Vehicles
Rigs & Trailers
“Look at life through the windshield, not the rear view mirror.”
— Byrd Baggett
The Overlanding Adventure Path, or How Overlanding Became My Make-Believe Hobby
I.
MARGE: “Homer, is this the way you pictured married life?”
HOMER: “Yeah, pretty much. Except we drove around in a van solving mysteries.”
My first love of the road trip adventure, and the purpose-designed vehicle had to be The Mystery Machine.
With no seats, no storage and no luggage, the Mystery, Inc gang made their way across the country, completely unsupported and able to solve whatever mystery came their way.
In a way, The Mystery Machine was the forerunner of the A-Team van – a tight-knit gang hanging out together getting things done.
However, unlike the Mystery Machine, the A-Team featured a “gear trunk” in the rear of the van which held the Team’s stock of either early model AR-15s or the later Mini-14s with those rad steel folding stocks.
II.
When I was young, my old man bought a late model truck with a camper.
He was really just buying the truck but the camper came with it. Being a camping/outdoorsy kind family, we’d done a lot of tent camping, but this was probably the only time I’d ever been exposed to a dedicated camping vehicle. It was pretty dated, even by 1980s standards, but it really captured my imagination. In one of the few trips we’d ever took with it – and if memory serves, there may have only been one – I remember sleeping cozily inside while a thunderstorm raged outside, I couldn’t get over how cool it was to be self-contained in this little mini-house with all of the gear we needed for whatever adventure came our way.
This is not the camper and truck setup, but you get the idea
Cool as it was, the camper when not in use was a blight on our driveway and such a lawn ornament was against the Old Man’s sense of order, so I think we sold it after not too long. However, the vehicle and camper combination was forever etched on my brain and one of the long-running toys of my youth was a Lego version I built based on the concept.
As an aside, I took the Old Man to an overland show in 2023 and he was pretty impressed with the evolution of the truck-bed camper and how grand these things are now.
III.
Growing up in Harmony Hills, there was a street adjacent to mine that I frequented in my bike riding adventures with the gang. This was important, because I had a specific route I could roam on my bike and still be “in bounds” with regard to distance from the house.
One street over, one of the neighbors had an FJ-60 Land Cruiser and this vehicle imprinted on my mind as potential Plato’s perfect form of off-road and adventuring vehicle . . . .
But more on that later.
IV.
When we were living in our old apartment over off Steck Ave, there was a guy in an adjoining neighborhood that had what I could only describe as a Bug Out Van. It was a white ford cargo van with a roof rack, and tire carrier with what I remember being 5 gas cans.
I was see the vehicle periodically, but in the days before the ever-present smart phone, I never managed to grab a picture.
The year must have been 2002 or 2003, so this may have been his Y2K-mobile.
This, but not yellow – ED.
V.
In 2007, I was a medic on a Search and Rescue team in Austin and in the winter of that year, I was suffering through the sleep deprivation that goes with being a first-time parent. I was having a hard time focusing on the training and was probably spending more time whining about my lack of sleep.
It was in this suggestive mode that my friend Joel – a dog handler – pulled up in his new Sportsmobile. He bought the rig with plans to use it for cross-country dog shows – but I am sure now he had other plans in mind. I had never seen or heard of Sportsmobile, but the comparison to the old van I had so admired was striking.
He took me through the features of the vehicle – it was literally a Mystery Machine-type vehicle. I couldn’t believe it. A comfortable place to sleep, mini-kitchen, outdoor shower, and plenty of storage for early model AR-15s or even the later Mini-14s with those rad steel folding stocks.
He introduced me to the concept of Overlanding – and lent me a copy of a new magazine that had just come out that year:
The hook was set.
Overlanding would become my new make-believe hobby.
“Please understand, I have been waiting to leave ever since I figured out that there were roads willing to take me anywhere I wanted to go.”
— Unknown
#overlanding
#actionvehicles
#bugoutvehicle
#roadwarriorreality