By Saturday morning the Friday gales had softened into a gentle breeze, which was a relief for everyone at the 2012 Overland Expo. I had been carefully polling attendees and exhibitors, and other than the crazy wind on Friday, I hadn’t heard a single complaint so far. Everyone was enthusiastic about the new venue, especially compared to the “oppressively hot dust bowl” of previous years, and the vendors were all happy about the business they were doing with the large crowds.

The big Thursday and Friday winds had also whipped up a bad wildfire far to the south of us, bringing the smell of smoke to the air and apparently also burning down a major AT&T cell tower facility. For those of us with AT&T, we’d be without data service for most of the Expo. This was a bummer for me as I planned to live tweet updates and photos from my iPhone, but it was even harder on the folks who were trying to get their actual jobs done, including vendors trying to process credit card payments.

I was moving a little slower this morning but was still energized by the event. As the trip went on, Anthony and I each became increasingly lazy with regards to cooking meals, neither of us wanting to go through the work of cleaning up afterwards. Luckily I’d brought several of my favored Mountain House blueberry oatmeal packs which minimized my cooking & cleanup.

My first seminar this morning, the “Borders, Checkpoints, & Bribes” expert panel, featured Austin Vince, Tiffany Coates and other veteran overlanders. This was an interesting discussion panel and each of the panelists had their own experiences and perspectives on the subject. There were some very good tips, such as carrying a “bribe wallet” (with a little money & such to say “but this is all I have…”), and to always ask for a receipt for any taxes or duties you are asked to pay. If they won’t give you a receipt, then it’s probably not a legitimate fee.

The next item on my agenda was the presentation of “Egypt’s Libyan Desert: The Sykes/MacDougal Centennial Expedition”, presented by Jonathan Hanson, Diane Boyer, and Roseann Hanson. I really enjoyed this presentation, mostly because the expedition was precisely the sort of thing that interests me.

Retracing the footsteps (camel tracks?) of the original Sykes/MacDougal team who had traversed the Sudanese and Egyptian deserts in 1912, the group was armed with detailed journal entries and reprints of original photographs. The goal was to discover and record precisely where these locations were, and to further document the changes that had occurred during the intervening century.

Their journey included overland travel across the deserts in Land Cruisers, navigation & research, and an underlying scientific purpose – all of which very much appealed to me. This was exactly the sort of thing I’d most like to do on an expedition, and it “spoke” to me . Someday I really want to get involved with something like this. Or several somethings!

After the presentation, Roseann and Jonathan were gracious enough to sign a copy of an animal tracking book they had written, which I had given to my daughter last year.

My last course before breaking for lunch was the “Top Travel Tips” expert panel which featured Chris Scott, Lois Pryce, Austin Vince, Gary and Monica Wescott, and Tiffany Coates. This was in a slightly different format, with the each panelist being presented with a question in rotation. I’m not sure where these questions originated, but they were pretty interesting overall and the session was kind of a catch-all for various subjects.

After lunch I had some free time where I again stalked the vendor area, checking out products and vehicles, and chatting with merchants and attendees alike.

My next class was supposed to be “Countries and Borders of Central America”. On the way to the location, I was sidetracked by people a few times so I made it there about 10 minutes late. Then I realized that I had read the event map wrong, and had gone to the incorrect location marked with a “7” on the map. Oops! Now I would need to backtrack across the entire Expo & be even later… So I switched to Plan B and hoped everyone else would be in their classes and I could snag a quick, much-needed shower!

It didn’t work out that way though & I ended up waiting in line for well over 20 minutes until a pay shower at  the Lodge facilities became available. It was worth the wait thought and the hot shower felt amazing! I felt a lot better after getting cleaned up properly.

Shower accomplished, I also cleaned up my cookware and other gear at camp before making it over to my final class of the day, “Packet Data and GPS for Convoy Operations and Group Navigation”. This sort of thing was right up my alley and although I was concerned it might be too basic, I was hoping to pick up practical tips & procedures.

I was also looking for what I feel is the missing piece to my own personal travel communications/tracking, which is being able to see live position updates from other vehicles while outside of 3G data reception. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a solution for this yet, but I am hopeful that one will be forthcoming.

This presentation was interesting and the attendees were a mix of experienced users like myself and people who were discovering about these solutions for the first time. Naturally, the inexperienced people got more out of the class, but I was still glad I went and felt like I was able to get plugged-in to the current state of affairs.

