I don’t have a better way to describe it, so I’m just going to use the intro from their site.
Overland Expo is the world’s most unique event series for do-it-yourself adventure travel enthusiasts, with hundreds of session-hours of classes for 4-wheel-drive enthusiasts and adventure motorcyclists, inspirational programs, the Overland Film Festival, roundtable discussions, demonstrations, food, and a large expo featuring over 300 vendors of adventure travel equipment, camping gear, bikes, vehicles, and services.
It is an awesome spot to see things, as well as get your hands on to them, or try them on in the case of rider gear. In just a quick walk around I saw a number of proto types soon to be coming out I would really like. Now I know to watch for them. Aside from seeing really cool stuff. I was there to see friends. Like Mike and Kristy.
We managed to get there around the same time, now this year the Expo was very different from past years. It had been sold this year, the first noticeable change was the increase in ticket prices. It was when I got there the other changes became apparent. The registration was so much better.
On the other hand, the camping management was god awful. It would have been better if they hadn’t managed it. Instead, there were parking dictators that were putting everyone right on top of each other. I was asked to park my truck in a spot I wouldn’t have tried to park in at a parking lot, it was that tight. So, yeah, I was pretty hard on the guy, he really was an ass, he was good at it too. I’m sure that he was able to talk most people that way and they wouldn’t have noticed how insulting he was being. I did notice. It just served to make me mad. There was no need to park everyone like that. It made the camping a miserable experience.
Jim on the other hand was running much later than us. So it gave us time to check things out while we were waiting for him. We were trying to have space for him to park with us. He decided that he didn’t like the spot. That meant it was his turn to take on the parking nazis, in his favor was that he was in the Roamer. The Earthroamer builders had a special space just for roamers, so he was able to grab a fantastic spot to park. Of course, when I had asked about it I was told no chance that he’d get to park there. I likely won’t do the camping again after that experience. We still had a nice evening making dinner at the Roamer.
The next day we’d planned to get a mid afternoon ride in, so that it would be warmer but not too warm… ya know princess temps. Why not? It wasn’t like we were on a schedule, it was a vacation. Mike, Kristy and I wandered around some more to check out the vendors, it gave Jim time to do whatever it was he felt needed time to do… 😛 Like, get registered, get his bike unloaded, and have more coffee.
We headed out of the grounds, to the other side of the Interstate, around the airport in Flagstaff are some nice single track trails. Found the start of one and just followed it around. We had been out there for less than a half hour, when I came up on Jim limping around his bike. Now, I knew he wasn’t limp when we had stopped about 10 minutes ago. So this was a bit of a concern. I asked him about it. He informed me that he wasn’t sure if he’d broken it or not. Now, the three of us, said we should head back for the day, but NO. He’s said he would be fine, I know how all about those lies we tell others. It really was a fun loop
We had nice woody, winding trails, some up and down hills, some rocky sections, some sandy sections and couple of stream crossings. In all it was really the perfect trail, it was the first time I’d gotten to ride the new bike in something other than sand or gravel roads. It took me a few to get comfortable on it. Once I relaxed a bit, I started to figure out just how much easier it was to ride that bike.
Jim is a beast, he rode the rest of the day without a comment about how much the leg hurt, and it must have hurt a great deal. There was one section where his bike was bottoming out on the rocks. I watched him try get over without putting that foot down. I wasn’t quick enough at getting off my bike to help him out. It was impressive to see how he managed it all day. Once we got back to the truck, he was tad bit more accepting of assistance. He also realized once he got the boot off that the leg was unstable. Being at Overland was handy, I went down to the vendor area and bought him a SAM splint then wrapped up his leg. This allowed us to have a nice dinner, without having to run him to the ER. (Which he refused to do, it had to be an Urgent Care… the co pay is outrageous for ER visits.)
The next day, he headed out to find the Urgent Care, the three of us headed of to ride a bit more single track. It ended up being a rather short ride due to the storm that was rolling in. We still had to load up he bikes, which meant attempting to fit my Husky into Mike’s Van. He was sure he could after testing it out with Tim’s bike, but different bike meant different issues with loading. It was a rather tight fit, but he made it work. Good bye Husky, it’s been great knowing you, thanks for all the things you taught me.