The Status of Overlanding Today

[Todd780]

hang in there.... prices are dropping and recreational property will be the first to see the hit. How close to Edmonton ??

1970s were my teen years and Pigeon, Wabanum, Alberta Beach, Lac La Nonne, Nakanum, LacLaBiche were the places we spent the summers.

It took no money back then to buy a boat and go water skiing. 70HP was plenty.

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I have 2 older sisters, they asked who I was taking to Grad,,, I said Grad?? I'm going skiing. Blasphemy they told me every girl wants to go to Grad I should ask someone soo..... I never had time for a girlfreind but I thought OK I'll ask Kerri..... Well that was embarrassing when she said "I thought you were coming to the lake........ "

And now I'm starting to play vinyl........ the Doors are best loud.

Good spots! We usually hit up Wabamun every year, try and get out to lac La Biche (Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park) as often as we can. We spent a long weekend out there last summer. The we usually spent time up north in Slave Lake. It's one of our favorite spots. We would like to go to Kananaskis again and looking a spending some time in the Okanagan this summer.

if we got a cabin, we'd like to be within an hour and a half of Edmonton. Something we could use every weekend. You know, be able to leave Friday after work and not spend too long driving there.

When my wife was a kid her fam had a spot on Lake Eden that they'd spend their summer at. So thinking something along those lines. Not sure if you'd know Lake Eden.. It was kind of a small spot. But you would've passed it going to Alberta Beach.
It was a good spot back in the 90's but it's gone now...

Funny, I just listened to Peace Frog the other day...

 

[Todd780]

Understand a cabin will kill any overlanding...... You will be cutting 2 lawns.... and, and, and....
And hosting many partys...... which pretty much describes my high school years.

Understood. It'll be a place to go where we can just....go. No packing, no planning, no reservations etc just grab some groceries and go...
Yes, I wrestle with the two lawns & maintenance... I'm hoping for mostly treed to keep it to a minimum.

Parties? Not for this introvert, haha

It's just talking at this point....

 

[Todd780]

Its a different life but a good one. Many of my friends do it. Some made it home.

I'm thinking that would be the eventual goal. There in the summer then chase the sun in the winter, haha

At this point though, we may lean more toward just getting a rental property for residual income down the road.

 

[JCliftonB]

100% I "overland" to find a beach to camp on. My "overlander" is pretty light, compact, capable, simple and my "squarebox" gives me an inside bed, outside kitchen and room for my stuff. But since the trailer cost less than $5K and the Jeep cost $12K and I don't have a youtube channel.... I am not an overlander.

My point exactly. If you can't showcase it at Overland Expo then are you really overlanding?

I had a thought that maybe there is a dividing line between those who are more digitally connected and those who are not. The definition of overlanding would be relative to your position to that line...

For instance, those whom Google and other major tech players have a fairly defined digital profile for would likely be spoon-fed by algorithms what "overlanding" is, and those who are less profiled by the tech giants would more romantically define it themselves...

 

[Ozarker]

I'm thinking that would be the eventual goal. There in the summer then chase the sun in the winter, haha

At this point though, we may lean more toward just getting a rental property for residual income down the road.

Then you need my Real Estate Investment Book! How to buy low or rip off senior citizens, cheat the tax man, pad your mortgage applications and pay off appraisers under the table for true personal wealth.

How to beat the IRS with rolling sales contracts, how to sell property you don't even own and how to have imaginary tenants pay off your mortgages.

I'll even throw in the best land lording book ever written. How To Fix Nothing for Profit!
You'll soon see the adventures of electrical fires, broken water pipes, roof damage, broken windows and law suits for trip and falls, you'll then understand cancelled insurance policies and how banks foreclose.

My advice for the next decade; take your money and diversify in REIT's if you love real estate.

Live and learn!

 

[AbleGuy]

AI predicts that the Status of Overlanding will soon be mostly a VR travelogue experience of moving stock footage shot through the windscreen of a self driven vehicle, viewed whilst sitting in a warm and comfortable overstuffed recliner lounger in one’s own home, goggles and headset firmly strapped to one’s drooling, nodding noggin.

