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The Turtle Expedition Shares 50 years of Overland Wisdom · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you all so much for showing up to the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Around the World Pavilion and the Overland Journal podcast. This
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: is an absolute delight for me because Gary and Monica
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Westcott are without question the most inspirational couple that I've
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: ever experienced in over landing. In fact, I would credit
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: them for my passion for the subject. So when I
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: was still in the military, I was a multi sport
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: athlete and I got into that.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: I first saw the Camel Trophy.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: And that made me realize, Wow, this is an amazing
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: thing to do trucks and multi sport. And then I
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: started reading four Wheeler magazine and also Offer of a magazine,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and Gary and Monica had their stories of traveling around
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the world in that magazine, and as I read it,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I was absolutely wonderstruck with their adventures. I was I
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: remember like underlining and circling, like equipment that you use,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and you guys had this list of stuff and then
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: following your trucks, and it made me realize that a
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: life like I lived today was awesome. So I have
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: so much to thank you both for that. So it's
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: an it's a huge honor for me to be interviewing
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: YouTube today and to have known you both now for
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: almost twenty years, so it's a sincere pleasure. So thank
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you both for being on the podcast.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Awesome, Thank you, and thank you for all your effort
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: in bringing this whole concept of over there and travel
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: to the public. EID we help, but you had much
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: more starting over on the journal and now this well
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: what people know about it now A few more know
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: about it now.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Sure a special thanks to this week sponsor GCI Outdoor.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Whether you're heading out for a weekend of adventure in
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: the woods or to your backyard fire bit, GCI Outdoor
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• 2:21
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• 2:24
  Speaker 3: up for their email list.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Thanks again GCI. We were at a.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: SIMA one year standing around their truck and we're talking
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: with Paul Walker. You guys know the accurate unfortunately has
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: passed away since, but you're all just talking about overlanding.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: There was three of us in the conversation and now
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: there's a lot more better part of this conversation. So
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: one of the first things that I'd like to do
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: is just let the audience know where you guys have
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: traveled around the world. So can you give us the
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: highlights of your adventures? What were the big expeditions that
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: you guys have done.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: First one was driving around South America starting in Cartagena, Colombia,
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: and when we went down to Canada and Fuego and
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: then went up to the Atlantic to Venezuela. That was
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: in eighty eight, eighty nine, and we were traveling for
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: fourteen months.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And then you guys have since. The one I remember
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the most was your trans Siberia in the winter time.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: And again I was completely wide eyed, like, how is
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: this even possible?
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: We didn't know it.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they said it wasn't possible, and we had worry
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: about no food. We can knew that no fuel, maybe
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: no roads. We already knew that the weather was could be,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: could be minus sixty minus seventy degree, which it was
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: an occasion. Minus sixty was a normal day. And then
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: was the people. And can I tell us a quick
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: story about that we used to do. I had been
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: on three camel trophies and the last on ways that
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: went in Siberia, and one of the guns that Mark
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Pinowski was the camel trophy contender I w was is
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: a journalist. And so we went over to his father
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: in law's house near Moscow and went to the doccha
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: and I had a barbecue and everything, went back to
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: his father's in laws apartment and had our traditional free
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: shots of vodka. And then we're talking about all the
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: dangers and we wanted we were still planning this trip
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: to drive from magannat all the way across Russia alone.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Could we do it? I don't know, Maybe you couldn't. Again,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: we should have a diet. We've gone to the consulate
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: in San Francisco and he said, o't bring a gun
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: as wild animals. You have to have a guy. Okay,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: it's all right. So we're talking to this guy and
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: his big Mark's father in mom and suddenly He looks
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: at me and he says, steal your pulse. So I did.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: And then he said, feel your hosts took the monica? Okay,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: they pretty sand here. He said, what a cart speak
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: the same. We knew at that moment we have tears
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: in us. We could drive the cross Syria all side here,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: all the Russia alone, because the fact is all the
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: hearts beat the same. That's the true all over the world.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: And have you found that to be true? Absolutely?
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, absolutely, there's about two percent. And people are bad,
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: but most people are good. You treat them with respect,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: they treat you with respect. You can find help anywhere.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: So even if you don't speak the language Americans are
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: worried about, that doesn't matter. He's your hands. Now, you
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: have translators offline, Just do it.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: It's a funny question, what's the most spoken lang world?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: I would say it's English hand signals exactly after smile
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: broken English. Everybody speaks a little bit.
