Well, I’ve been pretty absent.. I haven’t spent a weekend at home in a month and I wont until a month from now. Aux tank is done, less one tweek to get a breather on so it doesn’t leak as I’m pumping fuel in and at the point it gets full that last blip of pressure pushes some fuel out somewhere.
Most recently we went to Overland Expo East about a week and a half ago.
Video is coming, but fair warning we need a gimbal!!! Shakey video is not your friend.
The entire event was insane this year. It was by far the best and biggest East show. About 6 years ago we were sitting by a fire at Mormon lake and someone said, this is the peak show. This is the best one. We all agreed and for some reason it was. Not the biggest or the smoothest, but just the best one and none of us can quite articulate why. This was the peak for the east.
Sure, getting into and out of Biltmore is a challenge for day pass folks. If you only knew what Ovex does to help offset the cost of the day passes and get everyone to the event you’d be shocked, but suffice it to say they give until it hurts. Still, it can be a challenge.
No bad weather this year! WOOHOO!!!
On the flipside there were about 9 regulars that we rely heavily on that couldn’t make it. It happens every few years... The gods conspire to make it so triple the normal number of folks can’t make it. This meant our schedules were full!!
We arrived on Wednesday after starting to travel at 3am Phoenix time. We helped what little we could with setup and then planned to go to the cool ride contest. It just wasn’t going to happen. Too much to do! So we ate onsite instead and caught up with friends.
On Thursday it was full bore to get the site ready. We had an incident where a sponsor built a tunnel for people to walk through and cars to drive over that was collapsing before it was finished. Being a safety hazard we mandated a lot of bracing and changes. In the end it was safe, but not pretty. We finished up our track and class areas as best as we could and finally after what seemed like 5 days (really 1.5!) sat down and realized we were ready for day 1!
Each day went like a blur. I actually prefer it this way. I was on my own for the most part in each class and it was great. I just gave 100% of what I had and I hope the smiling faces represented happy and satisfied students. It was fantastic. Each night we’d try to stay awake long enough to go to a happy hour or see a film on Camel Trophy with some of the old participants etc.
Next thing I knew it was Sunday morning and we were cooking literally pounds of bacon for the walk around vendor breakfast at 7P4x4. We were almost done!!
Sunday is either a great or brutal day. This time it was great. We were exhausted, but by 3:30PM we were done and moved to the BBQ. We started with 1 table and as instructors wearily half walked and half stumbled in from their last class we kept adding tables until there was nearly 25 of us around 5 large tables. It as great to see everyone at one time. We usually just get seconds with each other here and there, but somehow just about everyone was in one place!
We eventually moved to the HQ trailers and sat around propane fire pits until much too late. Looking across the fire and seeing Ted Simon or several camel trophy winners or even seeing one of the young “new” to adventure guys or gals that are traveling around the world felt good. It felt right. It helped to reinforce that our time was coming soon. I couldn’t wait much longer.
With the prospect of us doing a “big trip” next year, job offers seemed to come out of the woodwork. Will any of them pan out? Hard to know, but for right now the only thing I know is that I still haven’t gotten back into gear in the Insurance world. I’m still off in a dirt field in North Carolina wearing gloves moving rocks around and showing folks the relatively un-important in day to day life skills I happen to know.
p.s. Side bar story. In my lockers/traction class a guy in a Jeep Rubicon that was pretty heavily built crawled up onto the rollers. (Roller bearings made to remove ALL traction from 2 tires to simulate a cross axle situation). As he started to get onto the rollers we heard a very loud POP. He snapped his axle right inside the carrier. Woof. I felt horrible, but knew it wasn’t broken from abuse in the class. Still, what a crap day for him. His wife was going to kill him. She kept mumbling something about this stupid jeep never works and would be the death of her.
These were even some chromoly axles he’d just bought so I guessed they had a defect or weren’t installed on the splines correctly. Hard to say. He spent the next 6 hours fixing it while I and others from the event scrounged tools and parts from vendors. His wife was not happy, but he was a trooper.
