BONUS EPISODE - Overland EXPO EAST, Arrington, VA

Hey everybody, welcome to another bonus episode, a bonus episode for Overland Expo, and the last

Overland Expo of the year, Overland Expo East.

Going to this event was really, really great, but it was also bittersweet because it was

the last one, and I was a little sad.

I was talking to Milton about that too when we were both a little sad, but still it was

a great event.

We had a lot of really good people there that came down from Adventure 1 to be part of

Camp Subaru, so that was really nice.

And then we had, of course, some other campers that were emailed and asked to come out,

or asked if they would like to join, and they did.

So we got to meet some new people that way as well.

But before I go any further, I just want to give a huge, huge shout out to Joe at Subaru

of America, and then Subaru of America, and then Sean and G7, and everybody that participated

in this event, and had me out there, and all of us out there at all of the Expo's.

Subaru definitely deserves a place at Overland Expo, and they came in, and they came

in big because their booth space, still, I don't like calling it a booth, but

their space was huge.

It was much bigger, I think, than most of the other ones.

And I think that made a really good impression on people, and it made a really good impression

on all of us that were a part of the event, that were able to participate, people that

had their cars in the booth, in the space, and like me and Milton and Kerry, everybody

that got to travel around to most of the events, it was great.

It was like, I am so honored and blessed and feel just truly grateful to have been a part

of this experience, and I look forward to next year.

We have some ideas for next year, and we're going to all kind of brainstorm on that a

little bit later this year, but I'm just, I'm so glad Subaru was there.

There were people that came into the Subaru space and said that they came there

because they saw that Subaru was going to be at Overland Expo, and then there were people

that came in that did not know Subaru was going to be there, and were really excited

to see Subaru there, and so we're definitely excited to see them there.

But yeah, I just had an amazing time.

I got to meet so many people.

I got to meet people that I've been connected with and that I've chatted with, that

I've had on the podcast, and that was really, really great, and I got to meet a lot

of new people as well.

So overall, it was just such an incredible experience, and again, I just feel truly honored

and blessed and so grateful to have been part of it.

I also want to give a huge shout out to everybody that has shown support for the podcast lately,

especially this week, because as you may know, I lost my job on Monday, and the outpouring

of support and messages from the community has been just absolutely amazing, and so I

really, really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart for everybody's support.

Of course, I didn't know that I was going to go into work Monday morning and lose

my job, but I also didn't know I wasn't sure about posting the reel that I did asking

for support, but I just, I felt like I needed to, and I'm so glad I did because the community

has come together and it's been absolutely incredible.

So if you want to know how you can support the podcast and support, I mean it's not

just me, it's supporting the podcast, and that's supporting everybody because this podcast

is about the whole community, it's not just about me, it's about everybody that

is a guest, everybody that's listening, everybody that participates in all the events that

I'm able to go to.

This podcast is for everybody, so if you want to be able to help support and you're not

already doing so, you can go to the link tree in my Instagram page and click on the second

link, it says like support the podcast, join Patreon, something like that, I can't

remember exactly what it says there, but that's how you can help support the podcast

and keep this thing going because I definitely don't want to have me not having a job

stop the podcast, I want to keep being able to do this and I want to be able to continue

to go to events, and I would love to be able to do this full time, I would love to be

able to go out to more events, I've had so many people say, are you coming out to

Wicked Big Meat, are you coming out to Subifest California, oh you gotta come up here,

you gotta come up there, and one of the reasons I haven't been able to do a lot

more things is one, lack of funds of course, but two, PTO, I only have so much PTO, but

if I'm doing this full time, this is, I can do whatever I want, I can go wherever I

want, so that would be an absolute dream to be able to do this full time, so if

you want to help try and get me there, you can help support the podcast by joining

Patreon, it definitely helps, it's $7 a month, so it's not a huge, huge amount, and I feel

like one of those commercials where they're like, for only the cost of two cups of coffee,

you can help support blah blah blah, I know it's kind of being silly, but anyway, that's

me, I'm silly, but anyway, for all the people that have joined Patreon and helped support

the podcast, I really, really appreciate it, it really means a lot, because every little

bit counts, and it can help pull me through this time right now, but also help carry me

forward, which is what I would really love to be able to do, and so I appreciate all of

you very, very much, it really means a lot. As I was putting this episode together and

pulling in all the audio files, I started to see that it was getting really, really

long, I thought about breaking it up into two segments, but it's already been two

weeks since I've been at Overland Expo, and I haven't had the chance to put the

episode out yet, so I'm gonna leave it as one episode, however, what I would

suggest is, well first of all, I don't ever listen to a podcast this long, all in

one stretch, I usually will break it up, because I haven't listened to a Joe

Rogan podcast in a long time, one of his episodes, but anytime that I did, I

almost never listened to it all at once, I would listen to it over the course of a