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: You asked about the second tip. So that was in
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: ninety six. We left in January. We shipped from Tacoma,
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: Washington to Magadon on the Pacific coast, and then we
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: traveled all across Russia for eleven months. We drove up
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: to Norway to we wanted to go to the North Cup,
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: which is the most northern point in Europe, but there
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: was a huge snow storm and the road was blocks
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: and we went to North Cup. Then we drove down
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: into Switzerland, where I'm from. We hung out with my
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: mom's house a lot, and we traveled around to Europe
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: and then we turned finally going back to Scandinavia, ship
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: to the Fair Islands, then Iceland. Then the truck was
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: shipped to Newfoundland and then we drove back to California.
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: So that was until the end of ninety eight. So
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: we're going for three years.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: And the latest one was in twenty thirteen fourteen. We
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: drove around the world. The other way we drove we
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: did that way. We drove to do Baltimore, shipped to Belgium,
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: and then officially started our Silk Road Transgeration trip in
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: Portugal at the most western point you can drive to
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: on the continent, and drove all the way to China,
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: all through the Stars to China to the Pacific, and
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: then we took side trips. We went through Mongolia, Siberia
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: on a new road.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: That didn't exist. In ninety six. From Vladivostok, we shipped
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: to South.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: Korea, spent a month there, and then we shipped the
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: truck back home and we went.
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: To Japan for three weeks.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: So that was the third chop, and then we were
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: ready to go again for South America in April twenty twenty.
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: But the borders were closed. We're hoping you ship early
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: next year.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Things changed, yeah, very much. So yes, well, and Monica
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Po doesn't want me to talk about it too well.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: One of the amazing things you were asking about what
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: changed our lives in these strips. When we were driving
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: through Tajikistan following the Silk Road. It's a landlocked country
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: and more than half of it over ten thousand and
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: five hundred feet very through the world, and we're driving
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: over fourteen thousand beast normal and we come down the
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: road was terrible. We were following the walk On Quarter,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: which was where Marco Pole went and so we drive
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: down to a level of about ten thousand feet and
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: there's a little village there and a little creek running across.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: It is kind of coming off a river, and the
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: truck is trashed. So we backed into the where you
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: got a bucket and her brush out. So at Washington Rock,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: three girls came walking across those little footbridge and one
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: of the backs stopped and walked out into the water,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: took the brush in my hand and started helping. She
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: was eleven years old. She had magic in her eyes.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: We stayed there for three days, met her family, and
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: when we got back to California, we designed to sponsor
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: and she's we've been doing that since that time, and
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: she is now eighteen. We just took her on a
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: two week trip due to Turkey to open up her
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: eyes in the world. And now she's doing way to
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: go to university. And we were just like, we don't
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: have any children before this. That has been a life
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: That trip changed our lives so much, meeting that Trudle,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: and it's been the case of all of our lips.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: It's not the country. It's not the landscaping. You can
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: see beautiful man, we have beautiful mountains Colorado in California.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: It's not a food you can get the recipes out
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: of her book and cooking yourself at home. What really
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: makes the difference is the people we need on this trip.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: That's what it's the exciting part, and they change us.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I mean we expect our journey to change us in
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: some way that it's always the people that we meet
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: along the way that actually changes. Well. Take time.
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and then one of the important things we learned
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: in traveling is don't travel too fast.
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: Take your time. Spend a week, two weeks in one place.
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: You go to the market.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: You know, the old lady's going to recognize you the
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: second or third time, and you have this conversation, which
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: is part of their culture, having a conversation, and she'll
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: stick another tomato in, and you know, you become friends.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: And these are the memories you keep that you live.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: And part of this don't travel too fast was when
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: I left South like how in nineteen seventy two in
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: my land over before I met Monica, was telling with
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: my girlfriend who started the Turtle Exhibition, to do together
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: and we were going to South America, Okay, And I
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: did in Mexico before I figured you know, okay, I
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: gave you a mill and a couple of months. Well,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: but I had read a book by John Steinbeck called
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Travel the Charm, and he said, don't don't to take
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: the trip that's the trip, take you Okay, I like
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: that in the back of my head, back of our
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: first t shirts with When the Turtle Expedition became a reality,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: I had to have a name. Landor was very slow,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: and it was blue. We called it the Blue Turtle.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: So we call it the Turtle Expedition. Okay, don't take
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: the trip, Let the trip take you.
