We're into The Outdoors

Independent AMSOIL Dealers Joann and Robert Smythe, in their own words.

“We’re in Rosharon, Texas, which is about 30 miles south of Houston. It’s a very rural community and with lots of wildlife and peace,” said Joann.

“About once a year we have to drive into Houston. And I think my blood pressure goes up 12 points just from the people and the traffic, and it’s nice to get out here and away from everything,” said Robert.

Go get muddy

“We take advantage of every chance we get and play around with UTVs,” said Joann. “It’s just our way of just letting things go and enjoying each other’s company and appreciating the day.”

“You just got to cut loose and go get muddy,” said Robert. “If things aren’t going right, set it aside and go tear it up.

“No matter how fast I’m going, she wants it to go faster. She wants it to get muddier. She wants to get muddier.”

“Who doesn’t like to get out and get muddy, right?” said Joann.

“So a lot of times we’re going through the fields out here, the grass is 4 foot, 6 foot deep. And you really can’t see anything except the grass in front of you,” said Robert.

“You come flying through there in the trees, and all of a sudden there’s a giant web with a giant banana spider in the middle. And I’m screaming and jumping overboard,” said Joann.

“They’re more or less harmless, but they get as big as your hand or bigger,” said Robert. “If I’m driving and she screams ‘left’ or ‘right,’ that means spider on the left or spider on the right. She’s telling me which way to turn to avoid the banana spiders or orb weaver spiders.

Family first

“I think one of the big reasons we bought the larger four wheeler is so we can get the family involved,” said Robert. “Now we’ve got grandbabies at the house, and this gives them an opportunity to ride around with us and enjoy life the way we do. I think one of the first words Stephen ever said was ‘vroom vroom,’ which is what he calls the four wheeler.”

“Everything that we do, we usually do together,” said Joann. “We are an amazing team. We rock it!”

“We work very well together,” said Robert. “She yings, I yang. Where she’s strong, I’m weak and vice versa. And we just – it works. It works really well. If you enjoy what you do and who you’re with, it doesn’t matter how much money you make. You’d never work a day in your life and you’d live a happy life.”

Hurricane Harvey hits

Just a few weeks after filming our video with the Smythes, Hurricane Harvey struck just southwest of their home. “[W]e unfortunately were on the dirty side of the storm,” said Joann. “This is how it’s been all day, this non-stop heavy rain. You know, there’s a lot of people that lost everything. There’s others that lost their lives, so honestly we were very blessed to only get what we did. It could’ve been much worse.

“I just want to give a big shout out to the Polaris Ranger. We’re the only ones in the neighborhood. We’re moving food back and forth to neighbors. We’re evacuating people. If we didn’t have our Ranger, we’d be lost. We went through tremendous amounts of water. We’re still getting more water. We have put this thing to the test in some major water.

“We’ll get through this. It’s going to take some time. We are Texas strong, and we will be back,” said Joann.