Ladder for Defender

Moving on with planning for OTR9, for almost 24 years, to get up onto my roof rack at the front, I stepped up on the runner on the passenger side of the Defender, grasped the roll bar and stretched my right leg as far as it would go onto the front fender and then stepped up with both feet onto the roll bar that runs the length of the bottom of the front window.  Piece of cake.  Not even some die-hard Defender experts knew how to do that until I taught them.  As easy as that was, I always hated stepping down, as I had to search blindly and carefully with my left foot for the runner for fear that I might miss it and have to stretch that extra distance to the ground, an impossible task. Although I can still do it, with the residual problem left from my hip replacement (a damaged Gluteus Medius muscle), it is slightly more difficult.  Instead of compounding one problem on top of another, I will not fight it and just ordered a telescoping ladder (see below) for $69.99.  This beats renting some big Mercedes mobile mansion at $439 a night for three months, $39,510. This does not mean that I have decided the Defender will go with us for OTR9, but in all likelihood it will.

 

The URL for the ladder is here….

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0792BZPSB/ref=s9_acsd_simh_hd_bw_b2Jz6_c_x_1_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-3&pf_rd_r=8XZFT4BMTK7MQKY6HZZ6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=20d7ce67-1a3d-5cce-abc4-9a158b671054&pf_rd_i=553480

 

 

Incidentally, I use my blogs to help coordinate my planning for my trips instead of creating a separate one for this purpose.  From time to time, then, you will see postings on here that may be uninteresting to you, but have significance to me, great significance in some cases, like this ladder.

Planning for OTR begins (February 11, 2018)

I guess I can say that the planning and preparation work for OTR9 began this past weekend, if two small steps can be called that - I updated my Garmin GPS and Donner's radio collar. However, the planning really started the day I returned from OTR8 on December 3rd over a year ago, which now seems like an eternity, since I do not think a day has gone by since that I have not given some thought to my next trip.

I still need to make a decision on the Defender, although my delay in looking for a new vehicle or putting the Defender on the market might be telling me something. I still need to take it for some long test drives, which I will do soon.

As for my residual limp from my surgeries last year, I am getting closer to finding out what is causing it, an atrophied gluteas minimis in my abductor muscle, probably caused by a nerve damaged in the hip surgery.  So far, I have learned that there is no easy prescribed remedy for this, only experimental stuff, so it may be that I have to resign myself to this condition.  No big deal, as it could be worse. However, it will prevent me from hopping up onto the roof rack on the front of the Defender, which means I have to figure out another way to dop that, or bring along someone on the trip who can do that.

Tomorrow I will being to sketch out some optional routes and start my To-Do list.  Stay tuned.

ED