In the "post your stories" area, among many outstanding memories -- not the least of which was the fruitless debate, along with trusty ally cbradley, about how infinite process complexity is inherently good and everyone, especially the women in our lives, should shoot RAW -- probably the top was something totally unexpected.
Late on Saturday we were approached by a nearly frantic Lorraine Chittock seeking our help to cover a presentation on Sunday.
She related that a presenter was indisposed and could not attend the event to present the following day.
Unfazed and undaunted, the three of us leapt into the breach, answering the call for overlanders everywhere: The Show Must Go On.
Steph and I didn't even know the topic or who we were standing in for until we got there and Lorraine gave us a sample of the presentation handouts.
Steph got one first, paused, and then thrust it towards me.
"Look!" she exclaimed, the pages shaking in her hands, "Look at who it is!"
It took me a few seconds to lock in on the name and then all I could do was smile.
A few years ago the absent presenter, the very same lifelong overlander and career foreign service officer, had been instrumental in extracting Steph and I from, shall we say, some interesting circumstances overseas.
We'd written many sincere Thank You's and received many "just doing my job" replies, but in one of those wonderful examples of life closing circles, right then, right there, we finally had a chance to do something tangible to repay him.
First, let me say it is extremely hard to stand in for a U.S. ambassador, especially when the topic is "Know Before You Go: How the State Department Can and Cannot Help You Abroad." Or something to that effect.
Nonetheless, I walked confidently to center stage and began a short introduction of our absent Official Overlanding Ambassador. I described his background growing up overlanding and his years pining for a Tiger 4x4, a dream which is, even as you read this, being assembled at the Tiger facility.
Last, I closed the circle and revealed that the U.S. Ambassador who was scheduled to present was none other than ExPo's very own diplostrat and then demonstrated what the "strat" represented with my best windmill riff.
Of course, after that, we held the audience in our hands and proceeded to chat through an hour of Real Life anecdotes and reference information about overlanders and their foreign service resources abroad.
Come and see that presentation next year. Diplostrat will do a much better job with the material. Plus, he actually knows how to play the guitar.