few days, because his are like, anywhere from two and a half to three and a half

hours, or if you're on a long drive, that's a really great time to listen to

a long podcast, and this is coming out on Friday, so if you've got a weekend

drive, perfect time to listen to the whole thing, if you're gonna be

driving that long. So what I will do for you on this episode is give you a

timestamp of when I complete the first day, or actually, whenever I get to day

two, because day two is where it really starts getting long, and day two I mean

Saturday, because I started off on Thursday, October 2nd then, and that was

the trail ride on, or the drive through Shenandoah National Forest, the 105

mile drive that we did, so I recorded on my own there, but I've got some

content from there, and then also from Friday, which is the first day of

Overland Expo, and then I have content starting on day two of Overland Expo,

which is Saturday, so at that point, if you want to listen all the way up to

day two, that ends at one hour and 18 minutes, so if you want to stop there

and then pick up day two and three, feel free to do so, but wanted to

give you that option, and I've never done that before, like, you know,

suggested breaking it up, because I don't think I've ever had an episode be this

long before, but hey, it's kind of cool to have a really long episode for once.

Again, I just, I appreciate everybody, I appreciate the community, Subaru of

America, this podcast would not continue to keep going if it wasn't for all of

you, so just by listening alone, that, you know, helps to keep this going,

because I wouldn't put something out if nobody was listening, but I appreciate

everybody, I really, really, really am so grateful and thankful for this

opportunity, and I'm glad I started this thing, because it's growing into be

something pretty amazing, and I'm glad that I get to share it with all of you,

but you know what, we're gonna go ahead and get into this bonus episode now.

I've been talking long enough, so it's time to just get it going right here,

so here we go.

All right, I am heading out with the group.

I just want to know when everybody is in line, I just want to get an idea of how much space I need here.

That is our group, we're doing the skyline trail, it's actually not a trail, it's a drive.

Apparently it's got some very beautiful scenery, so I'm looking forward to that,

but this is...

Is everybody that is doing the skyline drive currently in line?

All right, just about.

Yes.

So anyway, yeah, so we're doing the skyline drive.

This is Thursday, October 2nd.

All right, I'm on low now.

And Thursday, October 2nd.

Are they cool? Everybody's in line?

Yeah, sure.

So Thursday, October 2nd, we're trying to, we're doing the skyline drive.

Apparently it's going to be like a six-hour drive, so that'll be interesting,

but there's some beautiful scenery.

There is a group that's doing, I forgot what the name of the trail is,

but it's more of an off-road trail.

And since I have a rental...

So thank you for escorting the elderly.

Since I have a rental, I'm not going in the fun off-road trail.

So I'm missing out on that, but this will be...

This will be a nice drive to see some stuff.

And I'm here, Nick, South Coast Cross Trek.

He is leading this drive, so that's pretty cool.

But I wanted to get some in-car content by myself.

Milton was riding with me, but he bailed on me

and hopped in the car with Patrick from Orbis Overlanding.

So I'm in the car by myself now.

No more Milton, but that's okay.

Milton deserves an experience with Patrick.

That'll be some good time for them to spend together

because Milton had met Patrick for the first time on this trip.

So I know he wanted to talk to him about some stuff anyway.

Apparently he is going to be...

I just wanted to chat about Subaru, because she owned a Subaru.

Milton is in all the...

Well, the last couple of Overland Expo events,

he has done an axle swap or an axle replacement demonstration.

And he's going to do one on Patrick's car.

Because apparently Patrick needs new axles anyway,

so it's a perfect chance to do that.

Somebody that needs axles.

By the way, I'm just going to interject here.

The axles never showed up.

So we did not get...

Or Milton did not get a chance to do a live axle swap on Patrick's car.

So I think he's going to have him delivered to his house

because he still needs them.

They were supposed to come to the bed and breakfast that we were staying in,

but they never showed up.

So we didn't end up doing that.

But I just wanted to clarify that that never happened.

Anyway, we're leaving the park now that we were at breakfast.

It was all the people that were invited out to camp Subaru

plus those of us that are going to be at the Subaru booth.

So Patrick, his car is going to be a booth car.

And then there's Corey with SoFly.

I don't think she's going to be a booth car, but she's here.

She followed Patrick.

And so yeah, so we're heading out and going to take a beautiful drive,

the Skyline Drive.

And I will keep you updated as we go along.

But I flew out just for context.

I flew out Wednesday, October 1st.

And flew into DCA.

Wash Ronald.

What is it?

Anyway, I flew into DCA and I got in at noon and then Milton asked

if I could pick him up when he gets in because he got in at five.

So I did some exploring and just walked around,

checked some things out and drove around.

So I had a good time.