Classes over, it was time again for the 5:00 happy hour. It was nice to relax, socialize, and have a cold adult beverage. As a bonus, I was still feeling the residual shower happiness.  Anthony, Bryon and I then walked over to the lodge restaurant for dinner, and we picked up a 4th guy at our table so he didn’t have to wait for a table for himself. Dinner was good, but I think we all enjoyed our sasparilla and vanilla ice cream floats more than our actual meals!

After dinner it was soon time for the big Equipt Saturday night Maya End of the World party. We were again fed by Overland Gourmet (or rather everyone else was, we were stuffed from dinner) and we were only too happy to help Equipt quickly run out of Cuba Libres. A big round of applause to Equipt for wanting to give back and host this bash! It was great how easy it was to join or start up a conversation with so many like-minded people, whether it was about overlanding or vehicles or politics.

And if that fantastic party wasn’t enough, there was then an after-party over at Tacodoc’s camp where we he grilled up some tasty meats including the delicious antelope that Gianni had brought, courtesy of a recent hunting trip. Mark Trump also brought along a couple of blocks of Mike’s Beer Cheese (mikesbeercheese.com, not yet in retail production) which was unanimously loved by everyone present.

Around midnight Anthony and I were finally hitting the wall as others trickled back to their camps too. We somehow completed the short walk to our camp and I quickly crashed out in my tent. Sadly, tomorrow would conclude Overland Expo 2012.

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

Overland Expo Road Trip: Day Six photo gallery

It’s day five of our epic nine-day road trip, and Overland Expo 2012 officially launches at 0800 with opening remarks and introductions by Her Supreme Overland Highness, Roseanne Hanson. The morning crowd sitting on the bleachers by the moto track laughs when she says that Jonathan is filming this opening session, and also posing at the same time.

With the event now in full swing, I now need to pay attention to my course schedule. I avoided signing up for a 9am class so I could finish waking up & getting my things together, as well as make my first pass through the vendor/exhibitor areas. It’s a blur of activity and after a slow day yesterday my camera is now getting a real workout.

At 1000 I have my first course on Vehicle Maintenance, as taught by the Land Rover Camel Trophy crew. CT legends Duncan Barbour & Andrew Dacey led the informative class. I attempted to avoid taking notes by recording some of the class with my voice recorder, but I knew the results would be questionable as the wind had returned with a vengeance. The instructors really had to raise their voices to be heard.

At the end of the class a Defender 110 was tilted sideways by winch and controlled via lines on the opposite side, allowing easier access to the underside for field repairs. The class was informative and I also came away appreciating the no-nonsense, let’s-get-it-done approach from the instructors. It was clear they’d had a lot of experience & didn’t think twice about diving in and getting their hands dirty.

Next up for me was the Land Rover Experience driving course. Having plenty of offroad seat time in my Land Cruiser over the past week, I jumped at the chance to drive a Range Rover around the course. Anthony was also on hand for the same drive, so we also got to experience the course from the back seat as the other drove. The course was a lot of fun. Getting a ton of air under the left-front wheel at the end of the course was a highlight for me, as was getting to experience Land Rover’s famous and impressive Hill Descent mode.

After lunch and more browsing of the exhibitor area, I was scheduled for two longer (two-hour) classes that would take up the rest of my afternoon.

First up was Advanced Tire Repair taught by Martyn Davies of Adventure Trailers. This was an excellent class and I took a lot of notes, and came to realize that my existing tire repair kid was in need of a major upgrade. Really, I was equipped for simple punctures only, and I wanted to be able to deal with more than that if I had to.

Martyn gave a very hands-on demo of puncture and sidewall cut repairs, including patching and stitching. He fielded a lot of questions and was able to relate his own extensive experience, and he did it all with humility and humor. If you get a chance to take this class, I highly recommend it. AT also hosts several tire repair videos on their website.

Speaking of the AT website, after returning home from this trip I purchased AT’s impressive (and expensive) Ultimate Puncture Repair Kit. Look for a review in the near future.

Wrapping up my courses for the day was Advanced Recovery Scenarios: Single Vehicle. Despite the word “Advanced” being in the title, I would personally have categorized it as an introductory-level offering. Like every other short vehicle recovery class I have taken, most of the time was spent covering the basics of recovery gear and techniques.

Despite the mismatch with my expectation for the class, there was a lot of solid information presented, even if the majority of it was refresher material for me. I did get to see a ground anchor in use firsthand, which I’d never had the chance to see before, and that was very educational.

