is not her kind.

We didn’t do any shows, or theme parks or even any restaurants. So maybe if I had I may have a totally different opinion.

The Inn.

So Mrs. OkieRover found a place called Crystal Cove Bed and Breakfast. I will now tell you about it. I didn’t like the bed, way too soft for me. Another couple mentioned the bed softness at breakfast on Saturday.

This was our first Bed and Breakfast, so we didn’t know “how it worked”. We showed up to breakfast 5 minutes late on Saturday. I was embarrassed. The innkeeper was serving when we managed to walk the 25 feet to the dining area from our room.

We are lazy travelers. We usually don’t even have a schedule when we travel. The fact we had to be somewhere “promptly” was going to be an issue.

We chatted politely with the other guests. My wife is painfully shy so this is not in her wheel-house. I can talk to a mailbox for two hours so I carried us. We ate and it was wonderful. Thick cut bacon, scrambled eggs, biscuit, juice, hash browns. We were the last to sit and the first to git. We had a loose plan to visit my brother in Springfield which was an hour drive one way. We were expected for lunch, so we got up.

We went down to the lake and took a few snaps and then got on the road to Springfield. We were almost immediately halted by the ridiculous traffic heading to Silver Dollar City. I won’t bore you with how there weren’t enough lanes to carry the traffic or the 15 minutes we sat in traffic waiting for people to turn left. We should have gotten more intel about this. I blame myself.

We visited with my brother and nephew and after a little forgetfulness on my wife’s part we headed back to our room. We were both pretty wiped so we just napped. Then we watched the Oklahoma City Thunder put it on the San Antonio Spurs. So much for your sweep Spurs. As of this writing the Thunder is one win away from playing in the NBA Championship.

That was a HUGE “Keep Right” sign
Our “cabin”
Sunlight through the prism of a lamp.
Koi pond. Not big enough to eat  yet.

Water fall on the koi pond near the dining area.
Scenic Overlook

Sunday came and I rolled Janie out and told her we needed to be early for breakfast. We got down there at 8:45am. Unfortunately for us…breakfast on Sunday was at 8am. UGGGGH! So we tried to excuse ourselves as the innkeeper was telling us he was just getting ready for church. He insisted we eat. French toast. Again, delicious, but maybe too rich for us. Once again we were totally embarrassed. I mailed a letter of apology today. (I know, old school, but I felt it was necessary. We are not “those people”.)

The route.

We took 412 out of Tulsa and wandered through Arkansas to Southern Missouri. The trip home we took all secondary highways. It was a nice drive home.

On the way home we ran across this interesting gem.

He had just pulled in to the gas station ahead of us and I had to stop and talk to him. It was a Series 2 but with a twist. The frame was totally roached out. They had a Ford that had rolled and was a solid frame but no body. So he and his father married the two. It even still had the Ford steering column. The frame was a bit longer so they added the stretch in front of the windscreen just behind the bonnet.

He was really enthusiastic and said they had a great time working on it. That’s the spirit. He had Mastercraft tires on it and I asked him how he liked them. He said they weren’t all that loud and had a nice narrow look which is signature to these vehicles. I hope he reads this and contacts me. I’d love to know more about this unique rig.

I took this last picture of the Series and we were back on the road. I did not see even one Range Rover Classic the entire weekend. We saw a few Discovery’s and a two Range Rover second editions.

All in all a good trip. I’m not sure I have any more interest in going back. But for a 5 hour drive, it was very scenic and a nice change of pace from our normal routine.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Tornado, Danger Close, Family Now Even Closer (Post #289) 4/17/2012

Many of you may have seen the news about a recent Tornado outbreak in Oklahoma. We had some tornadoes that’s for sure. We even had one in Norman. Yes, the town that NEVER has tornadoes had a small one on Friday evening. I was driving home when it went through town. I arrived home only minutes after it went through the First Courthouse neighborhood south of my house. 2500 feet is about what we figured the distance at. RovErica and Mrs. OkieRover watched it track past the back of the house. Stupid as it sounds, its what most Okies do.

I think it will be considered and EF1, if even that. We did not get the houses flattened and widespread damage you are accustomed to seeing when our state is portrayed on the news after a twister. Woodward, Oklahoma on the other hand got it bad, again. My adopted mother lost five (5) cousins (it might have been seven I can’t remember) in the 1947 Woodward tornado that killed one hundred and seven (107) people. As of this morning six (6) people have died in this recent storm. Many more are in critical condition in local hospitals.

It was an exciting evening with lots of wall clouds forming, rotation of clouds on the bottom and that eery feeling something was about to happen. Once the power came back on we watched on and off coverage of the weather until late. A second line of very menacing looking storms was scheduled to blow through at 4:00 am. They turned out to be lots of lightning and a little rain. Generally nothing to write home about.

On Sunday it cleared up and we took my mother’s ashes to the Glenwood Cemetery in Perkins, Oklahoma. We made contact with the family that I never knew. They were all so excited to meet us. It was a bit overwhelming. I got to meet a high school friend of her’s and so many 2nd and 3rd cousins that I lost track of who was who.