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: So I started off down so South America and my
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: lander and along the way by why and I broke
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: up my girlfriend and I was still going to South America,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: but I wasn't taking the trip. The trip was taking me.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Nine years later, I was still driving around Mexico doing
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: stories for four Winter Magazine and off road. Finally I
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: got to South America. But that, but that, but that,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: the method of that traveling is, boy, don't take the trip.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Let the trip take you. And it's so important.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Would you say, though, that that decision is what helped
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: you then encounter Monica, The fact that you had you
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: weren't so focused on the objective.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: We were focused on experiencing the journey. Oh yeah, I
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: allowed for you to to connect. I've been I've been
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: camping on the beach for the guy who is my
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: travel partner at that time, somebody that skinned, I wouldn't
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: be safe. And so he and were camped on the
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: beach and Gonzaga Bay, which is on Black California, and
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: we had we would getting time. We ran out of
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: important things like like ice and mayonnaise and stuff like that,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: so we headed south. That there was a place called
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Lasne Died the hotel the fly and fishing was yeah,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: and so we knew we could go there. He parked
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: the land where we would wash it, and maybe he
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: was one of the rooms to take a shower, which
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: we haven't had for a long time, so we didn't
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: have a water for shower, justre ocean ba And that's
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: when Monica and I were sitting pople sitting at it
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: on the table with a couple other girls and sweats
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: on one other girl want some other some other people
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: who died, meticans and probably they all we were all
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: just chatting around, you know, the way you do around
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: the table after after dinner. So if the question comes
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: up with what do you do? And I think Bruce
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: that I was filming, he said, oh, I'm I'm behind
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: a carpenter, you know, and I'm just working part time now.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: And Monica said, well, I'm a I'm a teacher. I'm
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: going back to Western teach And I said, well, I'm
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: talking to South America. And I looked at Monica and
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: I said, want to come.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: Anyway?
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Because wonderful.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: It's incredible how just making those decisions to slow And
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: I think about if there was anything that stands.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Out to me that I would change with my own
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: ravels is that I have traveled too.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: So that same area that you went to do the
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: walk on court or I did that in about three
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and a half days.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you guys probably took a month.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but we were on a march out because we
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: had a certain date we had to end up China.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: But the other thing I want to say, if you
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: if you love to travel, go travel, because you meet
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: somebody else who loves to travel. Oftentimes there are couples
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: people who meet up and one wants to travel and
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: the other one doesn't, and it's not compatible. But if
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: you travel, if you dare to go and travel, you'll
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: meet somebody that travel.
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: And that's happened to us. We have many friends. It
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: happens too.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: To travel away. We travel any kind of over around.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Travel takes a lot of responsibility. So you want to
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: find somebody that has responsibility, and that's not difficult, But
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: then you want to find somebody that doesn't have any responsibilities.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: A house and a dog and a mother that taking
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: care of for a child. What a job they can't
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: need for more than two weeks. Those are responsibility that stick.
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: You where you are well the job today you can
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: do it on the road.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: So that leads me to the next question, without it
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: being a definition, what does overlanding mean to the two
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: of you now that you've done it for so many decades,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: nearly five decades of your life.
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: We've done it before they was created.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: It was about burting cattle at one time? So what
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: does it mean to you guys? I didn't have a direction.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: You know. I've been teaching swimming, I was cooking at
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: a restaurant. I was hammering nails. I had been I
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: had been studying pre med for me to be a
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: veterinarian in college. And I worked at a candle and
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: found out a little shit. All dogs aren't like mine.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I had a border calling, so I said, I'm not
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: going to spend eight years going to school to take
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: care of mongrels that people who can't take care of
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: you know, So I just stopped that right there. So
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: what am I going to do? So I switched to
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: photographer because I've been editor of the yearbook and school
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: photographer in high school. And then I thought, were I
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: got this idea? You know. I took a girl out
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: with an explorence change in France and she gave me
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: the book. I saw her pictures. I said, well, okay,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: this is I think. And then people living in the
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: commune that I was living at the time that then't
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: kept going to the hall. Wow, that's so I put
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: my back back on. I got a plan, left my
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: car with your friend in San Diego and went to
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Amsterdam Damn Square, whereverybody.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: Met sixty nine.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: I started hit shriking. So, yeah, how about were you?
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: Well? I'm Swiss. I was born in Morocco.
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: I did my school in Switzerland, and one of my
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: dad's goals was that we would be kids, would live
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: abroad for a year because he knew what he brought
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: him living in Morocco just change of life experience, no
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: learning a new language. So I was kind of raised
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: in that environment. I was sixteen, I went with four
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: girls to France. I mean Europeans do that. They still
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: do that. The travel part, I feel I've done it
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: all my life. The overlanding itself was just kind of
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: a continuation. I was teaching in Minneapolis for a year
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: and then asked, as he said, my girlfriend Ronica and
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: I we drove to California to lay on the beach
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: where it was freezing cold. That we decided to go
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: to Bacha and we had no clue when.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: You go to San Diego in the beach, you don't
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: get up until eleven o'clock.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: So we ended up in Moulay and I met Gary
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: and here I was in a split on the road.
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: Do I go back to Switzerland teach again.
