Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Staples InTents share their journey to global travel, and saving their marriage along the way

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Staples InTents share their journey to global travel, and saving their marriage along the way · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: your host, Scott Brady, and I am here with two
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: absolutely wonderful people. I'm so great today this podcast with
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: me today, so I'm super excited. I have Sonya and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Dakota Stables from the Stables and Tents, Black People off Road,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: and also the new Gathering Outdoor Events series which I'm
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: super excited to attend here in the next month. So
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: we got some stuff coming on. So thank you guys
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: so much, so much for being on the book. Yes,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: tell me how you got from Atlanta, Georgia, to Mexico
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: City and now Prescott here today.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Well, it was a dark and stormy night.
• 0:48
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• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Moonshade as you covered. Thanks Moonshade. So earlier this.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Year, we pulled out of Atlanta. That was May, okay,
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: so we headed down to Cankon because our niece was
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: getting married. Her name is Kashana and Tray. Yeah, we
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: love them so dearly. They're really big supporters of us.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: We were going down for the wedding and we have
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: this great idea, why don't we just drive?
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: So cool.
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  Speaker 4: Though we recently transitioned to full time overlanding, and when
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: they announced that they were getting married and can Koon,
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: we were like, oh, I guess we'll drive.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: So they ended up being our mad Voyage are taking
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: this trip and our meeting voyage being that it just
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: outfitted our twenty sixteen Toyota land Cruiser two under series,
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: which we belovedly called dot.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we named it's just named after my grandmother. Oh
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: as it's so strong and resilient. Your grandmother, she'll be
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: one hundred in December.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: That's incredible. I hope to be as strong as dot.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Thanks. That's yeah.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: So you guys decided to go down to drive to
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the wedding. How cool is that?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: So the trip took us from Atlanta all along the
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Gulf coast into Kancun. We probably went as far in
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: the Yucatan as Saloon dayden Bakala for a few days,
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: and then we headed up north to Mexico City. I
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: think is when you found out about our Mexico trips.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: From Mexico City, we flew to Denver.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: To o R Yeah, outdoor retailer, Yeah, exactly.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And once we came back, we made our way
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: to the coast to Acapoco and then slowly snaked our
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: way up the western coast.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: And you guys had to be on a little bit
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: of a quicker timeline to get down to the wedding
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: because you were just coming back from another amazing journey
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: in Africa, which we'll talk about here in a little
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: bit For those that are listening. That is just setting
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the stage for the incredible things that these two have done,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and it's so inspiring to see their travels. But I
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: would love to hear more about how you guys got
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: from starting your careers. I'd love to hear more about
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the careers that you guys have had and what brought
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: you to that point of saying, we're not going to
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: do this day to day professional work. We're going to
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: transition into being a full time overlander like you just described.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Because that's so inspiring, people need to hear about what
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: does it take to make that transition.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: I am now a retired engineer out of the Nuclear
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Regulatory Commission. I served for about twenty years there. Before then,
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: I was in the Air Force for six years. There's
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: a female precision Maintenance Equipment Laboratory specialist and we focused
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: on electronic technician stuff as well as calibrations.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, we both have that history of being in
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: the Air Force together, so that's cool. Thank you. And
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: we use the same barber bick. Yeah, it's pretty funny jacket.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So you were in the Air Force and then you
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: started a twenty year career in the Nuclear Regulatory systems.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Is that something that you were also involved with Sonya
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: or what was your your career track.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Oh No.
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  Speaker 4: I was almost employed at Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but the
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: Atlanta office sided that both of us being in the
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: same office wasn't a good idea, and they probably knew
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: then way better than we knew that we didn't need
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: to work together and work together.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: We weren't ready then, right. I gotcha.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: After I graduated from A and T Nicota, and we
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: both went to North Carolina A and T or physics majors.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: We met in college my freshman year his junior year,
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: but after I graduated, moved to Atlanta with Nakota and
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: started working for Lackey Martin. So I worked in quality
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: engineering for fifteen years there, kind of got tired of
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: that job and transitioned to another position doing quality engineering.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Twenty twenty, my sister recently passed away and we had
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: taken our cross country trip for the year to California.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: We were sitting on a cliff in California.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: I was super stressed.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: Because I was way over my head with work and
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: we had all we were supposed to be enjoying ourselves,
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: you know, in this beautiful experience, and we couldn't. I
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: was like, Nicode, I can't do this anymore. Can we
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: just create a plan to focus on staples and tents
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: because we had already created it. It was more of
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: a hobby. That day on the side of the cliff,
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: I resigned for my job and really went in and
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: focused full time on growing our passion.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: You were literally standing at the precipice. Yeah. Yeah, literally,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: And Sonya, how much did you find that that loss
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: of your sister impacted you of being able to make
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: that decision?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: I think my sister and my mother, who both passed away,
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: they were always big supporters of me and me being happy,
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: you know, And I think in that moment I wasn't happy,
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: like about anything, but yeah, they just really wanted me
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: to be happy. And my mother's last days as well
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: as my sister's last days, they really focused on my
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: happy and because of that, and I wasn't happy. It
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: was a really easy decision for me to make, and
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: having to code to support.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Was sure made it even better.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was that lesson of they've passed the torch
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: to you for you to make myself happy, make those
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: decisions right exactly. Yeah. And I found recently with my
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: own mother's passing, is that you start to really be
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: aware of how short life is. We have little insights
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: as we go through life, but then there are times
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: that we get a very clear message that we only
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: have so much time.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: Shortly after that, after me resigning from my job, Nakota
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: and now we made the decision that we were going
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: to go full time overlanding because life is short, right,
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: you know. And Nakota and also his family that he
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: can talk about, but his nephew passed away in twenty twenty,
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: his mother at breast cancer. His father, you know, had
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: so many back surgeries to the point where now he's
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: not even walking. There was just so much tragedy it
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: was taking place, of that was taking place during that time,
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: and it's like, you know, you only have one opportunity
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: to live, Oh why not take it well?
