Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Episode 200: Lesson Learned, Why Ashley is Awesome, and Other Musings

Transcript

Episode 200: Lesson Learned, Why Ashley is Awesome, and Other Musings · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:08
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland DURL podcast. I'm your host,
0:12
Speaker 1: Scott Brady, and I'm joined today by Matt Scott and
0:15
Speaker 1: then at the end of the podcast by Ashley Giordano.
0:19
Speaker 1: Now this is podcast number two hundred for us. It
0:22
Speaker 1: is incredible to believe that we've done two hundred episodes.
0:26
Speaker 1: We started in fall of twenty nineteen, and it has
0:29
Speaker 1: been an absolute joy for me to do all of
0:32
Speaker 1: these podcast episodes. We enjoy the interviews that we do,
0:36
Speaker 1: and we most enjoy sharing all of this knowledge and
0:40
Speaker 1: these experiences with you. So we thank you for being
0:43
Speaker 1: a listener to the podcast. We're specially thankful for Paula Burr,
0:46
Speaker 1: our producer, for all of our tireless work and helping
0:49
Speaker 1: us to bring these things to production. So in this
0:52
Speaker 1: conversation with Matt Scott, we talk about what are the
0:56
Speaker 1: changes in the industry, what are some of the new
0:58
Speaker 1: vehicles and equipment that we're mostly excited about. What are
1:01
Speaker 1: some of the things that we think the industry can
1:03
Speaker 1: be doing to best prepare for the next five to
1:05
Speaker 1: ten years. And then I also spend some time with
1:08
Speaker 1: Ashley Giordano, who's traveling in the field because for US
1:12
Speaker 1: at Overland Journal, it is so important that our editors
1:16
Speaker 1: are travelers. As this industry continues to grow, we find
1:20
Speaker 1: it very critical that we stay true to the original
1:23
Speaker 1: foundation of the publication, which is vehicle based adventure travel.
1:28
Speaker 1: So please enjoy my conversation with Matt Scott and Ashley
1:31
Speaker 1: Jordana and especial thanks to Winnebago for their support of
1:37
Speaker 1: this week's podcast. Are you thinking about heading off the
1:41
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1:47
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1:51
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1:55
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1:58
Speaker 1: need to take the road less traveled. They're available and
2:02
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2:05
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2:09
Speaker 1: versatility to go wherever you want, whenever you want. Get
2:14
Speaker 1: out there with the Winnebago Backcountry Series and you can
2:17
Speaker 1: learn more at Winnebago dot com. Thanks again, Winnebago. So, Matt,
2:24
Speaker 1: number two hundred, number two hundred, this is a big deal. Yeah,
2:27
Speaker 1: I mean it's hard to believe that we started the
2:30
Speaker 1: podcast in twenty nineteen.
2:32
Speaker 2: That feels like about sprinter Van. Yeah, we did.
2:35
Speaker 1: It was wasn't it like Chris Cordes's sprinter Van Britney's
2:40
Speaker 1: Britney sprinter Van pre Brittany outline did all.
2:44
Speaker 3: Of the podcasts to the podcasts were not cool when
2:47
Speaker 3: we started, it became very cool. And now, I mean,
2:52
Speaker 3: I don't know if they're uncool.
2:54
Speaker 1: I think that they got I think that they got
2:57
Speaker 1: oversaturated and then you know, people give up on things
3:01
Speaker 1: that they don't see an immediate return on.
3:03
Speaker 2: So yeah, we're over two million downloads. It's just crazy. Yeah.
3:07
Speaker 3: So it's it's and it's still fun, like it's still
3:09
Speaker 3: in totally and I think I think that's the key
3:12
Speaker 3: is I don't want to say that we don't take
3:13
Speaker 3: it seriously.
3:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, it has never felt like a job.
3:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of the most enjoyable things that I
3:19
Speaker 1: do because we get to interview such interesting people. So,
3:24
Speaker 1: I mean it's just the travelers that we have spent
3:28
Speaker 1: time with and learned from. I mean the lessons are
3:31
Speaker 1: for a lifetime for me. I mean I've just learned
3:33
Speaker 1: so much from all of these people that I've talked
3:36
Speaker 1: to and you know, I mean, the podcast wouldn't be
3:39
Speaker 1: possible like without Paula. So Paula Burr that for those
3:43
Speaker 1: that are listening, she is our producer and she's the
3:45
Speaker 1: one that makes sure that the trains run on time.
3:49
Speaker 1: And she was spending a bunch of time this morning
3:52
Speaker 1: working on frame rates and Killer Hurtz to make sure
3:56
Speaker 1: that everything continues to perform well. So any of the
4:00
Speaker 1: podcasts recently that have not sounded great or had some
4:05
Speaker 1: technical issues, that is one hundred percent my fault because
4:08
Speaker 1: I was trying to do them while traveling.
4:10
Speaker 2: But you know, so yay Paula, Yeah, yay Paula.
4:13
Speaker 1: So it takes a team of people, and you know, Matt,
4:16
Speaker 1: just thank you for sticking with it the whole time.
4:18
Speaker 1: From that very d and that's right, yeah, you and
4:22
Speaker 1: stream of consciousness of of BS.
4:24
Speaker 2: That's right.
4:24
Speaker 1: We get to talk and then we like we've been
4:26
Speaker 1: doing a little mountain biking, which is kind of cool.
4:29
Speaker 1: We have ridden non motorized cycles, that's right, twice in
4:32
Speaker 1: the last week, that's right, exactly, and we'll be riding
4:34
Speaker 1: them tomorrow tomorrow morning exactly. Yeah, I mean, we'll spare
4:38
Speaker 1: the listeners the stream of complaints that come from both
4:42
Speaker 1: of us as we're gasping for our life of swear
4:45
Speaker 1: words and huffing coming to the trail near you may
4:49
Speaker 1: exactly exactly.
4:51
Speaker 2: We're both like like, I'm like, why am I sore? There?
4:54
Speaker 4: Like?
4:54
Speaker 2: Why is that part of me sore?
4:56
Speaker 1: I don't understands my left pinky sore today?
5:00
Speaker 3: I think it's great, right, I mean, I genuinely enjoy it.
5:02
Speaker 3: And as we were saying, it's like a it's so
5:05
Speaker 3: complimentary to a lot of overland travel just to be
5:07
Speaker 3: able to throw a bike on the back. Not only
5:09
Speaker 3: is it transport outside of your vehicle or whatever, but
5:11
Speaker 3: it's exercise, which.
5:12
Speaker 2: Is super important.
5:13
Speaker 3: That's actually something that people don't really talk about, is
5:16
Speaker 3: you can kind of go a little sedentary while you're traveling.
5:18
Speaker 1: If you're not in that affix your mental state at
5:21
Speaker 1: least for me. Yeah, and then you sit a lot
5:23
Speaker 1: in the car. So and and the reality of overlanding
5:27
Speaker 1: is is that you're moving heavy things around, You're hauling gear,
5:30
Speaker 1: you're pulling winchline. You know, when things go bad, you
5:33
Speaker 1: got to have a little bit of a base of fitness.
5:35
Speaker 1: It's really hard to open the wine cort time. I
5:39
Speaker 1: don't know, probably have you probably have like a built
5:41
Speaker 1: in electric one. I do actually have one of those
5:44
Speaker 1: little I think it's called the Rabbit.
5:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, it came with.
5:48
Speaker 3: I actually like to use my OpenAL that you got
5:49
Speaker 3: me because it's just it feels like it's pretty legit.
5:53
Speaker 2: It feels a little classier when you're drinking your rose.
5:58
Speaker 2: Nothing wrong with brose, I can tell you that. Oh
6:00
Speaker 2: and of course Ashley Giordano our co host, so she'll
6:04
Speaker 2: be on a little bit later in this episode. I'm
6:06
Speaker 2: going to pull her in on a riverside interview, so
6:09
Speaker 2: we'll be able to talk with Ashley as well. But
6:12
Speaker 2: just I'm beyond grateful for you guys, for for you
6:16
Speaker 2: being on the podcast, for Ashley being on the podcast.
6:19
Speaker 2: Ashley brings such and how cool on the ground road.
6:25
Speaker 3: We're just pontificating that totally.
6:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's living out of her camper with Richard and
6:32
Speaker 1: and she's interviewing people in places like Morocco and all
6:36
Speaker 1: over Europe, and they're going to continue their travels. So
6:39
Speaker 1: we're we're going to just keep getting these incredible interviews
6:43
Speaker 1: from Ashley as she's traveling on the road, and we
6:46
Speaker 1: get to We get to learn more about what she
6:49
Speaker 1: is finding out along the way, which I think adds
6:53
Speaker 1: so much to it. It's been interesting to see what
6:56
Speaker 1: podcasts are the most popular, and you know, this is
6:59
Speaker 1: an opernity for the listeners to continue to give us feedback.
7:04
Speaker 1: You can reach Matt at Matt Explore on Instagram. You
7:08
Speaker 1: can reach me at Scott dot a dot Brady on Instagram,
7:11
Speaker 1: and then it's desk to Glory ash I think is
7:15
Speaker 1: Ashley's account, So you can give us feedback on people
7:19
Speaker 1: that you would like for us to interview, and we
7:22
Speaker 1: have done quite a few interviews based upon listener feedback.
7:25
Speaker 1: If there's subjects that you want us to cover on
7:28
Speaker 1: the technical side of things, if you find issues with
7:31
Speaker 1: the podcast, or if we make a mistake, just just
7:35
Speaker 1: reach out to us so we can make corrections as
7:37
Speaker 1: we go along and we can learn from that. But
7:40
Speaker 1: it's been interesting to see which podcasts are the most popular.
7:43
Speaker 1: The most popular podcast we've ever done was The Ten
7:46
Speaker 1: Commandments of Modifying your Overland Vehicle. You know, it's kind
7:49
Speaker 1: of a contentious title. You know, people are like, what
7:52
Speaker 1: are the ten Commandments? You know, so they're very interested
7:55
Speaker 1: in knowing what it is, but we've gotten a lot
7:57
Speaker 1: of great feedback on that, and then this also makes sense.
8:00
Speaker 1: It's the top ten used overland vehicles. People are looking
8:03
Speaker 1: for used overland vehicles on a regular basis. You know,
8:07
Speaker 1: new vehicles are sold into our segment, obviously, but there's
8:11
Speaker 1: a lot of people that are looking for a second
8:13
Speaker 1: vehicle or for something that they can use for that's
8:15
Speaker 1: actually one we could maybe years old. Now it's a
8:18
Speaker 1: couple of years old. I think that would be worth
8:21
Speaker 1: worthwhile doing. The third one is the basic overland gear
8:24
Speaker 1: everyone should have, and I really like I really like that.
8:27
Speaker 2: One.
8:28
Speaker 1: One of the things that I want to start having
8:31
Speaker 1: us do on a semi regular basis is kind of
8:33
Speaker 1: a series of overlanding one oh one podcasts, so we
8:37
Speaker 1: can really help the new listener kind of work through
8:40
Speaker 1: the process of how do you plan for a trip,
8:43
Speaker 1: how do you select a vehicle, what are the basic modifications.
8:45
Speaker 1: We've covered some of those things in other podcasts, but
8:48
Speaker 1: usually it's across the full spectrum, including things that are
8:51
Speaker 1: more technical. So I'm thinking really focus on the new overlander.
8:56
Speaker 1: You know, have a series of podcasts for someone that's
8:59
Speaker 1: just getting started.
9:00
Speaker 3: I could really geek out on some of the mapping
9:02
Speaker 3: apps that I use now.
9:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, because there's a lot to talk about and things
9:04
Speaker 1: are constantly changing. And then of course the interviews are
9:09
Speaker 1: things that we constantly get great feedback on. People love
9:12
Speaker 1: it when we get a chance to talk to oh
9:15
Speaker 1: thank you yea, and.
9:16
Speaker 2: I love it.
9:16
Speaker 1: I mean it's like literally, it's the part of my
9:18
Speaker 1: job I love doing the most. And a lot of
9:20
Speaker 1: times I get to interview people while I'm traveling myself,
9:22
Speaker 1: which is really fun. Just did an interview in London
9:26
Speaker 1: with Patrick Carwagen, who's super well traveled. I was able
9:30
Speaker 1: to interview Kingsley Holgate, which was one of the most
9:33
Speaker 1: inspiring interviews that I've done. Between him and Milo that
9:36
Speaker 1: we interviewed, Yeah, those were pretty awesome. I mean Milo
9:40
Speaker 1: actually brought me to tears, which which was kind of
9:43
Speaker 1: both of us. I think, yeah, yeah, he's awesome. But
9:47
Speaker 1: our two most popular interviews that we've done is actually
9:50
Speaker 1: Nina Barlow, who runs Barlow Adventures in Sedona and in Moab.
9:56
Speaker 1: And Nina is like a multifaceted fool driver and overlander
10:02
Speaker 1: in that she runs rental jeep businesses. She also does
10:07
Speaker 1: big events for the OEMs, and she is one of
10:11
Speaker 1: the if not the most successful rebel rally competitors just
10:16
Speaker 1: generally a professional badass. She's a total badass and something
10:20
Speaker 1: that you know, the industry is so proud to have
10:22
Speaker 1: someone that the industry is so proud to have representing
10:26
Speaker 1: at that level. So she's really exceptional. And that podcast
10:30
Speaker 1: is great to listen to because we do dig into
10:32
Speaker 1: some technical stuff as well. And then the other one
10:34
Speaker 1: that was really great and has performed well is with
10:36
Speaker 1: Dave Hareton, and that's one that you've mentioned that you
10:38
Speaker 1: really interviewed.
10:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the podcast where I learned the most. Like
10:42
Speaker 3: I was fascinated to be involved in it, not just
10:46
Speaker 3: to you know, to listen to it.
10:47
Speaker 2: There's so much. Yeah, we both had a bunch of
10:50
Speaker 2: hmm oh yeah interesting.
10:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's you know, I've spent almost fifteen
10:54
Speaker 3: years in the industry, which has been my not almost
10:58
Speaker 3: my entire adult life, but pretty much my entire at
11:00
Speaker 3: all life.
11:01
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't even think you were twenty one when
11:03
Speaker 1: you started working for us, or you were.
11:05
Speaker 3: Just I moved here just after I turned twenty one. Yeah,
11:08
Speaker 3: but I was writing I think for Portal when twenty
11:12
Speaker 3: and I joined. I think I joined Exhibition Portal when
11:15
Speaker 3: I was like sixteen.
