Overland Expo Road Trip: Day Seven

Sunday marked the one week milestone for our road trip, as well as the final day of Overland Expo 2012. The day started off routinely, with me dragging my sorry rear out of my sleeping bag and making the morning greetings to Bryon, Anthony, and Clay. After the big Maya End of the World party (to say nothing of the after party) the previous night, everyone was a little more subdued for some reason…

On this final day of OX12, there were no early morning classes. Instead, two hours had been reserved for spending time with the vendors, something that undoubtedly pleased them. As further incentive, there were said to be some free breakfast snacks available, but more importantly I distinctly recalled that the word “mimosas” had been used. We duly made our rounds and I can’t speak for anyone else, but I was very happy to finally locate a mimosa, even if it wasn’t in a 64oz. size as I’d been hoping.

That morning I noticed that a lot of attendees had departed from the camping area, and that the vendor area had also thinned out some, although to a lesser degree. Like the campers, I think a lot of vendors had long drives ahead of them and/or day jobs to get back to, and had left early. The lesson here is that if you ‘re interested in purchasing a product, I wouldn’t wait until the last day unless you were sure that the vendor was still going to be around.

It was during this time that I took a closer look at the offerings from My Camp Kitchen. I’ve been meaning to get my kitchen gear sorted and their Outdoorsman product looks like it would suit my needs well. It would hopefully allow me to store most of my kitchen gear in it instead of in an overfilled, broken plastic storage tub, with other bits tucked away here and there. It would also provide some additional work surface, while at the same time freeing up a lot of the space taken up on the camp table.

I like how you can save a bundle by purchasing an unassembled, unfinished version, and that the folks at their booth were also super-nice people. I think this will be my chuck box solution.

At 1000 I had my first session, the “Couples Survival Guide to Overlanding” which was held in the rustic upstairs of the main lodge building. I had originally signed up with the plan of attending with my wife, but unfortunately she had to back out of the trip. I went anyway since I’d signed up, and I was really glad I did. This presentation by the Hackneys (www.hackneystravel.com) exceeded my expectations by more than any other class or presentation at the Expo.

There was a wealth of practical information and it was presented in a basic, lively and effective manner. There were a lot of good recommendations and I left thinking about how I would apply what I’d learned, both before and during future trips.

My next session was the “Perfect One-Container Vehicle Tool Kit” by Jonathan Hansen. I’d read about his toolkit project in Overland Journal and knowing Jonathan’s thorough, analytical approach to such things, I was eager to see learn more about it.

I was able to see everything in person, and made a note that I wanted one of the useful and huge tool rolls he’d found. There had also been some new additions, including Facom’s strikable screwdrivers and digital adapter disk that turns any ratchet into a torque wrench. More stuff to budget when I can! OX12 is a dangerous place…

After some free time where I watched a group of big vehicles tackle the Land Rover offroad course, my final class of the Expo was “Knives and Edged Tools for Overlanding” taught by Patrick and Gianni from Triple Aught Design.

Overall, I was pretty familiar with the material they covered but I was still interested in seeing things from the perspective of these two major knife nerds. The class covered edge types, different types of edged camp tools, sharpening and maintenance. I was happy to see that they discussed doing edge touch-ups in the field, with Patrick recommending a folding dual-grade diamond sharpener from DMT.

Wrapping things up for Overland Expo 2012 was a big BBQ dinner, along with closing remarks from Roseann Hanson and others. Roseann was happy to announce that Overland Expo would be returning to the Mormon Lake Lodge in 2013, which would also allow them to keep and build upon the offroad course. The response from the audience was enthusiastic.

After thanking the many people that helped make the event a success, she also brought out a large, framed and signed Camel Trophy print. It would be auctioned to support an overseas orphanage that one the the instructor supported. I don’t recall his name but he was obviously moved by this unexpected generosity and it was an emotional moment for everyone present.

We enjoyed the good barbecue dinner, sharing a table with Lou and his FJC club buddies and Ara of The Oasis of my Soul. It was my first conversation with Ara and I had been curious if he’d read Neil Peart’s Ghost Rider book. We had a brief, interrupted chat and I found Ara as interesting and compelling as his website would suggest, and I liked him immediately.

After the nice dinner and a margarita, everyone continued to socialize while enjoying the conveniently-timed eclipse that was taking place. There were some inexpensive viewing glasses (like paper 3D glasses) being handed around, as well as the “binocular method” being used. But best of all was a dedicated solar-observing telescope that one of the attendees had brought with him. This allowed “direct” viewing with some magnification and you could easily see flares and sunspots as well. Pretty cool stuff, and the eclipse was a fun way for everyone to share another common experience.

After sunset we did some cleanup and then we had a final campfire BS and booze session, minus the campfire. There was some lively debate and scotch and bourbon and cigars until it was again time for everyone to crash. Tomorrow was Monday morning and all of us were planning on heading out early on our separate ways.

Overland Expo had truly been a memorable, educational and fun event, and everything I had hoped it would be.

• Day Six Miles: 0
• Day Six Miles offroad: 0
• Trip Miles: 1,007
• Trip Miles offroad: 163.8
• Days without a shower: 1

Overland Expo Road Trip: Day Seven photo gallery