After class wrapped up it was time to get some dinner – if we could find enough time between the frantic socializing! Everywhere we went there were people to say hi to, catch up with, meet for the first time, and gear and rigs to discuss! It was difficult to walk any distance without getting sidetracked, but we didn’t mind.

I think this was the night that J. Brandon cooked up his awesome chicken lemon stew for us at his campsite. If not it was the following night, whatever. It’s all a blur… But the soup was outstanding and again so was the company. We then made our way over to the Snow Peak booth where they were due to kick off their Friday night party.

When we arrived things hadn’t quite started so Anthony & I jumped in to help Zach from Overland Gourmet carry some of his supplies over from another campsite, where he’d just wrapped up a special meal for those folks. He immediately launched into cooking for the party crowd, and dished up some fantastic grilled sausages, and tomatoes and jalapeños cooked in flaming Jim Beam. Both were outstanding. Meanwhile, one of the Snow Peak guys weaved through the crowd pouring good sake… What a great combination!

There was also a Snow Peak raffle to add to the excitement, and a group of boisterous people was having a roaring time playing some sort of game at the big table at the Snow Peak tent. It was a heck of a party and I had a great time chatting with several people who I’d met while there. It was a brilliant time.

Early on Bryon – who had arrived at the Expo with a much lighter wallet but also a properly-functioning Sportsmobile – was starting to feel burned out, and so had turned in to work on some posts for his website. Now after a couple of hours of partying, Anthony and I were both starting to succumb as well. We made our goodbyes and returned to camp to crash in our respective tents.

The punishing winds kept up for much of the night, causing some minor grief with the flap poles on Anthony’s RTT, and at times I could feel my ground tent trying to lift off on either side of me as I slept! Still, I was tired enough that it didn’t bother me, I’d just drop right back to sleep. Tomorrow would be another long, busy, and fun day.

• Day Five Miles: 0
• Day Five Miles offroad: 0
• Trip Miles: 1,007
• Trip Miles offroad: 163.8
• Days without a shower: 5 (toxic)

Overland Expo Road Trip: Day Five photo gallery

Day Four of the road trip was an odd day. We’d completed the Mojave Road, and arrived at Mormon Lake ahead of the opening of Overland Expo 2012. Registration for OX12 didn’t open until 1pm. Since we’d blasted through Flagstaff to beat the setting sun on the previous evening, we now planned to head into town to stock up on supplies.

Since we had all day free, we also decided to go and see Meteor Crater, something I’d initially planned to do as part of a maniacal post-Expo dash on the way home. This would make that Monday drive a little more sane and allow us to spend more than two minutes at the Grand Canyon, the other scheduled side trip.

We got up early as usual and slowly got our stuff together after breakfast. We arranged things at our campsite to reserve our space, plus hopefully room for Bryon when he arrived later that day. Then we both climbed into Toyotie and made the 90-minute drive to Meteor Crater. As the crow flies, the crater was only about 27 miles from our location on the southwest side of Mormon Lake as the crow, but the highway route takes you back to Flagstaff (30 minutes) before heading east again on the highway and finally south to the crater, nearly 75 miles in total.

The drive to the crater was uneventful, and I always enjoy the scenery around Flagstaff. As we got further east, the pines and other trees slowly gave way to scrub brush and mostly bare desert. We passed the large Purina factory, which I recalled from my last drive through the area about twenty years ago.

We arrived at Meteor Crater, paid the exorbitant admission fee of sixteen bucks each, and stepped inside the visitor center. I wasn’t too interested in most of the exhibits but did find some of them interesting. Once outside I finally could see the enormous crater with my own eyes. We had to try and time our photos so that the other tourists weren’t blocking our shots, often after we’d just taken care to avoid being in their shots. The particular sub-species of tourist that is discharged from tour buses at popular locations is not my favorite, as they are mostly unencumbered by manners or courtesy.

We concluded our visit at the large gift shop, which had trinkets and tidbits of every imaginable kind. Some were laughably tacky, but they did have a lot of unique rocks and minerals for sale. I picked up a few stickers as usual, and a chunk of pyrite for the kid, and then we fled back to Flagstaff for lunch.

We ate at the Lumberyard Brewing Company, one of three breweries in downtown Flagstaff that were marked by waypoints in my GPS. We were looking forward to finally indulging in our first restaurant meal of the trip, and it felt amazingly luxurious! Perhaps it was the rediscovered novelty of basic dining out, but the beer was great, the food was great, and the waitresses were both attentive and uniformly attractive. We left happy and full, and I was carrying a case of Lumberyard’s fine IPA in cans. After that we stopped at a knockoff Whole Foods and stocked up for the next several days. On the drive back to Mormon Lake, we passed the 1,000-mile milestone of our road trip.