11:16
Speaker 1: Well, and that's a big milestone for us. Next year,
11:19
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five, Exhibition Portal will be twenty years old,
11:22
Speaker 1: which is crazy to imagine, Like, yeah, it's interesting to
11:27
Speaker 1: and that.
11:27
Speaker 2: Means that must mean that I'm now old.
11:28
Speaker 1: I don't know, like there's no way around it, like
11:30
Speaker 1: that the numbers are moving that direction. Just don't have
11:34
Speaker 1: as many grays as I should have.
11:36
Speaker 3: Well, you've never had any hair, so I mean it's
11:37
Speaker 3: all you could lose it.
11:42
Speaker 2: It all fell out a long time.
11:43
Speaker 3: It's fascinating to see where overlanding has gone. And I
11:48
Speaker 3: think one of the things that I'm most appreciative for,
11:52
Speaker 3: you know, Overlin International and all of this is like
11:55
Speaker 3: there's there's always been a consistent course and compass of
11:57
Speaker 3: what overlanding has meant to the organize. And I think
12:01
Speaker 3: that that's really important because you know, to most people,
12:05
Speaker 3: overlanding is at this point just automotive restyling. Throw a
12:08
Speaker 3: roof ten on and a roof rack into this, and
12:10
Speaker 3: I don't know, family friendly for wheeling. Maybe it's it's
12:13
Speaker 3: it's car camping.
12:15
Speaker 2: Right where.
12:15
Speaker 3: I think this organization has always kept it about the
12:18
Speaker 3: international travel, which is what it has always historically been. Well,
12:22
Speaker 3: I think it's cool that it has grown because it
12:24
Speaker 3: has created, you know, stuff like the starlink. Yeah, and
12:27
Speaker 3: all of these these technological advances that have made you know,
12:31
Speaker 3: I guess doing overlanding more accessible, more comfortable, more affordable.
12:37
Speaker 1: I think, and you know, we talked about the ten
12:40
Speaker 1: overland game Changers a couple episodes ago. I think that
12:43
Speaker 1: because the market has grown in size so much that
12:46
Speaker 1: that's how you end up with these factory overland vehicles. So,
12:50
Speaker 1: like you know, Dave Hereton and aev Is, they're able
12:52
Speaker 1: to take all of that expertise and contribute to GM
12:58
Speaker 1: in making a V that like fifteen years ago would
13:01
Speaker 1: seem unimaginable. Yeah, that you would end up with a
13:04
Speaker 1: factory mid sized truck with three hundred horsepower, thirty five
13:08
Speaker 1: inch tires, front and rear locking differentials, you know, hydraulic jounces,
13:14
Speaker 1: multimatic suspension. It's like, it's it's beyond insane that it
13:19
Speaker 1: even exists.
13:20
Speaker 3: And you see a lot of them. Yeah, because they
13:21
Speaker 3: look great, they do really look great.
13:23
Speaker 1: I'm very very I'm very very eighty four X Canyon curious.
13:29
Speaker 3: So I just bought another prospect Or Excel. I shouldn't
13:33
Speaker 3: have gotten rid of my first one, but I like
13:35
Speaker 3: the color on this one better. Yeah, this one's cool.
13:37
Speaker 3: And it's the Mega cabin. It's the Limited and so
13:40
Speaker 3: it has more bouge. It's it's it's slightly more bougie
13:43
Speaker 3: than my Longhorn.
13:45
Speaker 1: It's less. You could have a driver. You could have
13:47
Speaker 1: a driver, so you could be in the back of it.
13:50
Speaker 1: I'm the driver for my dog, you know, Dak is
13:53
Speaker 1: the one you get now enjoy the Mega cabin.
13:54
Speaker 3: Instead of his bed fitting sideways, it fits long.
13:59
Speaker 4: No.
13:59
Speaker 3: Anyways, I love that truck and I don't drive it much.
14:03
Speaker 3: We're now both Tesla people.
14:05
Speaker 1: That's right, Yeah, that on that mic drop Scott. Scott
14:09
Speaker 1: Brady has a test Scott. Yeah we were. Anyways, I'll
14:13
Speaker 1: finish this thought.
14:14
Speaker 3: The only truck that makes me envious when I see
14:18
Speaker 3: it is the Canyon eighty four X. Yeah, Bison, I
14:22
Speaker 3: guess it's it's the It's everything you could have ever,
14:25
Speaker 3: wont I mean it's a little it's a race truck
14:27
Speaker 3: mixed with a rock crawler with four hundred pound feet
14:31
Speaker 3: of torque. Yeah, and it's just so dang cool.
14:35
Speaker 1: They're really really neat. I'm very very interested in it.
14:38
Speaker 1: I mean, once I have more time with the Quartermaster,
14:43
Speaker 1: I'm gonna know. You know, I started all of this
14:46
Speaker 1: with a mid mid sized truck. I started it all
14:48
Speaker 1: really with that white Tacoma and I can see myself
14:52
Speaker 1: coming full circle twenty years later with a mid sized truck.
14:55
Speaker 1: So I need to decide what it is that I'm
14:57
Speaker 1: going to buy. And right now it's like one hand
15:01
Speaker 1: is saying Quartermaster, on the other hand is saying at
15:04
Speaker 1: four X.
15:06
Speaker 2: Or AEVN camper too. Yeah, exactly. I ordered a Scout
15:11
Speaker 2: Yoho pop up. Really cool.
15:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, It'll be available in early September and I'll put
15:17
Speaker 1: it on the Quartermaster and I'll use it on the
15:19
Speaker 1: Quartermaster for the rest of the year, and then I'll
15:22
Speaker 1: decide do I buy a Quartermaster or do I buy
15:27
Speaker 1: another mid size truck. I think I want to go
15:29
Speaker 1: with a mid sized truck. I liked a full sized
15:32
Speaker 1: vehicle a lot for a thousand reasons, but I still
15:36
Speaker 1: really like to get remote and in more technical terrain,
15:40
Speaker 1: and I found limitations with the full size truck. And
15:44
Speaker 1: the hard sided camper that I just wasn't willing to
15:47
Speaker 1: compromise yet, Like, you know, maybe ten years from now,
15:49
Speaker 1: I'm going to want to have something bigger and more comfy,
15:52
Speaker 1: But for right now, a mid sized truck with a
15:56
Speaker 1: lightweight pop up camper seems about perfect for me.
15:58
Speaker 3: If I was to have anything complimentary to what we have,
16:03
Speaker 3: I know that I have the Prospector, but we generally
16:05
Speaker 3: only use the earth Roamer, it would be probably that
16:09
Speaker 3: at four X with like a go fast yeah, perfect
16:12
Speaker 3: summit or something perfect and just keep it really simple,
16:16
Speaker 3: you know. I know I've basically had that with my
16:18
Speaker 3: last Gladiator, but actually I really liked the Gladiator. To
16:21
Speaker 3: be fair, I'd maybe even reconsider one of those.
16:23
Speaker 2: Yeah.
16:24
Speaker 1: And the thing about the I mean, the Gladiator is
16:25
Speaker 1: also on the list, and that's because of the payload
16:28
Speaker 1: that the uh.
16:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, the one it's like seventeen.
16:31
Speaker 1: Fifty yeah, and I that's actually the one I'm most
16:34
Speaker 1: interested in. It's you can get a V six with
16:38
Speaker 1: a six speed manual transmission, and you can get it
16:42
Speaker 1: up over seventeen hundred pounds of payload, which is crazy,
16:46
Speaker 1: I mean, and you still have data forty four's Yeah,
16:48
Speaker 1: and they have that new full floating rear axle.
16:51
Speaker 4: Right.
16:51
Speaker 1: I don't know if you get I don't know if
16:52
Speaker 1: you get that one on that hopefully you do. I
16:55
Speaker 1: have to look into it. But it has a I mean,
16:57
Speaker 1: there's just a lot of potential with that, with that platform,
17:00
Speaker 1: and I really like it. I like the fact that
17:02
Speaker 1: I could get a manual. It's kind of like, do
17:04
Speaker 1: I make this be like the last manual transmission vehicle
17:07
Speaker 1: I can actually buy?
17:08
Speaker 3: As we were saying, like I have it out for
17:10
Speaker 3: a manual jeep right now.
17:11
Speaker 4: Yeah.
17:12
Speaker 3: Like to me, a two door JK or j L
17:15
Speaker 3: with half doors and a manual transmission would be like
17:19
Speaker 3: an a V built one. You know what you need
17:22
Speaker 3: is you need nothing. I need absolutely nothing you need
17:25
Speaker 3: I think I think you might need I think you
17:27
Speaker 3: might need this. I think you might need a two
17:29
Speaker 3: door JK AEV build with a manual transmission and a hemmy,
17:37
Speaker 3: I know, yeah, but I just SA remember that red
17:40
Speaker 3: one that we had here, Yeah, that was a four door.
17:42
Speaker 3: But like the thing is I just basically had that.
17:44
Speaker 3: I mean, I just I just you didn't drive it.
17:46
Speaker 3: I just sold. I just sold the world's best AV Jeep.
17:50
Speaker 3: I don't mince my words. I've never seen one better.
17:54
Speaker 3: But it was so perfect that it was like an
17:57
Speaker 3: elector vehicle. And I and I would have people that
18:00
Speaker 3: would maybe, oh, it's a jeep, you need to drive it,
18:03
Speaker 3: and then they'd see it and they'd do a complete
18:05
Speaker 3: one eighty and be like, Okay, now I get what
18:06
Speaker 3: you're saying.
18:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could eat off of the top of the
18:09
Speaker 1: power steering box.
18:10
Speaker 3: I mean it was that clean. Yeah, and it had everything. Anyway,
18:14
Speaker 3: I could see another Jeep in my future.
18:16
Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you that. That's one of the
18:18
Speaker 1: questions that I wanted to ask you. If you could
18:20
Speaker 1: only own one new vehicle, what would it be an
18:25
Speaker 1: earthrum or LTI, Okay, without earth rum or LTI. All right,
18:30
Speaker 1: if it was only one though, I mean you don't yeah,
18:33
Speaker 1: because if I asked Matt, if that's an open question.
18:37
Speaker 3: Everything and having one vehicle, it would probably be the
18:41
Speaker 3: truck house the new truckhouse AV Camper because you could
18:44
Speaker 3: fit it into a normal parking spot. Yeah, so you
18:47
Speaker 3: could you could actually drive it every day. It's considerably
18:52
Speaker 3: lighter than the Yeah rummer.
18:54
Speaker 2: It's sweet, like eleven pounds versus twenty. Yeah, it's sweet.
18:58
Speaker 1: Like so then like perfemance, when you can pull that
19:01
Speaker 1: much weight out of a vehicle. It's not to say
19:04
Speaker 1: that an earth Roamer isn't capable, but when you get
19:06
Speaker 1: into soft conditions like sand and mud, ink seven or
19:10
Speaker 1: eight thousand pounds out of the vehicle spread out over
19:13
Speaker 1: to the same four tires.
19:15
Speaker 3: The rear axle weight of the earth Roamer is the
19:19
Speaker 3: weight of the truck house.
19:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's significant.
19:23
Speaker 3: But I geek out on the expedition tricks like that's
19:25
Speaker 3: just what tickles my fancy.
19:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're super cool. What's what's what's yours? What's your one?
19:30
Speaker 2: So if I if I was to have a.
19:34
Speaker 1: Well, because there's a second question coming, I'm going to
19:37
Speaker 1: ask you what vintage vehicle you would own?
19:39
Speaker 2: So if it was a.
19:41
Speaker 1: New if it was a new vehicle, I would really
19:45
Speaker 1: be tempted at the moment by a Rivian R one
19:50
Speaker 1: S because I spent I spent a lot of time
19:52
Speaker 1: in that And now that I'm done with the big
19:55
Speaker 1: trip and you know I've done the you know I've
19:58
Speaker 1: accomplished the goal, I'm going to be around a lot more.
20:01
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be in Arizona a lot more. I'm going
20:04
Speaker 1: to be doing less international travel for at least a
20:07
Speaker 1: little while, so I could see just really enjoying having
20:11
Speaker 1: a Rivian R one s. If I was to have
20:13
Speaker 1: a vehicle just somewhere else in the world, it would
20:16
Speaker 1: be the Grenadier, because I just really I could, really,
20:19
Speaker 1: I really appreciated the Grenadier.
20:21
Speaker 3: Here is kind of like the anthropomorphic version of Scottie.
20:27
Speaker 3: I think I'm using that word right, but it's you, like,
20:30
Speaker 3: it's very you.
20:32
Speaker 1: And it and it and it really grew on me
20:34
Speaker 1: with time. It did the job, it never failed me.
20:36
Speaker 1: And that with one of those Alucab pop ups, Yeah,
20:39
Speaker 1: that'd be pretty sweet. Yeah, It's it's nice to have
20:43
Speaker 1: a vehicle that you view it as an international platform,
20:46
Speaker 1: and that vehicle with that motor and that configuration and
20:51
Speaker 1: that payload and everything else like that, it's perfect for
20:53
Speaker 1: international travel.
20:54
Speaker 3: I have no doubt that I will that I will
20:55
Speaker 3: get a Grenadier. But let's keep it other places. Let's
20:59
Speaker 3: just keeps shipping our Grenadier's let's go half other places, right,
21:04
Speaker 3: you know. I mean it's not to take anything away
21:07
Speaker 3: from a Grenadier in North America because it's also a
21:09
Speaker 3: great choice, but its strength is the fact that it's
21:13
Speaker 3: meant for you know, a long distance international travel would
21:17
Speaker 3: be an international or like a what do they call
21:19
Speaker 3: it a tourist delivery or europe delivery on a Grenadier.
21:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can do that on a nine to eleven.
21:26
Speaker 2: Like I've been.
21:27
Speaker 3: Nine to eleven is just switching models, and I was
21:30
Speaker 3: trying to buy one of the last of the nine
21:33
Speaker 3: to nine to two dot one portship people that make
21:36
Speaker 3: sense to them, the current model nine to eleven, but
21:39
Speaker 3: they had stopped doing European delivery because.
21:41
Speaker 2: The factory was changing over sure.
21:43
Speaker 3: But that's a fascinating one that I want to do
21:45
Speaker 3: because you can if you can get an allocation for
21:47
Speaker 3: a nine to eleven, you can go drive around Europe.
21:50
Speaker 3: I think you can have the vehicle there for up
21:51
Speaker 3: to six months. Wow, they include like six weeks of insurance,
21:55
Speaker 3: but you can. Yeah, it's very easy to Yeah, maybe
21:58
Speaker 3: it's not six months, but it's it's a pretty generous
22:00
Speaker 3: time and you can drive this thing all over.