I had been to DC before for work and had a chance to go walk around

and see stuff and I'd been wanting to go back.

So this was a great opportunity to take that extra time to go see some stuff.

So I did.

And then we met up with Sean from Subaru last night.

Also met up with Patrick and Corey and then just hung out with them.

They were at the restaurant that's at the hotel.

So we hung out with them for a while.

And then we ended up going to bed and not getting great sleep.

And got up at 6.30 or met up at 6.30 to go to Cracker Barrel

to pick up some food for breakfast this morning for all of the campers.

Met at this campsite or not a campsite.

It was a park.

Met at the park.

And we ended up all having breakfast and getting to meet new people.

So that was really cool.

So this is a good trip for me because I've had an opportunity

at all of these Overland Expos to meet new people.

We're going to take a ride out of here everybody.

Yeah, I've had a chance to meet new people.

So that's been really cool.

People that I didn't already know.

People that I've been following on Instagram for a really long time.

So that was really cool.

And this will be interesting.

Definitely a good chance we're going to get a little separated here

from cars in between.

It shouldn't be an issue.

We might have a spot we can kind of just pull over and let them pass.

Yeah, so if you heard that I'm sure you did.

They said there's because we're pulling out onto a major road.

So there's going to be other parts.

Don't just let me know when you come out.

You got it.

Anyway, yeah, so we're starting this drive.

I've got all the windows up now or it's going to get too windy for the episode.

But yeah, we're heading out.

It's some beautiful scenery.

It's going to be perfect weather for Overland Expo this weekend.

I heard that or I saw the weather channels.

I think it's going to be the high is going to be like 75

and at the highest point on one of these days.

So it's going to be such a great weekend.

But yeah, I'm looking forward to this weekend.

Another Overland Expo.

The last one for this year.

So very bittersweet.

But it's just been again, such a great opportunity to be a part of these.

And I'm excited about it.

But anyway, that's it for now.

And I'll hop back on and a little bit to add to this.

Welcome to Overland Expo, Virginia.

2025.

All right, we are actually on Skyline Drive right now.

So yeah, so we're on Skyline Drive right now in the National Forest.

And it was because of the shutdown.

It was free to get into the park.

And so far, this view is pretty amazing.

We're going through a wooded area, but we just drove past an overlook

and the view is pretty nice.

So we're just continuing on the speed limit here is like 35 miles an hour.

But we're going about an average of 30, which is nice.

It's nice to just slow down and enjoy the view.

We're definitely enjoying this view.

It's really, really, really pretty and we just started.

So I'm looking forward to what we will come into past where we're at now.

That's going to be a nice, nice day.

The other thing that's really cool that I don't get to do too often is

roll with a bunch of Subaru's.

We're like, I don't know how many there's to me.

One, two, three, four, five, six in front of me.

Do you know the peak elevation we're going to see?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, like seven or eight Subaru's behind me.

I do know the total elevation gain is 12,000.

Do the whole thing.

Oh, that's nice.

I'm looking forward to this.

Like I said, we're just into this.

And it's really, really pretty because we're driving through this wooded area,

which driving through wooded areas is always nice.

It's fun.

It's going to be fun to hear the conversations here over the radio too,

as I'm sure you're able to hear some of that.

But yeah, now, oh my gosh, we just pulled over to a clearing.

I've got wooded area on the left and rock to the right.

It is a drop off, but there's a short little rock wall,

but the view is beautiful.

Wow, it's really nice.

Yeah, did you hear that?

And if you look to your right, you'll see something beautiful.

Yeah, we're going up quite a bit right now.

There is talk about CVTs.

Oh, my CVT is going to be so happy with me.

Yeah, this is a beautiful view.

I forgot your name already.

Who is the local that I was talking to that drives this all the time?

Anyone? Anyone? Viewler?

They were having radio technical difficulties at this point.

That's why we never heard back.

Okay, well, we're waiting to hear back from that person, but...

Oh, this is beautiful.

I guess I'm out here.

I'm going to...

Hi, we're going to pull into this visitor center right here

just to reestablish comms,

because I think we might have some issues there.

You heard that.

Everybody, we're pulling into the visitor center.

All right, so I'm going to do the Subaru account.

We've got Nick here in the lead with his Outback

that he built out for Overland Expo.

Then we've got a Cross Trek Sport.

We've got an Outback Wilderness.

Another Outback Wilderness.

And then we've got a new Forester,

which is really nice.

I don't think it's a hybrid.

No, it's not a hybrid, but it looks nice.

Then we've got a Forester Sport.

Then my Turro Cross Trek.

Then an Outback.

I don't know what year it is.

So far we've got what?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,

10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Subarus.

So that's a...

No, 13 Subarus.

I counted one of the cars that's here mistakenly.