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: I'm sure my parents wanted me to marry a doctor
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: or a lawyer and I've become a housewife.
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: Or should I go travel?
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: Travel was more fascinating, That's how I ended up there
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: and overlanding itself.
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: We love backpackings.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: Camping out in boonie is no big deal and sleep
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: waking up in the tent is my most favorite thing
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: to do. I always feel this kind of a prenatal experience.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: Traveling with a vehicle was different and easy. We really
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: didn't I have to credit you for that. We really
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: didn't know about overlanding or what we were doing except
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: and entertaining the people. But we're always somewhere, you know.
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: We never in a four wheel or a magazine office
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: maybe once a year. We were always out in the
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: boonie somewhere doing things.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: And I stopped pluting. I was not working anymore.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: When we came to the first overland export in Prescott, right,
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: we were at truck was on display, and a man
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: comes up, retired man with a little folder, and he
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: opened it up and here were all our South American
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: stories that were published in Formula magazine. And he said,
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: I retired and my dream was to travel in South America,
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: and I followed the whole route that we took in
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: several years before that.
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: And that's what it hit us that we our goal,
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: in our purpose.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: In life, is to inspire people to follow their own
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: dreams and their own goals.
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: So will you have.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Since then, we have seen slee heard so many letters,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: so many emails, so many people websites, and it is
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: true we have inspired. It's a little bit of a
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: strange feelings to inspire that many people, but we have inspired.
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: And it's nice to get backard now.
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: And the one thing if you are still in the
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: dream stage of wanting to go and get d DVD
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: or the book called The Secret Iron Burns, it helped
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: you lay the focus on what your goal is, ignore
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: the chatter from everybody else and saying you're crazy.
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: Just focus on that goal and do it. That's one
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: of the inspirational books.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: That's good because I'm going to ask you one of
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the things that I've always admired. I remember it was
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: at a SEAMA most likely, and someone came up and
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: they and they asked you, you know how much or
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: do you consider yourself a four wheeler? And you said, no, no,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not a four wheeler. I'm a traveler. I happened
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: to drive a full drive to get me where I
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: want to go. And that really stuck with me because
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: it helped me remember and remind myself that the vehicle
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: is a tool for me to get to where I
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: want to see something in the world or someone that
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I want to meet in the world. And that was
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: also really amazing to hear that these vehicles are tools
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: that we use. Looking back on all of your turtles,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: what was the one that you kind of loved the most,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: And what was it about it that you loved the most?
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Well to be for me, the land Rover, the turtle
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: one go to the school, you know, because I built
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: it from from a one o nine.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: The dream came to me when I was sitting in
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: a pudding shop in is Stumbul and this place for
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: travelers to meet on the way they're on the Hashis trail.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Clinton was there and and I'm sitting there having my
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: cup of coffee. I had been traveling now for almost
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: a year, never mind my little stint in prison, and
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: it ran as a whole nother story. But when I
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: was really tired of is, I was tired of taking
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: public manification. I was tired of looking out the window
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: and seeing one of those people doing that. And I
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: was tired of I'll start at Parsi music. Okay, I
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: gave Reel and I needed a travel companion. I could
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: not stand in the middle of the Grand Bazaar and
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Stamboul looking up the audils and go, oh, can you
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: believe that I'm not a conqu person. I have to
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: need to share. So that was that was the impetus
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: to me. And then right then a land Rover pulled
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: across the street a long wheelbase. They popped up their
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: dormobile and I guy and the girl got out, and
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: I said, that's the way to travel. Six months later
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: I was walking down the street in San Francisco and
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: the youth gar up. My one O nine was sitting
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: there waiting for me to buy it, and I did
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: it one and that was the beginning that that was
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: my curtally, my first leve because the tire of the
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: hood and the tire in the back and the land rover,
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: the whole image of the two members together, you're going
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: on an expedition. You just had that image. You don't
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: question what turned out to be. It wasn't give the
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: best chowel, but with the way I had built it
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: for two people to live and be comfortable and clean
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: and cook, and it was just it was. It was
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: a great design for us. And why don't you notice
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: that when.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: You met me it worked, worked, and you when I
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: traveled in that for almost ten years, nine years years.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: I think the least that we used the lease was
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: the turtle to the Chevy.
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: But then the turn.
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: You know, each one in our stage of life was
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: a good vehicle to have, and then the Tourtal four
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: across Russia. I mean you, you didn't sell it for
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: almost ten years because we didn't use it anymore, because
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: you felt that was the best vehicle you've ever had.