22:03
Speaker 2: You can drop it at.
22:04
Speaker 3: One of like twenty Porsche dealers, I mean pretty much
22:07
Speaker 3: every country in Europe you can drop it at and
22:10
Speaker 3: then the car shows up for your dealer and then
22:14
Speaker 3: you can to sell it and make money on it.
22:16
Speaker 2: Yeah.
22:16
Speaker 3: Sure to be able to do that with a Grenadier
22:20
Speaker 3: be so cool.
22:21
Speaker 2: Like drive it up to Nord Cap and I mentioned it.
22:23
Speaker 1: To them several times, so hopefully that's something that they consider.
22:27
Speaker 1: I went to the factory a couple months ago and
22:30
Speaker 1: it's awesome, like it was the it was the Mercedes
22:34
Speaker 1: Smart car factory. Yeah, it's in It's in France, but
22:39
Speaker 1: you can like throw a rock and hit the border
22:41
Speaker 1: of Germany. So a lot of the employees live in Germany.
22:46
Speaker 1: A lot of them live in France, obviously, but it's
22:48
Speaker 1: an incredibly advanced facility. It's one of the things that
22:53
Speaker 1: surprised me the most because when you look at a Grenadier,
22:57
Speaker 1: a lot of times you see a pro file of
23:00
Speaker 1: a vehicle that looks more vintage. You know, it looks
23:03
Speaker 1: like an old seventy series, it looks like an old
23:05
Speaker 1: g Wagon, it looks like an old Defender. But when
23:08
Speaker 1: you watch this thing being made, it's being made to
23:12
Speaker 1: the standards of twenty twenty four. Yeah, so the corrosion resistance,
23:17
Speaker 1: the robotics, it's almost all, you know, constructed using robots.
23:23
Speaker 1: So the precision of it is quite impressive.
23:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they're going to have a battery electric model
23:28
Speaker 3: coming out eventually.
23:29
Speaker 2: Did they push that back? They did they push that back?
23:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't really seem like their target audience.
23:35
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm yeah, it's hard to say I'm so.
23:37
Speaker 3: Big on EV's now. Yeah, I mean, we were talking
23:40
Speaker 3: about this this yesterday. I am the least likely person
23:44
Speaker 3: to be an EV advocate. I have two pickup trucks
23:47
Speaker 3: on two diesel pickup trucks on forties. Yeah, a race car, motorcycles,
23:51
Speaker 3: air cooled nine to eleven motorcycles, like everything that would
23:55
Speaker 3: paint me as like the anti EV candidate. I think
23:59
Speaker 3: the vehicle I've been and happiest with the longest is
24:01
Speaker 3: my Tesla.
24:02
Speaker 2: Yeah.
24:03
Speaker 1: Well, because a lot of times we need just reliable,
24:06
Speaker 1: safe transportation. So you know, my partner, Tavia, she drives
24:11
Speaker 1: long distances in the medical profession, and so we decided
24:17
Speaker 1: to get a Tesla for her. So now she can
24:20
Speaker 1: drive long distances in a very safe vehicle. It has
24:25
Speaker 1: the autonomous driving. We plug it in at home, or
24:29
Speaker 1: we plug it in at her office in Phoenix, and
24:33
Speaker 1: she never has to go to the gas station.
24:35
Speaker 2: It's time back. But I mean I kind of joke,
24:38
Speaker 2: and it's cheap.
24:38
Speaker 1: Like right now, if you buy a used Tesla, they're
24:42
Speaker 1: almost free.
24:43
Speaker 3: I mean, this one had appreciating faster than internal combustion cars,
24:48
Speaker 3: but the rate at which they wear out does not
24:52
Speaker 3: match that of an icy.
24:54
Speaker 1: The Tesla infrastructure or the Tesla I guess chassis and
24:59
Speaker 1: mo and batteries are well documented to a half a
25:03
Speaker 1: million miles already, so there's not going to be considerable
25:07
Speaker 1: issues in a half a million.
25:08
Speaker 2: Miles in service.
25:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think like with with our situation, we're lucky.
25:14
Speaker 3: We create our own electricity for it. I mean, I
25:16
Speaker 3: know that there's arguments for oh well your where's your
25:18
Speaker 3: power come from? And people like people, a lot of
25:20
Speaker 3: these electric car companies are actually creating a vehicle that
25:23
Speaker 3: is so far ahead of what let's say the Big
25:26
Speaker 3: three are offering right that there's like I don't want
25:30
Speaker 3: to I don't want to accuse them of launching misinformation campaigns,
25:34
Speaker 3: but like there's so much misinformation out there. With that
25:37
Speaker 3: being said, if my car ran on whale oil, I
25:40
Speaker 3: would still drive that Tesla like it is.
25:44
Speaker 2: It's just fast, it's quiet. The opinions of Matt Scott
25:49
Speaker 2: did not represent.
25:53
Speaker 3: Like setting the environmental reasons aside, because people get weird
25:57
Speaker 3: with that.
25:57
Speaker 2: It's just a good you know, I'm shocked how weird
26:00
Speaker 2: people get around EV. People get really weird. It's like that.
26:02
Speaker 1: It just doesn't It doesn't make any It's not like
26:05
Speaker 1: me choosing to use an EV as a very suitable
26:11
Speaker 1: solution for a specific task is not saying that your
26:15
Speaker 1: forerunner is.
26:15
Speaker 2: A bad idea.
26:16
Speaker 3: Now, the Rivian thing is fascinating, and you know, there's
26:19
Speaker 3: the whole long way up thing, which I think, really
26:22
Speaker 3: I mean for a like pre pre production car, I
26:26
Speaker 3: mean a car that still had like toggle switches and
26:28
Speaker 3: stuff and a picture button on the inside to shut
26:31
Speaker 3: it down. I think it'll be fascinating to see that
26:34
Speaker 3: concept grow in overland. There's no limitation with it for
26:38
Speaker 3: those that are listening, Just to be very clear, like,
26:40
Speaker 3: there is not a limitation for ninety nine percent of cases.
26:44
Speaker 3: We drove a Hummer EV across the length of El
26:47
Speaker 3: Camino del Diabolo, which is the longest unsupported overland route
26:52
Speaker 3: in the United States and the forty eight States, and
26:54
Speaker 3: then we also drove a Rivian R one as to
26:57
Speaker 3: the most remote location that you can drive.
26:59
Speaker 2: In the four eight States, which is in southern Utah.
27:02
Speaker 1: So if you can get to the most remote point
27:04
Speaker 1: and you can cross the longest trail without services in EVS,
27:09
Speaker 1: it's clearer. It's very clear that it can be used
27:12
Speaker 1: for ninety nine percent of overland cases. The newest R
27:16
Speaker 1: one S has a four hundred and twenty mile range.
27:19
Speaker 1: It's crazy if you look at the range of an
27:22
Speaker 1: FJ cruiser and you can put an FJ cruiser on
27:26
Speaker 1: thirty fours which is what Arrivian sits on, put it
27:28
Speaker 1: on thirty four inch tall tires and load it up
27:31
Speaker 1: with the same payload that you could put in a
27:32
Speaker 1: Arrivian and check the range on an FJ cruiser, you
27:38
Speaker 1: have to carry so much fuel that you start to
27:40
Speaker 1: run out of payload to match it. They're just they're
27:43
Speaker 1: fun to consider. It's and it puts pressure on internal
27:47
Speaker 1: combustion to be better tooah, which I think is a
27:49
Speaker 1: good thing. And then you know, then there's things like
27:52
Speaker 1: right in front of us here because there's plenty of
27:54
Speaker 1: space on the table for it is the new Starlink Mini.
27:57
Speaker 1: So for those of you that are on the YouTube's
28:02
Speaker 1: I mean this thing, it's basically the size of this
28:05
Speaker 1: little tablet. It's the size of a small laptop. Yeah,
28:09
Speaker 1: it definitely is the size of a laptop. It is
28:11
Speaker 1: a little slower than the big dishes, but you still
28:14
Speaker 1: should get fifty megabits a second out of it, so.
28:17
Speaker 3: With the time, like our office or home internet doesn't
28:19
Speaker 3: get fifty megabytes a second.
28:20
Speaker 2: That's right.
28:21
Speaker 1: It's also got built into it. It'll run on twelve
28:26
Speaker 1: volts to forty eight volts, which means you can plug
28:29
Speaker 1: it into one twenty. It comes with a brick and
28:31
Speaker 1: a long cable, or you can plug it into a
28:33
Speaker 1: USBC that is a high output so a PD rated USBC,
28:40
Speaker 1: or there's another adapter and you can plug it into
28:43
Speaker 1: a twelve volt socket and it only pulls sixty watts,
28:46
Speaker 1: so it's significantly less than the other starlink antannas. And
28:52
Speaker 1: because we're a huge fan of small businesses on this podcast,
28:56
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about the unique componentry. So I'm
28:59
Speaker 1: working with them on sending one of their little magnetic mounts, yeah,
29:03
Speaker 1: for the new Mini, so like I'll have the cool
29:05
Speaker 1: magmount that I really appreciated while traveling and I'm going
29:09
Speaker 1: to have it on a much smaller device. So I mean,
29:12
Speaker 1: there's just been so many things that have changed. I mean,
29:14
Speaker 1: and that's well, let's get back to the vehicle question.
29:17
Speaker 1: So if Matt Scott could only own one vintage vehicle,
29:21
Speaker 1: what would it be?
29:22
Speaker 2: Only one? I know, this is going to make you anxious.
29:24
Speaker 2: Only one, Matt, you can have only one? This is like,
29:27
Speaker 2: this is like an ambush.
29:31
Speaker 1: It's like a therapy session. Man Like, like like, do
29:34
Speaker 1: I just get it for free?
29:35
Speaker 2: Yeah?
29:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, three hundred I sell goal Wing. Oh okay, because
29:39
Speaker 3: because it could be rebuilt forever.
29:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, It's like there.
29:44
Speaker 1: Has that really always been like the pinnacle vintage vehicle
29:47
Speaker 1: you wanted?
29:48
Speaker 3: I think of like a when I think of vintage,
29:52
Speaker 3: proper vintage vehicles that you can actually drive.
29:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think the goal Wing is probably They're
29:57
Speaker 2: beautiful too. Yeah.
30:00
Speaker 3: There's there's a couple that stayed with us driving their
30:04
Speaker 3: goal Wing named Rudolph around the world.
30:06
Speaker 2: Yeah. Great thing to follow on Instagram.
30:08
Speaker 3: Super cool, super cool to like see the guy like changing,
30:11
Speaker 3: you know, checking plugs and whatever.
30:13
Speaker 2: Yeah.
30:14
Speaker 3: I think that's probably if if budget wasn't a concern,
30:17
Speaker 3: I'd have one of those, or like a just a
30:19
Speaker 3: nine to eleven.
30:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, prof and both of those you can drive around
30:24
Speaker 1: the world and people have and do I.
30:26
Speaker 2: Would love to. Yeah, what about you?
30:28
Speaker 1: You know, I think if it was a four whel drive,
30:31
Speaker 1: I just would come back to the Defender.
30:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, but that's not really classic. That's more like I mean,
30:35
Speaker 3: I guess it.
30:36
Speaker 2: Is nineteen eighty six. That's a long time ago. Eighty three. Yeah,
30:41
Speaker 2: that's a long time ago.
30:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, Okay, I'm going to put some more some more
30:44
Speaker 3: caveats on this ambush. Like fifties or sixties.
30:48
Speaker 1: It would be like an old Diesel Mercedes. Yeah, I
30:51
Speaker 1: just really like those Mercedes had a little twudor coop.
30:59
Speaker 2: That was a go to Pagodakay, pagoda Essa.
31:02
Speaker 1: So there was something there was another model just after
31:04
Speaker 1: that that's just really beautiful.
31:06
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:06
Speaker 1: And I almost bought one about fifteen years ago for
31:10
Speaker 1: twenty eight thousand dollars. And that's like one of the
31:12
Speaker 1: things where I look back and I was like, that
31:14
Speaker 1: was dumb not to do, because it was.
31:16
Speaker 2: A car that I really I really liked.
31:17
Speaker 1: I just really have an affection for those old Mercedes
31:22
Speaker 1: Sedans and coops. Yeah, and They're just there. You could
31:26
Speaker 1: travel in them easily, you can work on them. They
31:29
Speaker 1: were the pinnacle of kind of German reliability during that
31:34
Speaker 1: period too. That's when you know a Mercedes was more
31:37
Speaker 1: reliable than anything else on the planet. So I like those.
31:41
Speaker 1: But yeah, really like an old, an old land Rover.
31:45
Speaker 3: Just if I was going to have something there like
31:47
Speaker 3: classic card to like really traveling that's more pertinent to
31:52
Speaker 3: this podcast and what it's about, like a Series two.
31:55
Speaker 2: Like an early Series two totally.
31:57
Speaker 3: There's like that year of the series too that got
32:00
Speaker 3: like the synchromesh gearbox and that kind of stuff like
32:03
Speaker 3: That's probably what I.
32:04
Speaker 2: Would perfect would choose in this scope.
32:07
Speaker 3: Otherwise, if somebody's giving me one, I'll take the most expensive.
32:13
Speaker 4: Yah.
32:13
Speaker 1: I don't even think that those old Diesel Mercedes are
32:15
Speaker 1: that expensive. I look at them every once in a
32:17
Speaker 1: while on bring a trailer and they're like, I don't know,
32:19
Speaker 1: they're like twenty two grand or.
32:21
Speaker 2: So, they have like thirteen horsepower. Perfect. Perfect. I'm just
32:24
Speaker 2: happy with that. I'm totally happy with that.
32:26
Speaker 1: What do you think, like, despite your personal preferences, what
32:29
Speaker 1: do you think in the last five years, because we're
32:31
Speaker 1: talking about the scope of the podcast here, what do
32:33
Speaker 1: you think is the most notable new vehicle that's come out,
32:36
Speaker 1: like for overlanding, not for Matt Scott's ev obsession overlanding.
32:43
Speaker 3: I think for me it's probably the Grenadier. But I
32:46
Speaker 3: think that the four wheel drive Sprinter is that within
32:51
Speaker 3: the last five years, I.
32:52
Speaker 2: Mean that's when they really started to become available.
32:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that the four wheel drive Sprinter has
32:57
Speaker 3: really probably revolutionized the actual travel side of overlanding.