So we're continuing on.

We stopped at an Overlook, which was really, really nice.

And now we're driving again.

And we are going to find a spot to stop for lunch,

because it is almost one o'clock here.

We had breakfast at a little pavilion in a park.

And Sean got Cracker Barrel for everybody.

And we have a bunch of leftovers.

So our group is the lucky ones that get to eat some leftovers.

So everybody seems excited about that.

Somebody, I don't know who was on the radio,

said that they have a griddle and somebody else has propane.

So we are going to stop somewhere and heat up

some of this leftover food and eat.

So that'll be good.

By the way, we never ended up eating that food,

because we just didn't have time to stop,

get out all the food, get out the griddles,

and set it all up because we were running short on time

because we had to be at Overland Expo.

The campers had to be at Overland Expo inside the gate before 6 p.m.

And that posed to be a little bit of an issue later on for some people,

but we got it cleared up, or cleared up rather.

But yeah, so we had to continue on.

And we had some leftover food.

And unfortunately, we were able to put some of it aside,

but unfortunately, some of it went to waste.

So not always, you know, can't always do something about that.

But yeah, we had some snacks, so that was good.

But then we continued on. Here we go.

And the views here again are just incredible.

And so if you are ever able to make it to Virginia

and you can get out to Skyline Drive,

I believe this is Shenandoah National Forest or National Park,

I highly recommend it.

I think it's like a 105-mile drive for this.

It might be the equivalent distance to Cheeseburger Loop.

I don't know what the actual distance of Cheeseburger Loop is.

I'm sure it's on the map where I have it on there.

I don't think I've ever looked at it though.

But since I have some time while I'm sitting here

because I don't have a job,

I looked up the Cheeseburger Loop on Gaia

and it says that it's 163.26 miles.

Wow. I have not driven the whole thing,

not even a, well, maybe like a quarter of it, but that's about it.

But they said that this is going to be like a five to six hour drive.

What are your guys, your preference?

What's your favorite Subaru model and why is it the Outback?

So, yeah, so anyway, we, oh, I don't know.

What do we have? I think we have more Outbacks in this line than Foresters.

I'm driving a StarCross Trek because I wasn't able to print.

But then the rest are Outbacks and Foresters.

Yeah, two Cross Tricks.

There are some very cool Subarus in our group.

Yeah, there you go. We're all cool here.

I don't know what I was saying before that,

but other than the food, I don't remember.

But anyway, this drive is beautiful.

And, oh yeah, I was saying, like, if you have an opportunity to come out here

and drive this drive, it is incredibly beautiful.

I highly recommend it.

Oh yeah, I was saying, I was talking about Cheeseburger Loop

and the distance of this.

So, Cheeseburger Loop is potentially about maybe the same distance.

As far as I've driven in Cheeseburger Loop,

it's taken me at least a couple of hours to get the distance that I have.

And I only drove maybe a quarter of Cheeseburger Loop.

So, one of these days, we're going to plan a group drive

and do all of Cheeseburger Loop.

So, we'll have to set that up at some point.

But yeah, this drive here is incredibly beautiful.

Cheeseburger Loop does not look like this.

This is insane.

Like, good insane.

For those of you out west and have taken the drive,

which I know a lot of people I've talked to have,

this drive on Skyline Road reminds me a lot of the drive up to Big Bear Lake.

Because I went up there for work and I remember taking the windy road

and the views and it was really, really beautiful.

And so, now taking this drive on Skyline Road,

it looks very similar just as far as like the windiness

and the views remind me a lot of the drive up to Big Bear.

So, it's really, really cool.

And full disclosure, I did not know there were spots like this in Virginia

because I've never been outside of the DC area.

I've never been into the wilderness area of Virginia.

So, I kind of feel like a little bit of a dummy,

not knowing that beautiful spots in Virginia like this existed.

I just never, I never knew because I've never been.

So, coming on this trip and being able to come out early to do this drive,

I'm very, very thankful and I feel very blessed to have come out here and done this.

So, thank you so much, Joe from Subaru and Sean

and anybody else at Subaru who is involved in putting together Overland Expo

and inviting me out among all these other amazing people

that we've all had a chance to meet.

Because so many people are meeting new people out there with Subarus for the first time.

So, all of this has been really, really cool

because talking to the campers at Out in Loveland

and Overland Expo Mountain West in Colorado,

a lot of the people just, they got, they were just like normal.

A lot of the people were like everyday drivers.

You know, I don't think they were really connected with the Subaru community

the way a lot of other people are.

So, they got an email inviting them out to camp Subaru

and it gave them an opportunity to meet up with other Subaru owners

and make some new friendships and see the hospitality of Subaru of America

and I think it's pretty amazing.

So, thank you Subaru of America, everybody that was involved,

especially Joe, thank you so much for putting this together.