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: And now the Turtle five is. We're older, it's a
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: little more comfortable. Still the same places, but we like
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: them all.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: And we've learned a lot building the Turtle five and
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: driving it now around the world to tell people, you know,
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of the deg I heard a wonderful and
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: beautiful designs are incredible. Drive up the circle of the
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: China and turn them on and come back. You will
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: find out what works. Drive into the tip of South
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: America and come back and find out what works. And
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: we've done that. So that's my imagine now. And if
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: I were to build a Turtle six on some other truck,
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: there would not be a lot of things that would
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: change because it works. You found out what works exactly.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: That's very important for us. Yeah, built for two people,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: you're going to build a camper for more than two people.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: It's a whole different design.
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: Kay. I also suggest not to buy a new vehicle.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: By an old vehicle and spend the extra money and
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: upgrade it with better, better components, and make it stronger
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: and safer.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: There are millions and millions of pickup trucks out there
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: for it's okay if you like for it, even with
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: the seven point three engine. Maybe mom and pop had one,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: they pull it trader across the country. She wants to
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: get a motorhome. Now truck's been immaculately taking care of.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: You can get it for practicularly nothing compared to what
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: a new truck comes with now eighty ninety thousand dollars.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: If you want to, another stream will buy a US truck.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: The reason that that's the home court is that because
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: that so many of them out there, down thousands of
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: companies at SEMA making products just a little bit better
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: than four of Shehaby dadge could ever use. Big barriers,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: h joints, water pumps, san belts, shocks, suspension, you name it.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: There are products out there just on that seven point three,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: which is a wonderful engine. We have the one million pints.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: There are probably fifteen things we've done to that engine,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: not to change the engine, just to make it a
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: little more reliable and a little more serviceable. And that
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: is so important to be people to realize. Don't go
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: out buy a new croccogil as chips and electronics. I
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: use one, make it better with the money.
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: You say, Yeah, what's that? What's up? Fuel you have
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: to use in the new trucks.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, all the new trucks have to use it.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Low salt the diesel the second point. I haven't tried
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: it yet, but I think it would probably drink vodkat
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: before it. But that would be waste. That would be
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: a waste of vodka. Any kind of diesel, and diesel
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: all over the world is just diesel. Some of it
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: has sulfured. Okay, the engine doesn't care. The catalytic converted care.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: We don't have one. That's what cares. I don't tell
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: the engine somebody's going wrong and slow down. But the
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: engine doesn't care. It just brings anything.
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: And needel is the best fuel to use world and
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: world travels. You know, all the trucks use it. And
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: though some of those trucks are very expensive in Brazil
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: or whatever you are.
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: The diesel will always be good.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: We still have an extra filter, but it has maybe
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: twice in South America that we had bat Field tooids.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: And then we can just brain the filter and drain
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: the filter. So if you pull up behind a candleworth
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: or a puter built or something like that in in
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: any country, it come ons and in Russia and they're
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: filling up their diesel, their engine costs more than your truck.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Safe and it's so much safer to store the hands
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: of diesel. It's so much safer them.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I shut it when I pulled up behind a
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: van and it's got two cans of gasoline and appropate.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Catch I've got help in with face somebody runs into
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: the back of Now that.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: We've touched on the one technical subject, I wanted to
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: ask the next thing that comes to mind for me,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: because I'm sure people think about this is having traveled
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: for five decades together. First of all, what have you
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: learned about each other through that time that you find
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: really made it possible? And then how you changed your
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: own interactions with each other to make it awesome.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: That's a heavy question.
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: A couple of them, I think you need. First of all, you.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: Have to be organized, and you sort of have to
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: be in the same group. If one is really messy
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: and the other one is very organized, that's not going
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: to work. So that's kind of the same concept. Then
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: we share responsibilities and we have separate responsibilities. That said, like,
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: for example, when we pack up, I take care of
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: the inside, Gary takes care of the outside. That doesn't
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: mean I don't know how to change the tie, and
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to cour I
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: have to know in my own mind.
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: I have to know how.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: To change the oil, how to change the tire, or
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: how to check the oil, how to check for everything.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: I can't change that, fan Bail. It's very, very crucial
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: that the partner who doesn't always drive and does do
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: the maintenance, doesn't do the maintenance, knows the basic things
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: because there could be an emergency, the driver can break
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: a leg, it can be all conscious whatever, you have
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: to be able to get them to so where it's say, so,
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: what was the question again?
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll maybe I'll frame it a little different. After
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: five decades of.
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: Traveling four and a half four and five years and
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: a half.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Decades of traveling with Gary, what do you most admire
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: about him?
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: Looking back at all those years he recording is right.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: He is very focused on his goals. He does great
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: preparations in the vehicle. He's a great writer, I think
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: just the ability that we can give each other enough
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: space to travel together for twenty four hours a day
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: in a vehicle the side.
