The Official 2012 Overland Expo thread!!! Post your comments, questions, images...

[orangeTJ]

Sounds like someone took the looong way to Flagstaff.:wings: Lets see some pics and hear some stories of your trip.

I took a really long route to get to Flagstaff. The main reason for the long route was to stop at Goal Zero's office on my way, as well as to do a stop at a national park enroute.

Two hours in to the trip I had to call Onstar to get them to unlock my truck, because I locked the keys in it. This happened at my first fuel stop, when I pulled away from the pumps to take this picture:

At least I had my cell phone in my pocket, so I looked up Onstar's phone number through internet on my phone!! :snorkel:

In the trailer was my 2004 Jeep TJ. I took the Jeep along this year so I had alternate transportation during my planned visits to some national parks.

 

[orangeTJ]

Sunset blinding me in the mirror somewhere near the Tri-Cities, WA Vicinity:

 

[haven]

In the recent Overland News email, Jonathan Hanson confirms that the 2013 Overland Expo will return to Mormon Lake Lodge. Included in the email was a link to this video



Lots more videos showing 2012 OvEx vendors here
http://www.overlandexpo.com/video

 

[Jonathan Hanson]

Indeed - we'll be back in the same spot next year. In fact, Land Rover's driving course was left intact, so all we'll have to do is fine-tune it and add a couple of features we discussed with them (think rocks and other challenging substrate material). And we can focus on tuning the rest of the event as well, rather than driving across three states looking for a new venue as we did last year . . .

 

[simimike]

Kind of a birds eye view from the Heki hatch over the bed in my XPCamper. What a great event! I had a blast meeting so many overland minded folks.

Mike

 

[George 99]

Please post pics so the right coasters who could not make it can experience vicariously via the interwebs. 'Nthanks...

I attended specifically to meet Ara with whom I've corresponded for about 3 years at motocampers.com. Just joined Exp. Portal today and thought youse folks might want to see a few more pics. My ride to Flagstaff from Kingman was mostly 2-track and ranch roads, then Lake Mary Road and county road 3 to Mormon Lake. Returned on many of the same tracks so lots of dirt on my little not-an-adventure-bike Yamaha XT-350.

As to "no bicycle trails" in the are, who needs'em? all the dirt roads thru the forests would serve for me, but I prefer powered 2-wheels.

Take a look here to see the pics.

 

[mk216v]

Cool video!

 

[Ford Prefect]

Thanks for sharing George 99! nice stuff, and color me jealous of your ability to ride there on all dirt roads! ...nice.

 

[Ace Brown]

I had a post Expo experience that was disappointing. I drove the Camel Course while there and signed a standard release form. A week or so later I received many emails and a phone call from Roaring Fork Land Rover saying the vehicle I was looking for was ready. I replied that I did not request any vehicle info and had no plans to get rid of my FJ Cruiser. But the emails kept on coming despite my protests and unsubscribes (twice). I really hope this is some kind of simple mistake and not a questionable sales tactic by Land Rover.

Ace

 

[Ford Prefect]

My wife got stuff from them too last year, but they buggered off after we told them no thanks. Perhaps they just had two copies of your information?? Who knows. It would be sad if they are just crummy.

Sure would be nice to see Jeep there next year! They did rate the Jeep as the best expo vehicle recently after all.

 

[haven]

Truck Trend Magazine's web site has an article about OvEx 2012, written by renowned overlander Gary Wescott.
http://www.trucktrend.com/autoshows/coverage/163_1210_overland_expo_2012/index.html

 

[Ace Brown]

Gary saw a lot of things I missed but that is no surprise for me as the Expo keeps growing and my legs keep aging. Think I'll ride my bike next year.

Ace

 

[Streakerfreak]

View attachment 110348

Flagstaff, Arizona, 2 hours north of Phoenix off I-17, at Mormon Lake Lodge (Google map). Flagstaff has thousands of hotel rooms, restaurants, bars, and is the gateway to the Grand Canyon and the Four Corners backcountry

Um, thanks. . .