And right now it's just, it's very bittersweet

because this is the last stop this year of Overland Expo out here in Virginia.

So, I'm gonna of course enjoy it a lot,

but it's also gonna be sad when it's over.

And again, just very, very thankful to have met so many people

for the first time meeting new people that I didn't know,

meeting people that I've been connected with through Instagram for so long

and have talked to or have had on the podcast

and then also getting to see people again that I have been connected with

that I have seen before in person.

So, it's, and getting to see the people that have been at all the expos that I've been at too

like Milton and Troy and some of the other people that have been involved with it.

So, it's just been a lot of fun and I'm extremely grateful right now.

We just passed mile marker 100.

So, we've only got five miles to go

and I made an announcement at mile marker 95

because this is 105 miles.

So, I was like, oh, only 10 more miles to go.

Somebody said, I'm ready for a nap.

And somebody else said, they were ready for a nap too.

I'm definitely ready for a nap.

This has been a long drive and I'm really tired.

I also didn't get much sleep last night.

I went to sleep at probably around 1130 and I was going to get up at 630.

No, I was going to get up at 530.

So, I went to actually, I think I went to bed a little after 11.

So, I was thinking I'll probably get about six hours of sleep,

six and a half hours of sleep.

And I ended up waking up at 230 and then 330

and then my alarm went off at 530

and I got up slowly and met Sean and Milton

so that we could go pick up food from Cracker Barrel.

But that lack of sleep is really, really catching up to me

and I'm trying to just make it through the rest of this drive.

It's a beautiful drive but there's a lot of windy roads

and it's slow and yeah, I'm just getting really, really tired.

But I will make it to the end and I'll be okay.

But it'll be nice to stop, pull over, stretch and yeah.

Won't be taking a nap for a while.

Probably won't go to sleep until tonight but that's okay.

But yeah, oh we just passed mile marker 101.

So, four more miles, we'll be done with this thing.

We did make it to mile 105 by the way.

So, only four more miles but we all ended up pulling over

and stretching and resting for a little bit

and just trying to collaborate and figure out

what we were going to do next

which basically was just making it to Overland Expo

so that all the campers could set up.

So, we did do that, made it there

and people started setting up.

So, we got into the event, got to see the whole setup

and everything and then we hung out for a while

and then Milton and the other people

that were doing the more off-road trail,

they showed up a little bit later.

They had some trouble getting in

because they were supposed to be there by six o'clock

or before six o'clock.

And Overland Expo was, the people were kind of giving them

a little bit of a hard time but they made it in

so that was good.

But yeah, that closed out the first day out there

and then this, these conversations are the start

of the first day of Overland Expo.

I'm here at Overland Expo East, day one

and I'm sitting here with Sam at Wandering Fawzi.

How's it going, man?

It's going quite good, yourself?

I'm doing good.

What do you think of Expo so far?

It's been great.

It's my first time.

I came in yesterday morning,

kind of got out of the way to land,

checked everything out,

set my vehicle up and did a little bit

of walking around this morning so far

but probably this afternoon

I want to do some more walking around,

check out some more to boost

and have some more conversations.

Yeah, so what's really cool

is I'm getting to meet you for the first time.

After all these years,

we've been chatting for a really long time

to finally get to meet you

and it's been really cool to meet a lot of people here

at all the Expo events.

Getting to see people I've met before

but then getting to meet new people

has been super awesome.

Yeah, definitely.

Coming here is a definite pleasure.

Getting to meet a lot of people

that have been wanting to meet on Instagram,

social media.

Getting to meet Rafael,

getting to meet Milton.

Handful of other people

from the Subaru camp

and definitely was not expecting it

and it was definitely really nice

treating it as a surprise.

Yeah.

So tell us about your setup here

because and your location

at the event

because it's a pretty nice location.

Yeah.

All right.

I have my 2015 Subaru Forester

that is heavily modified

through full force metal works.

Cascadevico tents with up tent.

Cascadevico tents awning.

My custom cooking setup

with the drawers

and the cutting board

on my spot out fridge.

I am parked

right in between the penders

in the food-drink area.

So it's called a showcase to yourself area

and this is where people who can

who have modified vehicles

in a way that makes it better

for overlanding

and for their ventures

and also as a bit of their personalized

of touch.

So I'm the front one area

I'm in the first side,

the first side of the row

as per say.

So I am in a,

I think in a ideal spot.

Yeah.

So the entrance is to behind us.

Yes.

So as you're coming in

you walk down this long aisle

there's a bunch of vendors set up

and then you're kind of

in this little showcase area.

But what's really cool too

is you have

like a lot of the really big vendors

inside this area behind you

so they have to pass by your vehicle

to get into that bigger area.

So that's really cool.