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: Of your bathroom.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Well, obviously, in the very beginning, I was traveling with
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: the guy, and the lander was built. Like all my
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: trucks that I designed, the landing started out that way.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: It was designed to leave two people of the opposite sex. Okay,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: So I sat and looked across at Monica. She was
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: a really cute looked about eighteen. She wasn't too over,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: but you look eighteen. Yeah, I thought, Wow, what a
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: cute girl. You know, I want to travel with her.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Ruth sar, you're gonna leave. He's gonna leave anyway. So
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: my first impression was purely physical attraction then, but that
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: doesn't make a relationship. There's an infatuation, and then there's
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: a respect point. And the more I learned about who
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Monica was and how bitter intelligence was, and what her
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: compassion for things were, a sense of responsibility without having responsibility,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: he's member that part she did. She was able to
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: get away indefinitely without responsibilities, Like when I'd roll away
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: from stuff like Dona ninety seventy two. I didn't have
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: to come back. Ever, nothing threw me back. No dog,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: no dog, don't have no part but nothing. She had
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: kind of that position. She could leave any time she
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: wanted to, but she didn't have to. And that was
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: a really special thing about her. And then as I
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: learned to live with her and see her sense of
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: responsibility and her abilities to do things that maybe I
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: could not do as well, like balancing a check book
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: and things like that, you started get it gets back
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: down to beyond physical attractions. It gets them to respect
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: and that turns into real love. And a special thanks
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: to Tarreen Designs for supporting this week's podcast. When you're
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: buying the best for your rig, you might as well
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: do the same for your wardrobe. Tarn is the best
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: outdoor apparel on the market and the sharpest looking as well.
• 24:59
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• 25:03
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• 25:08
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• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Build your kit today at Tarindesigns dot com. That's te
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: r e n Designs dot com. Because you no longer
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: have to look like you live out your vehicle when
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: you actually live out of your vehicle. Thanks again, Tarren.
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: I one thing too.
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: While when we're in Russia, in Tiberia where we mean
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: it was, it was not dangerous, but we still constantly
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: were on guard, and so it was a difficult trip.
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: And what we learned is that we had each other's back.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: Whatever it was, we had each other's back, and I
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: think that's extremely important.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Stuck on the mountaintop with a storm coming behind us
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: and the landlord of the truck was stuck in the snow,
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: pulling fatter than yeah, yeah, I just ripped off the
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: mud flaps, backing in the snow, and we knew we
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: had to get over this pass and maybe get on
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: the other side, maybe we get it out of the
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: snow start and this was already you know, we were
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: If we didn't, we be there at till strength. Sure.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: And so the two of us got that truck out
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: of there, put the change on out over the top
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: of the hill down, pulled into it to an old
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: barn that the Russians had used, and had a shout
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: out the kila, the vodka, what you made it. And
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: we realized then that the team work that we.
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: Had was amazing and you learn that you can actually
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: do much more than you in situations like that, you're
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: much more powerful and they have the adrenaline kicks in
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: and you can do so much more in survival skills.
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: Than you've ever dreamed.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: You can't. Yeah, I didn't have the saying in my
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: mind at the time, but it comes back frequently now
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: having recently sat down and listened to the secret again.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Floridence team was saying, whether you think you can, you
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: think you can't, We're probably right. That's an amazing thought.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Like you said, sets of goal, you guys have gone
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: board of those goals. You gotta be laser got to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: be a laser point, you really do. Do you want
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: to have success or you want to achieve the things
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: that you want to see in life.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: You've got to realize that.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Life will always be hard, will always be things that
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: will come up, they'll delay from doing what you want
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: chieve your dreams. So since you know that that's always
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: going to be the case, will always be something stopping you,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: you just got to do it.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you's got it. It's never going to change.
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: Push through it up and in any travel or anything in.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Life, business and relationships, all of those. And you have
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: to be realistic about the fact that the essence of
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: adventure is not knowing how it's going to come out.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: That's true. If you know what it's going to come
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: out as not an adventure anymore. Isn't that true? And
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: if you don't like where you are by the way
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: you chose it, it didn't just happen whether you like
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: it or not, you don't get to choose. You already did.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: That's right. If you can choose it, that's right. And
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: the only thing that we have control over is our
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: reaction to it.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Life is completely uncontrollable, totally, But the only.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Thing we can do is change our view of how
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: we experience it.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Can be excited and happy and positive about it, or
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: we could choose to be grumpy about it or complain else.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: So well, one of the things that I like to
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: ask is, and this is wonderful to ask it of
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: you two. If someone was getting started with will land travel,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: they want to go see the world, what would be
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: from both of you? What would be your top two
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: or three pieces of advice that you would want to
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: give them. If you had just a moment over coffee
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: to talk to this young couple that's about ready to
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: do what you guys did forty five years ago.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: What advice would you give them?
