A bit about Dr Rik

I grew up just north of NYC and moved to MN for St Olaf to study Norwegian. I was back in NY for Med school then to MN for residency in St Paul. I got my first Land Rover in 1998 timed to coincide with the 50th! She is 1960 SWB you may remember hitting the telephone pole and wheelie-ing out of the competition at Greek Peek for the Diamond Jubilee. I relied on the LRO Digest connections to help me rebuild the engine in about 2001-2002. I didn’t know what I was doing, but it went just fine. My next was a 1996 SE7 5-speed that went everywhere in every weather. We were at the MAR, National Rally multiple times in CO and also in Moab. Ontario, northern MN, WI were all pretty punishing. The MN road salt caught up to her and we had to put her down, but not after finding a converted to 300tdi 5-speed Diesel in Tennessee. This became MEANDER Mk2.

My son, Dane, was turning 16 soon in 2018 and said, “Dad, I think I need a Range Rover.” What he got to drive to school for his senior year was not what expected. The Minnesota Land Rover Club has passed around “Lil Boy” for a couple of decades. The 1990 County with 35” tires, lockers, and many dents left its mark on the High School parking lot. The kids still love it, and she gets out about twice a year- via a trailer.

The 2010 Range Rover Supercharged full size was a delightful mistake. I bought this in 2020 off another club member who had already installed the factory style winch and tray. I added sliders and then went on a wild remote trip with the National Rally to Moab to visit Oxford again. A small group of Minnesotans continued onward to the White Rim trail. She behaved wonderfully. So, I went back in a year to Moab again. Each trip was expensive on repairs to suspension and bushing, but what a delight to drive!

The most recent addition is the 2022 Bond Edition D110. I am a James Bond nut and a Land Rover nut, so this just worked. The story of purchase is convoluted and will cost you a beer.

I was the Midwest portion of the effort to pass Oxford westward across the USA club to club. David Alton and I met John Kostuch and Harold Bisel in Pennsylvania and even got to be part of the CentreSteer podcast. We had Oxford in Minnesota for our annual weekend “picnic” so the club could really bask in her glow! David and I then trailered Oxford to the Montana Club.

I have had articles published in LRW, LRO, and Rovers News. This has been a great substitute for scrapbooking. I also have a YouTube channel “roverlover” that amused participants heading to the Diamond Jubilee 75th.

The wildest trips were with the Diesel Discovery. We had a trip around Lake Nipigon in Ontario that involved 25 year disused trails, building a log bridge, and crossing a wide and deep river where a bridge used to be. Another was the 2025 drive with 9 of us from Minnesota in 90’s – ish Land Rovers to the Rubicon Trail and then back. That was also expensive, but what an adventure!

I am married, have two mid-20’s kids with jobs, and I work in a normal clinic doing normal doctor work. We have a litter trained house rabbit that roams the first floor of our 100-year-old house. I have a side hustle in a MediSpa shooting Botox and Filler and Hormone Optimization and medical weight loss. I have a fellowship in Wilderness Medicine through the Wilderness Medicine Society and travel regularly to the Honduran jungle to teach the local doctors and nurses how to perform a simple, accurate, inexpensive cervical cancer screening technique. My Non-Profit is ParaElla.com. Donate as you can.

I am often found at a Land Rover event wearing a tuxedo, shaking a martini, preparing vegetarian food, and expounding on the virtues of Aquavit.

The Land Rover Club scene has created opportunities for me to drag my little family to wild and remote areas and make some of the best friends a person could have.