Randy's Landie "Winnie": Land Rovers and Four Wheeling

New: see my latest snapshots from my Land Rover Moab Adventure, November 2002 here!

I have always wanted to own a Land Rover, a strange desire for a kid from New York City who waited until his early twenties and a move to the Bay Area to bother to get a driver's license. This intense love affair began as an undergraduate at Cornell, where a fraternity brother owned a Series III. Among our adventures, we rolled it on its side into a snow bank on an icy road (with Randy on the down side--fortunately it had seat belts and the gas tank did not blow!), took it up a narrow footpath from our House to the Law School, and nearly froze to death on a return trip to NYC during Winter break when the heater broke.

For many a Christmas, I begged Santa for a Land Rover. And he did deliver some, as these pictures show: a Police SWB, an expedition capable Range Rover Classic, and a Defender 90.

I recently bought a 1997 North American Specification (NAS) Defender 90 (Number 249 of 1000 sold). Here is a picture of a clean "Winnie," short for Winifred, before a weekend of serious off-roading.

Here are some pictures from behind Winnie's windscreen during a recent Land Rover sponsored clinic near Bodega Bay:

• Along a narrow trail
• That's a steep dropping trail off to the left
• Along a rutted path, Rangie in the lead
• Heading up slope, off camber, with a Rangie in the lead
• Another view up slope
• The Rangie get stuck in a sand trap (Winnie had no problems of course!)
• A Happy Winnie, mud splattered and at the top of a hill
• Rewarded with an incredible panoramic view

I recently did a weekend expedition and course with Off-road Experience based in Livermore. Here are some pictures of our trip to the Western Nevada desert:

• Trail Boss
• A Beautiful Defender 110
• Bill's Specially Modified Defender 90
• Rovers on Parade
• Mounting up for the trip
• Tooling down Interstate 80
• Along a dirt road
• There is a road there ... somewhere
• A lost mine
• Another mine ... on the right
• A small hill ahead
• Here is Winnie, and here she is again
• Winnie on the rocks
• Here and here are examples of amazing axle articulation on Winnie
• Winnie on the ridge ...
• ... and into the ditch
• 4WD pick-up trucks actually are quite capable
• In search of lost treasure ...
• An old mine claim ...
• Caravan into the dry lakebed ...
• Winnie in the middle
• And again, outside a lost mine ...

I am a member of Tread Lightly, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the Great Outdoors through the responsible use of Off-Road Vehicles.