33:02
Speaker 1: No question, I would put it even I think I
33:05
Speaker 1: think the Granadier was the car that we always wanted,
33:09
Speaker 1: but the van is the one that people always want
33:12
Speaker 1: to do.
33:13
Speaker 3: Grander can be a little bit expedition cosplay, like like
33:17
Speaker 3: a lot of the people that bought FJ Cruisers and
33:19
Speaker 3: were driving gloves like are kind of now buying the
33:22
Speaker 3: like Grenadier and cosplaying with them, or like the the
33:26
Speaker 3: the Sprinter is something it's a van. It's not something
33:29
Speaker 3: that you buy for enjoyment or signaling necessarily. It's it's
33:34
Speaker 3: the vehicle that has gotten the most people out for
33:38
Speaker 3: the longest amount of time in my opinion, Like.
33:41
Speaker 2: And they're really good. I mean I think like you
33:43
Speaker 2: really did like that winnow Bagel Revel. Yeah. I mean
33:46
Speaker 2: you just like.
33:46
Speaker 3: Walk into a you know, Bob's RV shop and you
33:51
Speaker 3: just buy one. You get thirty year financing on it,
33:54
Speaker 3: and you just get out and you can go.
33:56
Speaker 1: Like and they work on most back roads and yeah
34:00
Speaker 1: you can, you can. There's a lot of aftermarket support
34:03
Speaker 1: now for those sprinters.
34:04
Speaker 3: Like I really think where overlanding is going is like
34:07
Speaker 3: there's this kind of automotive restyling aspect of it, but
34:12
Speaker 3: when it comes to actual like travel international or domestic,
34:17
Speaker 3: it's the sprinter that is.
34:19
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what you see out there.
34:21
Speaker 3: That's what you see people in, you know, or like
34:25
Speaker 3: the pro Master or the Transit or or whatever.
34:29
Speaker 2: Maybe that's I agree.
34:31
Speaker 1: I think that and the standard pickup of whatever size
34:36
Speaker 1: or color or flavor you prefer with a lightweight camper
34:39
Speaker 1: on the top. You see them everywhere. You see a
34:41
Speaker 1: lot of go Fast, You see a lot of four
34:43
Speaker 1: wheel camper pop ups. You see just a lot of
34:46
Speaker 1: those on the road.
34:47
Speaker 2: You know, you can't also discredit like the Tacoma. Yeah,
34:50
Speaker 2: you know, especially the new ones got a lot better.
34:52
Speaker 3: So yeah, Alo Toyota seems to be maybe having some reliability.
34:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, they Yeah, they got what one hundred thousand and
35:00
Speaker 1: engines that they're having to replace, and I guess the
35:02
Speaker 1: new Tacoma has some both manual and automatic transmission issues.
35:06
Speaker 3: But they will fix it and they will stand behind it, right,
35:10
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, are you on the sprinter
35:12
Speaker 3: train for that same question.
35:14
Speaker 1: I think it's the I think it's the most significant
35:18
Speaker 1: vehicle for our industry in a long time, and it
35:21
Speaker 1: meets the needs of so many travelers. Yeah, and you
35:25
Speaker 1: also see like like it will be common for someone
35:28
Speaker 1: that drives, you know, amid a very popular mid size
35:33
Speaker 1: pickup to make fun of a sprinter, But it's usually
35:36
Speaker 1: the guy driving the popular mid size pickup that's just
35:38
Speaker 1: going back and forth to work. Usually these sprinters are
35:41
Speaker 1: being used, they're being traveled in.
35:43
Speaker 2: I mean, that's people really travel up there.
35:45
Speaker 1: Like, Yeah, you go to southern Utah and you go
35:48
Speaker 1: on a back road and you go back in a
35:50
Speaker 1: couple of miles, there's going to be a half a
35:52
Speaker 1: dozen sprinters, and there's going to be yeah, you know,
35:54
Speaker 1: and there'll be full size trucks, and you know, I
35:58
Speaker 1: just I think that I think that there's a lot
36:01
Speaker 1: you know, if you think about the greatest generation. When
36:04
Speaker 1: they retired, they bought an Rvy and they and they did,
36:08
Speaker 1: they did the big road trip of America. Right when
36:12
Speaker 1: you look at the baby boomers, they are still relatively
36:16
Speaker 1: active and healthy, and they maybe don't have the same
36:20
Speaker 1: disposable income, but for the most part, they want to
36:24
Speaker 1: be outdoors. So they usually have some kind of a hobby,
36:28
Speaker 1: like they're a windsurfer, or they fly fishing or stand
36:33
Speaker 1: up paddle boarding or whatever. Yeah, you see a lot
36:35
Speaker 1: of that, and and those vans really lend themselves well
36:38
Speaker 1: to that because you can get to those locations, you
36:40
Speaker 1: can haul the toys with you. So I do I
36:43
Speaker 1: think it's the I think it's the one vehicle that
36:46
Speaker 1: has really revolutionized the space. And there's hundreds of van upfitters.
36:51
Speaker 3: Out there, yeah, so many. I think the Grenader is
36:53
Speaker 3: the coolest one in the last five years.
36:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's the most it's the most legit.
36:58
Speaker 1: Although I think that if you were to which will
37:02
Speaker 1: be interesting to see how Toyota resolve some of these
37:04
Speaker 1: reliability issues, but I think if you were to kind
37:06
Speaker 1: of take Grenadier g X five point fifty and the
37:11
Speaker 1: new Land Cruiser, I mean, what a time to be
37:13
Speaker 1: alive when it comes to looking at looking for an
37:16
Speaker 1: suv and then when you look at the pickups, it's
37:19
Speaker 1: like take your pick. It's like prospector you know, of
37:23
Speaker 1: whatever version you want, or the an AEV eighty four X.
37:28
Speaker 1: You know, it's like there's the trucks are just awesome too.
37:31
Speaker 2: So everything's so may.
37:32
Speaker 3: Anybody that says modern four wheel drives suck just isn't
37:36
Speaker 3: paying attention.
37:37
Speaker 2: They're not paying like or they can't afford it, and
37:38
Speaker 2: they're just they're just upset.
37:40
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, you know, like the eighty series
37:42
Speaker 3: is great. Yeah, let's just say that, but it gets
37:45
Speaker 3: like nine miles to the gallon once you touch it.
37:48
Speaker 3: Same with the hundred series. Like you know, these vehicles
37:51
Speaker 3: are meeting or exceeding the capability of those plans.
37:54
Speaker 1: You're seeing a lot of these new land Cruisers on
37:56
Speaker 1: thirty fives and they're doing just fine and.
37:58
Speaker 3: They're getting sixteen, seventeen, eighteen miles. Again, yeah, they're more
38:03
Speaker 3: affordable to run.
38:05
Speaker 1: I really like the new land Cruiser. I think it
38:06
Speaker 1: looks great either. The new GX looks really good. I
38:10
Speaker 1: like the look of the New land Cruiser. Yeah, it
38:13
Speaker 1: would be a more practical purchase than the Grenadier, Like
38:17
Speaker 1: it's a better vehicle in all ways that you could
38:21
Speaker 1: probably measure tangibly. Well, it's the Grenadier more, you know,
38:26
Speaker 1: the I don't know. I mean, I think that the
38:29
Speaker 1: big difference you'll notice between a land Cruiser and a
38:32
Speaker 1: Grenadier will be at eighty five miles on the highway.
38:35
Speaker 1: I think in every other scenario, most buyers are going
38:39
Speaker 1: to find the Grenadier to be a better experience. You know,
38:42
Speaker 1: the land Cruiser is more affordable, so that's an advantage.
38:46
Speaker 1: You know, it's fifteen to twenty grand less in stock form,
38:50
Speaker 1: it gets much better gas milage. Once these small displacement
38:54
Speaker 1: motors get loaded with a little bit of payload, the fuel.
38:58
Speaker 2: Economy drops pretty quickly.
39:00
Speaker 1: That's the thing is we have like this huge opportunity
39:04
Speaker 1: to decide, like what am I going to get? Do
39:06
Speaker 1: I get a GX, do I get a land Cruiser?
39:08
Speaker 3: Do I get It'll be interesting to That's where I'd
39:12
Speaker 3: be interesting to do this. You know, the best used
39:14
Speaker 3: overland vehicles. We could probably do one now and then
39:18
Speaker 3: in a couple of years. There's just there's so much
39:21
Speaker 3: stuff out there, I mean, used vehicles are pretty expensive. Still,
39:27
Speaker 3: I believe that will start changing.
39:29
Speaker 2: Everything's expensive.
39:30
Speaker 3: I just think of the hardcore traveler in the next
39:34
Speaker 3: five years, what they're going to be able to pick up,
39:36
Speaker 3: you know, in the twenties.
39:38
Speaker 1: I think the one the one. If I was to
39:41
Speaker 1: pick the best value today, go down to your local
39:45
Speaker 1: jeep dealership, go on to the lot and see what
39:48
Speaker 1: you can get a gladiator for. There are people buying
39:51
Speaker 1: gladiators for the from the high thirties to the low forties,
39:55
Speaker 1: And to me, that is like an impossible value. To
39:59
Speaker 1: have a solid act body on frame, mid size pickup
40:03
Speaker 1: with a V six and a ZF transmission and decent
40:08
Speaker 1: payload for around forty thousand bucks. I mean, that is
40:12
Speaker 1: like such a bargain. So again, looking back kind of
40:16
Speaker 1: this last five years, but even more so looking back
40:19
Speaker 1: on the last fifteen years you've been in the industry
40:21
Speaker 1: and the twenty plus years that I've been doing this.
40:24
Speaker 1: You know, the industry has changed a lot, and in
40:27
Speaker 1: some ways it's under pressure. What do you think that
40:30
Speaker 1: the overland industry needs to be doing different in twenty
40:33
Speaker 1: twenty four or into twenty twenty five.
40:36
Speaker 3: I think that for the consumer, they're doing a lot, right,
40:39
Speaker 3: you know, there's a lot of innovation happening.
40:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
40:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's a lot of cool products coming out.
40:46
Speaker 3: That's I guess that's that's a hard one. I think
40:48
Speaker 3: that they need to be coming out with more affordable,
40:52
Speaker 3: innovative products that aren't just Ali Baba rebrands.
40:56
Speaker 2: Yeah.
40:57
Speaker 3: To be honest, a lot of the stuff that you
41:01
Speaker 3: see on vehicles, yeah, it's it's sold by ten different
41:09
Speaker 3: companies under ten different names.
41:11
Speaker 1: And don't you think that people are having I think
41:13
Speaker 1: they're having bad experiences with those products, and I think
41:15
Speaker 1: it's some of them are pretty basic tainting their view
41:19
Speaker 1: of things.
41:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's I think it's easy from like
41:22
Speaker 3: an industry perspective to say that everything that comes off
41:25
Speaker 3: of Ali Baba sucks, Like that's it's it's just easy
41:28
Speaker 3: to say that because we're friends with people that are developing, manufacturing,
41:34
Speaker 3: innovating in the space.
41:36
Speaker 2: You know.
41:36
Speaker 3: I mean, like I'll use that that you know, the
41:39
Speaker 3: Ali Baba extrusion tent, for example, It's black, it has
41:44
Speaker 3: little plastic end caps, it's extruded, and it's a wedge
41:47
Speaker 3: style pop up. I mean, squillions of people sell the tent.
41:52
Speaker 3: I mean, it probably works just fine. Yeah, you know,
41:57
Speaker 3: but yeah, if there's stuff that gets people out and
42:01
Speaker 3: it works, I think it's hard to maybe argue against it.
42:06
Speaker 3: I think it's also interesting to see those tents selling
42:08
Speaker 3: for fifteen hundred, two thousand dollars when I know that
42:12
Speaker 3: they're buying them for you know, four hundred bucks.
42:14
Speaker 2: Yeah.
42:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think the industry could do better
42:17
Speaker 3: at at more innovative affordable products. There are people I
42:21
Speaker 3: think that are starting to get that. Demetic for example,
42:25
Speaker 3: you know, I think Dematic ha just came out with
42:27
Speaker 3: that new line of kind of more affordable fridge freezers,
42:30
Speaker 3: like you're not you know, they don't have as many
42:33
Speaker 3: of the you know, the functions, but you know, I
42:36
Speaker 3: kind of commend them for that. I look at some
42:38
Speaker 3: of these battery systems that people are like talked into
42:40
Speaker 3: that they think they need, you know, and they have
42:43
Speaker 3: this incredibly complex battery management system and lithium batteries and
42:47
Speaker 3: this and this and this, and they spend thousands of
42:50
Speaker 3: dollars between the equipment and getting this custom installation so
42:54
Speaker 3: they can have their fridge run. Whereas Demetic comes out
42:58
Speaker 3: with like that POB forty yep that provides basically the
43:01
Speaker 3: same functionality that these people like actually need. I think
43:07
Speaker 3: it'll be interesting to see. You know, the space is
43:10
Speaker 3: not growing at this point.
43:12
Speaker 2: It is.
43:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, only certain certain areas are growing, but for the
43:16
Speaker 1: most part, it's pretty flat at the moment. I think
43:18
Speaker 1: the factory overlanders are going to help because it's going
43:20
Speaker 1: to drive a lot of new people to the space.
43:23
Speaker 1: I think that the biggest challenge that the industry has
43:25
Speaker 1: is it has lost its product focus. When I look
43:29
Speaker 1: at the industry overall, I do not see very many
43:33
Speaker 1: companies that are being product focused. They're trying to rebrand,
43:38
Speaker 1: they're trying to spin, they're trying to copy other people.
43:41
Speaker 1: They're changing their story, they're changing their focus, they're changing
43:45
Speaker 1: their product mix in this very reactive way. Like if
43:49
Speaker 1: you look at some of these classic brands that have
43:51
Speaker 1: been acquired, these brands were successful for decades because they
43:55
Speaker 1: were product focused. So when you look at the companies
43:59
Speaker 1: in the industry that are successful, let's just take AEV
44:01
Speaker 1: for an example. The reason why AEV is getting all
44:04
Speaker 1: of these OEM contracts is because they are focused on
44:08
Speaker 1: the product. They make something more effective, better looking, better quality.
