A Blog About Land Rovers and Living in Oklahoma
It turned out to be a long drive for nothing. My goal this past weekend was to go to the Southwestern Regional Rendezvous in Leslie, Arkansas. I went. But I didn’t stay.
It was a 5.5 hour drive to Leslie, Arkansas from Norman, Oklahoma. About an hour into the drive it started to rain. It rained from Shawnee all the way to Leslie. When I got to Leslie I found the event. I pulled into the lot that was passing for a parking lot.
Continue reading “A Long Drive for Nothing (Post #531) 3/16/2015”
I love Oklahoma weather.
The weather in Oklahoma is unique. Southern California has their two seasons, dry season and sunny season. Florida has their dry season and wet season. Oklahoma has all four seasons.
We have Spring aka Tornado Season. You’ve seen my posts, this season keeps most of the weaker of our species away.
Summer, also known as what passes as Sub-Saharan Africa. Its a mystery to me why we don’t have more lions wandering around.
Winter, where we have ice storms, thundersnow, and wind that cuts through you like a knife. You haven’t lived until you’ve sat through a late November football game in Oklahoma. You can well imagine the wind chills in winter keep a fair number of people away too.
And finally, Fall, the best of our seasons.
The best thing about the weather in Oklahoma, is you can have 3 of the 4 seasons in a single week of weather. The day I shot the video above the weather was 70F and just a week earlier we had a high of 37F. For the month we had a low of 17F and a high of 79F.
Last night we had bands of ice pass through the state allowing for ice skating on the streets of Edmond, Oklahoma. We’ll be in the low 60’s by Saturday.
Stay warm out there Spring is coming, Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
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.
Thursday 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: Continue reading “SCARR – Day One (Post #477) 4/3/2014”
Well I guess this is to be expected. It is spring time after all. The graphic above is the “extended” forecast for Gilmer, Texas the weekend of S.C.A.R.R.
I’m taking this with a grain of salt mind you. It is an extended forecast which pretty much means nothing 10 days out. But seeing this will definitely have me packing a little heavier for rain and muddy conditions.
It’s important to plan ahead. Pick your own motto to apply, Semper paratus, Be Prepared, expected the unexpected, or my family’s motto Adaptare et superare, (adapt and overcome). You don’t have to have ever been in the Coast Guard, or the Boy Scouts, or have read Oscar Wilde, you don’t even have to be a member of my immediate family, but you do have to plan for all conditions. I’ve seen the temperature change 80 degrees in just six hours in Oklahoma. I’ve seen micro down bursts that blew harder that some tornadoes. What’s that old Creedence Clearwater Revival song? I’ve even seen rain coming down on a sunny day.
So I’ll be ready for rain and mud and thunder storms and snow and tornadoes and even chupacabras. I’m determined to have fun at S.C.A.R.R. and nothing is going to spoil it, except perhaps a good old fashioned North Texas ice storm.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS9_ipu9GKw
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.