You've got some good exposure

and have you had some people come by

talking to you about it?

I've had.

I've had people walk past

and then they realize

I had the drawers set up

and I'm back in the cooking set up

and they think,

oh, and they do the turn around.

They look at it again

and that's when you use

the most conversation to start.

I've had some people come up

and say,

oh, I'm bringing my kids tomorrow.

I'm bringing my husband later.

He wants to come check this out.

Very nice.

If you have some future conversations

I do have a showcase hour

from, I believe,

2 to 2.50 tomorrow

where I'll be doing a full

walk around of it

and answering all the questions

people have.

Very nice.

So I'm looking forward to that.

This is my first expert here

but so far it's been great so far.

Yeah, that's good.

And it's for me

and I know for everybody

it's really cool

when you get to finally

see somebody's rig in person

because you see it

on Instagram,

you see videos,

you see all the photos

and everything

and it looks really cool

but then when you see it in person

it's like such a different

like different experience

and it's like

and it always looks way cooler

in person, you know.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Great.

Being able to put a name

to the face of the Instagram

but also put like a rig to the face.

Oh yeah.

Be able to see the rig in person

see the person behind it.

You can see them

even so much better.

I mean,

I'm definitely lucky that I've had

to definitely see

a whole bunch of rigs

that I've seen on Instagram

in person before

and be able to catch

up with a person and see

what the work

that person has done

to the vehicle

and see a person

see all their hard work

has paid off.

Yeah.

So have you been

over to the Subaru space?

I have.

I stopped by several times

yesterday

when they were setting

everything up

and I came by this morning

when they're putting

the finishing touches on it

it looked really good.

I have not been over

since the show opened.

Okay.

I plan on making

a couple more rounds this afternoon.

Okay.

So what are your thoughts

so far of the setup over there?

I think it's great.

There's a lot of cars

that bring you 26 outback

looks really cool.

I want to check it out

more in person.

Yeah.

You have some really cool

owners cars over there.

Definitely want to check out

why are there feels

and Troy T designs I believe.

Yep.

Don't forget me

if I mess it up.

Those vehicles are

absolutely beautiful

and one of the

manufacturer ones

and definitely want to

spend some more time

over there

and talk to some more people.

Yeah.

And it's nice too

because they've got

the owner lounge

for people to come in there

and just relax

and I think it's really nice

how spread out it is, you know.

And it doesn't feel like

enclosed, you know.

Yeah.

There's definitely

it's much larger than I expected.

There were some

who's here.

I saw this morning

and they quick lap around

before everything opened.

Some of the booths

are very small.

Yeah.

So definitely

they gave you

a much larger footprint.

I think that is

a huge blessing

to be able to

open up

show it super

what you can offer

show maybe get

potential customers

just start that

open up that channel.

Yeah.

And I like to

because like

there's like a main aisle

that you walk down

and it's right off

that main aisle.

So I think that gives them

a lot of really good exposure

and so it's

further away

from the entrance

but you know

people are

naturally going to gravitate

and you know

go through the whole show

and see everything

and what's really been

cool for me to

experience is

with the other events

that I've been to

the other expos that

I've been to

is there are people

that have come

through space

because they knew

Subaru is going to be

at Overland Expo

what's even really cool

is when somebody

who owns a Subaru

comes in

and they're like

oh I didn't even know

Subaru is going to be here

you know

and so they get excited

that Subaru is at the space

and I think everybody agrees

that they belong here.