44:15
Speaker 1: It's going to play better with interfacing with a new
44:18
Speaker 1: vehicle than anybody else on the market. And there are
44:21
Speaker 1: other companies that are learning and they're trying to catch up, right,
44:23
Speaker 1: But if you look at the ones that are doing
44:26
Speaker 1: very very well, I mean, like, what do we have
44:28
Speaker 1: on our table here? We have a Starlink on the
44:30
Speaker 1: table because like you don't hear about I mean, you
44:32
Speaker 1: do get stuff from Elon Musk, But if you just
44:34
Speaker 1: look at SpaceX, there's like no drama around SpaceX. What
44:38
Speaker 1: are people at SpaceX doing. They're making amazing things. They're
44:42
Speaker 1: figuring out how to get human beings to Mars, and
44:47
Speaker 1: they just happen to make a product that has revolutionized
44:51
Speaker 1: the way that I live my life with Starlink. So
44:54
Speaker 1: for the business owners that are listening, stop spending a
44:57
Speaker 1: whole bunch of time on social media, stop associating with
45:01
Speaker 1: people that aren't authentic, and get back to making great products.
45:04
Speaker 1: Put all of that energy into how do you make
45:07
Speaker 1: something great?
45:07
Speaker 3: There's you know, there's there's a lot of businesses in
45:10
Speaker 3: the space where the talent and the you know, the
45:14
Speaker 3: the institutional knowledge has just been kind of ripped out
45:17
Speaker 3: of them. Dozens in the space and and you're kind
45:21
Speaker 3: of looking at them, and you know they'll hire.
45:23
Speaker 2: A marketing agency to to do it.
45:26
Speaker 3: Crap a lot of ads on Facebook when overlanding went big. Well,
45:30
Speaker 3: they all bought at the absolute peak, right, and they're
45:33
Speaker 3: all panicking because everything is like surprise, surprise, the pandemic
45:38
Speaker 3: was really good for overlanding. You know, here, here's here's
45:41
Speaker 3: some money. By the way, you can't really leave the country.
45:45
Speaker 3: You can't really get on a plane, and you can't
45:47
Speaker 3: really go to a hotel because it's awkward. You're never
45:50
Speaker 3: going to be able to recreate that perfect storm. But
45:53
Speaker 3: then they're you know, they all have the same playbook
45:57
Speaker 3: of how they think they're going to do it, and
45:59
Speaker 3: it's just you're right, they're not focusing on the product.
46:02
Speaker 1: There are companies in the space that are being successful,
46:06
Speaker 1: they're making money and they're taking market share from others
46:10
Speaker 1: because they're focusing on the product. So and if you
46:13
Speaker 1: look at even the shops that are doing the same thing,
46:17
Speaker 1: if you look at the ones like Basil's Garage, what
46:20
Speaker 1: a great exhibption, and what's the guy doing.
46:24
Speaker 3: He's thriving in a market that is generally not thriving
46:28
Speaker 3: right now because of dilution is the other thing.
46:31
Speaker 1: He's focusing on. Let's take the best used vehicle examples,
46:36
Speaker 1: and let's put a whole bunch of energy into making
46:38
Speaker 1: them better and make them function properly. You know, Like
46:42
Speaker 1: I think that these are great examples. Like Scout is
46:45
Speaker 1: another great example. This is a large company that said
46:48
Speaker 1: we are going to make a high quality, lightweight, and
46:52
Speaker 1: reasonably priced overland camper.
46:55
Speaker 2: Where you're going to have you.
46:56
Speaker 1: Have to be constantly innovating and you have to be
47:00
Speaker 1: focus on like this industry is more quality sensitive than
47:06
Speaker 1: its price sensitive. Ye, and people have been chasing price
47:09
Speaker 1: recently instead of quality. Yeah, chase innovation, make great products,
47:15
Speaker 1: listen to your customers, innovate, iterate, try new things, but
47:20
Speaker 1: focus on a really premium outcome. Like it's easy to
47:25
Speaker 1: use AEV as an example in many of these cases,
47:29
Speaker 1: but just the fact that they took the time to
47:32
Speaker 1: figure out, Hey, there is this one unique type of
47:35
Speaker 1: steel boron steel, and they use it in the a
47:40
Speaker 1: pillar of sobs. It's the safest car, I mean, you know,
47:43
Speaker 1: and they realize, like if we take this material and
47:47
Speaker 1: we turn it into skid plates, we can make it
47:49
Speaker 1: lighter and stronger than anybody else. But the challenge is
47:53
Speaker 1: it's very difficult to engineer and it requires very it
47:57
Speaker 1: requires a lot of investment to get a press that
48:00
Speaker 1: can bend this stuff. So they end up at the
48:04
Speaker 1: other end of it with a product that's unmatched in
48:07
Speaker 1: the marketplace, and they have no competition, so they can
48:10
Speaker 1: price it fairly. They can price it at a point
48:12
Speaker 1: where they actually get a margin, they have some profit,
48:15
Speaker 1: And I think that for the companies in the space,
48:19
Speaker 1: get back to the product, make high quality content. You
48:22
Speaker 1: want to see somebody who's doing great, take a look
48:24
Speaker 1: at X Overland. They focus on making great content.
48:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're really continuing to push things. You know. I
48:32
Speaker 2: was just up at the launch of their exoveralin ranch.
48:35
Speaker 2: How awesome is that one. I'm just like as as
48:38
Speaker 2: like friends of these people.
48:39
Speaker 1: I'm so happy for of course because and they're a
48:42
Speaker 1: wonderful family. They deserve all of that success.
48:44
Speaker 3: Such a great little I mean, they had, like you know,
48:47
Speaker 3: I'm going to assume, like you know, their friends kids
48:49
Speaker 3: running around hand out. It was hot, So what's the solution. Well,
48:53
Speaker 3: let's go get some freeze pops. Let's hand them out
48:55
Speaker 3: to everybody. Yeah, you know, let's let's hand out water.
48:57
Speaker 3: Let's like, let's make the best of It was such
48:59
Speaker 3: a cool little event. Like I spent a bunch of
49:01
Speaker 3: time with Dave from aav there and he was kind
49:05
Speaker 3: of saying, this feels like Overland XPO one. We're gonna
49:08
Speaker 3: be sitting here and you know, five or ten years
49:11
Speaker 3: and say, oh, I remember I was at the first one,
49:12
Speaker 3: and how much fun it was. Yeah, it was the
49:15
Speaker 3: best overland event I've been to in a very, very,
49:18
Speaker 3: very long time.
49:19
Speaker 2: I had fun. Get back to connection, so jaded on
49:22
Speaker 2: these things.
49:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, get back to connection, get back to relationships, get
49:25
Speaker 1: back to.
49:26
Speaker 3: The product, because there's yeah, there's a lot of I
49:27
Speaker 3: mean on the events thing, there's a lot of Overland events.
49:30
Speaker 2: And tell tell real stories and they.
49:32
Speaker 3: Don't focus on their product. Yeah, that's true. Product is community.
49:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think you know, on the in the
49:38
Speaker 1: content side of things, just get back to telling real stories.
49:41
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, you guys all watch the Greenland film
49:44
Speaker 2: when you were up at the event.
49:45
Speaker 1: It was so good, and it's like, if you get
49:46
Speaker 1: back to telling real adventure stories, it makes a huge difference,
49:51
Speaker 1: you know, Like you know, Jonathan just launched a new magazine.
49:54
Speaker 1: That's the kind of magazine that we need to continue
49:57
Speaker 1: to quarterly. Yeah, to grow in the industry is ones
50:02
Speaker 1: that are based upon genuine exploration, real quality products, experience
50:08
Speaker 1: in the space. Where that whereas there's other publications in
50:11
Speaker 1: the space. And if you look at the mass seat,
50:13
Speaker 1: these people don't even have a passport. They've not traveled anywhere.
50:17
Speaker 1: And you've got to be really careful supporting I believe
50:21
Speaker 1: either companies or media outlets that aren't focusing.
50:25
Speaker 3: On there's like the media conglomerates that decided, I mean,
50:28
Speaker 3: for so long overlanding has been the next big thing. Yeah, right,
50:33
Speaker 3: so that's why we're seeing, you know, a flood of
50:38
Speaker 3: crap come out of the market because everybody's kind of panicking.
50:41
Speaker 3: You know, the off road companies that you know, maybe
50:44
Speaker 3: it's more than five years ago now, but used to
50:46
Speaker 3: make fun of overlanding, like yeah, you know obviously, like
50:50
Speaker 3: I kind of launched max tracks here and I remember
50:52
Speaker 3: these guys call me the Maxi pad guy for years
50:56
Speaker 3: like making fun of overlanders.
50:59
Speaker 1: No, it's interesting, I remember of scathing editorial by a
51:03
Speaker 1: four wheeler editor probably ten or fifteen years ago, you know,
51:09
Speaker 1: just basically lambasting overlanding and he was unemployed in four months.
51:14
Speaker 1: So you know, it's just really important to be humble
51:18
Speaker 1: and to focus on quality. Let other people do what
51:21
Speaker 1: they want to do, Like, don't the next the next,
51:24
Speaker 1: don't try to gatekeep, but focus on quality. You know.
51:28
Speaker 3: Again, when we were at ex Overland Ranch, there was
51:30
Speaker 3: a really good kind of i'll stay like meeting to
51:32
Speaker 3: the minds and we all kind of came to the
51:36
Speaker 3: conclusion it'll be very interesting to.
51:38
Speaker 2: Watch the space in the next six to eighteen months.
51:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of brands that I think that
51:43
Speaker 3: are either making a really big push that are going
51:46
Speaker 3: to have to pull back or aren't going to be around,
51:49
Speaker 3: or are going to be mismanaged into the ground. And
51:53
Speaker 3: we're not talking about this one. We're talking about like
51:55
Speaker 3: a lot of them. I think the people that are
51:58
Speaker 3: focusing on the product right now, when you get.
52:00
Speaker 1: To you get to look back and you get to
52:02
Speaker 1: be proud of what you did. I mean, you know,
52:06
Speaker 1: we look at the Overland Journal podcast here. The reason
52:10
Speaker 1: why this podcast exists is because of our print publication.
52:13
Speaker 1: We're over almost seventeen years in print. You know, we're
52:17
Speaker 1: employee owned veteran owned.
52:20
Speaker 2: We don't owe.
52:20
Speaker 1: Anybody any money. We just focus on doing the best
52:24
Speaker 1: job that we can do. Now, are we the best?
52:27
Speaker 1: I don't know. Other people can give us that accolade
52:30
Speaker 1: or not, but we do our best to make a
52:33
Speaker 1: great product every time. And you know, for those that
52:36
Speaker 1: are listening this, this podcast exists because of the magazine.
52:41
Speaker 1: So when you subscribe to Overland Journal, you help to
52:44
Speaker 1: support the podcast that you're listening to right now, and
52:48
Speaker 1: it allows us to do these very comprehensive equipment reviews
52:53
Speaker 1: where we're not beholden to anybody. If something doesn't work,
52:56
Speaker 1: we're going to say it.
52:57
Speaker 4: Yeah.
52:57
Speaker 3: That's the thing is there's so much on the content side,
52:59
Speaker 3: there's so much much advertorial.
53:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we still don't Overland Journal doesn't do any advertorial.
53:05
Speaker 3: Like I have to admit, I'm not like the target
53:09
Speaker 3: consumer of media in this space, but when I pick
53:12
Speaker 3: up some of these magazines, I just yeah, it's it's
53:15
Speaker 3: it's it's it's interesting to me. Like I wonder if
53:17
Speaker 3: people see through it.
53:19
Speaker 1: I think they do, and that's the reason why many
53:21
Speaker 1: of them have struggled or stopped.
53:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm not trying to like put oj on
53:26
Speaker 3: a pedestal or whatever. I get that there's an inherent
53:29
Speaker 3: bias there. Yeah, just like the advertorial thing is interesting
53:33
Speaker 3: to me.
53:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it it took over the industry in Australia,
53:38
Speaker 1: and I think we want to try it.
53:39
Speaker 2: Like I ran magazines down there was crazy.
53:41
Speaker 1: We want to try to We want to try to
53:44
Speaker 1: avoid that as long as we can. And the way
53:46
Speaker 1: that you do that is by subscribing to overland journals,
53:50
Speaker 1: subscribe to both on it.
53:51
Speaker 3: Which is like the weird thing like these like these
53:54
Speaker 3: these figures in Australia that have been around for a
53:57
Speaker 3: very long time. Though there's there's good ones, there's bad ones,
54:00
Speaker 3: and there's a lot of these guys I'm friends with.
54:02
Speaker 3: But I mean, like there's such a short term memory
54:06
Speaker 3: of the audience. In some ways, there has to be,
54:09
Speaker 3: because one day it's, uh, this is the best product,
54:13
Speaker 3: and then that contract runs out and they don't renew it.
54:15
Speaker 3: Oh no, this is actually the best product, and then
54:17
Speaker 3: it's ever it's a revolving door constantly, and it's yeah,
54:22
Speaker 3: it's fascinating.
54:24
Speaker 1: It's an interesting challenge. Yeah, it really is an interesting challenge.
54:29
Speaker 1: But I think that when the industry looks going forward.
54:33
Speaker 1: Focus on the product, Focus on the product, focus on
54:35
Speaker 1: the story. You know, get the experience that you need
54:39
Speaker 1: in order to be able to speak with honesty and
54:41
Speaker 1: authority around the subject. Well, what's next for you, Matt?
54:45
Speaker 1: What's the next big Matt Scott opportunity coming up? Where
54:50
Speaker 1: do you want to go?
54:50
Speaker 2: What do you want to do?
54:51
Speaker 3: When we're planning this, this PanAm trip, which is awesome, Yeah,
54:56
Speaker 3: which is great, you know a little weird to say.
54:58
Speaker 3: You know, we have a we have an elderly rescue
55:01
Speaker 3: greyhound and he's getting up there. So you know, when
55:04
Speaker 3: when he decides it's time, you know, that's that's when
55:07
Speaker 3: we'll go. So when we leave is you know, hopefully
55:11
Speaker 3: as as far into the future as as possible.
55:15
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, but it's good to plan. But I have been.
55:18
Speaker 3: There's been so much joy with planning this, and you know,
55:22
Speaker 3: I realized how how lucky and fortunate I am. Like
55:25
Speaker 3: I go to plan this trip and I talk to you,
55:28
Speaker 3: and I talk to Dan Grek, and I talk to
55:31
Speaker 3: you know, Hourless Life, and I talk.
55:32
Speaker 2: To Graham Bell, and I'm talking.
55:34
Speaker 3: To like the the people that are actually doing it.
55:39
Speaker 1: Well, certainly those folks not me so much, but definitely
55:42
Speaker 1: like talking the Graham Bells and the Dan Grex and they're.
55:47
Speaker 2: Doing it right now.