After the ceremony, if you could call it that, we went back to a cousin of my mother’s to have fellowship and a meal. It was fun to watch the grand kids knock about on the farm. We chatted until it started getting on into evening. My sister-in-law came along and we all had a good time.

There is a Courtwright family reunion coming in June and I was enthusiastically invited several times. The Gates family reunion isn’t until next year. I don’t think it will be that long before I hear from that family again.

Thanks for reading, say a prayer for those affected, keep your head down and your eyes on the sky, and Happy Rovering.

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Ever had one of those a-ha moments? (Post #267) 10/2/2011

Saturday was a beautiful day in America’s heartland. I finished my homework early this week and my wife has a new book and bible study to prepare and the Oklahoma Sooners had a late start. All that meant I got some garage time. I went out to the garage and fired up the TV for some regional college football matchups.

I still have a lot of things in the garage from our last garage sale. So my plan was to get the garage organized. At present I couldn’t reach anything on my shelves and getting to the tool chest was only possible due to my training in the Marine Corps at avoiding booby traps.

I got to what I call the heavy tool shelves and noticed my small chain saw was down. I forgot that I loaned it to my neighbor and he reported that the chain was too dull to use. It turns out that all my chains are dull. They needed to be sharpened and I only know one place locally that does that. Dave’s Small Engine Repair in Noble, Oklahoma. My wife graduated from Noble High School. My best friend Master Guns Jason gets his chains sharpened there so…ROAD TRIP!

I grabbed the keys and was excited to get the Range Rover out on the road. It had been a while since I had driven her. I expected I would drive her or at least fire her up to charge the battery this weekend.

I grabbed the keys and my chains, jumped in and turned the key…rattle, rattle, rattle. I didn’t have enough battery to get her turned over. I pulled the Civic up and jumped her. Varooom.

I still have an air bubble in the cooling system so the low coolant light still comes on in cycles. The excessive heat this summer has cause the glue to fail on the rear view mirror. I also noticed the metallic rattle sound had gotten WORSE. Worse? how on earth could it get worse? I haven’t driven her in a month. I went about two blocks and decided I could drive no further with this sound it had to be found.

I originally thought it was either the trailer I was pulling or something in the exhaust. The pitch of the metal rattling sound is how you know what to look for. I thought for sure it was the muffler. I dropped down under the rear of the truck and looked around. And then I saw it.

I remembered the sound and thought perhaps it could be the mud guard? It sounded a little like the mud guard scraping sound from the front axle. So I looked at the axle hub area and sure enough there was the mud flap for the left rear dangling and dragging on the rim. Each time I hit a bump it would jump up and land on the rim causing a clanking.

I had horrific ideas of what might have gone wrong under there. Everything from I did something wrong on the bushing replacement project, to needing an entire new exhaust, to something I haven’t worked on yet. And in the end it turned out to be something silly simple. A couple of bolts I had improperly tightened on the last brake job project.

I thought I could fix it right there. I looked in the back and low and behold no tool bag. So I had to go back to the house and get the tool bag and exact a repair.

I got it tightened down and examined the scrape wound I got from reacting to a burn on the exhaust. Not too bad. I’ve had worse, much worse. I tossed the tool bag in the rear and as I was getting everything sorted I think I have an inadequate tool kit. More on that in a later entry.

I climbed behind the wheel and took off for Noble. Oh.my.gawd! It was like driving a new Rover! No rattling, no odd noises when I turned, no clangs when I hit the speed humps. It was great!

I got to the shoppe and standing there in the parking lot was the former State Senator Cal Hobson. Cal told me the shoppe was closed on weekends. That figures. I should have known better. He asked me if I knew where another place to get sharpening done was, I replied, “no but if you do I’ll follow you over there.” It turned out we were both out of luck for today.

I figure I’ll drop by there next week. I have a sharpening tool for chainsaws. But I have too many to mess with and thought perhaps I could learn something from them sharpening them. It seems when I sharpen I only get a couple of uses out of the saw before it is in effective and I’m wishing for a good sharp ax.

I’ll leave you with an A-Ha moment and thank you for reading and wish you Happy Rovering.

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Tina, tools and tailgating (Post #252) 3/18/2011

If you are anything like me and my Twitter buddy Tina ( @tinastullracing ) you know how important your tools are to your success as a Land Rover shade tree mechanic. I would echo exactly everything she says about having the right tool and you don’t “know it” until you “do it”. I’ve used Craftsman tools and know that the warranty is pretty unbeatable.

Everyone has their own opinion about tools and quality. I have a pretty good collection of crappy hand me downs and stuff I inherited from my dad. I’ve taken 45 year old Craftsman sockets down to Sears have them replaced. I’ve used screwdrivers as levers and chisels and when they fail I take them back and get another one. That’s pretty unbeatable. Get good stuff and you won’t be disappointed later.

Check out Tina’s video below.

Hopefully we won’t need any tools this weekend as I take the Range Rover down to Frisco, Texas to watch the mighty Chicago Fire beat FC Dallas in an MLS matchup on Saturday at Pizza Hut Park. I’ll be packing the tailgate gear down for a tailgate pre-match party. So if you are inclined come by and look for us in the parking lot around 2:00pm we’ll be having a good time. Stop by for a beer.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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