I think I definitely agree

Subaru definitely

has a lot to offer

in this market

there's not only

a Toyota in the Jeep

market

for the over

when off road

and even just

for camping

I think Subaru

does a great

scheme

then people

give them credit for

I think that Subaru

does a great job

and I think

now more at the ordinances

that have come out

and people start

modifying those

it gives Subaru

a broader

put print

in this industry

and be able to

say hey

Subaru should be

more of a playing

partner in this

and now we are

and I think it's great

to see them

come out more

and then like

people like you

who have like

really nice

setups here

are doing things

with their Subaru

that people who

maybe own a Subaru

like

I didn't even know

you could do all this stuff

you know

and so it's really great

to showcase

what is possible

and the potential

that you have

I think definitely

I can now

have fun

conversations with people

who like

I didn't know

can modify this

be able to

explain to them

and talk to them

about the different

modifications I've done

over the years

what I found worth

what I found

hasn't worked

overwhelmed with

everything at once

you know

absolutely

or with it

so they can

make a better educated choice

yep cool

well thanks for having

a little chat

I'm gonna

this you're my first

interview today

for the expo

and

I've been

you know just kind of

walking around

chatting with some people

from Subaru

and so I wanted

to stop by

before I actually

go over to the booth

and

chat with you

because it was great

meeting you

last night

about going out

to all these events

whether it's expo

or you know

the subi fest events

that I've been to

I drove up to Subaru flat

fest in 2022

just getting to meet

people in person

that I've either

already had on the

podcast

or people that

I've just connected with

their Instagram

that I could potentially

have on the podcast

and I know for

most people

that connect with

somebody

through social media

when you get

to meet that person

it's like

just super super cool

and it almost always

goes beyond a handshake

it's like

coming and bringing in

for a hug you know

it's just so cool

and then definitely

the social media

has definitely

worked in amazing ways

in that sense

you definitely be able to

meet people

create lasting friendships

doesn't matter you know

where you live

you just send a message

and when you find

to get to meet that person

I bet you like

like last night

it makes it just that much

it's more important to me

and we can name

it a phase

and be able to talk in person

yep cool

well thank you so much

for chatting

absolutely thank you very much

you're welcome

yep okay

alright cool

alright

I'm here at

Overland Expo East

it's our last stop

of Overland Expo

so it's bittersweet

yep

I'm like

kind of going to be a little

sad after this

because

I've met so many people

and these events are great

and I'm

grateful to Subaru

for bringing us out here

and being a part of this

but

so

with this last

Expo

this is of course

day one

of Expo East

you had

the longest drive

getting out to this event

so

tell us about

where you were coming from

what your experience

was like

driving all the way out here

and maybe how many miles

and days

it took you to get here

yeah

yeah no it's

actually sorry

before that

introduce yourself

oh

yes

so my name is Troy

on Instagram

I'm Troy T. Designs

yep

and so

as for

the trip

we actually left

we left on

the 23rd

so we left on September 23rd

wow

that was a while back

yeah we wanted to take some time

to

get out all the way

out east

my wife and daughter

they kind of tap out

like 6-7 hours

drive

okay

but

I would drive

15-20 hours straight

if I wanted to

yeah it's crazy

yeah

most people look at me

like what

yeah

it's a long drive

so we took

some time to get out here

but in that

we stopped at a lot of places

so we

we stopped in Flagstaff, Arizona

nice

and then we

from Flagstaff

we drove straight to

Armilillo, Texas

I think it's

yeah

right off the 40

we were there just for the night

okay

and then from there

we drove straight to

Little Rock, Arkansas

nice

and we went down to

had you been through there before

no

actually never been down

past Flagstaff

on the 40

okay

so

I take that back

to New Mexico once

okay

but nothing after New Mexico

got you

so when we got to Little Rock

we

we went to

a

garden

that was about

50 minutes

southwest of Little Rock

okay

three hours

walking through this

beautiful garden

nice

I mean the flowers

and the trees

and the like

they had like these little

outdoor train

setups going on

really

that looked like little

fairy towns

I've been to Arkansas

quite a few times

because my daughter

went to school there

I didn't even know about that

I've been to Little Rock

quite a few times

yeah

we just

we came across

it literally like

that night

sitting in our hotel

we're just scrolling

through TikTok

and all of a sudden

all this Arkansas

stuff started

popping up

and I was like

where's this

my wife like

let's go

they had this

crazy

chapel like

architectural design

glass chapel

on the property

that is

becoming really popular online

so I think

Arkansas has a few of those

because

they do

there's one called

Anthony Chapel in Arkansas

and that's where my daughter

got married

no way

okay

yeah

we

this garden had one

and I was like

and then we found

there was a couple more

and I was like

dude this thing

is just

beautiful

oh yeah

they had this

really nice

architectural design

like tree house

in the middle

pretty proud of them

I was like

this is crazy

so it was nice

and then from

basically from

Arkansas we went straight

to Nashville

okay

and we stayed a few days

in Nashville

checked it out

and then we just came

across randomly

there's this music festival

going on

called the Pilgrimage

Festival

down in Franklin

nice

so we're like

why not

let's go grab tickets

it was

we are making a good

trip out of it

yeah

because it's not just

straight for the show

like

we are actually on the road

