We're Back!
Well, all good things must come to an end. The rig (with a new name) has been cleaned - inside and out - photographs downloaded (but unedited), laundry washed, and I’ve even shaven off my 2-1/2 week growth of beard (way too much grey in it). Despite having to return to work, we now have the not-quite-equally fun part of reliving our trip as we recount our adventures in the blog.
Given that our trip lasted nearly the entire month of May, it’s likely going to take some time to get all the posts written and published. But they should be steady in coming because they are the motivation for us to cull and edit our photographs, because sometimes images are better than lots of text (unless it comes to detailed national security briefings . . . but that’s another topic of discussion). Rest assured, there are plenty of stories to be told as well, so it won’t all be pictures.
To summarize our trip, it started off not with the photographic bang we'd originally envisioned (read Klamath National Wildlife Refuge and then Mono Lake), but with a trip to Sportsmobile West where they needed to do some re-wiring and installation of helper springs to improve our rear suspension (fortunately, because we wound up needed it).
From there the adventure truly began, quickly followed by a mis-adventure where the rig earned its name, a few days of U2 playing in my head, a wonderful visit with family, fun with like-minded people, running around in the desert a bunch more, tossing out the detailed itinerary I had prepared for us and heading north instead of south, only to return back south for incredible discoveries, and then to rise to great heights to find out just how out of shape we are! Pretty much an excellent adventure!
All the while, we were learning about our rig, trying our best to make decent photographs, and getting used to the idea that there’s lots of places we can just park it for the night. To give you a hint of what’s to come, here’s an iPhone panorama of our campsite in Valley of the Gods taken from the top of the rig (if you look carefully, or blow up the image, you can see Ann taking a photograph).
Since nothing much really happened on our trip down to Sportsmobile in Fresno (except eating at a great breakfast place in Redding and a wonderful Peruvian restaurant in Fresno), our recounting of the trip in the next post will begin with the place we resumed the overlanding and photography portion of our trip.
To leave you with one last teaser, last night I was catching up on a lot of the websites that I had totally neglected for over three weeks (having no cell coverage for several days at a time has both its advantages and disadvantages) and was surprised to find out that, indeed, the rest of the world agrees with Ann and me - our rig is way cool (way cooler than we are). As if the park ranger at Great Basin National Park wasn’t evidence enough (“Excuse me, can I photograph your rig? This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”), Expedition Portal, the website for Overland Journal and one of the main promoters for the Overland Expo we attended this trip, included a posting on what it felt were the most interesting of the “live-aboard overland vehicles” at this year’s Overland Expo West. You should check it out at:
https://expeditionportal.com/overland-expo-2017-living-large-in-campers-and-vans/
And in case you’re too lazy to follow the link and scroll to the many interesting vehicles it documents (particularly #16), here is that vehicle:
And in case you’re wondering whether it’s ours, well of course it is! Compare the license plate with the one in the photo from Fresno. Our rig was shown on Expedition Portal, so we’re officially cool! Now all we need are some sponsors and we can do this for a living!