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  Speaker 1: And when I look at you two as well, you
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: guys are hyper competent individuals. So you guys have these
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: rich degrees and professional experience that you've had. If you've
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: got to go back to doing that, you can do that, right.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: You guys have all of this experience. You've told me
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: how much many times that your employer tried to get
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: shipped to come back. That maybe gives some confidence too.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: To say, you know what, we're going to really give
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: this a shot. And to come into something like staples
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: and tents and black people off road and the gathering
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: with all of this professional experience. I mean, it sets
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: you guys up to be really successful entrepreneurs too, because
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: you kind of already know how to make big things happen.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: We're learning, you know, It's it's very much like the
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: entire experience. When we first started. We had very little
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: knowledge about camping. When we first brought out nineteen ninety
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: seven Toyota land Cruiser and Frank the tank. Within the
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: first week of us taking it out, we crushed the
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: front fender, got it stuck in some serious mud. And
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: at that point we had learned how to start off
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: roading and overlanding was pretty much the same way. Our
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: first time across country we broke down probably ten times,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: and because we had just monded out the truck and
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: had did any kind of runs on it. So we're
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: things that you learn as you start overlanding. You do
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: not run your truck when you just did.
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: Then you got to shake it down verse you got
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: to do the shakedown. So yeah, we learned as we went,
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: and we learned all the mistakes the hard way.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I'm that club too. It's so funny. I
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: have to remind people about how many times I have
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: been stuck in my life, which is a lot. You
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: guys have shared with me a really important story about
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: how you guys decided to start to go outdoors, how
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: you guys decided to start camping even.
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because we were, and I think in a lot
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: of regards still are city people before we transition to
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: full time overland, and we lived in the middle of Atlanta, Nakota.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: Always jokes if you look at a matt where the
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: star is in Atlanta.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: That's where we live.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, right, But yeah, we were city people and we
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: did city things all right, Galleries, museums, hanging out at lounges.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: So outdoors was not our thing. But we have been
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: struggling in our marriage and started doing some really intense
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: marriage counseling.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: What's kind of working, But.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: We were still struggling after a couple of years. She
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: gave us the advice to say yes to each other.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: She was like, you guys are sitting across from me
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: on this couch saying the exact same thing in different ways.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: You just need to focus on saying yes to each other.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: So for thirty sixty ninety, I haven't many days, she said.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: She was like, just try it, try saying yes to
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: each other.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: It was pretty quick lessons learned, you know, right then
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: and there we didn't know. I think at that time
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: we had been married just under just around ten years.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: And I'm sure it was more than that, but we.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: Were twelve, right, been around twelve years A twelve year maybe,
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: oh yeah, definitely. So the midlife crisis car had all
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: of it, was like he did, like measles, chicken pox,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: and poison oak time. But in that moment, I hadn't
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: realized just how much I had been saying no to
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: my wife from the day that we met. And it
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: started with just, you know, just my preferences in life,
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: but they were taken away from things that she had enjoyed,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: and I wasn't open to receiving what it was that
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: she enjoyed in life. So when this concept of saying
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: yes to each other was presented to us, it seemed
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: sort of like an obvious duh, but it really wasn't.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: And it took some time really for us to get
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: to that point. Where we recognized how much we were
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: saying no. Sonya asked for me to go camping with her. Again,
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: city guy doing the city life. I had my boys.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: We were hanging out, you know, going to bars, art
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: galleries and her theaters, right, movies, all of the things
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: that you do in the city to say that you
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: enjoyed the life. You know, my wife is asking me
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: to go camping. What are you saying here? What are
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: we doing? Reluctantly I said yes. And it was a
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: dark and stormy night.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: It really was that time.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: It really was.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I mean we didn't even camp in the Air Force,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: like after the Air Force, why would we do that.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: It was a perfectly good dorm And when.
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: Most people think of camping, you think roughing. It like
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: laying on a hard ground and like knowing ago that
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: won't be like that. We're gonna have nice little comfy
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: set up. It's gonna be great. But we got out there.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: It really was dark. We drove to Waden Mala, South Carolina.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Just outside of South Carolina, just outside of excuse.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: Me, and it was raining when we showed up, just
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: not what we expected.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Not when we pictured it. It was money.
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: Nakota is driving his new for him white six fifty
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: Grand Coupe in the mud.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: That's a beautiful car.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: It was so plush, and he was like, why do
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: we have to take my car? It was like, because
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: my car is smaller.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: Than a Z four, so yeah, yeah, we need a
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: little space, so it only makes sense to drive his car.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: But he wasn't happy about it, and that's set the
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: tone for the trip.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I stayed in my feelings that first night.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: I'm just really unhappy with being there, not really understanding
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: why I was even saying yes to it. Here I
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: am out in the middle of the woods. I really
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: don't know how to camp. What are we doing?
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: So why and why why are we even doing this?