So, without further adieu, on to some photos.
Duncan Barbour found his old flag from the USSR year that he ran. It’s massive!
We had a trailer this year. It was majestic. I can’t describe how much easier it is to go all day for 14 hours if you slept in a bed and didn’t have to wait in line for showers wondering if you’d make it to your first class. I’m getting soft!!
In other news the secret BACKUP bar was pretty trick...
Setup day. Most of the other Overland Expo folks get to the events a week before. We are always the slackers with too little time off who show up a day or two early. Therefore we feel eternally guilty and try to make up for it as best we can. This is us sorting out the driving course.
Finishing up the log bridge I got to drive the old Camel truck onto it. Nothing quite like driving something that’s nearly priceless that you’ve never driven before where mistakes = ruining said truck. Still, I wasn’t going to say no!
Although we didn’t make it to the cool ride contest it was fun enjoying some shephards pie and fish n chips. The fact that the brits thought it was the best they’d had stateside makes me assume it was pretty legit. I’m easy. It was warm and filling so I liked it.
Day -1. The vendors we’re still filing in last minute trying to get setup.
Oh gosh, I had to drive around in circles for a couple hours in Grahams Defender 110 with a 300TDI to “bed in” the course...
“Get it stuck in the mud to make sure it will work for the recovery class.” On loop one I drove through it with my natural instinct being to try and avoid slowing down too much in mud. On loop two I stopped for about 1 second and that was all it took to get completely stuck.
Yeah!? Yeah!
A slave to fashion, I got to play with a chainsaw too. These UK fellas sure are big on safety. I thought it was a bit funny how they have a process of safety and gear for everything, but I know it makes sense. The Redneck in me laughed, but knew they were right.
Check out the link below regarding my shirt. They seem like good people and I enjoy their channel for some escapism.
Night before instructors meeting. Graham telling everyone to memorize the map of the grounds and all of us knowing there is no way that was going to happen.
Filling in, but still a lot of open space. I’m always surprised by how many vendors race in the first day of the expo.
For me this was the truck of the show. A 1991... so it’s legal to import with a 1hdte engine built on a the 70 series truck chassis. Not exactly what my dream rig would be, but close enough to call this my favorite at the event.
I have my doubts about it being a true 91 as the welds on the coil front suspension all looked machine welded, but hey, I’m taking Maltec on their word on this one. They seemed like really good guys. I just noticed airbags, factory welds etc that made me think.... hmmmmm.
It’s nice to have friends. Jayston couldn’t make the event, but he sent stickers and... er... supplies.
I swear we weren’t trying to discourage visitors.
One of the volunteers made this 7P sign. I was blown away that someone who was just volunteering for the day came up with the idea and spent quite a while sawing little pieces of bamboo to make it. Pretty darn nice!
The volunteers work really hard, for no money, just food and some freebees usually.
Day 1 of expo! It begins! Therefore my pictures mostly end!
Obviously the coolest dreadlocked dog at the show.
The happiest and most sore footed folks about 10 minutes after all of us realized our final classes of the event had finished. PHEW!!! The folks that started this crazy thing are some great friends and the new ones I’ve made since it started are irreplaceable.
Monday morning is oddly calm. You are just so happy to be done.
Steamy series.
This really is a beautiful truck. It’s like someone took my FJ40 (Since that’s the closest thing I can relate it to) and scaled it down 20%. It drives great.
What’s that? Drive it onto the bridge? Seems safe. (the series and camel disco are owned by LR Asheville... not expo!)
All trucks wish they had classy leather limit straps.
Yes, that little bit of lean makes you very uneasy as you feel like you must be driving off the logs on one side. Hence trusting the person giving you directions or “marshalling.”
Generations.
Everything has to come down and/or be filled in.
Just before we tore down the hill we had to get one last picture...
Arms crossed? Okay, arms crossed it is then!!
Well, that’s it for OVEX East. The video will summarize it better, but I wanted to give my friends here the.... quick and
version...