Overland Expo East 2024
the drive down to Virginia
before the trip (Tuesday) I cooked hummus, baked beans, tikka masala w chicken and a mexican bean dish. Used these cool new, reusable silicone bags to store them. Kind of expensive but worth it, https://a.co/d/02H8sbn bought a grey set and a pink set. Trying to eat healthier in general and beans and lentils seem to help prevent overeating a lot.
started the drive Wednesday at 9a.m. from the commuter lot at rt 20 and the Mass Pike just south of Worcester after meeting up w Jeff. Had some issues with my Midland mxt400 radio during the first couple hours of our trip. Jeff said I was cutting out when talking, and my radio was keying. We use the digital scramble on top of picking a channel, so highly unlikely it was someone else. Turns out that it was me using the handset and it was adding just enough tension on the plug to cause issues when I moved the mic up to my face to talk. I've order a 2ft cat6 rj45 cable extension off Amazon. Should fix the issue. In the meantime I zip tied my handset cord to my shifter so I can't pull on the plug when using it. Jeff said it fixed the main problems. He was still hearing a click and nothing occasionally, but we're not sure what's causing that.
Other than that, the drive down to Martinsburg West Virginia via i 84 and i81 was uneventful. only one or two traffic jams. the 2nd one i was able to use Google Maps to look ahead and get off 81 and do a detour around the worst of it. At most I saved 5 minutes, but it was so much better than being stuck in crawling, stop and go traffic for 15-20 minutes. The backroads were pretty, and we behaved following the speed limits.
Here’s the obligatory shot of our overnight spot at the CB (Cracker Barrel) in Martinsburg WV. I'd been bad on the drive dow and had a Burger King whopper for lunch, so i got a grilled chicken salad at the CB for dinner.
the highway was super close and I probably didn’t sleep well based on how tired I felt by mid morning. My garmin watch showed poor sleep too. No deep sleep and only an hour of REM.
I need to try some ear buds designed for sleeping. even my foam plugs with a single hearing protector ear muff over the ear not on the pillow didn't help much (I sleep on my side)
side sleeping ear buds I ordered
https://a.co/d/cIsS06r
Got them for $90 (refurbished) during Prime Oct 8th/9th, so I’m writing this note from the future!!!. going to give these wireless earbuds a try to help with sleeping in noisy areas. I think if I played Wind white noise with my single ear muff on one ear, and my other ear down on the pillow it’ll block the road noise far better than using regular foam ear plugs (i hope).
Before leaving, i just got 2 pancakes. The older lady working the front seemed concerned that i'd only ordered 2 pancakes. I assured her it wasn't a money thing, it was me trying to get my weight down (i'm 6'3 and 280ish these days). She said that I looked just fine, so I explained it's because I want to bike cross country and the less I weigh, the easier the hills will be. She laughed at that and wished me luck as the next customer arrived to pay their bill. Leaving Martinsburg's CB, it was only 2.5 hours to the Expo in arrington.
Thursday, arrival at the Expo
the i81 exit we got off is near the tunnels we’re going to check out on the way back home. Going to try find camping in the Shenadoah National Park somewhere too.
the roads were a bit muddy coming into the expo field areas. but we were earlier than most, so we got in before it got really muddy and messy.
the first camp spot Jeff picked in the Forest area didn’t work out. We had to move because my truck was right next to hornet’s nest in the ground. the orange, nasty looking, big hornets.
Jeff hates bees and hornets, so he was like LET'S MOVE!!!! haven’t seen him move that fast in awhile. Lol.
we found a spot further into the “forest” area. I had picked the forest area from reading online. It's the furthest from the noise in the center of the expo. the camping right next to the expo area gets super tight (supposedly), and there’s more of a party/drinking/music vibe down there at night. Or so I thought at least, the Forest camping had way less room; at least where we were. Had neighbors closer than in the open field areas. At least there was shade from the trees. We had a loud group nearby too, so I think the only advantage to camping in the forest was the shade, which isn't good for my solar panel. Oh well, live and learn.
my nearest neighbor was in a 2 door jeep wrangler with a roof top tent. He works on nuclear power stuff. His buddy used to be in the military at Quantico (per my eavesdropping later that night), but now has a consultant/government gig for Cancer related treatments. Nice guys. The 2nd guy had a hammock tent setup between the trees.
relaxed for the afternoon, then around 4p.m. Jeff and I hopped on our bikes to go check out the expo area, and to get there early for the Welcome at 5. We took some photos walking around too.
the Aeon RV rig i’m interested in (in 10 years or so after the truck dies). I did the tour later.
a wide out shot of the main exhibitor area
wonder how many millions worth of vehicles are here. with everyone’s rig. Heck my rig cost me about 85k. Adds up quick
Thursday dusk
I’ve made friends with both neighbors. One side is a 60 something guy in a 2 door Jeep with a roof top tent. His buddy is little younger than me and sleeping in a hammock tent.
The other couple on Jeff's side are younger. 30 somethings from Kentucky. They have two australian shepherds. The older dog was missing a rear leg, but seems to do fine in her tug of war contests with the 1 year old. They had a subaru outback and tent setups. They were there to look at teardrop campers, and they mostly camp in Kentucky. Nice folks.
Jeff’s being a hermit in his van. There are still bees and bugs out. His van is like a cozy little apartment. I'd go hang out in his van more, but I'm stinky when camping and he's got a sensitive nose. I like being outside more anyway, and it's been fun socializing with the neighbors.