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: So I was really trying to figure out an exit strategy,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: not just from the camp where we were camping at
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: our friend's house, but from my marriage. You know, you've
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: really start feeding yourself with any and every negative thing
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: that you can to justify a position that you're holding
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: your heart. Next morning, we get up still in my
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: feelings about this thing. So on he pulls me to
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: the side and she says, look, you can't do anything
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: about the fact that it was called windy, rainy, muddy
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: when we came out here. Right, you can't do anything
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: about that but to be happy, and you can choose
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: to live in this moment and try to make the
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: best of it.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Right. It hit me like like Mike Tyson punching in
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: a jaw, Right, Yeah, go around a corner, A great
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: piece of advice.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Right, So I had to go around a corner, gather myself,
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: gather my feelings, and really ask myself what it is
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: that I'm doing with my life that I am choosing
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: not to be happy? Came back with the Snickers bar,
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: brand new guy. Ended up falling in love with camping
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: that weekend because of just the fun. We were just
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: having so much fun. And it was I think a
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: lot because I changed my attitude and was open and
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: receptive to what was happening in that moment, and it
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: made all the difference.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: It does seem that from my perspective that the only
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: thing that we have control of in our life at
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: all is our reaction to things. Absolutely, Like we can
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: save money for a rainy day, but we don't even
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: have control over that. The dollar can crash. We can
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: work really hard to be in our careers and feel
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: like we have some security in our job, even owning
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: our own business, but that can change in a moment.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Our health can change in a moment. So you're right.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: The only thing, Sonya, that we do have control over
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: is how we respond to all of that in life,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the mud and maybe in some ways that first night
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: of camping was a reflection of where your relationship was.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Absolutely it was a dark constor it was.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: A dark and stormy place in our relationship.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And waking up the next day and finding a
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: way to be present for each other and change your attitude.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: I mean at that camping trip, we borrowed camp gear
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: from my friend and we were in this BMW, you know,
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: but on the way back we both decided that we
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: liked it. It was something that we wanted to do.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: Nakota one to go all the way and he was like,
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: I want to camp. I want to camp all the time,
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: and I need my own truck, and I'm like, pumpy breaks, dude,
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: just a pumpy break. But we did buy our own
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: tent off Craigslist in the car that day. We camped
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: like every four to six weeks and then August of
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: that year. That was April, not long after we did
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: buy the truck because we saw that we were committed.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: To it, and what an amazing first choice. I'm going
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: to buy an eighty series land Cruiser. Like for everybody
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: on this part podcast that's listening, they're like yes, like
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: like yeah, I mean talk about knowing which one to
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: buy first, that's awesome.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: It was a little bit of homework. But I did
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: get the one with the e locker, yeah, which is
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: the most coveted. So I was happy and thrill when
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: it fell in my lap. But that's really all it was.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: You know, I've been looking for months to looking at
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: every type of vehicle, why the people were choosing it,
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: and just what people were saying about them on forums.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: And I only had about six thousand dollars budget at.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: The time, right, I was like, you.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Can buy something, but this is it, So, you.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Know, it's both the midlife crisis car. Let's not forget.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: We only had two car spots, you know, we didn't.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: I had to rent a parking spot from across the
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: street to park the truck. But it was the right decision.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: I'm so glad we got it.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And do you still have the truck? You do?
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: It's at a friend's house right now.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: So cool. You really cut your teeth off road with
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that vehicle. And when you first started driving it off road,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: was it stock? Yeah?
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: It was. It had some Ko twos and g KO
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: two tires on it didn't even have a stock suspension
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: on it. Whoever had owned it before I think he
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: was using it for duck hunting. So Dennis owned it originally,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: and then the second owner was a farmer also did
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: some duck hunting, but that was essentially it. But after
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: we bought it went up into I can't remember, north
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: of Helen, Georgia, to go along this trail tray mountain
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: because that was the closest place that you could off
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: road it. So yeah, sure, two weeks later we take
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: it out and yep, get the first night crushed the fender,
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: I mean just crushed it. Had to put duct tape
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: on the signal light to hold it on. And then
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: the next day we go out and we're gonna go
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: off roading, and we're puddle jumping, getting more and more cocky,
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden there was the Master,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: the keen mudhole of all mud holes, and it swallowed
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: the truck. It spit a tire out. Yeah, so we
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: had to get someone to snatch us out in a
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: Grand Cherokee. He had it off road ready kind of thing,
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: but he snatched us out and he was like, you know,
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: maybe you should go down the easy side and just
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: go on to Atlanta that trip.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: After we got stuck, we met another gentleman in an
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: eighty series, you know, just chatting, and we told him
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: it was our first time.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: He was like, oh, it's your first time. He was like,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: let me shoot, let me, let me give you a
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: tour Trade Mountain.
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: We aired our tires down because we were like, we
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: knew nothing about off roading.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: We weren't even aired down.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we aired our tires down, and he was like,
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: don't worry. You know, I'll stay to have a compressor
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: so I'll pump you up when we get down. He
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: Nakota first time. We're kind of creeping through before we
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: met him, but after we met him following we were
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: we were different people.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: He took the eighty series down Trade Mountain, like you
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: would imagine an eighty series going down a trade mountain.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: He showed us how capable it was and we were like.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: What a gift. Yeah, but it was brutal.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: He was an aggressive driver, but we needed to understand
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: it because we were really tiptoe on with a very
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: capable thing.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: I think because of that, we realized that we needed
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: to get some training and understand what we were doing.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: So then we went to our first overland expo. We
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: went to Overland Expo.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: East in twenty sixteen, yeah, the same year off, so
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: this was August October.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: We went to Overland Expo and was introduced to overlanding
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: and we were like, oh, shoot, this is it. I'm sorry,
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: but yeah, we were like, this is it because we've
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: always loved to travel, right, and then we had this
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: newfound love of outdoors, Like we can combine this new
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: love with our oh love and we can see the
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: world and we're it.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: And we're walking around Overland Expo. We're seeing all of
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: these different vehicles, all of these different bills, motorcycles, everything
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: is out there. It's just like our mind is exploding
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: a toy store here right, the endless possibility.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: And there was a small expo and we were still overwhelmed.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: One of the things that's so great about those events
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: is the quality of the training. So the fact that
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: you can go you know, take your own vehicle through
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: a full drive course, have someone spot you give you instruction.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: It's so beneficial for that. It's one of the things
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: that a lot of people don't know about with Overland
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Expo is you can buy that experience package and have
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: all of this amazing training in a weekend.
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we always recommend if you're going for the first
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: time to get that experience back.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: Actually, you don't even have to go for the first time.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: You can go as many times as you feel comfortable
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: because you know you learn something every time and.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: You're always different classes available and special Thanks to Equipped
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: for supporting today's podcast. More than fifteen years ago, Equipped
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Expedition Outfitters became the first American company to import the
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: best in breed vehicle expedition equipment from across the globe.
• 18:25
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• 18:28
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• 18:48
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• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Is it equipped one dot com to gear up? The
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: next question that I've got for you guys, is you
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: start doing these longer trips. What was the next step
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: for how you got beyond your own adventures to beginning
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: to engage with others? When did that start to happen?
