This has nothing to do with jeeps, but as the plane landed last night at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City I thought it was altogether appropriate I was reading a biography about Will by Ben Yodaga. Despite his far reaching fame during the 1930s, most people today don’t remember much about Will and even fewer have seen his movies.

I won’t go into his history here, but for a brief time in the early 1920s Will ran his own studio and made some movie shorts. One of those movies called “The Ropin’ Fool” showed off his roping skills. For the roping scenes, his lariat (or lariets — he using three in one trick) was covered in chalk so the tricks could be seen more easily. The tricks shown in the three minute clip below will amaze you!

I’m in the process of flying to Oklahoma today. From there, I plan to ride ‘shotgun’ with my sister back to Washington State. She’s doing most of the driving; I’m there for comic relief and to drive occasionally. Looks like we’ll be heading west along Highway 40 and then north on I-5. There won’t be any stopping for jeeps though; my sister puts her foot to the pedal and goes and goes . . . . Therefore, I won’t have a chance to do updates until yesterday afternoon some time.

Speaking of comedy, you might get a good laugh at my antics yesterday. Sunday morning my car’s alarm went off twice. I suspect it was not to ward off thieves, but to gain sympathy for having to endure the frigid temperatures. Sunday evening (having already burnt my pizza dough, forcing me to make more dough from scratch) I decided to pull the battery out of my car, a ’97 BMW with 200k miles I rarely use. That way, the alarm wouldn’t go off again and drain the battery (which I’d just recharged).

Now, some German genius decided to put the battery in the trunk. To pull out the battery out of its recess requires two hands, an awkward stance, and a little profanity. To make it even more fun, the trunk lid doesn’t stay open on its own, so I have to lean inside the trunk and hold the lid with my back.

When it came time to pull the battery, I put down the flash light and everything else in my hands, grabbed the battery and yanked with the appropriate words. Out came the battery. I moved away from the trunk and placed the battery onto the ground. Just then I heard the trunk clink shut.

“Oh shit,” I uttered. That’s when I realized one of the things in my hands was the car key. “Oh shit,” I repeated. As I went through the mental checklist I realized this was going to be a problem. Sure, I have a back up key, but that only opens the door and turns on the ignition. With the battery out, I can’t use the button near the driver’s seat to open the trunk door. I do have one solution, but that will require me to reach through the back seat and fish around for the key through a small hole.

Rather than fish for the key, I left the key where it was and decided to fly to Oklahoma. While I’ll miss my traveling partner Ann (she’s so jealous) on this trip, it’s better that I get away from that car for a while before it REALLY makes me mad.

I was trying to crispen the top of the dough, while watching the Seahawks game. I guess I was never made for multitasking! Even the dog didn’t want anything to do with it.

For those times when the driver’s legs go to sleep, this modification shared by the folks from Jeep Village might just be handy to have. This jeep, which is being restored, had a white band on it, indicating (according to the Jeep Village folks) that it was a French Army driving school vehicle.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=692283917457177&set=pcb.692283944123841&type=1&theater