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: Do they already have a vehicle.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: They don't have anything yet. They just want to go
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: see the work, put.
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: On a backpack, buy a ticket somewhere, and hang out
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: as long as you can with the money you have.
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: Mc Gary.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: We don't have any kids, but yeah, I always said,
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: if you had a kid, what he would do after
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: high school? Maybe after college? By plane ticket? Ask where
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: do you want to go? Give him, buy him a ticket,
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: give him so much money and say go for it.
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: Stay as long as you can find find a job,
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: find out who you are, and you learn a lot
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: about yourself going into a foreign country because you have
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: to rely on yourself, You have to make decisions, you
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: have to deal with people who don't speak the same language.
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: But that's how you would start experiencing traveling.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the other thing for sure, And I realized
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: back now and the things that I brie that I
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: have accomplished in my life, things I wanted my Austin
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Haley's right, like the land over, like I can go
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Whiewash Trail in Peru. So many little things like that
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: I got those and now I know how I got them,
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: and I didn't know exactly how I got them, but
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: it was using the basic philosophy of the secret that
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: system works. Have a dream board, and I didn't have
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: a dream board. Write it down, make it you reminder,
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: put it on the wall, and get the bathroom. I
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: laid him dead every morning looking up in my twenty
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: four foot trader before we even thought about going to
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: South America. Maybe it was reading about them, but I
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: had a picture of the Whywashed range in Peru, the
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: big mountainous glacier is coming down every morning. I woke
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: up and I looked, Okay, that's somebody were going to
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: hide it. I'd read something about it. Maybe I don't know,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: but that was, you know, that was just one of
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: those many things in my life that happened because I
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: was using the secret. Get the book, get the dvd,
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: listen to it three or four times. It's heavy, any
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: rated absolutely true. Oh that's great, it's amazing. That was
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: That was the one book that I would say people, first,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: if you have a dream, that will push you into it.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Oh that's great advice.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: And do you find that now that you've done all
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: of this travel that you found have found out who
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: you are.
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: I think life is a learning process. Yeah, no matter
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: how old you are, no doubt. And it's good because
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: if you if you stay put, you get stuck. So
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: you evolved.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Better. Once you lose your health, you never appreciate it
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: until it's call. Yeah, staying healthy is really important. But
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: I love the saying this reason we learned somewhere in
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: a book or something. You didn't know what day? You
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: did not know a day book? How would you be?
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: I'm going eight. Okay, I love it. You can choose it.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: I love it. Age has just been number to get
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: the calendar, you know, but you've that's how you feel
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: in your heart. You know. I'm still looking at pretty
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: girls all the time.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: I'm on the book subject other than The Secret, What
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: are some other volumes that have inspired you? It could
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: be on any subject things that This is a selfish
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: question that I always ask because I love to read.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: So what what books would you recommend to the audience?
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: You should have told a story to be fast before.
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: I think I started getting hooked on traveling as a teenager.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: One of the most inspiring books was Afghanistan by John Mitchell.
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: That's just the one that sticks out in my mind.
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: There are other German books that I read by a
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: famous writer who you can't get them in the state.
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: But it's it seems like I have always tended to traveling,
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: adventure traveling.
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: So other than.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: That, that's a good one. So the secret. Yeah, and
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: of course you two have written several books, so make
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: sure you.
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: Guys look up the no he co wrote they don't have.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Any books book. The definitely go off. Absolutely.
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, people keep asking us, but we're a travelers.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: I'm going to open it up to some question. Minutes
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: book a book, book you want to Certainly the jacque
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Lemon books inspired me a little bit about writing and traveling.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Certainly I just re read Old Man in the Sea again.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: I signed and traveled with Charlie. I certainly gave me
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: an impetus. But I have to take one book that
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: probably really changed my attitude. And I'm not a religious person.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: I don't go to church. My mother was with Christian
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: She reads me the would believe in doing other others
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: that he would have to be doing. The year the
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: Golden Rule. Again. By the time I read a book
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: by Nichol Scott in the sockets with the Greek epica,
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: and he recorded his whole life.
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: Well it was the book was called report to Record.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Report to Record with about his life. And he spent
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: his entire life. And he was a teacher of a
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: philosopher or a writer of priest. He was the Buddhist,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: he was everything. He spent his whole life looking to God.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: He is God, who is And finally he's sitting in
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: his yard. I believe when the flowers were living on
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: crete where he was born. He found out and got
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: it everywhere. And that was just such relief to me
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: to find out that I was part of God. He
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: was and that's what he found out. He found God.
