Story and Photo by: John Poole
It’s been two years now since Paul, my father and my uncles Richard Poole and Keith Sumrall took me along on a trip to retrieve a most unusual Land Rover, a rare 1967 109” Dormobile with a 2.6 liter six cylinder engine. This Dormobile had traveled the world and ended up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The trip took seven hours from my home in Olive Branch, MS; about halfway into the trip, we stopped in Madison, MS, to pick up my uncles and to convoy the remaining distance to Baton Rouge. There, we met up with its owner, Mike Moore, who sat us down for a great story about the Rover.

Story & Photos by Bob Rusnak
[Bob Rusnak, Morrisonville, NY, is a mechanical engineer who adores “old equipment” – his John Deere and International Harvester tractors. To further enjoy his trout fishing and deer hunting, he convinced his wife they needed a ’73 Series III HT. Here’s how he got one –ed.]
It all started about 8 years ago. I was looking for an older four wheel drive vehicle at the time. I had owned a number of four wheel drive vehicles in the past including a Willys Jeep, original style Bronco, Jeep Wagoneer, and International Scout. I knew very little about Land Rovers. I was at a reunion party for my wife’s college and got talking to one of the men there about Series Land Rovers. He was in the process of restoring one. We talked for some time on his Land Rover and how they were built, aluminum bodies, parts availability and so on. (…)

Story & Photos by Jeremy Bergeron
[Jeremy Bergeron, Colorado Springs, CO grew up in Texas. He’s an architect with The Larson Group in Colorado Springs. While he loves his wife, Jenny, and his two children Ethan and Ashley, missing from his life was a Series Land Rover. Here’s his story as to how he found one –ed]
Our friends thought I must have made a partner in the firm when we drove up in our new Land Rover (pronounced with a snobbish English accent). A year earlier, Jenny and I had just moved to Denver, Colorado as newlyweds from Austin, Texas. Every chance we had, we explored the Colorado landscape. We soon realized that our adventuresome life was hampered by the lack of ground clearance and front wheel drive on our Volkswagen. Shamelessly, I sensed an excuse for an SUV.
We looked at a ton of SUV’s. I was bored by most, moved by none. That is, until I test drove a Land Rover Discovery. (…)

Story & Photo by Ray Scholl
[Ray Scholl lives in Mason, NH, with Jenny, his wife, and their children Lindsay and Foster. He’s an IT professional who, with his family, built their house, maintain a “gentleman’s farm,” raise animals and refurbish automobiles. Their Land Rover project would have been impossible without their chief assistant and great friend, Ananth Kaitharam –ed.]
Our Land Rover started life back in 1970 on a farm in England. A sheep farmer had used it as a workhorse for 25 years (hauling, shearing, etc.) before deciding to retire it from service. I never had the chance to meet him or to see the farm; I just remember what was relayed to me back in 1996 or so, when we decided to see what all the hype was about.
A colleague of mine was visiting family in Leicester when he and a friend decided to put a few vehicles in a container and send them back to the US. It arrived here in March and he put it right on the road. (…)

Story & Photos by Jason Gottlilieb
[Jason Gottlieb, Boston, MA, has “an affinity for clunky-looking metal contraptions.” This would explain the 30-year old’s fascination with his Series Land Rovers. He uses them on his family’s farm when he tires of his financial service webcasting position and urban cycling. Here’s how he keeps them down on the farm –ed.]
Christmas morning – a time that, for me, is always much more about bringing together the people I care about and eating good food combined with lots of laughter. The days of looking forward to gifts have long passed for me. I feel I really have everything I could ever need and have moved in a direction of becoming much less “material” in the last several years.
This Christmas, however, was different. I arrived at the “family farm” in Gilmanton, New Hampshire to spend a Christmas day roaming around in the ’67 Series II-A on the property. (…)

Story & Photos by: John Robison
Welcome to the Spring edition of Robison on Rovers. In my last column, I told you about finishing up my book, Look Me In The Eye. Since then, things have been racing along. You’ll be able to find the book in bookstores nationwide September 25th. It’s being published by Crown, an imprint of Random House. You can sign up for news or even place an order on www.randomhouse.com I’ve also got an author web site, www.johnrobison.com
My book tells the story of growing up with Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism. For those of you who’ve met me . . . it’s why I seem a bit eccentric at times. The book tells the story of my childhood, and how I dropped out of high school but educated myself. I’ve talked about my first career, which saw me on the road with KISS and Pink Floyd’s sound company in the 1970s. You can read about my time designing electronic toys at Milton Bradley, and then how I started Robison Service. (…)

By Jeffrey B. Aronson
A considerable part of the appeal of Land Rovers is your involvement in their lives. Given a dash of aptitude and some extra fortitude, you can maintain, refurbish and even enhance your Land Rover. You’re limited only by your imagination and your finances.
For inspiration, enthusiasts turn to magazines, Rovers North Parts Guides, and fellow enthusiasts, and if you’re lucky, Land Rover specialty shops. When I need additional fodder for daydreams, I can drive to East Coast Rover in Warren, ME. If I had a Defender and wanted to imagine it to be all that it could be, ECR would be my destination.
Mike Smith founded his restoration, repair and customization business over a decade ago and it services a nationwide clientele. Over the past few years, they’ve become the center for FC 101’s, Defender 90’s and 110’s. There’s never fewer than a dozen Defenders undergoing restoration or reconfiguring. (…)