– September 2021 –
Overland Expo West: Flagstaff, Arizona. From everyone in the know, I’ve heard over and over: “Oh Expo West is the main event, it is HUGE!” For this expo we were determined to put our best tire forward, Mako would be gleaming, we’d make a good impression on our Overland heroes, and we’d deal our butts into some more compact chairs.
After all the last-minute transmission drama, we roll into Flagstaff much later than we had planned. With only three hours to spare before we are expected to present Mako at the Gear and Beer event, we snap immediately into task master mode. Following an extremely necessary stop at our favorite Flagstaff coffee spot, Wicked Arizona, we set off toward the car wash and begin the slow process of cleaning every splattered bug and tar-spot off of Mako.
Ivy, as always, behaves as though we are trying to end her life the moment the hose turns on, acting so panicked anyone would think we made a regular habit of water-boarding her. The next item on our list of pre-expo preparations brings us to Home Depot, where we are on the hunt for a suitable bed strap replacement. After a moment puzzling over why the hell these are such expensive straps, we make the purchase, replace the disastrously frayed straps, and sigh with relief that we finished it all in time.
Now here’s where the day gets a bit sticky… from the moment we woke that morning, Austin and I had been short with each other, quick to find offense where none was intended, and just overall ill-tempered. Like the clouds before a lightning storm, it was as though the air were electrically charged, I could feel the telltale signs of a major fight just waiting to break. Predictably, the flame that lit the match involved a disagreement over food, Austin wanted to eat dinner now while I just wanted to snack and eat at the event. This somehow morphs into the biggest, most pointless, argument we’ve had since starting our trip and, given the touchy climate around fighting van-life couples, the whole thing is carrying on in angry whispers as we periodically look over our shoulders to make sure no one is in ear shot.
I can feel the fight getting dumber with every moment that it continues, but it’s too late, we’ve invested too much into stubborn anger and every single thing we have ever argued about has been laid out on the table. Finally, Austin grabs Ivy’s leash and goes outside to feed her as an excuse to escape me, slamming the dog food drawer shut as he leaves. Three minutes later he climbs back in and, in an anticlimactic move that shocks us all, apologizes and says that he loves me. While it is my primary instinct to be petty, I instead melt under his gaze and apologize for acting like the 15 year old brat he fell in love with 8 years ago.
For the most part, traveling together has only strengthened our relationship, I understand and appreciate Austin’s strengths in a much deeper way than I did when the only real time we spent together were the exhausted moments we were allotted between working full time jobs. These days, we are together 24/7 and in our efforts to preserve every penny of our savings, even shower in each other’s company. The time it takes me to pee is most often the only solitary moment I will enjoy in a day. Contrary to popular belief, however, this doesn’t mean I get easily sick of him. Quite the opposite, I’ve found it’s made me miss him more readily, by the time I’m walking out of the bathroom I’m excited to be reunited again.
No, the problem isn’t too much of each other, but the inability to take a beat when I feel myself sinking into a foul mood. Back in my other life with a house and a job, if I was having a bad day, I knew myself well enough to take a moment and mellow out in my own company, shielding myself and others from any involuntary grouchiness. That isn’t an option anymore. If I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, then Austin has no choice but to witness it and vice versa. Fortunately we’ve both been there and can sympathize, in fact, Austin has gotten so good at pulling me out of a funk that I’ve begun to worry he can actually read my mind now. On the other hand, when the stars of wicked align, and we both wake up irritated at the world for no reason… it’s time to take cover, cheap shots are incoming.
Turns out, In slamming the door, Austin had caused one of the screws to come out and now the drawer face had detached entirely. Sounding uncannily similar to a certain character in Wreck-it-Ralph, Austin declares he can fix it and I stifle a sudden image of him in a pixelated tool belt. With only 26 minutes before we need to be parked in front of Peace Surplus in downtown Flagstaff, Austin hightails it back into the store for some L brackets. (how convenient that we are still in the Home Depot parking lot) 25 minutes later, and we’re right on time at the gear and beer event, hand in hand, with drawers securely intact and smiles plastered on our faces.
The gear and beer event is about three hours of speaking with locals and showing them our home between sips of beer and bites of phenomenal food truck sandwiches. A severely tipsy man approaches us red faced and says he is certain ivy will enjoy a sip of his beer and before we know what’s happening, has poured the last of his cup into her bowl. Judging by the way she licks her bowl clean, I’m inclined to believe he was right, that’s my furry little alcoholic. By the end of the night, Austin has enjoyed more than his fair share of free beer samples so I hop into the front seat and ease out into the bumper-to-bumper street traffic.
I don’t know what it is about alcohol that turns Austin into a perpetually hungry Scooby-doo character, but as always when he’s buzzed, I know what to expect as soon as we pass the first brightly lit fast-food joint. I try to reason with him as we drive along the endless line of roadside restaurants but he insists we have to stop because, despite having already eaten, he swears he is now starving to death. Swayed by magic words like “french fries” and “Oreo McFlurry” he succeeds in wearing me down and, laden with delicious greasy sustenance, we set off happily to find camp in the dark. I’d been tipped off at the event that there was plenty of camping to be found off Purple Sage Rd. so I was just turning on to an easy side trail when a screeching mechanical roar told me that something had gone catastrophically wrong.
The engine sounded as though it was gurgling gravel, making such a racket in the still darkness I felt sure the entire town of Flagstaff could hear it. Wide eyed and thinking fast, Austin leans over and pulls the key out of ignition but its still several moments before the engine ceases to scream at us. In the silence, Austin steps out into the night and with a look of utter dread, opens the hood. He comes back to me with a sullen diagnosis, the cooling fan had committed a nasty murder/suicide. In grenading itself, the detached blades had pierced through the radiator, effectively taking out the AC we had worked so hard to install just five days previously. This is actually a better outcome than the one I had feared. At least Mako is still drivable.
Next morning, we pull into O’reilleys to get a replacement fan. Austin had called last night and our fan was of course back ordered until next year, so we had no choice but to try something different and cross our fingers. Austin replaces the fan right there in the parking lot and, while this one isn’t as strong as the one it replaced, it would have to do for now, we had an expo to get to.
We would be arriving at Expo West as a DIY/showcase vehicle, so for the duration of the show, we couldn’t move Mako anywhere. This meant stocking the fridge and cabinets with food, refilling the water tank, and because we don’t have jerry cans, filling an empty gatorade bottle with diesel. When, after an hour and a half in the expo line, we finally pull into the DIY area, we find that everyone is already there, comfortably settled in their respective spots. At last, as we pull into place between two other Toyotas and we breathe a great sigh of relief, we made it.
The expo flashes past in a blur of campfires and handshakes. On the very first night we meet the Bell family (A2A Expedition), authors of our favorite overlanding book, Travel the Planet Overland. On the second day, we successfully manage to catch a deal on the frontrunner chairs we’d been eyeing and happily pawn off our old ones to a couple of strangers. On the last day, it rains and everyone is eager to leave, but not before exchanging information and hugging goodbye. It would be about two weeks before we fully understood the pitying tones of our friends when we told them we were headed straight to Virginia for Overland East… more on that later 😉