What, where, and when was your first Land Rover experience?

That is a tough one. The hoop set on my dad’s 109 was my first jungle gym. Throughout my childhood my parents exclusively drove Land Rovers so I have no conscious beginning to my Land Rover interest. Actually, my mom had a Triumph for a few summers, but at least we kept it British. One of my earliest Land Rover memories was watching my older brother help my dad restore his Series IIA 109. I was too young to really help. I was so excited when my dad let me use the pneumatic rivet gun. That was my job; if there was riveting to be done, I was the man.

Where did you grow up and what brought you to Vermont?

I grew up in Westford, Vermont, here at Rovers North! My parents built the Rovers North facility in our back yard. My childhood was spent tunneling in the piles of boxes in the warehouse.

I remember when I was a little one, Rob Smith and Dirk Parkins (who both still work at RN) entertained me by packing me in a stout box and pretending to ship me to Alaska. I went to college in Colorado. After graduating, I spent a year working abroad then returned to Vermont because I wanted to get involved in the family business.

What Land Rover do you currently own? When I was a kid my parents always said they would not give me a car, but they would happily give me a pile of parts and help me build a Land Rover. At 15, my dad asked me what kind of Rover I wanted to build. Of course, my answer was a TDI 110. At the time, I was traveling and competing in freestyle kayaking. I wanted a 3 door 110 so I could put a bed in the back for a place to sleep on road trips. I was not home when my truck arrived, but over the phone my dad kept telling me how much I would love it and how clean it was. Imagine my surprise when I came home to a horribly dented, camouflaged rolling chassis. It had a tarp where there should be a roof, no seats and a marked hole in the front where the radiator, inter-cooler, engine, transmission, transfer box and all that good stuff belong. Despite its rough looks, the 110 was rust-free and in beautiful condition. It took the better part of a year to get her into shape. I did all the grunt work of the restoration and my dad spent many hours helping me with the technical stuff. I have had my 110, “The Lucky Lady,” for 8 or 9 years. Like any relationship, we have had our high points and low ones. When reflecting on our love affair, what I recall best isn’t the mechanical difficulties but instead all the adventure we shared together. Just last week, I climbed up a rugged 4×4 trail to the top of a mountain in VT and spent the night under the stars in The Lucky Lady.

I hope the best part of our relationship is yet to come! While I am a little ashamed of my teenage bodywork and the paint is blistering in a few places, The Lucky Lady was thoroughly protected with Waxoyl Professional Corrosion Prevention before being exposed to Vermont’s ever-corrosive winters, so she is as rust free as the day she was pushed into the RN lot! To me, rust free is all-important because as long as she stays that way and avoids major accidents [knock, knock, knock], The Lucky Lady will live to ride again. Hopefully some time in the distant future, I will be fortunate enough to have kids that think The Lucky Lady is the coolest jungle gym in the world. How did your truck come to be known as “The Lucky Lady”? After completing my truck, a few friends gave me vehicle decorations. I got a hula girl and a chromed outline of a shapely woman sitting down. You may have seen the design before; it is pretty popular amongst truckers. The hula girl did not last long, as it did not really fit on the dash and it was a little tacky for me, but I quite liked the chromed girl. Made of plastic and connected by thin piece of metal to a suction cup, she sways proudly in the rear window of my truck to this day. She came to be known as “The Lucky Lady” and the name got passed on to the truck she rides in.

How do you use your Land Rover and what have you done to enhance this function?

I use my Land Rover as my adventure enabling RV. Under my bed I can fit a cooking kit, water jugs, a cooler and all sorts of other camping supplies. Toss some sports equipment on the roof rack and just add water, wind or dirt. Voila! Instant adventure.

Wherever I go, I never have to worry about finding a place to sleep. If I’m in the middle of a long drive and I’m tired, I just pull over and sleep for a few hours. I often sleep at truck stops or on the entrance ramps of the highway with the big rigs. I have slept in airport parking lots to avoid the early morning drive to catch a flight. I have slept in Wal-Mart parking lots, in the middle of cities, in the snow in the mountains and in the roasting hot deserts of Utah and Colorado.

The bed in the back of my truck is actually a futon cushion on a wooden platform. The futon cushion takes up more space than a camping mattress, but it is so much more comfortable I think it is worth it. I also put in windows with screens in the back, for which I made curtains with blackout cloth. It is perfectly comfortable to sleep in for months at a time, and in high school and college I did just that. These days I spend a lot more time at Rovers North and a lot less time sleeping in of the back of my truck.

What is the longest trip you have made in your Land Rover
and did anything interesting happen?

