Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Zak Ruck’s white P38 is sitting on the grass with its bonnet open,<br />
a lone and innocent victim. The ‘bandana gang’ decides to take<br />
advantage of this opportunity. Poor Zak. Dan pulls the fuel pump fuse<br />
from Zak’s truck, and then we all just sat back and wait. When Zak<br />
returns his truck starts up…for a minute, then stalls out. Hmmm,<br />
what could be wrong? Being the nice guys that they are, the gang goes<br />
over to help ol’ Zak out - examining the engine, and giving extended<br />
theories on what could possibly be wrong. I learn my first MAR<br />
lesson – never leave your truck unattended.<br />
Now one of MAR’s real LR super heroes is Will Tillery. Word on<br />
the street has it that he can appear out of thin air in a Rover’s time of<br />
need. Sure enough, I spot him under someone’s Range Rover.<br />
He laid his magic hands on many grateful trucks this year, but he<br />
needs a cape.<br />
I should go no further without mentioning the weather. Yes, the<br />
tradition has been broken, as MAR 2007 was a completely hot,<br />
sweaty, dry, dust bowl this year, and the more people drove around<br />
(thanks to those considerate folks showing their ‘cool’ factor by the<br />
camping areas by the way), the worse it got. You could barely see, let<br />
alone breathe through the huge fog of dust. Everyone had a nice coat<br />
of orangey brown dust from head to toe and in every crevice of our<br />
trucks - we are all looking and feeling just lovely. Wow, maybe I<br />
should have packed a dust mask instead of the extra umbrella.<br />
Trails were easier this year, I’m told, because of the unusual<br />
dryness. After going on most every trail, I can clearly envision how<br />
messy some areas would become by adding some wet, slippery mud<br />
to the equation. They were still a lot of fun to drive though, and a few<br />
challenging spots along the way. It’s rumored that mine was the first<br />
LR3 to ever attempt Goat Hill. It’s pretty steep, and there’s one area<br />
where the trees get super tight. It took several attempts to squeeze my<br />
fat truck through, and only cleared by a couple millimeters. I can’t<br />
imagine trying to go through that spot when it’s wet – reckon there’d<br />
be a bit of damage done right about there.<br />
I didn’t leave MAR without a little carnage though; ripped the<br />
plastic rear bumper cover nearly off – twice. The bumper caught the<br />
bank dropping in to the same mud hole on West River both Thursday<br />
and Friday night. Nothing major, thank goodness, but when you hear<br />
the horrid ripping sound as those bits come off, it sounds so much<br />
worse. Everyone making those ‘Whoa!’ and ‘Ouch!’ noises doesn’t<br />
help either.<br />
On Thursday night I let Mike Noe, who owns a beautiful<br />
blue Series II, try out a ‘modern day’ Land Rover. As a seasoned<br />
off-roader, he did fantastic, once he figured out that ‘D’ was ‘Drive’.<br />
Allysa let Steve drive her 2005 Range Rover for a while as well. It’s fun<br />
to see these gents behind the wheels of our trucks. They drive so<br />
careful ha-ha. It is also nice to have some girls to wheel with - Suz and<br />
Allysa, rock on.<br />
Friday morning, I drove up to the main rally area to check out<br />
the vendors. On Friday night, we got to enjoy the best barbequed ribs<br />
this side of the Mason Dixon Line, grilled to perfection by the<br />
gourmet extraordinaire, Sean Roche, along with some prize winning<br />
rum cake baked by JB’s mom. Man, lots of good eating under this<br />
tent. Later, some of us went on a night run, and Mike was kind<br />
(brave) enough to return the favor and let me drive his Series II,<br />
while Dan drove my LR3 around a bit. What an awesome truck, it is<br />
amazing to feel the differences in these beasts at opposite ends of the<br />
spectrum. One day maybe I’ll have a Series too, baby blue please.<br />
Unfortunately, we had to leave after the Friday night run due to a<br />
prior commitment and missed out on Saturday’s events. They hadn’t<br />
even brought out the blow-up animals yet, although I hear that indeed<br />
they did! Luckily no word on the urinal cakes either, surely just nasty<br />
gossip. What a great time it was, with equally great people. Other than<br />
some shower facilities, and maybe a little rain, I couldn’t ask for a<br />
better way to spend a weekend. So when is MAR 2008 again?<br />
_______<br />
________<br />
Photo: Daniel Chapman<br />
Photo: Daniel Chapman<br />
48
Change language