Gathering of Overlanders

Gathering of Overlanders

Thursday night (24 hours prior to leaving) Roof Top Tent packed with bedding and Jeep jammed packed with everything we need for the September long weekend. For those who know, know September long weekend can be a bit hit and miss, when it comes to weather and being in the outdoors. This one promised to be hot and dry and that meant the roads, come rush hour, in Calgary, AB were going to start packing up early and would be miserable. The plan? Car Pool in, start the work day early, leave as early as work would permit and hope nothing would prohibit that plan! Lady Luck was on our side. So,  why were we excited to for this particular Long Weekend? Why not hunker down and stay at home and avoid the mass exodus of people trying to get out and pack into the many campsites and recreation areas that dot the Western Provinces? The reason! A Gather of Overlanders, that’s why!! This year Kyrie and I were hellbent on attending the Second Annual Alberta Overland Adventure Expo! Last year we had to cancel last minute due to Canadian – US borders finally opening up to land crossing. This meant that our Daughter, Son-In-Law and Grand-Daughter were finally coming up to visit and well family is priority.  This year pretty much nothing was going to stop us from making the five hour journey north to the Medicine Lodge Rodeo Grounds to take part in the activities and shenanigans that would

So, why? Well, Why not?! Seriously, though after Overlanding for just over a year we wanted to see how others do it. We wanted to see how others set up their rigs, swap stories, share in their experiences and hopefully  learn a thing or two. Plus, it was sure fire way to finally meet a bunch of people, until then, I had only interacted with through Social Media. This in itself ended up being best part of the whole weekend, SOCIAL CONNECTIONS! It was great to finally put faces to names, make electronic friendships tangible and to make new friends. Seriously, nothing better than showing up, only knowing people by their Instagram handles, hopping that you might run into someone you know, learning their real names, being invited to join a campsite and then spending the weekend hanging out admiring each other’s rigs, swapping stories and ideas, ribbing each other about one thing or another or about something that someone pressured them into buying and at the end of the day sitting around a campfire laughing your head

    

This really is, in the end, why we do this Overland thing isn’t it? The primal instinct in us humans, to do that which was done by caveman ancestors? Sit around a campfire and connect?

For us we came away with new friends, memories and feeling like we had hit the jackpot!

 Why do you Overland?