55:48
Speaker 1: They're doing it, and they're taking their time and they're
55:50
Speaker 1: doing a great job, and they're doing it with their family,
55:52
Speaker 1: and yeah, that what an awesome couple.
55:55
Speaker 3: You know, like talking with Savoturin, who's in Argentina right now.
55:59
Speaker 3: I'm making this Google map that's going to be the
56:01
Speaker 3: Google Maps of all Google maps. That's what That's what's
56:05
Speaker 3: currently going on.
56:06
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
56:07
Speaker 4: Man.
56:07
Speaker 3: It's the summer, and I don't really travel much in
56:09
Speaker 3: the summer anymore.
56:10
Speaker 2: It's so busy.
56:11
Speaker 3: I'm waiting for the kids to get back in school
56:13
Speaker 3: on the fifth wheels to get and the UTVs to
56:16
Speaker 3: get parked away for six months and then I'm going
56:19
Speaker 3: to go out. So what about you, I mean, you're
56:22
Speaker 3: you're just like finishing the trip of all trips, and well, yeah,
56:25
Speaker 3: it's just it took me twenty years to finally get
56:28
Speaker 3: to wrap that whole thing up, and I'm grateful and
56:31
Speaker 3: I feel I mean, let's recap some of these trips
56:34
Speaker 3: over the last twenty years. So I mean, like your
56:36
Speaker 3: first big one would have been Tuck but that's when
56:40
Speaker 3: there was no year round road, so you had to
56:43
Speaker 3: drive up the Mackenzie that's right, the frozen river, which
56:46
Speaker 3: is crazy. So you were started as an ice road trucker.
56:50
Speaker 1: And then.
56:52
Speaker 2: Just before that was it was that one for sure challenge. Yeah,
56:57
Speaker 2: that was a little bit before that.
56:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you want that first American to win that,
57:01
Speaker 3: I think, right, And then I guess a few small
57:06
Speaker 3: trips and not small trips, some stuff in Africa, and
57:09
Speaker 3: then Expedition seven, which was I mean crazy, you know,
57:13
Speaker 3: it's maybe that was five years of my life that was.
57:15
Speaker 3: I mean, it's crazy to think like that was almost
57:17
Speaker 3: ten years ago.
57:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was ten years ago. And we finished in
57:22
Speaker 1: September of twenty fourteen.
57:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know where that was. So I believe
57:26
Speaker 3: the first vehicle to.
57:28
Speaker 2: Do first ROLD drive to go to all seven comments seven.
57:30
Speaker 3: Continents, did the crossing of Iceland or sorry, of Antarctica.
57:36
Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah, dual crossing of antarcticas which is crazy,
57:41
Speaker 2: like rand into the Prince Harry. Yeah, we saved a
57:44
Speaker 2: prince along the way.
57:45
Speaker 1: Yeah.
57:46
Speaker 2: Then jeez. Then it was Greenland after that.
57:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, and guys, I got to watch the Greenland documentary.
57:55
Speaker 3: It's called wolf Land. It was debuted at the ex
57:59
Speaker 3: over the Cher for their grand Opening Phenomenal. Like, I
58:03
Speaker 3: don't again, I don't really like watch a lot of
58:06
Speaker 3: media in this space, Like it is my life and
58:08
Speaker 3: all of my friends are these people, so I don't.
58:10
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, you just hang out with it. I just
58:12
Speaker 2: hang out. We go ride mountain bikes together. Yeah, you know,
58:15
Speaker 2: not sound weird or.
58:16
Speaker 3: Jaded, but like I was just so proud of all
58:20
Speaker 3: of my friends that were on this, like it was
58:22
Speaker 3: so it really came across that it was so so challenging.
58:26
Speaker 2: It wasn't.
58:27
Speaker 3: It wasn't like it wasn't what I expected, Like I
58:30
Speaker 3: think that I expected it to be, and here we
58:32
Speaker 3: are and modifying the Toyota and it was not geeky.
58:36
Speaker 3: It was pure exploration. It was something that deserves to
58:40
Speaker 3: be at a film festival. It was something that like
58:43
Speaker 3: like my parents would watch or like your parents that
58:47
Speaker 3: aren't into overlining to watch it and be like wow,
58:49
Speaker 3: that was actually like an accomplishment. It was really cool,
58:52
Speaker 3: beautifully shot.
58:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, Clay crushed it.
58:55
Speaker 1: Yeah. For those who think they need like like the
58:58
Speaker 1: red camera and all this other stuff laid the whole
59:00
Speaker 1: thing on a Sony basically an A seven with a
59:05
Speaker 1: with a mic on top of it and a twenty
59:07
Speaker 1: four to one oh five lens.
59:08
Speaker 3: So it's like absolutely just awesome, beautiful, Like it wasn't
59:13
Speaker 3: really overlanding.
59:14
Speaker 2: It was like expedition, and I think that that was
59:18
Speaker 2: really cool. I knew, like once I fell into the Crevass,
59:20
Speaker 2: I knew I was on an expedition.
59:23
Speaker 3: So yeah, okay, so the Greenland and then I guess
59:26
Speaker 3: after Greenland.
59:27
Speaker 2: Well, the big one was then crossing Africa.
59:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, so in the Grenadier picked up the car in
59:33
Speaker 3: the UK, shipped it to to Africa Durban, yep.
59:37
Speaker 2: And then like you seem to really enjoy that trip.
59:40
Speaker 2: I really did. Yeah, as I was able to take
59:42
Speaker 2: my time, you know, I was able to spend almost
59:45
Speaker 2: seven months in Africa.
59:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Tavia was able to with you, and like
59:51
Speaker 3: you just like I'm just so happy for you, and
59:54
Speaker 3: like it's just been so much travel.
59:58
Speaker 2: I mean, it's been.
59:59
Speaker 1: It's been a lot, and I'm actually looking forward to
1:00:02
Speaker 1: not having a big trip on the immediate horizon. There's
1:00:06
Speaker 1: a lot of content that we want to put out.
1:00:08
Speaker 1: There's a lot of new things that we're working on
1:00:11
Speaker 1: in Overland International or classified segment is doing really well.
1:00:15
Speaker 1: We're going to you know, double down on the podcast
1:00:18
Speaker 1: so that those of you that are listening, we're going
1:00:20
Speaker 1: to now get back to like super consistent at least
1:00:23
Speaker 1: once a week, but our goal is to get to
1:00:26
Speaker 1: six podcasts a month, so we're just kind of doubling
1:00:30
Speaker 1: down on the things that we love doing. So I'm
1:00:32
Speaker 1: looking forward. And also, you know, my dad's getting a
1:00:34
Speaker 1: little bit older. It was my favorite podcast that I've
1:00:37
Speaker 1: done in a lot of years was to interview I
1:00:39
Speaker 1: actually interview my interviewed my dad, So like spending time
1:00:43
Speaker 1: with him is so important. Like our family is just
1:00:45
Speaker 1: so so important. You know, my nephews are getting older,
1:00:49
Speaker 1: and one of them's living here in Prescott and is
1:00:51
Speaker 1: actually he cuts some of the podcasts now, so it's
1:00:54
Speaker 1: it's just really wonderful to have this time with family.
1:00:57
Speaker 1: So I think I'm going to take about twelve to
1:01:00
Speaker 1: sixteen months to just focus on content creation. There's going
1:01:04
Speaker 1: to be a pretty fun announcement coming out soon around
1:01:07
Speaker 1: a book deal, so we'll share that in the upcoming podcast.
1:01:13
Speaker 1: But no, it's just been great, man, just been fun
1:01:15
Speaker 1: to to finish something that took me twenty years to
1:01:18
Speaker 1: pull together. So and two hundred podcasts, which is crazy,
1:01:22
Speaker 1: that's crazy. I'm not here for all of them, but
1:01:24
Speaker 1: you generally, yeah, a lot of no. And it wouldn't
1:01:28
Speaker 1: happen without Paula. It wouldn't happen without you, And it
1:01:30
Speaker 1: wouldn't happen without Ashley and everybody else who makes this possible,
1:01:34
Speaker 1: all all of the advertisers who help us, and then
1:01:38
Speaker 1: all of you as listeners. When you listen and subscribe
1:01:41
Speaker 1: to the podcast, it just shows us that it's working
1:01:44
Speaker 1: and it allows us to continue to make investments.
1:01:47
Speaker 3: So, you know, it's interesting we talk about We've always
1:01:49
Speaker 3: talked about that separation of advertising and editorial.
1:01:52
Speaker 2: I have no idea who sponsors this podcast, but I
1:01:55
Speaker 2: guess thank you, yes, thank you exactly.
1:01:57
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because I don't want you to be in
1:02:00
Speaker 1: luence by who that is, we separate the business side
1:02:03
Speaker 1: of the of the business from the content side. So
1:02:05
Speaker 1: like Tina, you know, our editor of the magazine, she
1:02:09
Speaker 1: never has she never interacts with advertisers. She's not required
1:02:13
Speaker 1: to like go and have meetings and sit down and
1:02:17
Speaker 1: do content plan, probably say things that I shouldn't but
1:02:21
Speaker 1: we're not going to allow. We're not going to change
1:02:24
Speaker 1: should but it's been fun man and a special thanks
1:02:29
Speaker 1: to Real Truck for their support of this week's podcast,
1:02:33
Speaker 1: Find Your Freedom and Follow your Own Trail in the
1:02:36
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Speaker 1: to life at real truck dot com. Thanks again, Real Truck,
1:03:14
Speaker 1: So Ashley, thank you for being on podcast two hundred
1:03:18
Speaker 1: with me.
1:03:20
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me. It's fun to be on
1:03:22
Speaker 4: a podcast together again.
1:03:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're always well. You are always someplace interesting whenever
1:03:29
Speaker 1: I'm on a podcast with you. But I think I
1:03:31
Speaker 1: think we have recorded it one where I was in
1:03:34
Speaker 1: Southern Africa and you were in maybe in Scotland. So
1:03:38
Speaker 1: we're pretty far. We're pretty far apart the miracle of technology.
1:03:42
Speaker 4: So exactly. Yeah, if you hear some background noise, I apologize,
1:03:47
Speaker 4: probably a tractor in We're in Croatia today.
1:03:52
Speaker 1: So they got plenty of plenty of tractors there.
1:03:54
Speaker 4: Yeah.
1:03:55
Speaker 1: Well I want to I want to start off Ashley by,
1:03:58
Speaker 1: you know, complimenting you on on the incredible work that
1:04:01
Speaker 1: you've done on the podcast. You're a great interviewer, you
1:04:04
Speaker 1: have very thoughtful questions, and you've brought on some really
1:04:08
Speaker 1: great guests. So you have just continued to help us
1:04:13
Speaker 1: elevate the quality of the podcast and we wouldn't be
1:04:17
Speaker 1: anywhere near where we are today without you.
1:04:19
Speaker 2: So I'm just so.
1:04:20
Speaker 4: Grateful, thank you for the opportunity. It's been so so
1:04:27
Speaker 4: fun for me to be able to I mean, that's
1:04:30
Speaker 4: the best part about what I do is to connect
1:04:32
Speaker 4: with other Overlanders, and so to be able to sit
1:04:35
Speaker 4: down with them for a specific amount of time is
1:04:40
Speaker 4: it's fantastic. I've enjoyed every minute of it, and it's
1:04:44
Speaker 4: what I would normally be doing, like an article, so fine, exactly.
1:04:50
Speaker 1: It's one of the most fun things that I do.
1:04:52
Speaker 1: We get to talk. Anytime you get to talk to
1:04:54
Speaker 1: a fellow traveler, it's always such a joy, and that
1:04:58
Speaker 1: kind of leads me to my first question for you,
1:05:01
Speaker 1: But what was one of the most favorite interviews? And
1:05:05
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that it's your favorite person, that's just
1:05:07
Speaker 1: maybe the interview that surprised you or one of your
1:05:10
Speaker 1: most favorite conversations.
1:05:13
Speaker 4: So the one that I can think of just off hand.
1:05:15
Speaker 4: Of course, all of them have had I've really really enjoyed,
1:05:19
Speaker 4: and they've all been really memorable, obviously, but Reza paker
1:05:25
Speaker 4: Van was, I guess one that stood out to me
1:05:29
Speaker 4: because I had never met him before and I wasn't
1:05:32
Speaker 4: necessarily following him really closely online, whereas most of the
1:05:36
Speaker 4: people that I've interviewed I've seen or talked to in
1:05:38
Speaker 4: some capacity, but actually didn't really know him that well,
1:05:41
Speaker 4: and I'd never spoken with him before. And the cool
1:05:47
Speaker 4: thing was that he had so many incredible stories and
1:05:52
Speaker 4: he was such a great storyteller, and I was actually
1:05:56
Speaker 4: kind of intimidated to look at his bio and I
1:05:59
Speaker 4: was on his I've sayed a lot before I talked
1:06:01
Speaker 4: with him, just looking at all of his accomplishments and
1:06:04
Speaker 4: the things he had done, and the society is a
1:06:06
Speaker 4: part of so I kind of went in like a
1:06:08
Speaker 4: bit a bit intimidated but yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, I
1:06:14
Speaker 4: was starstruck. But he was such a gracious guest and
1:06:19
Speaker 4: really just wonderful to secret and so yeah, just a
1:06:23
Speaker 4: good reminder that I was.
1:06:25
Speaker 1: Very Yes, I was very impressed by him. I was
1:06:29
Speaker 1: impressed by the interview. You also did some content for
1:06:33
Speaker 1: Overland Journal on him as well, and his photography is
1:06:38
Speaker 1: absolutely incredible. And I don't know about you, but it's
1:06:43
Speaker 1: sometimes people like him, or in the case of the
1:06:47
Speaker 1: interview that I did with Kingsley Holgay, that I left
1:06:53
Speaker 1: inspired in ways that I wasn't expected expecting, And I
1:06:58
Speaker 1: also felt challenged. I felt chal lenge to do better
1:07:01
Speaker 1: and to think more broadly about how I give back
1:07:06
Speaker 1: when I travel. I've tried to be more mindful of that.
1:07:10
Speaker 1: But when you look at someone like Kingsley, for example,
1:07:13
Speaker 1: that has dedicated the last twenty five years of his
1:07:17
Speaker 1: life to literally saving lives in Africa, it's very humbling.
