Land Rover Texas Wheels Event

I read the other day that Land Rover is the only automotive manufacturer that consistently builds vehicles for the one percent of people who will actually use them for what they were designed for – serious off-road travel. Maybe this is why I love and respect this marquee – they get the sales but more importantly, the designers and manufacturers understand their one percent owners and make sure that their vehicles continue to meet the needs of these unique people.


Click here to see the web gallery!

Snell Motor Companies owns the three Land Rover dealerships – one in Dallas, one in Frisco and one in Austin. Twice a year, the combined dealerships host an off-road adventure for their new owners to put them through the paces to learn exactly what their Landys are capable of doing. It takes some guts to take your brand new $75,000 vehicle to an off-road track – especially if you have never driven off-road before. The track is a three mile long circuit designed by the guys from the US Camel Trophy team and it definitely pushes the envelope for these new owners. Located at Rough Creek Hunting Lodge, an amazing 57 guest rooms on 11,000 acres designed for the outdoors.


The dealership asks the local Land Rover club, the Texas Rovers, to help at these events. The newbies are broken into three or four groups depending on how many vehicles participate with club members leading each group. At each of the more difficult obstacles, a club member is posted to help talk each person through the spot – it helps instill confidence and keep everyone safe. And some of the obstacles are a challenge even for the experienced drivers! The 38 degree decline on loose gravel could quickly send someone flying without direction. There is also some great off-camber bits that are often the most challenging – we are all used to going up hills and down but rarely do roads drop one side of your vehicle to a sharp 25 degree angle!


After the trail, there is a timed obstacle course and then a full-buffet sponsored by Rough Creek Lodge. The Lodge is worth a visit on its own whether you own a Land Rover or enjoy blamming poor animals – it is truly spectacular. Peter Greenburg of the Today Show named Rough Creek Lodge ‘one of the top five places in the world to get married’ and Condѐ Nast voted it the top lodge in North America. Pretty good accolades in my opinion and worth a visit if you find yourself in Texas to say the least.


Between the trail and the lunch, the newbies enjoyed themselves and a few even joined the Texas Rovers to try their hand at a little more adventure. These dealer events are an excellent way to introduce new owners to the remarkable capabilities of their new vehicles and help them understand why the rest of us love our Rovers!

Trip to West Virginia

2200 miles in five days...we must be nuts! Well, I am and poor Jon just gets brought along on these crazy adventures of mine. We left Dallas Thursday morning and headed east. We made it as far as Nashville, TN that night without any trouble. We arrived at North Bend State Park Friday around 5pm est, set up camp, changed to the off-roading tires and hit the trails with the Blue Ridge Land Rover Club at 7pm for the night run. The night run was very entertaining - lot's of playing in mud puddles. Around one in the morning we made it back to camp and crashed still with no dinner. Nine am we were back on the trails for another day of playing in the mud - great fun! The banquet that night was delicious and the club had rounded up enough raffle prizes that everyone received one which was a neat trick. For more details on this event, read the August Land Rover World for my trip report.

Sunday morning we broke camp and got back on the road home. We made it almost to Little Rock, Arkansas that day - 870 miles. We were bushed and the dogs were happy to get out of the Rangie. The next morning we headed to Texarkana on the Arkansas and Texas border to visit friend and Land Rover nut John Monahan. He showed us around his amazing old house, the town and his own personal LR museum - cool stuff. Very nice collection! We made it home by 2:30pm and were happy to finally get out of the rig for good!

Click here to see the pics - warning they were mostly taken through the Rangie window so they are not my best work but they give an idea of the area. The first few are of a police chase and take down we got stuck in the middle of just outside Memphis, TN. Too bad that we didn't think of sending them to a newspaper or news channel until it was too late - would have been fun to have a byline!

SCARR 08

As per usual, the Texas Rovers put on one of the best events I attend. Last year I wrote a three part blog on the entire weekend but this year I just do not have the time (this is good actually - as anyone self-employed will tell you being busy is a really, really good thing!). But I do want to thank all the guys that came to my rescue when my rig was all bent to heck and took time away from wheeling to replace the mangled trailing arms (which is a story unto itself). Moses of Mo-Fab and Ian Minenna both donated replacement trailing arms as well as their time and tools - thank you, thank you! Robert Fleming, Chris Kelley, TR Burrus from ARB, Greg ?, SteveO, Tim and Steve Woolford and of course Jon Button all turned a few wrenches to get me back on the trails and Alan of Rovers North provided the wrenches that had to be turned - thank you very much gentlemen! You made my weekend and now it is time to go after the guys that bent the trailing arms in the first place...!


Click here to see the pics!