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: Honestly, it started almost immediately. By the time we had
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: bought a ninety seven land Cruiser, our family and friends
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: were starting to ask a lot of questions because instead
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: of us going to events that we would normally go
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: to or spaces that we would normally be in, Sonya
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: and I were planning camping trips, and you know, they
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: were like, all right, why do y'all keep going camping?
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: We were trying to explain it to them, and they
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: were like, I don't even believe any of the words
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: coming after your face right now, So you're dismissed. One
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: day when we were out there, we were like, you know,
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: we have been also trying to do a little bit
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: of homework on how to camp because you know, believe
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: it or not, you know, we were one of our
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: first times we were trying to figure out how to
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: do a fire using a flint because I've seen it
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: before kind of thing.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Right, It's like that seems like it would be a
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: useful scale one. Now, yeah, sure, let's let's go on
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: YouTube and try to figure it out.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: But in our homework and doing YouTube video reviews and stuff,
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: we just never saw anything that anyone that looked like us.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: And we knew that there were a lot of barriers
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: to black people camping being outdoors, and we were like,
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: why not just make a few videos. We'll share them
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: with our family and friends and just you know, let
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: it go from there. But when we shared it with him,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: they were like, well, do you mind if I share
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: it with people? And it just sort of grew from there.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: So we were in that capacity pretty much from the beginning.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: Its stables and tents was created very early. We started
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: camping in April. We put out our first video in
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: like October that's awesome, Yeah, and.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: It was the one that the truck when we bought
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the truck, and yeah, when.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: We purchased the truck in August, that was the first video.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: It sort of started there, and it seemed like when
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: the videos were coming out, we made our way over
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: to Overland Expo. People there recognized some of those early videos,
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: and I mean it was weird, like a thousand followers
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: and we know.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: You looking around like you know who, and we're looking
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: around for who they I know that laughing.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: So we were sitting there looking at axes together at
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: a booth and he was like, wait a second, I
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: know y'all.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Y'all. He was like, Sean, it's not gonna believe this.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: So it was really really weird right from the beginning
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: that we were starting to inspire people even early on
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: with just making the videos. Since they were producing, we're
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: looking at it and sharing it with their friends and
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: family and they were like, I didn't even know black
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: people did this, and whatever it is that you two
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: have done is like super cool, So maybe I can
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: try it.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: You know that came impetus for us to just lean
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: into it a little bit more, try to make sure
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: that we understood it, because you know, for us, we
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: were still really trying to focus on our marriage and
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: going out into these spaces for us was about trying
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: to get to this happy place. How do we get
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: to where we relax We're enjoying hammock time because there
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: was no connection with the serenity that you have when
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: you're out in the forest, you know, the quiet or
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: the insects or the wildlife that you hear. We were
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: completely disassociated with it because all of the noises that
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: we ever heard were mostly tied to the city and
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: maybe when we went home if you could get some
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: quiet time there and going outside.
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: We realized one of the things living in the city,
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: like in the middle of it, downtown, it's never quiet. Never,
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: there's always some type.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Of mechanical noise.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Sure, And we did not realize that.
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: Until we started going camping and it's like, oh, it's
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: so quiet out here, this is great, And now any
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: mechanical noise, it's like.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: What is that? Yeah that makes sense, though, you guys
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: have totally conditioned yourself for a different experience.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: Even when we were in Mexico one morning, the Go zero,
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: the fifteen hundred was kind of overheating and the fan
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: was running, Like, what is that noise?
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Why is it?
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: I mean we're in the middle of nowhere. There's no
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: people around, right, no where the vehicles around. The code
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: was like, who's running a generator?
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: You know? It was us. Yeah, it's amazing how we
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: pick up on those and then it gets quiet enough
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: to actually hear your own blood flowing through. Yeah. For you,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: it's the voices in your head to hear. Yeah, I
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: hear them all the.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Time, so I have to ask them often, like what
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: are they saying?
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Fill me in?
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: It's because you have it. I can see it. I
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: can see it in his face. We'll be in the car.
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: I'll be like on the phone or trying to do
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: some work or I mean the code because the code
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: is a driver. He'll be working and then I'll look
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: up and he'll be like, like, wait a second, what
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: are you talking about?
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Who are you talking to?
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's we learn a lot about ourselves when
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: we spend that much time traveling. Yeah. Well, yeah, that's good.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: And I've probably learned a lot about each other.
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, we definitely learned a lot about each other.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: Being in small spaces.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: It's fat right now, this is our distance that would
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: be you'd have a little bit more than that in
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the two hundred series, just a little. So when you
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: look back on these last couple of trips, Sonya, what
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: is something that you didn't know about Nakota that now
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: you admire in him because of these travels.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: You know, I've known Nakota for a really long time. Yeah,
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: like twenty five years. I don't think it was much
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: that I didn't know about him. Sure, what I learned
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: is on these most recent trips is how to communicate
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: with him better. We're always striving to work on these skills.
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: But a lot of times I say, Nicota doesn't listen,
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: And it's really not that he doesn't listen, it's just
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: that I'm.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Not communicating properly, you know, the way that he needs
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: or the way that he needs to hear.