Arriving around 3pm, we checked in at the event registration and received our paperwork, credentials, and bags – pretty nice and genuinely useful cloth satchels – and got back to camp. The camping area was now packed with vehicles and tents, and “our” space had been encroached on two sides. As soon as I parked I was further accosted by a new neighbor who was trying to hold my parking space for a friend! We got that sorted pretty quickly, and thankfully with a minimum of additional drama. We also met some of our new neighbors who we immediately liked, including CC and Clay.

After wandering through the newly-populated event grounds, we wrapped up the day at J. Brandon’s campsite with Katie Boué, Dave Creech and others. This was the first of many social events at the Expo and they were all pure pleasure. We exchanged stories, beer, booze and cigars, and generally laughed our butts off the whole time. These gatherings really took the event to the next level for me and I’ll be forever grateful to my friends – old and new – for their participation. These folks alone were worth the expenditure in vacation time, long drives, and registration fees for the event. My hat is off to them.

That night the wind decided to go into remission, but it was pretty cold by the the time we finally turned in. The next morning Overland Expo would officially kick off and their was already an buzz of anticipation in the air.

• Day FourMiles: 147
• Day Four Miles offroad: 0
• Trip Miles: 1,007
• Trip Miles offroad: 163.8
• Days without a shower: 4

Overland Expo Road Trip: Day Four photo gallery

Another morning dawned on the Mojave Road and the early light lent even more color to the nearby mountains. And they’re interesting mountains too, between Table Top to the south and the corkscrew peak of Pinto Mountain just to the northeast of our camp.

Bryon was up extra-early, ready to make a determined blitz to the transmission shop just beyond the end of the trail. We wished him well and told him that we’d keep an eye out for him along the way, in case he ran into more trouble. As it turned out, he did have some when he ripped off his roof rack on an encroaching Joshua tree branch, but he was still able to make it into town.

Anthony & I made up breakfast and then after the daily packing-up we hit the Mojave Road again. Sort of. We got back on the wide graded road we were on the previous evening, but quickly realized that this road was now paralleling the actual Mojave Road. We took a 90-degree turn north onto one of the many side trails and that brought us back to the proper Mojave Road trail, where we turned east again.

The trail here returns to a pretty narrow width for the most part, and is somewhat sunken in some stretches. The going was pretty easy, and enjoyable, but you did have to pay close attention and use moderate speeds. Ruts, rocks and whoopdy-doos awaited the unwary, as did the spiky plants that often lined the trail. Just before our road trip, I’d seen a photo online of someone who’d gotten a little careless and one tough spike of a leaf had speared right through a tire sidewall.

As we cruised along we encountered several Mojave Road landmarks to stop and check out. There was the Penny Can Tree, where passing travelers add a penny to the can before proceeding. I’m not sure what major road improvements this toll is funding but I’m sure they are worthwhile! There was also a nice monument and plaque for the Nevada Southern Railway (incorporated in 1892) which thoughtfully included railroad tracks and ties.

I got a photo op of a different kind as I passed a large snake on the trail. Happy to be in a large, well-defended vehicle I bravely backed up to get some photos of it. I had expected to see a Mojave rattler but this turned out to be a red racer, a thin whip-like snake with a orange-tan body and a green head. They are said to be the most commonly seen snakes in the Mojave, and they are very fast. While they are happily not poisonous, they have a reputation for being mean-tempered & will bite if toyed with. I left it alone.

We then came across a shot-up old yellow school bus, which turned out to have a shot-up old station wagon behind it. We took photos and read the various graffiti written along it, and Anthony seemed hurt by the large “CHIP SUCKS” spraypainted on the side of the bus. “Poor Chip,” he said, but I tried to reassure him that perhaps Chip really was a big jerk after all.

Driving on, we reached the end of another long valley. We’d reached the Piute Range which provided a spectacular overlook to the lower lands to the east, as well as a looooong view back to the west from where we’d come. After enjoying the view we headed down the rocky, rutted and steep trail which was probably the most technical terrain we’d driven. It wasn’t bad but it was slow going on the narrow shelf road, being careful to pick the correct line. A couple of older 4x4s with equally old drivers passed us going the opposite direction here, but thankfully at a wide spot in the trail.

We descended the steep trail and once again found ourselves on the desert flats, back to pretty typical trail. We stopped at an intersection & Anthony (Verizon) was able to reach Bryon, who confirmed that he’d made it safely to the shop and was staring at a $1600 repair bill. He was hoping the work would be completed the next day after the parts arrived in the morning and that he’d catch up to us at the Expo.

