Overland Expo 2013: Post Your Stories, Images, and Experiences Here! (Official)

James86004

Expedition Leader
I rolled in any out kinda often, as work interfered with attending the whole weekend. I camped with the rest of the VW guys over in Syncro city, and had a warm reception from all I camped near. I managed to snap a few night shots around the expo in between beers. Here's a few of the winners:

Those are some spectacular moonlit shots. Thanks for posting.
 

wade remer

New member
Mud Stove Demo. at Overland Expo 2013.
I had the opportunity to teach class at Overland on “How to build a mud stove”. On Saturday May 18, about 50 people came to learn how to build one. It was a great class with a lot of participation and encouragement. We also had a good number of families too. After the class ended we moved the stove off to the side and at least another 100 people came by to see it.
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Dave Bennett

Adventurist
Thanks to everyone who came for a fantastic Overland Expo. We saw pretty much nothing but smiles for three days. Graham and I finished up some post-Expo training, and Roseann and I are now in Flagstaff for a couple of days doing absolutely nothing productive.

Well done, another great event!
 

Dave Bennett

Adventurist
I didn't open everyone's links to pics (yet), but I was a bit surprised to not see a few more OZTENT tents, such as RV-3, RV-4. Besides being on the wrong continent, is this just not a popular item with the group?

Oztents are very popular here, they were everywhere I looked at OVX.
 
Heading down 285 from Denver
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Met up with Ramjet at a state park in New Mexico
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Great sunset at Bluewater State Park
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Had a great dinner the first night with my neighbors
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Some cool Rovers
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Big Deuce for sale
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The AT jeeps were very cool to see in person
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Motorcycle Area
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Great van going thru the course
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mkitchen

Explorer
Every day, something new

I am enjoying all the reports and pictures. Really love the ghost town shot! The only bummer is we have to wait another year for the next one. I wonder how long the oranizers have to rest before they start putting together OX 2014. I am guessing not too long. Something this well done does not go together over a weekend.
Many thanks for doing it.
Mikey
 
Oh yeah I found a nice little spot for Sunday night and Monday night on the North rim of the canyon
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Yuman Desert Rat

Expedition Leader
P5180519.jpgWell, this thread says to post up stories so here it goes.... Normally I travel camp and explore soio, kind of a lone wolf/hermit, if you will. Back on the Ides of March (which also happend to be my 37th birthday) I decided to branch out and try somehting different... SO I headed to the 2013 SoCal Desert Rendzevous put on Dave (TACODOC) and the Rendzevous Conspiracy gang aka American Adventurists. I had a great time, met some fine Folks who I now call friends. During one of the day hikes; a freak windstorm came through the camp area and long story short, gobbled up a few tents, turned 4RUNAMOK's easy up into a modern art masterpiece... AND snapped and arm clean off and busted the tension spring in EEZI AWN awning. BOO! Luckily fate was on my side. Paul May from Equipt just so happend to be there and took the time to help begin the healing process of my damaged EEzi Awn awning. he determined which parts I would need to fix it and assured me that he could get them on order after the rendzevous which was fantastic ; considering I was already planning on attending OEX 13.

I thought; WOW! this guy owns the company that imports this stuff and he's going out of his way to help ME out!?! Just when I thought that customer service was pretty much dead Paul goes all Jesus on me and brings lazarus (customer service) back from the dead!! I must admit I was extremely impressed. Because I know how insane customs is (from my Hannibal awning ordeal; which I won't bore you with) I was completely understanding when paul told me the parts wouldn't likely arrive until OEX. No biggie, I'm a patient man; 17 years in the Marine Corps taught me that... So, Just before OEX I touched bases with Paul about the parts and to see what tools I would need to bring etc. He regrettably informed me that due to the douchebaggedness of US Customs the container wouldn't arrive in time.... BUT, Jess Stuhler, (owner of EEZI AWN) was inbound for OEX and was personally bringing one of my parts with him!!!! AGAIN, stunned by such a level of customer service.

After settling in at the American Adventurist campsite at OEX I reunited with Rendzevous Conspiracy gang and headed over to see Paul at the EQUIPT booth. He introduced me to Jess Stuhler and after 10 seconds I adapted to his awesome South African accent (good thing I saw District 9 a handful of times) and we were shooting the breeze about my dilema and all things awning. Fom there we bee-lined it to my Jeep so that he could assess the damage and let me know what would need to be done to fix it. The next day, he came by with the new awning arm joint; helped me remove it from the vehicle and got busy on the rivet gun and fixed it for me. After that he went into detail on how to repair the tension spring once it came in. He could have easily just handed off the part to Paul who could have then passed it on to me and said "let me know if you have any questions" and I would have been just fine with that; as I was already beyond thrilled that they went out of their way to begin with. Oh, and to top it all off.... the price tag was GRATIS!!! ...and he gave a cool hat to boot. It made me feel like young Indiana Jones when his rival archaeologist placed the legendary fedora on his head for the first time.

So, in summary... breaking out of my hermit shell and meeting up with other overlanders (The Rendzevous Conspiracy/ American Adventurists) ended up breaking my awning, allowing me to make new friends (from all over the world), restore my faith in superb customer service and bore you all to death who just took the time to read this! Thanks again to Paul and Jess for (as we say in the Naval and Marine Corps service) "going above any beyond" for a nobody like me.
 
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