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: So I think in Mexico more recently, because Mexico was
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: a really really hard trip for us. My first time
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: is full time overlanders in our own vehicle, and there
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: were a lot of stresses, so a lot of tension
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: in Mexico. But it really forced us to kind of
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: take a step back and think about what we were communicating,
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: what the energy that we were giving off.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's not just necessarily the other person.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: You too, had learned how to say yes to each
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: other more often, and now figuring out how to say
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: yes yes for you Nicota. Now that you've seen Sonia
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: take the initiative that she has with all these new
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: business opportunities for you guys and traveling. What's something that
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: you've learned that's new about someone you spent twenty five
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: years of your life with her leadership.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: Style, her ability to really lean into supporting people who
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: are supporting us, that are bringing us help.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: She has really taste the time to get to know them,
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: understand who they are, and bring that full word the
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: help that they provide for us. It's been amazing to
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: watch and it happens all the time. But the trait
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: really does go back to how she interacts with her
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: nieces or nephews and her family in general. It's almost
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: like an extension of it. Somehow she's managed to become
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: a serious leader in how she handles people. It's really remarkable.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: Her people's skills are are not and I've experienced that.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: I can see the strength of your leadership as well.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: You have a natural way of communicating with people who
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: admire what you do, and you're trying to inspire them
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: all the way up to a business partner that you're
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: trying to develop a relationship with Financially.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: I've seen that. Yeah, for sure, I can see that too, Nakota.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: That's awesome, isn't that? The whole point of all of
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: us is for us to grow as individuals and to
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: learn and to be inspired and to be creative and
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: have these experiences and then also do it together now
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: with others so we can share that.
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: Togethern Is was the I think the thing that we
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: had the issue with in our early camping career because Staples, well,
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: camping was always about me and the code of growing
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: closer together, and we would get these messages like, oh,
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: I want to camp with you. It was like, but
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: we weren't at that point in our outdoor journey to
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: really let people in, you know. But now now we're
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: all about sharing the experience.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Which is a great segue to talk about the gathering.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: You guys have spent this really important time together, building
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: your skills, building your marriage. What inspired you to say
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: we're going to have our own event to do that,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: to bring everybody together.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: I recently resigned from my full time job, and I
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: was like, I need to figure this thing out, you know,
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: and just you know, the more and more I thought
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: about what we were doing virtually with our YouTube and Instagram.
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: It was really all about education and inspiration. We did
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: have so many people to request I want to go
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: camping with you. I need some instruction. I don't necessarily
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: feel comfortable, you know, I need help. But you can't
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: take everyone out individually, you know. So we had this idea.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: It was like, why not just create a big event.
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: And we had done some smaller campouts before with like
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: fifteen twenty people. Why not create a big event to
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: do just that, continue to provide in person education and inspiration.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: So give people a safe space where it felt.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: Welcome and comfortable, you know, because if you're not comfortable,
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: then you're not going to have a good experience. And
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: then throughout the weekend host workshops to teach them basic
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: skills camp cooking, how to build a fire, how to
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: recreate responsibly, and then some more advanced courses were the
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: people who were already into the outdoors, like solar.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: Personal safety, how to bring someone out of the woods
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: in case you get hurt, yeah, if they're injured or hurt.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: And just was at the event you guys did.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Last Yeah, that was at the first event.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: First Sade and Buddy here where was that located?
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: The first one, Yeah, it was right outside of Atlanta,
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: in Crawfordville, Georgia, so it was close.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: To home, about forty five minutes east of heading towards Augusta. Well,
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: it makes it easier for you guys to manage that too.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was easier.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: But this year, since we were transitioning full time, you
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: don't necessarily have to do it in Atlanta, so we
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: decided to throw the event to two locations. This August
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: the eighteenth through the twenty second will be in Van Korum, Colorado,
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: which is in the desert of southwest Colorado, but it's
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: right between Moab and tel You're right, it's a great location.
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: And then in October the fourteenth through sixteenth, we'll be
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: in Hendersonville, North Carolina, which is right outside of Asheville.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: Another beautiful location, you know, right at the base of
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: the Smoky Mountains. Tons of outdoor adventure.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: That's so exciting though, I mean, and how many folks
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: did you have at your first event? It looked like
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: it was well attended.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the first event was about one hundred and twenty people.
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: That's awesome, and I think that just spoke to the
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: need in the community. You know, it's not that people
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: don't want to go outside, it's just they need a
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: safe place to learn.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, to start to feel comfortable.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's what we provided.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: So at the end of the event, I mean we
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: literally had people like, I don't know what your plans are,
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: but you need to do this again or else we're
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: gonna hunt you down.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Looking for you. Well, and it's achieving that goal of
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: inspiring and educating.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: It really is awme hearing people's stories about them preparing
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: to come to the gathering event as well as hearing
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: about like new people who are going to rent RVs
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: to come to the one Indersonville.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we have people taking their first solo trip across
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: country this year, which is amazing because I mean we
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: took ours just a few years ago. So inspire people
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: and provide of an avenue that they want to do that.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: It's just really excited and I am excited to be there.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: So I'll be at the Colorado event. So those that
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: are listening hope we can get this out with enough
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: time for people to start to plan to show up.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to be there. We're going to do some
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: classes and we're going to spend some time with folks
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: and just learning their stories and talking about travel around
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the world. So I'm super excited to see it.
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm super excited, especially with this event because the
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: programming is great.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, you're there, Scott.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: I mean sorry, let's start there. You just lost twenty participants,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: In addition, Philip Henderson, who was the leader of the
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: Full Circle Everest movement, will be there. He's a no
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: instructor and just led the first ex All Black expedition
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: to Summer Everest.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I saw that.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's amazing.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: And the end we'll have bills and I can't remember
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: how to pronounce your last name, but she is the
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: first female and first Mexican to complete the Triple Crown
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: of through hikes.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: It's just great programming.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't wait, a lot of inspiration. Yeah, Yeah,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: that's going to be fantastic. We'll have more information in
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the show note in the description on YouTube about how
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: to get signed up for the event as well, and
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: then also your event that you're going to have back
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: East later in the year too, so we'll make sure
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: people know what's.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: Going on with that.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: If people want to get involved with what you're doing
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: with black people off road? How can they support? How
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: can they learn more about what you're doing black people offer?
