Journey to Overland HQ

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
G'day Guys.

So I know this isnt directly Australian related but I figured that seeing as I was flying the flags for the Aussies this may be the best spot.

Anyway my name is Troy, In Aus I work with Hema Maps doing quite a wide variety of tasks, but predominantly a range of training videos as well as field work and technical support. You could say I'm a bit of a jack of all trades.

I have been lucky enough to get the opportunity to come and work with OJ for the next few months. I have some pretty exciting tasks coming up, everything from writing some more Australian focused editorial articles, through to helping with camera work and assisting with Overland Expo that is coming up in a few short months.

I will also try and make this tread a little bit of a blog about what Im doing and experiencing in the US. But if you have any questions please feel free to fire away! Im not shy and I'm too far away to bite so fire away with anything you want.

Well I left Aus on Monday at around 1130 and got into Prescott by Monday 1430 .... now that was a bit weird, considering I had had almost 15 hours of time in the air and a few hours in a car. But boy was I shattered, not having slept much on the BNE to LAX flight meant I was running on fumes.... but I still had to force myself to stay up another few hours.

The first few days have been a real treat, Im living with one of the Chris' from OJ in a duplex pretty much in town and I have had a few American firsts already. I have been to Walmart, I now believe every "people of Walmart" story I have ever heard, held a semi auto rifle and a .45 pistol, I plan to go shooting some time in the near future, maybe this weekend. I have plenty more first to come, In n out burger being one that I hope to get to soon!

I am getting to drive the Land Rover Trek, which, for those that dont know, is basically a fully decked out Disco 2, from the factory, and painted in a burnt orange with all sorts of LR graphics on it.

On the more work related side, because believe it or not I have to, I have written a few articles that Im sure you will recognise as they appear over the coming weeks. I have also been getting used to everyone in the office, cause that is a task in itself, they are some really great guys over here. Im also starting to get familiar with the camera gear they have over hear as tomorrow we plan to head out and start doing some filming for some up and coming projects.

Anyway guys, it would be great to hear from you and get some feedback or if you want any inside info, just ask and you might get lucky :)

Safe Journey
Troy
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
G'day All.

Hope you had a great weekend. So my first weekend in Prescott was reasonably quiet. Spent a fair bit of time catching up on sleep and just settling in and getting to know the place.

Friday evening saw me trying in-n-out burger for the first time. I must say that it was better than I expected, I even tried the animal style fries, perhaps a bit cheesy for my fancy but not to bad.
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My First In-N-Out experience

Saturday saw me get to head out for my first run in the disco. I have to say, having not driven a disco off-road before, I was pleasantly surprised. Even in the wet conditions (and no doubt the muddies helped a lot) it just held its line well and would just walk up most of the track like it was a bitumen road, with a few bumps of course. The short trip that we did was nothing overly taxing but it certainly allowed me to get a bit of a feel for the car and work on the fact that the steering wheel is still on the wrong side!

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(Photo credit goes to Scott Brady)


Im looking forward to the coming week, It should mean a few more articles to add to the collection as well as heading away on Friday for the weekend. Not really 100% sure where to yet, but I know that Scott has some plans so I should find out soon enough. Im really itching to get out exploring this place, I just wish it would warm up a bit!

Safe Journey.
Troy
 

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toddz69

Explorer
Welcome aboard, Troy! Looking fwd to meeting you in person at some point during your time here.

Todd Z.
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
So another great week and weekend has been had.

Last week saw me start filming on with the Trek, no doubt you will get to see some of the outcomes from that some time soon, just have to finish editing it all together. Further to that you may have seen my first article posted last Thursday about the SWAG, a great aussie icon and today with Australian Navigation, hopefully many more exciting articles to come. ( I have a few ones in mind that should be doozies)

The weekend however was much more exciting. We headed out over the weekend with two others from the Hema team that were in town for a the weekend. We left on Friday night and headed out through Jerome and down to Oak Creek Homestead where we stayed that night. This was a great introduction run for me as while I had gone out on a short stint last weekend this was a bit more challenging and gave me a real sense of the cars capabilities. The only downside to the weekend was that this was about the only driving I did as I was deemed the film crew for the weekend. Regardless we packed up camp and got ready to roll on the Saturday, we played in the water a bit before we headed off back up the hill to head for Broken Arrow.

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We go through a few hairy sections with no problem, the bikes we were traveling with however struggled a bit more, and head to Sedona for a quick bite to eat then off to Broken Arrow. This track certainly challenged the cars a bit more, but nothing that our skilled drivers couldn't handle, it certainly made for some great footage. Some of which you will get to see sooner rather than later hopefully. In the mean time there are a few pics below that Scott took from the day (in no particular order)

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Im looking forward to another great week here. More filming, editing and writing. And Friday im heading to Pheonix for my birthday to check out Jeff Dunham, the ventriloquist. So hopefully ill have a few more exciting tales for you next week.

Until next time.
Safe Journey...
 

zeroland

Adventurer
Hi Troy, great idea re a blog and keeping us updated. The Prescott office is an awesome place to hang around. Looking forward to following your American adventures.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
roverrocks. Im sure there will be plenty more to come.

Kurt, Looking forward to it! might need to pop up some stage to see if you can find a big truck that will impress me :p

Zeroland, So far it has been lots of fun and the guys and girls here are really great. Feels like I have been here for months not weeks.
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
Well, for my last day of being 23, even if im already 24 in Aus, I got convinced to go for a down hill mountain bike ride. And well oh my am I sore... It was a really great experience but I think I went through a full set of front and rear set of break pads... but it was worth it.

I didnt completely stack it, which was nice, I did kinda end up in a little bit of a gully that I wasnt meant to be in.. but only bruised my inner thigh on seat :(
 

zeroland

Adventurer
That's mountain biking for you. Becomes addictive so I expect you will end up buying a MTB.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 

Aussie T

Overland Journal Ringin
The big weekend.

So, I figured I should update you all on how the weekend went.

Firstly, with Friday being my birthday I just had a very relaxing and chilled out day, Scott let me off coming into work. So i wandered around town a bit and just enjoyed the sunshine while I waited for my ride to Pheonix.

I think we got away around 3ish from Home and headed to the big smoke. We caught up with some friends for a nice dinner (I cant remember the name of the joint, thats old age for you I guess) and had a few drinks there before we headed to see Jeff Dunham.

Now that guy is one funny fella, he pulled out a few of his classics, such as Achmed the Dead Terrorist and of course Walter and peanut made their appearances as well. While a few of the jokes went over my head, American political stuff, overall I found the show to be probably one of the best comedy shows I had seen for a while. So to any Aussies reading this, try and get tickets if you like his kind of humor.

Afterward I was taken out and shown Mill St in Pheonix which made a pleasant end to the night. I am surprised however that they close all the bars at 2am... I was only just getting started :/ Im much more used to "lock-out" (not being allowed to enter a bar) at 3 and the bars closing at 5.... regardless, I also discovered that Mexican food is way better at 3am in the morning than McDonalds ever could be.

Saturday was back in Prescott and I tried to put on a bit of an Australian BBQ, well it appears that Snags (sausages) cost more than a beer over here, and you only seem to get fancy snags, like Italian Chicken or Pork, not your good run of the mill Beef. Despite this we still had a BBQ back at my place with a few people that I had had the opportunity to meet previously then went to enjoy the prescott nightlife.

So pretty much to sum up the weekend... Im Broke....

Anyway, thanks for reading and I have thrown a few pictures down below.

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