After spending great time in Sedona, we headed to Flagstaff for an interesting event, Overland Expo West 2024. It’s the biggest event in northern America around overlanding and what I love about it, is the fact that it is not only about introducing new gears, gadgets and showing new overlanding rigs and everything related to overlanding but they also have lots of workshops, round table discussions and other helpful resources to use. It’s also the place to meet legendary travelers that we were following their adventures for a while.
Before we started this trip, we realized that we might be in the right place in the right time to go and have a look at Overland expo. We checked the dates and then the price of the tickets for one day entry and it blew our minds! Couple of hundreds of dollars to go and have a look for a day! So we decided to leave it for this trip, then we realized that there’s an entry for DIY overland rigs that we could apply for and if we were selected, we could stay on site for the course of the show for free, so we applied. Long story short, our rig got accepted and we had a spot in the Expo. We knew that we have to be in Flagstaff, Arizona for the show between 19-21 May, so we planned our trip around it.
Few days before the show, we got another update that we can have our car on show in Flagstaff the night before the show starts next to a bar as part of the Beer and Gear event in Flagstaff, so we joined that one too!
Like any other social event, it’s all about meeting likeminded people, new people which you would never meet if you didn’t say yes to an event like this or never leave the comfort of your home. We had a great night meeting interesting people. We were hoping for a free beer which we didn’t get but their beer collection was really good. In General we pleasantly surprised with Flagstaff. It had such a cool vibe, its downtown with its historical buildings, lots of cool outdoor shops, very outdoorsy people, younger and older ones, and the small cute charming houses in town with interesting features which don’t fit in a typical big American houses lifestyle. It’s like a mini Colorado in Arizona from the natural scenery and the weather point of it. It’s surrounded by big mountains and forests
The following day, we had to get to the Expo location and get settled down before the show starts the following day so we did.
Right at the entrance of the show, it was an open space for DIY overlanding rigs and we had the spot right at the end of the corridor which we thought, was great at the start but we got so much dust and sand in the car during those 3 days in the middle of a forest that we would never get if we were offroading in the sand dunes! But it was fun!! We got two surprises right at the start. The first one was the fact that we were informed that few workshops and tech boards have been assigned to us and for the workshops, we need to have our presentation ready!! No pressure!!
The second good surprise was meeting a lovely couple travelling with their Troopy that we were following on YouTube for few years and we wanted to catchup with them in the USA. After they heard that we are going to Overland Expo and how we got in, they also applied and on the last minute, they got an spot to come in so we had 3 days to camp next to each other and enjoy. For sure, it wasn’t as fun as it was, if we didn’t have them with us on the show.
Those three days went so fast!! We had full on days with people coming in to have a chat about the car. We had to join the workshops and panels and prepare the presentation for our main workshop too. On top of that, we had to go out and see what the expo has to offer and meet the people in person that we were following on social media for the long time. Then at 5:00 when the Expo was over, it was happy hour so we were getting together with Ernst and Jew for a few drinks and a lot of laughter.
We were also surrounded with cool overlanders that some of them have been spending the last 20 years of their lives, travelling around the globe in their rigs. I could listen to their stories for days and we have so many interesting stories that blew our minds.
After almost 4 days at the show, we were so ready to leave. It was an amazing experience and we are glad that we had a chance to be part of it.
The next stop for us was Sonoita, close to border with Mexico. Why? Because we ordered some parts for the Troopy and we had to go there to meet a Landcruiser expert to do the job. We had to push it to after the Expo due to delayed delivery from Australia but it was finally in Sonoita and we had to get there in two days to have it out of our way.
Leaving mountainous Flagstaff and Sedona and heading to southern Arizona, the pine trees soon replaced by massive Saguaro Cacti and the weather started to get much hotter.
First day went well and we camped somewhere quiet for the night. on the second day south, we stopped before Tucson so I can attend a meeting while we still have coverage at around 7 pm. By then, we were in the USA for over a month and we started to feel confident finding the nice camp spot anywhere we go. I’ve finished my meeting at around 8:00 pm and it was already getting dark. We tried few places that we had marked on our map and none of them were good. Not that we were picky but they all looked unsafe or people in dodgy cars were hanging around the area. We kept driving and try different spots and none was feeling safe. It was way past sunset and It marked the first night of the trip that we were looking to camp in night time. We kept driving south toward Sonoita and couldn’t find anything. It was already midnight that we got to Sonoita and were few kilometers from the border. Every dirt road that we were finding on the map and wanted to go and find a sport to sleep, it was a truck parked right at the entrance with someone in it. If it was day time and we could see our proximity maybe it was ok but middle of the night, close to border, where we can see nothing was the sketchiest situation we put ourselves in by far. We finally managed to find a spot that we were sure no one will see us from the main road and went to sleep. Well kind of, both of us almost didn’t sleep at all. Early in the morning, we were so ready to go the workshop and see Onur, the expert Landcruiser mechanic.
Overland Cruiser workshop was great. Onur started to work on our car right away and kindly offered his office to me to have internet and work on few things. He also said that the area around Sonoita is pretty safe and we shouldn’t be worried the night before but we didn’t know it the night before anyway.
As soon as we got the car ready, started to head north since it was getting really hot in southern Arizona and we didn’t want to lose our window to get to northern Arizona and Utah while it is still cool enough. We got to Tucson in late afternoon and we were so tired after the long drive of the day before and sleepless night and for the first time in our trip, we decided to go to the hotel and stay in Tucson so we can explore few places in the city the day after. We enjoyed a great Persian dinner in Tucson and had a great night sleep.
The plan for the next day was visiting Pima Air & Space Museum and we did. It was a great experience and we saw lots of cool stuff that we both love. Despite the heat and having the majority of planes on show outside, we did enjoy it.
We ticked off another to do list in Tucson too. Chaapaar was in desperate need for decent all terrain tires since we got it. The plan was to replace them as soon as we started the trip but we didn’t get a chance to do it in the first few weeks. So we stayed another night in Tucson and got the new set of tires for Chaapaar!
From there we drove north as quick as we could and got some amazing camp sots along the way. Arizona kept surprising us with its ever changing scenery and its beauty. We still have so much more ground to cover in Arizona.
Next time, we keep going north to get to the iconic Grand Canyon before leaving Arizona. Till then, take care.