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: That was our bringing child. That's fine from an experience
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: that took place maybe about twenty eight twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: October twenty nineteen. Yeah, right before the election.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right before the election. Okay, we had a group
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: of some black guys, some white guys, and we all
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: decided we were going to go north of Chattanooga to
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: do some trail rides. So everybody had the rigs. It's
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: probably about what seven or eight of us seven eight rigs.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: When we get to doing the trail, we get it.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: It was Prentice Cooper an amazingly beautiful country up there,
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: but it's also a really good trail system for people
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: to play around with, eacent enough to challenge any off roader,
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: not so much so that, you know, you end up
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: damaging your rig. And we don't recommend it for raph
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: fours or don't get cocky out there. You know, they
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: say it's four wheel drive only for a reason. But
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: we had gone out there that particularly day and we
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: got about halfway through the route and stop, you know,
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: to have a drink and just enjoy the moment of
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: all of us being out here because it's a really
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: cool moment. And the white friends that were with us
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: asked if we had brought any guns and we were
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: like no, and they were right, and we were like
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: should we have? They were like, well, we brought a
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: trunk full kind of thing. And we're like, well, what's
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: the reason for this? And they shared that in some
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: of the off road clubs that they had been privy
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: to that made them feel uncomfortable about our safety. And
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: at that point we felt like, all right, if our
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: white friends feel that we are not safe when we're
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: out in these outdoor recreating spaces, and there's a different
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: conversation that needs to take place, and we have a
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: role in that because we are we're probably the forefront
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: of black people that are off roading. So when we
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: got back, we had some really long conversations about it
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: and was like what can we do?
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: What can we say?
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: And Sonya got the sketch book out I Believe and
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: started playing around with some graphics and she created.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: This really cool I love the T shirt. It's awesome.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she created was really cool LOGA Black People off
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: Road was born and since its inception. I think I'm
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: aware of about four different clubs that have formed, mostly jeepers,
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: but there's an atl Trail team, which they're also going
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: to be at the Vancouver event and I'm sure they'll
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: be at the Ashville event as well, but they're going
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: to be teaching a course there. But they formed a group. Yeah,
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: they're about seventy five deep. I believe maybe a little
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: bit more. There were at least two or three other
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: clubs they're formed just going out into these spaces. They're
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: awesome to camp with. They already practice the leave no
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: trace count of behavior. So just really good that we
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: started to change the narrative with what was taking place outdoors.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: And for us, it was like, can we create positive
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: images of people outdoors recreating because we need to see
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: each other to know that we can also go out
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: and feel comfortable in these same spaces.
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So Black People off Road was really created as
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: a community to provide some visibility for other black and
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: brown people who enjoy getting out and it really is
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: meant to be a beacon of light and positive energy. Yeah,
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: you know, thank you for rocking your Black People off
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: Road show, because it's not just for black people it's
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: a symbol of safety and security and that you're welcome.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: So anyone that wants to support the movement feel free
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: to go to staplesintens dot com purchase that Black People
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: Off Road shirt.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: They're patches and decals and all that stuff.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: So and what I've enjoyed is just the conversations that
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: come up with it. Yes, sometimes they'll ask if that's
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: part of my ancestry, or sometimes they'll ask how do
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: they get involved? Or is there a local club? So
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: really interesting conversations come up from wearing the T shirt,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: which has been awesome. So I can just direct them
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: to the Instagram and they can find out more information.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: It's so important that our industry reflects the same diversity
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: as our country does. Sure, and it should. It's a
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: healthy places when that's in balance. So it's really exciting
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: to see what you guys are doing. I think it's
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: so important.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's a thrill to be a part of it.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: It's a bigger conversation than you and just to you know,
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: have a small role in it and inspire other people
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: to get out and camp and connect, you know, because
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: when you're out here in these spaces in your off
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: road and you're bound to come across other off roaders
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: and maybe you'll have a similar rig and you want
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: to have a discussion about it, and there's a point
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: of connection. We think that those kind of connections are
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: going to be the things that build America that we
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: all want to experience, you know, and we're all outside
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: doing really cool stuff together and can drink a beer
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: together and then you know, go home and say, hey,
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: I had a great time.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: I think we all benefit from nature in the same way. Yeah,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: like we're it's been only a few hundred years that
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: we have really put ourselves in cities. It's not that
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: in a very short period of time that people have
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: been kind of in cities and not out in nature
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: and not experiencing nature. And I think I think we
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: need it to be healthy.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: We do.
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: And what's interesting is that in our travels, people that
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: we see that are the most happy, they're the people
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: that live the most remote, that don't have access to
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: the TVs and the radios and social media, the internet
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: and social media and all that stuff, because it can
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: be draining. Yeah, you know, if you can't ground yourself
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: and channel that energy, all that stuff is draining you want.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: To see the happiest kids in the world. That they
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: will be in a place where they don't have access
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: to that site. They'll be out playing with each other,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: all different ages, whatever they got to play with, but
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: they're laughing and running around like they're having a good time.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Exactly dark thirty to dark thirty, that's all we play.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: That's right, But you're so legit.
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: That was one of the cool That was probably the
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: coolest thing to me about the gathering last year is
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: that every single morning, the kids, they legit woke up
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: cracking dawn and there was an area that we left
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: open and they played soccer there all day. I walked
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: to my tent like headed to bed, and kids were
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: still out playing, and that just truly brought me joy
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: that we created the space that one parents feel comfortable leaving,
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: you know, just letting their kids run around. But two
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: of the kids are like not asking for video games,
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: and it was amazing.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: What an incredible and unexpected byproduct of that is not
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: only are the parents having a great experience, but the
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: kids are not on their phones or not on their xboxes.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: They're running around, running around like smoked. At the end
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: of the day, tired and their parents are like, thank
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: you so much, thank you so much, thank you for
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: this reprieve.
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and this year, this year, specifically for the Ashville event,
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: a lot of our friends and just people have reached
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: out to us.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: It's like, Okay, I'm gonna bring my kids.
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna try because I saw how much fun the
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: kids had last time, and like one of our friends
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: specifically is so not an outer person, but they mentioned
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: it to their keys and their kids. We're interested, and
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: it was like, Okay, I can't deprive my Kyd from
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: doing this, even though I don't know out right from
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: having an experience.
