SCARR – Day One (Post #477) 4/3/2014

The South Central Area Rover Rally was finally upon us. Leading in to it, I have had the worst two weeks professionally in my career. My wife has been my rock through it all and wanted me to get away for a trip. Mr. Fisher’s life recently has not been a cake walk either and Mrs. Fisher was also happy to see him out of the house doing something fun.

I’m going to stop here and thank both of them. You two are the best wives any two guys could possibly have. Your support to us is never-ending and we are very appreciative. Thank you.

wp-1395932045690Thursday started cold and blustery in Norman. Mr. Fisher and I organized our kit and got it loaded on to the Range Rover. It seemed like a lot of kit for a three-day event but we wanted to be comfortable. Even with all the kit we managed to forget several items:

  • Chicken Breasts. (Stopped and bought some.)
  • Butter. (We stopped and bought some and some honey butter. Like icing for biscuits.)
  • Gas Lantern (However we did have plenty of gas canisters. Battery powered LED lamp served well.)
  • Slipper/tent shoes. (Getting out of the tent simplified by not needing socks and boots for late night bladder calls.)
  • Additional blanket for my sleeping bag. (Turned out not to need it.)
  • CV joint lube. (Should always be in my spares kit.)

We got in the vehicle and after deciding to take the two lane black top down we headed south Highway 77. I told Mr. Fisher about a great bridge between Wanette and Byars, Oklahoma. He said, “I don’t have any place in particular to be right now.” It’s the single lane bridge I have shown in previous posts. We made our way for it and stopped to take a few pictures.

DSCF2489
Such a great bridge.

We continued on Oklahoma Highway 57A to finally connect with Oklahoma Highway 3 and turned “east”. It’s a southeasterly road. We had a bit of trouble in Ada as I got us headed the wrong way on highway 399. We made several “course corrections” and got through Ada.

As it turned out we had several course corrections. It seemed that I tended to miss my exits. When we got to Texas the roads were marked funny down there and we were often in the “wrong lane”. On this trip I give my navigation skills a C-. That is my own self-evaluation. Mr. Fisher may give it a lower grade.

We did learn that Texas only allows the sale of Ethanol when it comes to petrol. I was very disappointed by this. It’s a known fact that oxygen sensors don’t like Ethanol. Well, my oxygen sensors don’t like ethanol for sure. We bought it anyway as there were no other options.

DSCF2492We passed through several bands of rain as we got further south. Fortunately we missed the worst of it. We reached the Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area in the early evening/late afternoon to darkening skies. As I pulled up I spotted Jeff Aronson from Rovers North. He was gracious enough to take a picture with me.

DSCF2493

We found a suitable camp site near Camp Maybey. It was on the west side of the hill in the short pine trees. We were sheltered from the weather as best we could expect.

DSCF2494

I have never put the tent Mrs. Okierover bought me four years ago up. Our son Diet Mountain Drew had put it up once when he went camping. Considering the last person to have the tent out of the bag was an 18-year-old we figured it was a good idea to see what was missing and get a sense of how it went up. Unfortunately we pick a very windy Saturday to attempt it. The wind was gusting 30mph that day. The preassembly was mostly unsuccessful. But to Diet Mountain Drew’s credit everything was there.

So we worked through the tent components until we got them where they probably need to be. The tent was up, the awning went up, and set out the camp gear. The awning was brought because the weather service called for bumpy weather and for rain. Cooking in the rain is no fun. So we made it a non-factor.

DSCF2497

We made dinner of chicken breast, fried red potatoes, and a baguette. Desert was Zingers (thank you for remembering Mr. Fisher) and Ding Dong cupcakes.  After dinner we expected bad weather so we put the awning down to lessen its exposure and went over to the community camp fire. I met John Joyce who parked next to the Big White Bus at Lowe’s recently.

DSCF2504

We ended up chatting with Jeffery Aronson about classic cars they had all owned. The good old days when cars were cheap and we were not tied down by lifestyles. It was a good time.

We finally decided it was time to retire. We were fortunate that the clouds did not let any rain escape and the wind minded it’s manners all night.

As the posts become available I’ll update links for the other posts.

SCARR – Day Two

SCARR – Day Three

SCARR – Day Four

Lessons learned the first day:

  • Texas only sells crappy ethanol fuel. Nice try. The emissions you might be saving are erased by all the junked cars ethanol destroys.
  • Bringing two camp kitchens is silly. We decided the host shall bring their kitchen and the guest only needs their sleeping gear.
  • Ada was laid out by a drunk spastic squirrel and a redesign of their entire highway system is badly needed.
  • Oklahoma can’t make or maintain a road to save their lives. Texas’s roads are far superior.
  • The Dallas Metroplex has not encroached out as far as Highway 271 in Texas. It is still very rural out there.
  • Headlamp lights are worth their weight in beer.

Here are some more photos from the day.

Our neighbors.
Our neighbors.
DSCF2490
Panorama at the bridge on the Washita River.
Dinner, delicious.
Dinner, delicious.
The road to Camp Mabey. You might grade this road as a 1 diamond trail.
The road to Camp Maybey. You might grade this road as a 1 diamond trail.
Mr. Fisher, Tent Assemblyman 2nd Class.
Mr. Fisher, Tent Assemblyman 2nd Class.
Washita River.
Washita River.
The pavilion at Camp Mabey
The pavilion at Camp Maybey

Thanks for reading, again thanks to Mrs. Okierover and Mrs. Fisher, the best wives two guys could ever hope to have, and Happy Rovering.

5 Replies to “SCARR – Day One (Post #477) 4/3/2014”

Comments are closed.