Our drive northward from the Expo took us from the forested mountains of Flagstaff to the desert mesas, canyons and valleys of northern Arizona and Southern Utah.  Our first stop was Monument Valley.

While Overland Expo West was great and informative, Ann and I were ready to get back to the adventure part of our trip.  Our next leg would take us north, and we’d spend the next few days exploring parts the Bears Ears National Monument.  To get there, we had to go through Monument Valley, famed for its use in John Ford westerns.  

But before we get back to the story, I thought it might be worthwhile to share one of the dilemmas Ann and I now have with Beast.  

Leaving my dad’s place in Phoenix, we headed up north to the Fort Tuthill County Park just south of Flagstaff where Overland Expo West 2017 was being held.  It’s one of the largest overland expos in the world with over 300 vendors (to include Sportsmobile) peddling pretty much anything you can imagine needing for overlanding.  In addition to the vendors, there are lots of courses to take, which was why Ann and I were so focused on being there with Beast.

Our next stop was Joshua Tree National Park where we spent a couple of wonderful days photographing in a new environment and where I had constant U2 of the brain (pretty much a non-stop loop of the instrumental leading up to the lyrics of “Mothers of the Disappeared” - much more melancholy and staid than I’d expected, I rather thought it would have been more driving like the lead into “Where the Streets Have No Name” or "Bullet the Blue Sky", but we don’t get to choose our earworms).

After our (mis)adventure, we were ready for something new.  Which was good, because our next stop was Joshua Tree National Park.  But before we tell that story, it’s time for a break and a new installment of Shooting the Shooter.

As you may have noticed (and I’ve definitely mentioned), Beast has a roof rack.  Several people have commented on how we could haul a lot of stuff up there and are shocked when we tell them that we can’t really.  Well, put anything up there and then expect to raise the roof.  That’s because the roof rack is near or at the maximum load the roof can raise with (approximately 150 pounds), though not nearly close to the carrying capacity of the roof (10,000 pounds).  Then we tell them that the purpose of the roof rack isn’t to carry stuff, it’s to carry us.  It’s a platform to photograph from.

I know. That’s not the way the saying goes, but that is part of the point of this post!  One of the lessons of life I keep needing to relearn is that you limit your experiences by making too early of a judgement about how good or bad something is by how it looks or by what you think about it.  And that applies to places, people or - in this case - restaurants.  

I might as well get this out early.  I owe Ann.  I owe Ann big time.  

Although in my defense the guide book rated the trail as “Easy.  The canyon bottom is rocky and sandy in places.  This is a well marked route.”  Which is no worse than what it had for the Alabama Hills - “Easy, on graded roads.  Spurs are rougher.”  And we handled the Alabama Hills spurs just fine (face it - we had camped on one).  Perhaps it was that the condition of the trail had changed drastically given the heavy rainfall California had received this winter, or perhaps it’s just that one can’t trust the judgment of others (as a person we met later on the road noted, who had a similar (mis)adventure on an “easy” rated trail from the Arizona guide book from the same company).  Regardless, the trail was not “easy.”

On the third full day of our trip, we were able to join our pre-planned route and spend some time in the Alabama Hills by Lone Pine.  If you recall from our Fresno trip from November of last year, we loved it so much we promised to return.  

We arrived by early afternoon to mixed conditions.  The skies were pretty much overcast with the occasional break that somehow didn’t immediately lend itself for photographs.  So instead, Ann and I decided to drive around (off-road) to both scout for camping sites as well as to decide where we wanted to be for the next morning’s sunrise.  That gave us an opportunity to put the rig into 4 wheel drive and to test out the new Hellwig helper springs, as well as to give Ann an opportunity to see what driving the rig was like off-road.  

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.  

I’m calling it “expedition” preparation instead of “trip” preparation because a 25-day trip on the road living out of the Sportsmobile is likely to be more of an expedition and adventure than a simple vacation trip. 

Although I’d done a lot of trip planning over the winter, I’ve had a long break from it given the need to prepare for a photography talk and then getting ready to pick up the rig [not to mention the fact I’ve been working all the hours I can to cover for the unpaid time I’ll take during the expedition].  There’s still a lot to do, even more so since Ann and I realized that we’ll have to pay much more attention to learning about the vehicle itself than we’d realized.  So to use an understatement, Ann and I have been busy!