• 37:09
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• 37:12
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• 37:16
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• 37:21
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• 38:05
  Speaker 1: You guys recently made a trip to Africa. Talk about
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: the vehicle. Now, you guys used a high Lux for that, right, Okay,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: So then talk about where you landed, where you drove
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: some of that experience over there.
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: We flew into South Africa, which was really easy for
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: us because we went to Africa in what twenty twenty
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: fifteen and we had friends there, so made new friends. Yeah,
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: we made new friends very first year, had them for
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: the first time in twenty trip, Yes, in twenty sixteen.
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: So when we went to plan this trip, there was like, oh,
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: you have to come stay with us. So we flew
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: into South Africa, stayed with them for a few days
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: while we you know, kind of amazing people too, he compressed,
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: and then we picked up our vehicle in Johannesburg, rented
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: from bush Lore.
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: We hired a twenty twenty two Toyota GD six. It
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: was a four cylinder turbo diesel. The only March that
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: they had did to it. I think we're the tires.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: They put some Cooper Discoveries on it. Stts really good
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: tire that we got the chance to really explore.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: They had like three hundreds they had three hundred kilometers
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: on it brands. We broke it in though very well.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Africa will do that. Yeah, those roads are rough, man,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: the roads are brutal in Africa. They are not technically brutal,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: but they're just the corrugations and everything else. They were
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: on a truck. After a period of time. Yeah, okay,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: so you leave joe Burg.
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: Once we picked the truck up in Joeberg, we drove
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: to Namibia. So we made like one stop or across
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: the border and entered south kind of near Fish River Canyon.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: We entered kind of that way.
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: So then we just sneaked through the desert and so
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: beautiful is up the coast through the Kaprivy.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: What did you think of the capriv Strip. I haven't
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: been there yet.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: Prev is a completely different experience. You know, Namibia, it's
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: mostly a lot of different deserts for the most part.
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: But once you get towards the northern part and you
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: start to make your way west in Namibia and you're
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: going to travel across the kapriv which was essentially where
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: the Germans were conquering right before World World One sure
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: out so that they could go back to fight in
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: World Wide And so there's about a one hundred mile
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: ye kind of strip across the top of Namibia that
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: is pretty much untouched as far as any European influences.
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: It's a very special place that you get a good
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: opportunity to connect not just with nature, but the people
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: they are there and the different ethnic groups that occupy
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: that space or occupy that land. Now some of them
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: are never left, but other ones had migrated into that area.
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: But to go through it and to see how people
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: live and to see the simplicity of what life really
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: looked like before the Europeans had come in to conquer
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: that section was pretty amazing.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: It wasn't until we got to the Kaprivie I was like, Oh,
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: this is real Africa.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: You see the huts and the people in their.
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: Traditional attire a lot more often there, a lot more
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: often you encounter more people that don't speak English and
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: have no clue what the words are that are coming
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: out of your mouth. Before we got there, everyone they
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: just described the caprevious different and we was like, hey,
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: what do you mean different. But the first place we camped,
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: we walked in, I was it was It's the closest
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: thing to the Garden of Eden that I could have
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: could ever imagine.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: There was this big tree with these huge pods on
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: it and all it was amazing.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Amazingly dazzling.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: Its right along a river, and there were hippopotamus that
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: came out and the guy, not a ranger, that was
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: the host. I can't recall his name right now, but
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: he came by to help us check into the campsite.
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: And like we said, we were right along the side
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: of the river. Calicious Calicious says to us, you should
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: expect the hippo. It is not uncommon for them to
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: come through the camp at night. If they do, remember
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: you are a guest in their home. Don't get the fight,
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: don't argue with.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: It, don't poke it, don't stand up.
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: Politics politics. It will probably pass by and continue on.
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: You know, as you can imagine. As he's walking off,
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: we had a ton more questions.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: So that's it.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: And be good. I just believe at that So.
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: At that moment, we knew that we were really deep
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: into the bosom of Africa that was tied to what
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: our imaginations I had suggested that it would be.
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: I mean it's the it's the cradle of humankind. I mean,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: it's just an ancient place and it feels like it's
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: the most at home I've ever felt in my life.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: And it's not that I don't love Prescott and I
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: love like where I'm from and things like that, but
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: because I do. But when you're in Africa, you feel
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: like it's like I'm where humans came from. Yeah exactly,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: and you are, Yeah exactly.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: And we met the Tomaraw, some of the earliest people
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: on the planet, their descendants, and that was a living
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: museum and that was in Nibi as well.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: The Himba. Yeah, incredible people.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: Just the culture.
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: The culture was amazing and it was the transition was
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: when we got into the Kabrib. You know, even the
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: customs that we learned Colicious the same guy Coda asks
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: so if introducing myself, if I approach a person, how
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: should I introduce myself? He's like, oh, you need to
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: bow clap three times.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It was.
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was some of the cultural things. I love
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: it because it was in understanding where we were in
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: the different ethnic groups that were there. Everywhere you go,
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: we think that you should try to learn a little
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: bit of the language, at least how to say hello
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: with a few other catch phrases or whatever. It goes
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: a long way with showing a good sentiment to the
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: people of that country. So yeah, just some respect. I
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: don't think anybody requires you to speak the whole language there, right,
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: So we were trying to understand where we were and
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: who were the people there. He was like, well, these
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: are the different groups that are here. You're very close
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: to in Gola, which is across the river, and so
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: to speak, it's not uncommon to see people migrate from
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: there and live here. But this was what was so interesting.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: He started the conversation with if you wanted to say hello,
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: it's muzah lea twiny. We were like, okay, what chani?
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: And he took the time to correct us until we
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: got it right, and it was like, but if there's
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: someone else around they're older than you, then you need
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: to sew a shine of respect, and you hold your
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: hand on your one hand this way and it's muzi
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: lea twenty and you can bow.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Now if they're chief.