(Tried to post a very short example video, Tapacrap wouldn’t allow it, so here’s a still image, with a link to some Overlandy driving short clips so you can get an idea what your future Sunday family outings will be like):

(Still shot ⬆️ of vid)

gettyimages.com/videos/driving-pov-forest

 

[AmericaOverland]

Interesting that this discussion quickly turned to the point that the Americans have so little leave time. Almost every developed nation guarantees a minimum of four weeks leave per year. Makes a two or three week trip much more feasible.

Even worse is that for most of my working life, I had to stay home and find free/inexpensive expensive things to do. It got to the point for a while that I had to find free things to do inside my apartment, as I couldn't really afford to go across a big city just to meet people.

We ARE slaves. The plantation just looks different today. We may not be out in the fields singing Harry Belafonte's Calypso song, but we are inside the building instead singing, "Hello, how may I help you today," whether on the phone, behind the counter, or on the sales floor. The boss is our master, though he may reprimand us instead of lashing us for minor infractions or fire us instead of tying our limbs to 2-3 horses in front of family members to make an example out of us. The situation is a bit better today, since one is not forced to breed with his mother, sister, or other female relatives on those slave-breeding farms of America's past. Nonetheless, we ARE still SLAVES. The mentality has never changed from its foundation. The slave driver is very much alive today.

If you are retired, GET OUT of America. There is no sense in continuing to live there while paying American prices for everything. I got out 4.5 years ago for India.

 

[AmericaOverland]

I said no. It has changed a ton since I first started, my Tacoma was teh only one in town with an ARB in 2005, now I think everyone has a front bumper. But at the same time, I see more and more people camping in the woods than ever before, I have several spots that I could roll up to and have a place to camp at 9pm on Friday. Now they are taken. For those in North Carolina, old NC105 used to be open all weekend for example. I think the change is more folks getting into now are looking for a place to wheel. I did a trip this summer west, everywhere I went there were lots of overland builds, but they were all out doing something and not at a mall. My truck is way overbuilt for what I do, but I enjoy it!View attachment 692100

Are you sure it's not because some of these people are homeless and now live out of their vehicles? Check for out-of-state plates, as they might be hiding out from police and repo men.

 

[vintageracer]

What's it like Slaving in India?

 

[AmericaOverland]

What's it like Slaving in India?

I don't know. I'm retired here. You ought to watch a move, "India, Age 25." It about the same questions about life in the face of a civilizational norm forced on Indians by Westerners, living and working just like the White Man (the one who makes the rest of us look bad to everyone else).

 

[irish44j]

This guy I spotted commuting on the DC Beltway made me think of this thread.

 

[AmericaOverland]

This guy I spotted commuting on the DC Beltway made me think of this thread.

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Pretty soon, they'll make things that go out two feet from either side of the vehicle for storage as well as upward, and then petition to change the state/DOT laws to allow for this extra width to tie on even more "stuff."

Question - what would make up the extra 1,000 lbs of gear attached to such a vehicle? 2 extra tires? A disassembled spare motor? Spare batteries? Power train spares?

 

[JCliftonB]

This guy I spotted commuting on the DC Beltway made me think of this thread.

The fact that LR sells this version of the Defender baffles me and makes me think of this thread. I'd bet MOST of those buying this version will never unbolt anything from the roof or use the traction boards let alone know what the cables attached to the hood are for.

This commercial response to what "overlanding" is today is a prime example of my point with this thread.

 

[Fishenough]

The fact that LR sells this version of the Defender baffles me and makes me think of this thread. I'd bet MOST of those buying this version will never unbolt anything from the roof or use the traction boards let alone know what the cables attached to the hood are for.

This commercial response to what "overlanding" is today is a prime example of my point with this thread.

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I think I could travel remote over the PNW and far north for 300 days a year and would never see this vehicle. I'd bet on that. Though I did throw away 30 mins of my time and interest watching YouTube videos about the Trek LR. Thank JCliftonB

Decals on the rear mud flaps. 30 years of backroads and I can't even count the mud flaps I've destroyed. Talk to me when you duck tape up trim/bezel/headlight gaps to keep the 'brush' out.

 

[dragonbyu]

The fact that LR sells this version of the Defender baffles me and makes me think of this thread. I'd bet MOST of those buying this version will never unbolt anything from the roof or use the traction boards let alone know what the cables attached to the hood are for.

This commercial response to what "overlanding" is today is a prime example of my point with this thread.

View attachment 769675

Those where built for the Trek Competition. You can’t walk into a dealer and order one.

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