At this point we again turned 90-degrees north and sped along a well-graded power line access road, until we reached the intersection to Fort Piute, which we took west to the old Fort ruins. This part of the trail was narrow and very rocky and it was slow going to the fort.

The old fort foundations were interesting to see, and we noted that the horses had a much bigger room than the troops did. The fort had a very short service life of about seven months back in 1867-8, but was built to last and remained mostly intact until the 1930s. The base walls still look solid and the nearby oasis of green trees and plants that led to the fort’s construction are still apparent.

We picked our way back along the rocky trail until we were back on the main route again, with more whoopdy-doos waiting for us but with generally easy going. We eventually reached the side trail to the last official campsite on this eastern end of the Mojave Road, which was Balancing Rock camp. The side road had some steep gullies to cross, but we soon found ourselves at the camp. There wasn’t really any shade but the balancing rock(s) were a great sight. We had lunch here and pondered our next step.

We had originally penciled-in a stay at this camp for the night, but we’d pushed through quickly and arrived ahead of our anticipated schedule. We could cool our heels here and veg, camp overnight and proceed the next morning as planned, or we could just continue on from here and arrive at the Expo location around sunset. Weighing those options, we decided to continue on our way.

We dropped a lot of elevation over the next half hour, zipping downhill at around 25mph until we reached and crossed the Needles Highway. On the other side of the highway we found that the Mojave Road changed character one last time, becoming farmland access road. We passed farm workers who paid no attention to us, as if dust-covered Land Cruisers with snorkels, roof racks and lights were something they saw every day. Perhaps they did.

After a couple of miles the Mojave Road ended abruptly at a T-intersection and the mighty, fast-running Colorado River. This is a proper, wide river moving along a lot of water. We got out and stared longingly at it because all that water looked so inviting. But it would have been a nasty rock scramble down from the trail, and after a brief celebration we instead aired up our tires as the sweat dripped off our heads and arms. We’d successfully completed the Mojave Road, and were eager to hit a gas station to pick up our reward – some cold drinks!

We did just that at the first gas station we came across in Laughlin, which happily had a large market inside. The station’s bathroom was an unbelievable luxury, with all the hot running water I wanted and I did my best to wash the days of trail dust, sweat, oil and grime off my very filthy hands. We got our cold drinks and ingested them pretty much as fast as we could.

We were eager to hit the road again as we both had pretty miserable first impressions of Laughlin. Perhaps it was the advertisements on the gas pumps, which in most places would be for energy drinks or such, but here they were for meth recovery programs! We then had a brief scare as Anthony’s engine wouldn’t fire up again, and we had visions of joining Bryon for hours at the repair shop somewhere here in hot Methville.

After repeated cranking, Anthony’s engine finally fired up, recovering from a probable case of vapor-lock. We happily fled Laughlin, although it still proved to be tougher than expected, with long, steep hill climbs where we again regained many of the thousands of feet of elevation we’d lost coming into town. We climbed slowly, for what seemed like an eternity, passing colorful, jagged and tortured red hills, half expecting to cross the river Styx in our escape.

Eventually we settled into a pretty pleasant highway drive, with pleasant southwestern scenery drifting by. The flat blacktop and the air conditioning were a nice change of pace after a few days of being jostled around offroad. We ate up the miles for the next four hours, passing through Flagstaff and taking the road southeast to Mormon Lake. The sun was beginning to set and we cruised along Lake Mary and then Mormon Lake, finally arriving at our destination and weary as usual.

We located the camping area and staked out our spots, saving room for Bryon. Registration didn’t open until the following afternoon so there were only about a dozen vehicles parked at this point. One of the camp hosts rode up on her bike to greet us, pointing out that we were early but that it wasn’t a problem. We set up camp and decided to be lazy and have a well-deserved sit-down meal at the restaurant, but by the time we got there at 8:30 the kitchen had been closed for half an hour! We were a bit crushed but managed to fend for ourselves at our camp, with the help of a few cold brews from our fridges.

Another long day was done, and we crashed out pretty early. It was another windy night, although not nearly as bad as it had been in Afton Canyon. Those kind of winds were waiting another day before returning…

• Day Three Miles: 275
• Day Three Miles offroad: 54.3
• Trip Miles: 860
• Trip Miles offroad: 163.8
• Days without a shower: 3

Overland Expo Road Trip: Day One photo gallery