Finally, after two months in
the garage, the Defender ("Grane") is back home. With its new transmission
and transfer case, not to forget its new engine and just about everything else,
it is running better than it was on that cold, snowy December 31, 1993, day
when I drove if off the lot of Midlothian Motors in Virginia. Interestingly
enough, it arrived home just two weeks before Land Rover’s alleged successor to
the Defender shows up the annual car show in DC. Sure, I will drop in on
the show to take a look at the new Defender, although it really is not a
successor to the iconic Defender. To say it is would be equivalent to
saying that the Boeing 737, or whatever, is the successor to Wright
Flyer. When people ask me if I would buy one, I ask them, "Why would I buy
one if I have one of the originals?" Even if I didn't have Grane
now, while I would certainly consider one - it is supposed to be the best
equipped off-the-shelf 4X vehicle money can buy - I would probably end up with one
from one of those outfits that builds the original Defender from kits.
Now that Grane is back home, my focus will now be on OTR-11.
Where to? When? I am I just starting to mull over the
options. The two trips I would really like to undertake would be:
first, circumnavigation of North American (ex Mexico, of course), i.e., northeast
from DC to ST Johns and the Northwest River in Newfoundland-Labrador, then northwest
to both Inuvik (Northwest Territories) and Prudhoe Bay (Alaska), then down to San
Diego, then east to Key West (Florida), and then back to DC, a distance of at least
16,830 miles; and second, a trip across Russia from Vladivostok to Saint
Petersburg, 5934 miles. Interestingly enough, the latter is only 54 miles more
than the outward bound portion of OTR-1, from DC to Prudhoe Bay with Sonntag knack
in 2000, but I would have to brush up on my Russian and figure out how to get
the Defender there and back first. My guess is that I will settle for something
a little but less ambitious (the Yukon?) in deference to Donner’s preferences, not to mention other factors involving
myself.
ED and Donner, from off the road.
OTR-11?
.