1:07:23
Speaker 4: So yeah, I think that the really interesting conversations that
1:07:28
Speaker 4: I've had have combined this sense of like overlanding or
1:07:35
Speaker 4: travel bloods. It's like a mission of some sort. Like
1:07:40
Speaker 4: I'm in this phase lately where I'm really drawn to
1:07:43
Speaker 4: the tales of explorers, but like, how did they give
1:07:46
Speaker 4: back what kind of scientific observations or or studies did
1:07:51
Speaker 4: they do during that time? And I've been diving into
1:07:54
Speaker 4: and you'll see some of the the uh finding that
1:08:00
Speaker 4: I've come across about some of the societies like the
1:08:03
Speaker 4: Royal Geographical Society and what they're doing and how we
1:08:07
Speaker 4: can use travel as a way to learn more about
1:08:12
Speaker 4: the planet and ourselves and circle of humans is really
1:08:16
Speaker 4: interesting to me. I'd love to be able to do
1:08:19
Speaker 4: something like that one day. So that's really interesting.
1:08:23
Speaker 1: I have no doubt you will. And maybe that's something
1:08:25
Speaker 1: we need to work on even more as an organization
1:08:29
Speaker 1: of how do we tie those things together. It's surprising
1:08:34
Speaker 1: how easy it is to integrate some of those that
1:08:38
Speaker 1: field work with the kind of travels that we do.
1:08:41
Speaker 1: I remember when we did the Greenland crossing, we just
1:08:45
Speaker 1: reached out to several organizations and it was surprising They're like, oh,
1:08:49
Speaker 1: can you do snow depth studies? Can you get samples?
1:08:54
Speaker 1: Because it like, imagine what it would cost a university
1:08:58
Speaker 1: to go and cross Greenland, or the time it would take,
1:09:01
Speaker 1: or even the expertise, whereas for us to have little
1:09:05
Speaker 1: little glass vials and to take samples at different intervals
1:09:10
Speaker 1: and capture the GPS coordinates and where the sample was taken.
1:09:14
Speaker 1: It was actually not that hard, but it made a
1:09:16
Speaker 1: huge difference for them. So I think as we do
1:09:20
Speaker 1: these bigger trips, sometimes reaching out to academics and saying
1:09:25
Speaker 1: what could we do to support your research while we're
1:09:28
Speaker 1: there on the ground, for sure. Yeah, yeah, So I
1:09:34
Speaker 1: think there's more and more opportunities for that. And organizations
1:09:38
Speaker 1: like the RGS and the Explorers Club and others, they
1:09:42
Speaker 1: do need support and they need they need membership. They
1:09:46
Speaker 1: need people to be coming into the ranks as their
1:09:51
Speaker 1: ranks continue to age, and they need new people. They
1:09:57
Speaker 1: need to have new explorers coming in with their own
1:10:01
Speaker 1: unique stories, so that way we can keep those organizations
1:10:05
Speaker 1: healthy and thriving.
1:10:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's so much to learn about the planet, and
1:10:10
Speaker 4: I think the US is a really great place for
1:10:15
Speaker 4: that as well. There are so many opportunities to get
1:10:19
Speaker 4: out there somewhere remote on a track and make a difference.
1:10:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, or even just asking some local archaeologists or anthropologists,
1:10:32
Speaker 1: like when you go into the back country, what vehicle
1:10:35
Speaker 1: do you use? Do you have good tires on it?
1:10:38
Speaker 1: Like might be surprised. You might be able to donate
1:10:41
Speaker 1: some equipment, or provide some training or some expertise, or
1:10:46
Speaker 1: help them with mapping applications. It's surprising how much we've learned.
1:10:51
Speaker 1: We learn as overlanders that we can help the academic
1:10:55
Speaker 1: or scientific or philanthropic communities with our specific knowledge.
1:11:00
Speaker 4: For sure. Yeah, yeah, that's that's really interesting. I'm really
1:11:05
Speaker 4: drawn to it. But then you're also like, you know what,
1:11:07
Speaker 4: sometimes it's just really nice to go out and enjoy
1:11:10
Speaker 4: it for yourself, to you know, and just have a
1:11:15
Speaker 4: good time. And like we're talking a little bit before
1:11:17
Speaker 4: about a vacation or that's your way to decompress without
1:11:20
Speaker 4: any sort of commitments. So it's like the both sides
1:11:23
Speaker 4: of the coin.
1:11:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true. There's there's such a difference between being
1:11:30
Speaker 1: a tourist and being a traveler. And there's nothing wrong
1:11:32
Speaker 1: with being a tourist every once in a while. In fact,
1:11:35
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with being a tourist every time you travel,
1:11:39
Speaker 1: But there is a difference between being a tourist, being
1:11:43
Speaker 1: a traveler, and being an explorer. Those are very different
1:11:46
Speaker 1: roles and they have and it's easy to get them
1:11:49
Speaker 1: mixed up. But if we are mindful about what we're doing,
1:11:54
Speaker 1: then we actually get the best result. So yes, we
1:11:57
Speaker 1: just allow ourselves to sit on the beach with our
1:11:59
Speaker 1: toe in the sand because we're just being a tourist.
1:12:02
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with that.
1:12:03
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, I love it. Well.
1:12:07
Speaker 1: One of the things that I wanted to ask you
1:12:11
Speaker 1: is what are you What is it Maybe a couple
1:12:14
Speaker 1: lessons that you've learned from all of these interviews, or
1:12:18
Speaker 1: you know, has it just reconfirmed things that you already
1:12:21
Speaker 1: valued or believed.
1:12:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think a little bit of both. It's just
1:12:27
Speaker 4: nice to connect with other people. I think that like
1:12:30
Speaker 4: Richard and I traveling throughout parts of Europe and Morocco,
1:12:35
Speaker 4: we have these time periods where we are I guess
1:12:38
Speaker 4: we're surrounded by people, but we don't necessarily have the
1:12:42
Speaker 4: opportunity to connect, maybe because of language differences, or we're
1:12:47
Speaker 4: not running into as many people to connect with as
1:12:54
Speaker 4: we done the Pan American Highway for some reason, which
1:12:58
Speaker 4: sounds weird because Europe is very busy, But I think
1:13:02
Speaker 4: those overland camps along the Pan American Highway, you're just
1:13:06
Speaker 4: it's like a crossroads for everybody coming together that are
1:13:09
Speaker 4: doing the same thing. From all different countries and it
1:13:14
Speaker 4: just feels a bit different here. So the podcast has
1:13:17
Speaker 4: been a really good way for me personally to connect
1:13:21
Speaker 4: with other humans, aside from Richard, whom I love, but
1:13:25
Speaker 4: we're spending all of our time together, right, So just
1:13:31
Speaker 4: chatting with other travelers about the quirks of overland travel
1:13:36
Speaker 4: or long term overland travel has been really fulfilling, I
1:13:40
Speaker 4: would say. Also, another thing I've learned from all these
1:13:45
Speaker 4: conversations is it's really cool to see all the offshoots
1:13:52
Speaker 4: of how many directions that overline travel can take in
1:13:55
Speaker 4: terms of like themes or of lessons. Like on the
1:14:01
Speaker 4: one of the most recent ones with Next Meridian Expedition,
1:14:05
Speaker 4: we talked about like pacing, and we talked about how
1:14:11
Speaker 4: different people have a different travel rhythm, and so I
1:14:15
Speaker 4: thought that was a really interesting concept, Like some people
1:14:18
Speaker 4: are really, you know, going very fast, or some are
1:14:21
Speaker 4: moving every day, or like Richard and I are going
1:14:26
Speaker 4: very slowly, but sometimes we need to go fast. But
1:14:30
Speaker 4: everybody has a different rhythm on the road, and it's
1:14:32
Speaker 4: really really interesting to chat about that. So it's like
1:14:35
Speaker 4: all these different offshoots about overlanding. I think that's why
1:14:38
Speaker 4: I like writing so much actually, and the podcast because
1:14:42
Speaker 4: I get to explore all these different avenues of what
1:14:46
Speaker 4: overland travel brings to the table, not just like, oh,
1:14:50
Speaker 4: it's about the our truck and all the things that's
1:14:53
Speaker 4: outfitted with, which is really important and cool and interesting,
1:14:58
Speaker 4: but all these things maybe you don't think about out
1:15:00
Speaker 4: offhand when you think about overland travel.
1:15:03
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the interesting realities of when
1:15:07
Speaker 1: you're on the road, particularly internationally, you just don't ever
1:15:12
Speaker 1: talk about the truck, Like when you meet up with
1:15:14
Speaker 1: another traveler, like you never like you never talk about
1:15:20
Speaker 1: muffler bearings. You just like it's like you always talk about, oh,
1:15:25
Speaker 1: how is the border, and then they'll say like, oh,
1:15:28
Speaker 1: you got to check out this little taco stand, or
1:15:31
Speaker 1: or like I had the most amazing campsite over here,
1:15:35
Speaker 1: or or just so you know, when you get to immigration,
1:15:38
Speaker 1: they're requiring this new paper or whatever, and so it
1:15:43
Speaker 1: ends up not being about the gear or the vehicle
1:15:46
Speaker 1: at all.
1:15:48
Speaker 4: Yeah. I can relate to that, especially over here, because
1:15:50
Speaker 4: we definitely stick out, like not like a circum but
1:15:53
Speaker 4: we stick out. And I often forget that because I'm like, oh,
1:15:57
Speaker 4: we're in Europe, you know, or it's all good. They
1:16:00
Speaker 4: have some big trucks here, but it's nope, Like we
1:16:04
Speaker 4: usually get asked, are you are you really from kids?
1:16:09
Speaker 4: Do get how did you get the vehicle here? Did
1:16:13
Speaker 4: you build this camp? Or uh? Things like that. Sometimes
1:16:17
Speaker 4: they'll be like how many miles per gallon do you get?
1:16:20
Speaker 4: Or how much do you get fuel? It's not like,
1:16:23
Speaker 4: oh do you have They're not asking about the specific
1:16:27
Speaker 4: Usually it's fine. No.
1:16:29
Speaker 1: I mean, some people get into it a little bit,
1:16:31
Speaker 1: but for the most part, it's I mean, the gas
1:16:34
Speaker 1: mileage thing probably comes up a lot for you guys
1:16:36
Speaker 1: because it's such a big it's such a big vehicle.
1:16:39
Speaker 1: And then you're like, you really don't want to know.
1:16:41
Speaker 1: You just like you really don't want to know you
1:16:44
Speaker 1: want to know why we travel slowly? It's because we
1:16:46
Speaker 1: get seven point eight miles per gallon.
1:16:51
Speaker 4: We're like mortgage, like we're not paying rent. So it's
1:16:56
Speaker 4: just kind of like, yeah, anyway.
1:16:59
Speaker 1: It's fuel, it's fuel, Yeah for sure. Oh and then
1:17:04
Speaker 1: how do you think in your recent travels and in
1:17:10
Speaker 1: these conversations with with other travelers as well, how do
1:17:15
Speaker 1: you think that you've changed? Like, how how is the
1:17:18
Speaker 1: is the Ashley of twenty twenty four, different from the
1:17:22
Speaker 1: Ashley that left to go drive the Pan American in
1:17:27
Speaker 1: that little Toyota pick up.
1:17:29
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, yeah I think this, Oh that Yeah,
1:17:42
Speaker 4: it get its deep deep stuff. We're always talking about
1:17:45
Speaker 4: how the trip was different, but we don't necessarily talk
1:17:47
Speaker 4: about how we are different, you know, right, I think
1:17:53
Speaker 4: we we have a little more confidence time around. We
1:18:02
Speaker 4: don't really care as much maybe what people think, and
1:18:06
Speaker 4: we don't care about the way we are traveling and
1:18:12
Speaker 4: how it affects other people, and not in a negative way,
1:18:15
Speaker 4: but we're like, this is the pace that works for us,
1:18:18
Speaker 4: And maybe we're only going through one country and it's
1:18:21
Speaker 4: going to take us three months. It doesn't matter what
1:18:26
Speaker 4: other people are doing and how it's related to us.
1:18:30
Speaker 4: It's like how we're traveling is good for us, and
1:18:33
Speaker 4: if it's not, then we make changes and we realize
1:18:35
Speaker 4: the way that other people are traveling maybe different, and
1:18:38
Speaker 4: that's okay too. So whereas I feel like on the
1:18:41
Speaker 4: Pan American we were kind of like finding our bearings.
1:18:45
Speaker 4: So we're like, how do we how is this pace
1:18:47
Speaker 4: working for us? Is this the way that we want
1:18:50
Speaker 4: to travel? And everybody's driving something different, so you're always
1:18:53
Speaker 4: thinking and now it's a decade later and we're like, whatever,
1:18:57
Speaker 4: this is, this is how we're going to do it.
1:19:00
Speaker 4: This is the way that we want to do it.
1:19:02
Speaker 4: And we're not like counting countries and we're slowing down
1:19:05
Speaker 4: a lot and giving ourselves. One of the biggest things
1:19:09
Speaker 4: is like giving ourselves time. And we're so so incredibly
1:19:14
Speaker 4: fortunate to be able to have the blessing of time.
1:19:22
Speaker 4: Like obviously I know everybody doesn't have that, and we've
1:19:24
Speaker 4: made certain decisions in our life where time is one
1:19:27
Speaker 4: of the biggest priorities for us. But going into a
1:19:30
Speaker 4: country most of the time in the last almost two years,
1:19:34
Speaker 4: we've tried to create a buffer of like a week
1:19:38
Speaker 4: so we can absorb because it's a big transition sometimes,
1:19:43
Speaker 4: like going from staying to Morocco. We just like slowed
1:19:46
Speaker 4: right down so that we weren't like going in this
1:19:49
Speaker 4: kind of like stressed out state and like reacting. We're like, Okay,
1:19:54
Speaker 4: let's understand a little bit of basics on language. Let's
1:19:59
Speaker 4: like do our rese search, and let's like slow way
1:20:02
Speaker 4: down so we're not overwhelmed and we're just like scrambling
1:20:06
Speaker 4: and I think on the Pan American Highway because the
1:20:09
Speaker 4: language differences are not as pronounced as there like between
1:20:13
Speaker 4: Northern Africa and Europe. And I would say even within Europe,
1:20:17
Speaker 4: we didn't have that experience. So we've had to like
1:20:20
Speaker 4: adjust to going from like I said, staying to Morocco,
1:20:24
Speaker 4: but then Morocco to Italy and that's an adjustment, and
1:20:27
Speaker 4: then Italy going into Slovenia that's another adjustment in culture
1:20:32
Speaker 4: and language and like travel pace and finding camping and
1:20:38
Speaker 4: maybe having some off road routes, but maybe not like
1:20:41
Speaker 4: the whole thing. The changes are bigger within the smaller area.