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: And yeah, that wasn't a very important time in your
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: life when they were traveling coming back from Nepaul.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you guys have seen so much so you've
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: been able to experience all that magnificence of the world
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: around us. I want to open it up to some questions.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: But herefore we do that. How do people find out
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: more about you? What's your social media stuff and your website?
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: And how do they find out more about the Turtle
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: expedition than Gary and Monica.
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: No, we've had a website for a long time. It's
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: Turtle Expedition dot com. They are not as active on
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: social media as you should, but you'll find us on
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: Facebook on the Turtle Expedition of Our name's Gary Monica Westcott.
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: Same in Instagram and Twitter. I promise myself I'll post
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: a little more.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: Maybe not.
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: I took it great well, Yes, I gave the one
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: I hear about.
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: And if you go on a website, if you have
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: personal questions, there is a there's a contact button you
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: can write to us.
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: We'll always write back.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: When we do have blogs, there's a section on our homepage.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: It's sign up for the news right subscribed. And every
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: time there's a new blog, no matter whether it's about
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: the engine that I just posted from, whether it's about
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: something else travel, you'll get a notice that there's there's
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: a new blog. You can look at it or you
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: can delete it all right. Any questions from the audience for.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Aaron Monica, you'd like to ask the ogs right here
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: in front.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Of you, how do you have finance? Well, we're not
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: rich for sure. We have a lot of sponsors. On
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: our big journeys, like driving around South America and driving
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: around our Siberia, across Siberia and whatever. We had four
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: rigs a sponsors. They supplied our trucks. You have good ridges,
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: applied our tires ams, those supplied our oil. Rain X
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: with a big sponsor, Winters companies, a lot of little
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: sponsors like that paid us a little bit to keep
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: their logos on our truck. We're sort of like a
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: race car. When you see pans oil on the front
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: of a Formula One car, they don't use pans oil
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: in the engine. Do use some special formula that's developed
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: just for that engine, and the real rope the engine
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: after every race anyway doesn't matter, but people see that
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: exposure name exposure of a major product. And we gave
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: companies a major amount of exposure in magazines with full
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: covers and inside double pages and magazines about what tis
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: we used and what blinches we used and what lights
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: were we using. And that has not paid off in
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: the tr that we would get financial sponsorship to do
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: some of these extensive travels because in a race car,
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: and where do you get exposure as you win, where
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: you crash and you get exposure. We never crashed. We
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: always won because there was nobody else in the draft,
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: we created the race.
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: And I covered it, but that was not in the beginning.
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: In the beginning, Gary wrote an article, we sent it in,
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: we got a check, we moved to the next place.
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: So it was definitely hand the mouth operation. We just
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: to stay put longer in one place, always the most
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: expensive part. And so for years and you only wrote
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: for Offer magazine for years, nine years.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: I was before Wheelers.
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: As we got into as we started having the exposure
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: and people started taking notice, and our companies started taking
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: notice how much.
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: We were in the magazine.
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: That's when we got approached like Ford offered us a truck.
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: And eventually during the nineties, when everything was flushed, we
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: turned into financial sponsorship, which in two South stopped and
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: we had some tricks for a while in the early
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: two thousands, and then Gary started writing for many different magazines.
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: As Peanut got up where we are you know, we
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: diamond age so you still write.
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: He was still writes every once in a while.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: So that we found out that a magazine just like
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: four we in parctically every country. So I started contact
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: in those magazines. We would send exact names started of Japan,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: to Australia, to England, to France to Margentina, the same
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: selector of slide. There's no cross reading. Same people in
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Japan would read the story and they would put a
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: picture of the landlord apart in front of the bones
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: in the mascot alliance, or we had to put a
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: little picture like that. Japan did a full spread. That
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: was a different mentality of the magazine, but it was
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: picture yeah, yeah, yeah, with that picture.
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you're hearing the hearing that he's talking about flies. Okay,
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: this is a totally different era. Now, we came back
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: from Russia with three hundred and sixty five rolls of flights.
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: That's like ten thousand slices. So there's ow in boxes,
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: I think.
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: So now with the media and many more people doing
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: the same thing, it's just a different ballgame.
• 37:10
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• 37:13
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• 37:17
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• 37:22
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• 37:59
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sitting and participating in the
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Orland Journal podcast. All of you listening makes such a
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: difference for us and it's an honor to share all
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: this with you as well. We'll all stay around after
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: if you've got any questions for Gary Monica or myself
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: and before to chatting.
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: With you, so we'll be at the truck which is
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: over that.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: There you go, We check out the truck.