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: Or along those lines, then it can get more significance
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: where it's three claps andwani to a bigger group. So
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: it was a whole lot of coaching that took place
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: just that first night, in addition to him telling us
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: about the hippo.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: So when we left, they make some noise coming out
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: of the river. You know, you know they're coming.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: So we ended up having some really good cultural experiences
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: and some great exchanges along the way, but they were
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: just very special when we were along Caprivy, just very special.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: That's amazing, you guys. Continued into Botswana and then Africa.
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: We crossed over to Botswana and we stopped in the
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: Zambia because it was like, we can't be this close
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: to Victoria Falls and I see it. Sure, So we
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: crossed over to Zambia for a few days and experienced
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: that whole water system, which is amazing to understand that
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: all the rivers come together and the falls gives power
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: to like four countries.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: But after that we went in.
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: We went back into Backswana and went through northern Choby,
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: down into southern Choby, into.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: More and me the oaken Bonga.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: So for that we flew.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: Because we were saying we were saying mound, and there
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: was like, no, it's my own.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: What is this where you were talking about? You're not from.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: That is an outpost, isn't it.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Well that my own is nice.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the middle of nowhere.
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: In the middle of nowhere, but I mean it's cool.
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: It's become a decent sized city. Do And what we
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: realized through our travels, if you ever go into Botswana,
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: make sure you have enough money.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: If you don't, you're gonna have to go see Miss
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: Kay and my own so that you can pay all
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: your part FETs.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotcha.
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: So from my we flew deeper into the Okavanga and
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: we stayed at this campsite I think it was called Satari.
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: I mean it was a very remote location. River boat
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: had to come out to get us. We spent about
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: what three or four days up in there and really
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: had a strong connection with the heart of the oga Wanga.
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: And I took a helicopter ride, so we got to
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: see a lot of like, oh man, it was amazing,
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: amazing space to be an amazing place to experience. And
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: that was when I think I felt like I was
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: touching the hand of God. Yeah, you can look out
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: and see it in the water, the wildlife that is there.
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: It's just an amazing place. Yeah, it's truly special spot
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: on the planet. Yeah, talking about that kind of thing.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: What you guys, what you guys have done, is truly special,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: and I just think it's such an honor for us
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: to have you on the podcast and it's here and
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: to talk about these really important and organizations that you
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: guys have started and these really important events that you
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: guys are growing in the country. Can you help people
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: know how to find out more about you guys as
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: individuals and your different organizations. How do people find out
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: more information about what you're doing.
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: We're Stables and Tents. Our last name is Staples and
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: we sleep Intents and in ts. Yes, so pretty much
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: any social media platform. Our website is Stablesincents dot com.
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: We have YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and then you can
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: also go to Black People Offer Road on Instagram and
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: join that community and be an act apart and make
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: sure you tag Black people off Road because Nicota is
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: always looking for different people of color and allies to feature.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: Sure, Yeah, just to make sure that we put the
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: community out there and give some visibility and then for
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: anyone who wants to support, we also have Patreon, which
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: we give our patreons behind the scenes content and all
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: the inside information.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah sure, we get a whole lot of ugly stuff.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: And then to find out more on the gathering events,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: what's the instagram and the website on that.
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: All the gathering information is embedded in the Staples Ins website.
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: In the menu, there's a drop down for the gathering
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: with information for the Colorado event as well as the
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: Ashville event, and you can see a recap of last
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: year's event which was just amazing. And the instagram for
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: the gathering is the Gathering by s I.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: One of the things that we love to ask on
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: the podcast is if someone is new coming into overland
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: travel and they want to do like you guys have
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: done and make that change in their life, stand at
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: the edge of the cliff and choose to jump off.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: What advice would you give them? What would you tell
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: them if you were standing there with them and they
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: want to make that decision to go full time? Yeah,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: just do it.
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: Let me be that voice in your mind, you know.
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: But seriously, it is one of those where at a
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: point I think it is a little bit of a
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: leap of faith. You're not going to have all of
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: the things, not going to have the perfect conditions for you.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: You should expect a dark and stormy night kind of thing.
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: Do lean into it because it's something that's calling you
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: right there that you need to answer. And the only
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: way to really understand it is to go and explore it,
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: you know, And I think at the heart of any
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: overlander is the desire to explore. There's a desire to
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: understand what's around that corner, what's over that mountain. It's
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: worth going to see because you can really say yes
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: to the world and becomes something else along this truck.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: And it's so important. What you're saying is it's taking
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: that movement yourself. It's not has nothing to do with
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: the truck, nothing to do with the equipment. You can
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: have that or not. I mean, people have gone around
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: the world with nothing so right.
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: And I think the reality is we could have went
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: we could have transitioned to full time overlanding last year,
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: but we had an idea of what the correct setup was.
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: We travel across country and into Columbia in a ground tent.
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: We didn't need the rooftop tent. We didn't need the winch,
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: we didn't need the bumper, we didn't need the rear
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: bumb we didn't need all these things. We should have
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: just went. But a lot of times you get caught
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: up into creating the perfect deal in the perfect vehicle,
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: saving the perfect amount of money, and there's no perfect
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: amount of money because eventually it's gonna run out. There's
• 50:12
  Speaker 4: no perfect deal because everything has disadvantages. It's like, if
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: it's something that you want to do, you just have
• 50:17
  Speaker 4: to do it. It's scary, it's scary for everyone. It's
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: still scary now. Of course it's still scary now, but
• 50:25
  Speaker 4: I mean it was scary going to work every day
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: and hating it.
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: So I was like, what am I doing this?
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: That's what you should be terrorized of, is doing something
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: that you don't love. You should be terrorized because every
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: day you're giving that up, exactly, that piece of you
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: up every single day. Well, you two are amazing. It's
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: been so fun to have you here in Prescott. I'm
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: so excited to see both of you again in Colorado
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: in about a month for now, a little bit less
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: than a month first, like three weeks. It's going to
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: come up quickly, so we thank you both for being
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: on the pod podcast, and we thank you all for
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: listening and we'll talk to you next time.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: Thank you, you're welcome.