Having attended Overland Expo since it was a modest once a year gathering down in Amado, Arizona, it’s truly mind boggling to see how this once “niche” overland community of ours has grown and become truly global. Like usual, we saw representation from around the globe. Once we were set up, we watched the fields and surrounding facilities at The Ranch Events Center in Loveland fill up as more and more vendors and companies rolled in by the hour. With tens of thousands of attendees on the way, and hundreds of vendors, this was an extremely busy weekend and I could not have done it without the boots on ground presence of these fine Americans. Reinforcements soon arrived when John Tate and Adam Wright joined us on site as well. Linking up on site with fellow Adventurist and Founding Member Tim Bleau, check in was made easy by the Expo staff and we quickly established our forward operating base for the long weekend at Overland Expo Mountain West in Colorado. A three hour nap in a “picnic area” off I-20 in August heat in East Texas reinforced my need for a fan in my Quick Pitch roof top tent, and a full night’s sleep and hot shower in camp in New Mexico made all the difference when I finally rolled into “The Ranch” on Thursday for work. Now the fun began, with three back-to-back 10 hour days across six states and nearly 1,500 miles “ overland” to get to this event and cover it. With all systems go on my end, and a last minute confirmation from my contacts inside the puzzle palace at Lodestone, I headed west. We’ve covered almost every Overland Expo event to date ( see here and here and here and here ) so being able to physically attend this inaugural event in Colorado was a big deal for us, especially after being Virtual in 2020. This event was a huge success! Colorado or Bust My hat is off to all those at Lodestone from the very top all the way down to the volunteers on the ground that made this happen in Colorado. Spoiler Alert: The pandemic and shutdowns of 2020 conspired to put Overland Expo out of business, but Lodestone and this community are RALLYING in 2021. I know the event organizers likely aged a few years with worry and lost sleep over the what if’s that were spawned in our minds as a result of 2020. Because of all that, there was an uncomfortable feeling right up until the day I drove away from Florida for Colorado that this event would somehow get derailed too. For most of us, the last year+ was like a dystopian B movie on many levels, complete with terrible casting and an even worse plot line. Overland Expo Mountain West almost didn’t happen.
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