I have driven her from Vermont to Utah and back a few times. Maybe one day The Lucky Lady will get to see the Pacific Ocean. The stories go on and on, but here are a few of my favorites in which The Lucky Lady has a staring role.

One time, on a kayaking expedition in the San Juan mountains near Durango, Colorado I woke up to discover I was parked in the middle of a torrent little stream. At dark-o-thirty a culvert plugged with sticks had redirected the creek right through our campsite. My buddies had to evacuate when a few inches of water came gushing through their tent. I was sleeping high and dry in The Lucky Lady and learned of the whole situation 4 or 5 hours later. I had a little chuckle when I found my friends on high ground surrounded by a yard sale of drying gear. Their dripping sleeping bags were slung over a fence. They lay half naked on damp sleeping pads in the dirt, trying in vain to recover lost sleep. At that point I fully appreciated the protection afforded by sleeping inside my Land Rover.

The Lucky Lady also shelters me from wild animals, monsters and ghosts. On a paragliding trip to Aspen, Colorado, I found an amazing camping site up a remote side canyon. For three nights in a row, I awoke to scratching on the underbody of my truck. Several times I searched under the truck with a bright light, but I never saw anything. I knew I was not imagining it because I could see scratch marks in the Waxoyl Hardwax on the chassis. The scratching would start moments after I got back in the truck. Evil thoughts plagued me.

Be it spirit or beast, it left physical scratch marks and wanted to scratch on my truck all night without being seen. I forced myself to camp at the same site my entire trip because I did not want to let a seemingly irrational fear ruin such an amazing camping site. It was easy to be strong during the day but I was terrified at night. I slept behind locked doors, with all my gear inside, keys in the ignition, vehicle pointed towards the exit. You could say I was ready for a fast get-away. Thankfully the situation never required me to use my escape plan. Demon or critter, whatever it was, The Lucky Lady kept me safe! Equipped with a snorkel, the Lucky Lady is the shuttle vehicle of choice for one of my favorite kayak runs, Oh-Be-Joyful Creek in Crested Butte, Colorado. OBJ drops an average of 400 feet per mile in waterfalls and steep, long, playful slides. It is so much fun that during the spring melt there is typically a hand full of kayaker camped at the bottom of OBJ paddling it daily. Unfortunately, OBJ is typically a “hike and huck” run because of the creek crossing at the bottom of the access road. Hiking up the steep creek for almost two miles with 55+ lbs of kayaking gear, safety equipment, food, water and photo gear is a total pain, but few dare to cross the creek as it has drowned many stout SUVs. For many, the higher the water level, the more fun OBJ is, so there is a constant urge to drive across at higher and higher flows. Getting across the first time typically isn’t the problem, it is getting back that drowns most vehicles as the water level can rise dramatically with the snowmelt of a hot spring day. Needless to say, everyone loves fearlessly charging the creek crossing with a pyramid of kayaks strapped on top of The Lucky Lady to get a high flow run on OBJ.

How long have you been working for Rovers North and what positions have you held? Can you describe what you do at Rovers North today?

When I was in school, I spent a number of summers working at Rovers North. I have done everything from shop gofer and building maintenance to working in the shipping department. A year after graduating from college, I decided I wanted to move home and get involved in the family business.

I currently work on a few projects here at RN, but the most noteworthy is my involvement with Waxoyl Professional. As the readers are undoubtedly aware, Land Rovers are some of the best rusting vehicles in the world. Here at RN, it drives us crazy to watch rust destroy our beloved LR’s, devaluing our investment and ruining the pride of ownership. I know more than a few owners that report laying awake at night thinking of rust eating their Land Rovers. A handful of years ago we got switched on to Waxoyl Professional. We used it on our own trucks and found that it was the only product on the market that could completely protect a Land Rover from rusting. And so we promptly began offering it to our customers. As mentioned earlier, I have Waxoyl Professional on The Lucky Lady and her underbody is rust-free, despite use in the salty Vermont winters and a less than fanatical washing schedule or lack there of.

We were so enthusiastic about Waxoyl that a year and a half ago Waxoyl AG of Switzerland asked us to be their US distributor. Waxoyl Professional makes not only corrosion prevention but also a full line of car valeting products, 100 Plus paint sealant, UPT fabric protection, and Topwax-6 storage protection. Importing and distributing car care products and corrosion protection is a bit different than selling Land Rover parts so it requires a concerted effort. Greg Jutras and I are the Waxoyl Professional product specialists and I head up our Waxoyl importation, distribution and marketing effort. I have yet to really nail down a good title for all that, but it does keep me busy.

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