1:20:45
Speaker 4: That is what I'm saying. Anyways, that's a long winded answer,
1:20:49
Speaker 4: but that's.
1:20:49
Speaker 1: What I wanted, and I mean I think I think
1:20:53
Speaker 1: one of the great examples of that was recently. I mean,
1:20:56
Speaker 1: we happened to both be in Europe at the same time,
1:20:59
Speaker 1: and we were trying to connect and where you guys
1:21:03
Speaker 1: were at got flooded and you had to leave the vehicle,
1:21:08
Speaker 1: get onto a helicopter, get rescued from this region, get
1:21:13
Speaker 1: deposited in a random city somewhere. And I never saw
1:21:20
Speaker 1: it come through from you guys that you were upset
1:21:24
Speaker 1: or stressed out. It was just like I'm sure it
1:21:27
Speaker 1: was a little bit stressful, but what it came across
1:21:30
Speaker 1: to me was, you guys are well seasoned travelers and
1:21:34
Speaker 1: you understand that, like unknowns like that are going to happen,
1:21:39
Speaker 1: and sometimes you got to just completely pivot and try
1:21:43
Speaker 1: a different You didn't have a choice. You needed to
1:21:46
Speaker 1: like sit in an airbnb and figure it out.
1:21:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely absolutely. I think it was funny. I think
1:21:54
Speaker 4: we somehow got through that with a really positive mindset
1:22:00
Speaker 4: and things worked out really well for us, and the
1:22:02
Speaker 4: truck was fine, and we're like, we don't actually have
1:22:04
Speaker 4: a choice, And sometimes when you don't have a choice
1:22:07
Speaker 4: in those situations, it's almost better than having a choice
1:22:09
Speaker 4: because it's already been decided for you. Figure it out.
1:22:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, the decision has been made for you, right. But
1:22:19
Speaker 1: I could see that. I could see that though. I
1:22:22
Speaker 1: could see you guys just adapting, and you know, I
1:22:28
Speaker 1: mean that had to have been really challenging to like
1:22:31
Speaker 1: basically have a backpack and step onto a step onto
1:22:35
Speaker 1: a helicopter and leave your life and your vehicle, Like
1:22:39
Speaker 1: basically the vehicle becomes a member of the family and
1:22:42
Speaker 1: you have to leave it behind.
1:22:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think the thing was that we didn't
1:22:47
Speaker 4: really have an idea of when we would be going back.
1:22:50
Speaker 4: It depended on how long it took the road to
1:22:54
Speaker 4: be fixed. And see the rescue crew and the townships
1:23:03
Speaker 4: that we were dealing with to get updates and stuff
1:23:05
Speaker 4: were absolutely fantastic and we were kept in the entire time.
1:23:11
Speaker 4: Then a great Facebook page, and we knew it was
1:23:13
Speaker 4: going to be around three weeks, and so we just
1:23:15
Speaker 4: kind of planned for that, and a really really, really
1:23:19
Speaker 4: gracious member of the overlining community had a home nearby
1:23:28
Speaker 4: where we were helicoptered out and so that we could
1:23:34
Speaker 4: stay there as long as we needed to. So I
1:23:38
Speaker 4: think that's another big lesson is that it really felt like,
1:23:41
Speaker 4: no matter where we are in the world, somebody's got
1:23:44
Speaker 4: your back because of the network of travelers, and so
1:23:48
Speaker 4: you're really grateful for that, just to have some stability
1:23:53
Speaker 4: for a couple of weeks in a time that was
1:23:55
Speaker 4: a little bit unknown.
1:23:58
Speaker 1: So it was, Yeah, it was amazing to see it
1:24:01
Speaker 1: all unfold. Do you know, We're gonna get a little
1:24:08
Speaker 1: geeky for a second, but has there been has there
1:24:11
Speaker 1: been anything that you brought on this trip that's new
1:24:15
Speaker 1: that you find like you use every day that you're like,
1:24:18
Speaker 1: this thing is pretty.
1:24:19
Speaker 4: Rad, yes for sure. Uh, vacuum cleaner, yes, like people
1:24:28
Speaker 4: don't even think about that, like the little.
1:24:31
Speaker 1: USB CE chargeable vacuum cleaner.
1:24:35
Speaker 4: Yes, it's a freaking best our kind of like our
1:24:38
Speaker 4: camper would be an absolutely discussed a nightmare if we
1:24:41
Speaker 4: didn't have that. And then we just picked up a
1:24:45
Speaker 4: USC chargeable fan. There's one really good fan in this camper,
1:24:50
Speaker 4: but it's getting quite hot where we are, and that
1:24:53
Speaker 4: little fan, Oh my gosh, it's amazing, like one of
1:24:56
Speaker 4: my favorite things, just.
1:24:59
Speaker 1: Having a little bit airflow exactly.
1:25:02
Speaker 4: I mean it sounds obvious. I don't know why we
1:25:04
Speaker 4: didn't pick it up earlier because it's really helpful while
1:25:06
Speaker 4: you're sleeping, but that would be one of our favorite things.
1:25:10
Speaker 4: And the other thing is that we picked up a
1:25:15
Speaker 4: bunch of these Ikea organizers for underneath our bed and
1:25:19
Speaker 4: we were just like organized everything into these little square,
1:25:24
Speaker 4: lightweight like boxes without a lid, and it just like
1:25:32
Speaker 4: I love it. I love seeing everything organized and it's
1:25:36
Speaker 4: easy to grab and so satisfying. Yeah, it's things you
1:25:41
Speaker 4: wouldn't even think of, but those are Yeah, those are
1:25:43
Speaker 4: like my favorite things right now.
1:25:46
Speaker 1: It's so fun It's so funny how those simple little
1:25:50
Speaker 1: changes make such a difference.
1:25:53
Speaker 4: Right. I'm sure if you asked Richard that question, he
1:25:55
Speaker 4: would have different answers that might get a little it
1:26:00
Speaker 4: might be cooler. But you know that.
1:26:05
Speaker 1: One of the things that I asked Matt is, you know,
1:26:07
Speaker 1: the the overland industry has gone through so much change,
1:26:10
Speaker 1: even from when you guys started your trip through the Americas.
1:26:15
Speaker 1: What what do you think that the overland industry needs now?
1:26:20
Speaker 4: What?
1:26:21
Speaker 1: What does the overland industry need in twenty twenty four?
1:26:24
Speaker 1: Not products, but mindset, Like what do you what do
1:26:27
Speaker 1: you see as some of the issues and what do
1:26:29
Speaker 1: you think are some of the things that businesses and
1:26:32
Speaker 1: individual travelers can do to adapt to all of this change?
1:26:38
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, that's a great question that I'll probably
1:26:43
Speaker 4: be thinking about for the next few days and be like,
1:26:46
Speaker 4: what why didn't I say this instead?
1:26:49
Speaker 1: We get we can revisit it too.
1:26:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think this is going to sound obvious, but
1:26:57
Speaker 4: like less it's more. Yeah, I think it's very obvious. Yeah.
1:27:04
Speaker 1: One of the things that Matt, Matt and I talked
1:27:07
Speaker 1: about was just really encouraging companies to get back to
1:27:11
Speaker 1: their core strengths, to get back to making great products.
1:27:15
Speaker 1: We see companies spending a lot of energy either buying
1:27:19
Speaker 1: products and rebranding them or they're getting too far away
1:27:24
Speaker 1: from maybe their core strengths. But like when you see
1:27:27
Speaker 1: companies like aev is a great example, or like Go
1:27:31
Speaker 1: Fast Campers is another really good example, they just they
1:27:35
Speaker 1: stay focused on what it is that they do great
1:27:38
Speaker 1: and they kept they keep making it better and a
1:27:40
Speaker 1: better value. And I think customers today are very value sensitive.
1:27:45
Speaker 1: You know, inflation has really you know, kick people in
1:27:49
Speaker 1: the stomach hard, and when they go to buy something,
1:27:52
Speaker 1: they want to feel like I'm getting something of value
1:27:55
Speaker 1: and something that will last, that will survive some at
1:28:00
Speaker 1: least a couple of years of use. And I think
1:28:02
Speaker 1: people are getting a little tired of the products that
1:28:05
Speaker 1: are barely lasting a season.
1:28:07
Speaker 4: So for sure, I think the thing too is is
1:28:10
Speaker 4: like human tendency to always want more and be bigger
1:28:17
Speaker 4: and be better. And I'm trying to think of like
1:28:23
Speaker 4: just this, like more and more and more. I want
1:28:26
Speaker 4: to offer more products. I want to offer this and
1:28:30
Speaker 4: that and add this and that, and sometimes it's like
1:28:35
Speaker 4: maybe it's better to simplify and to be honest. I
1:28:38
Speaker 4: feel like i'm kind of I've got one eye kind
1:28:40
Speaker 4: of on the industry and I've got I'm kind of
1:28:43
Speaker 4: i feel like out of the loop tiny bit. I'm
1:28:46
Speaker 4: just traveling over here. I mean I do. I'm like,
1:28:49
Speaker 4: you know, doing overline news of the week, so i
1:28:51
Speaker 4: have an eye on it a little bit, but I'm
1:28:54
Speaker 4: not like one up to date on all the new
1:28:56
Speaker 4: products coming out. But I would, I guess I would say,
1:29:00
Speaker 4: you know, yeah, I would say sometimes simple is better.
1:29:07
Speaker 4: It's like thinking about it. And I'm sure you talked
1:29:09
Speaker 4: about this a lot, about the Japanese Masters and focusing
1:29:14
Speaker 4: one thing and making it the best that it can be.
1:29:20
Speaker 4: And I'm like kind of a hypocrite saying all of that,
1:29:22
Speaker 4: because of course, in human nature, right, You're like, I
1:29:25
Speaker 4: want to write more articles and I want to be
1:29:27
Speaker 4: better at it, and I want to see more countries,
1:29:29
Speaker 4: and I want to do this and do that. But
1:29:32
Speaker 4: all of that takes energy, and all of that takes
1:29:34
Speaker 4: more people and more human power and more money and
1:29:39
Speaker 4: more time. And so I think you mentioned reading The Essentialist,
1:29:43
Speaker 4: and I read it recently as well, and it's like, well,
1:29:45
Speaker 4: what if you do one country but you take three
1:29:48
Speaker 4: weeks instead of doing three countries, Or you have one
1:29:52
Speaker 4: product and it's like you're saying it's and it's made,
1:29:56
Speaker 4: and you keep upgrading and you keep renovating I don't know,
1:30:01
Speaker 4: renovating word.
1:30:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, and you've done that. You've done that, Ashley.
1:30:07
Speaker 1: You continue to work on your craft and you continue
1:30:10
Speaker 1: to be a better and better writer, a better informed writer.
1:30:15
Speaker 1: Your research is cleaner, you just can your content does better.
1:30:20
Speaker 1: You continue to improve because it's something that you focus
1:30:22
Speaker 1: your energy on. And I think to your point about
1:30:26
Speaker 1: simplicity or less is more, it's it's like people will
1:30:30
Speaker 1: always feel poor no matter how much money they have
1:30:33
Speaker 1: until they know what enough is. If you don't know
1:30:36
Speaker 1: what enough is, or if you're not willing to say
1:30:40
Speaker 1: I need less than I did yesterday, not more than
1:30:42
Speaker 1: I needed yesterday, you're never going to catch up. And
1:30:45
Speaker 1: people will spend an entire lifetime grasping for an impossible
1:30:51
Speaker 1: metric and that that's a very stressful place to live.
1:30:58
Speaker 4: For sure. Yep. Yeah, I would say I'm still working
1:31:04
Speaker 4: on that also, but also having I want all of
1:31:08
Speaker 4: the articles in the podcast to be the best that
1:31:11
Speaker 4: they can be. And if it means that I write
1:31:14
Speaker 4: fewer articles, that's how or do your podcast. I would
1:31:19
Speaker 4: love to do more. I would love to do more.
1:31:22
Speaker 4: But when you're looking at your life and you're balancing
1:31:26
Speaker 4: all these things, you kind of have to prioritize.
1:31:30
Speaker 1: And now you're you're absolutely right, You're absolutely right.
1:31:34
Speaker 4: It's like a very privileged thing to say, right, You're like, oh,
1:31:37
Speaker 4: you have to like prioritize when you're traveling and doing
1:31:43
Speaker 4: this and that, and some people will don't have adoption.
1:31:46
Speaker 1: But anyway, yeah, well, and I can see it in
1:31:52
Speaker 1: the work that you do. And I can't thank you
1:31:54
Speaker 1: enough Ashley for again all of the excellent work that
1:31:58
Speaker 1: you do for the Overland Journal podcast and the incredible
1:32:02
Speaker 1: articles that you write for Expedition Portal and Overland Journal.
1:32:07
Speaker 1: Our business is so much better for having you and
1:32:11
Speaker 1: Richard involved, and we're we're beyond grateful. And I know
1:32:15
Speaker 1: that the audience enjoys your content because they tell me
1:32:19
Speaker 1: on a regular basis. So how do people get in
1:32:22
Speaker 1: touch with you if they have feedback or ideas? What's
1:32:25
Speaker 1: the best way for people to follow your journey?
1:32:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you can follow at desk Glory on all
1:32:33
Speaker 4: the social channels. I also have my own at desk
1:32:36
Speaker 4: to Glory understore. Ash You can send me a DM
1:32:40
Speaker 4: if you want to chat, if you have article ideas
1:32:42
Speaker 4: or podcast ideas, or if there's somebody you want to
1:32:45
Speaker 4: see or hear from the podcast. We're always open to
1:32:48
Speaker 4: ever like certain topics maybe that you're particularly interested in,
1:32:53
Speaker 4: and then you need to also send me an email
1:32:56
Speaker 4: at Ashley at Overland international dot com.
1:33:01
Speaker 1: Well, I'm so excited to hear about your journey into Bosnia.
1:33:04
Speaker 1: That's going to be incredible, so I look forward to
1:33:07
Speaker 1: seeing the updates on that, and I appreciate you being
1:33:11
Speaker 1: on podcast number two hundred and being just the amazing
1:33:14
Speaker 1: host that you.
1:33:15
Speaker 4: Are, so we celebrate. We'll pop some champagne next time
1:33:19
Speaker 4: we see each other.
1:33:20
Speaker 1: That's right, awesome. Well, thank you again, Ashley, and we
1:33:24
Speaker 1: thank you all for listening, and we'll talk to you
1:33:26
Speaker 1: next time.