for like

six weeks

so this was like

the first week

and we're making a family

trip

and we're doing a bunch

of other extra stuff

so

we're like yeah

let's go to this

music festival

John Mayer

was the headliner

and like

the tickets were like

super affordable

and I was like

okay we gotta go to this

yeah

Franklin is

beautiful

in Nashville

and so

we did all that

and then

got to

you know

do all the downtown stuff

in Nashville

and we really

didn't know what to expect

from Nashville

and I was

not expecting it to be

as modern

and super clean

oh

the city is just

I've never been

oh my gosh

if you get a chance

go

okay

it is

so clean

and beautiful

okay I think

my daughter

may have been

because

her husband

lives

okay

so I think

they may have been

I'll have to ask her about it

yeah

it's beautiful

I'll go back

nice

to Nashville

and just Tennessee in general

I've never been

I'd love to go there

if you get a chance

go

you won't regret it

all right

yeah it's beautiful

yeah so

from there

we basically

I don't want to go

from there

we just

ended up coming straight to Virginia

nice

and now we're here

good

at the Overline Expo East

so

any issues

just with the drive itself

or with your outback

on the way here

no

no so

before we left LA

we did a full

vehicle check

at the dealership

super Pacifica

all right

so

they are like

dude you're good to go

we had all the

diff fluids change

smart plugs

we did the whole nine

just because

we're getting ready to do

a lot of miles

yeah

and we kind of like

skipped out on the

60,000 mile one

and the 80,000 miles

so I was like

you know what

we better go do this

so how many miles

well let us know

what you have

and then

how many miles

you have on it

and then how long

you've had it

okay so

our outback

so we have a 22

outback willingness

we got it

I believe

around

mid-22

we got it

and currently

on this trip

we just rolled

98,000 miles

wow

yeah

everyone's like

what

yeah

well I mean

I have 135

on my 21

cross track

which is awesome

yeah I'm like

I want to see how many

miles I can get on it

yeah

and people

asked me all the time

why are you putting

so many miles

I was like

I bought this car

to drive it

and use it

exactly

you know

miles don't scare me

so

yes we have

98,000 miles

and

it's so

it's so crazy

soon as we

crossed into

the gates here

yesterday

in the morning

to check out the expo

first

we just

rolled 2800 miles

wow

so that's where we're at

on our trip right now

2800 miles

yeah that's a good trip

yeah so we still

have

I believe like

41 more

4100 more miles

ago

wow

yeah

so

when we were in Colorado

I was

talking to you

because you had like

issues with your shoulder

yeah

how was that on this trip

so far

well that

that

conversation went south

real fast

when we got back

so

it hurt

going up to Colorado

and I was in a sling

you know the whole weekend

and I was like

what is happening

but we couldn't do anything

because our doctors

is in Santa Monica

yeah

and so when I got back

we did the whole

MRI scans

on my shoulder

come to find out

long story short

I have a torn

tendon

in my shoulder

in a bunch of

what he called

shrapnel around my

rotator cuff

oh

and so

we have to do

what they call

a patching

and it's

from what he

our doctor

explained is

they take a

patch from

a ear

Achilles tendon

which I was like

don't I need that

from what

my Achilles tendon

oh okay

and I was like

interesting

and they

am I going to be

able to walk

I know

I was like

okay I'll have work

on shoulder

but what about

my foot

yeah

you know

anyways he said

they do it all the time

they've been doing it

for 10 plus years

it's a very

small patch

that they take

what they do

is they

they go in

with cameras

in my shoulder

they wrap it around

the tendon

that is torn

and what that does

it's supposedly

but after that

the recovery time

is kind of gnarly

so

8 to 9 months

of recovery

the first

6 weeks

I

cannot move my shoulder

at all

so I physically

have to bandage my arm

like from

elbow up

around my body every day

because I cannot move

yeah

so I was

like oh

okay

yeah

and then there's

8 weeks

of physical therapy

after that

and then

after the physical therapy

they call

tendon tissue

repair stage

and that's

3 months long

so

I can somewhat

move my arm

in my shoulder

but I have to take it

very very easy

I can't pick up

weight

more than 5 pounds

wow

that's 3 months long

and then there's

a 1 to 2 months

recovery after that

but this is the doctor

that you

went to

after the first doctor

told you

you're gonna have to get

all this stuff done

all this long recovery time

so I'm guessing

that with this doctor

he's telling you're

gonna have to do

you trust what he says

because

you said that he

works on like a lot of

athletes and stuff too

yeah so

he's

he does a lot of

the soccer athletes

taking back of him

like all those guys

yeah

and you know

I trust his word

because

you know

those guys wouldn't

be going to him

if he didn't know

what he was doing

yeah

and he's been

great with my knee

from our

first albac

that got in a

rollover

so I was like yep

I'm going straight to him

for my shoulder

and here we are

unfortunately this one

I have to get surgery

yeah

yeah but I mean

you know

it's probably what's

gonna be for the best

in the long run

yeah

it's

sleeping's uncomfortable

driving's uncomfortable

right now

I was actually

not supposed to come out

east

he wasn't too excited

with me

and I was like

you have to give me

six weeks

I can still get it done

just give me some time

yeah

so he's like

yeah

so getting to

the Subaru space

that we have here

because you've been

to all of the expos this year

correct

they're pretty much

laid out

the same at every event

the only thing that's

different really

is the factory vehicles

and the

owner vehicles

that are

at the events

because they're getting

people that are

local to

you know

each area

so

what have you

liked about

the way that

everything is set up here

and then

what are the things

that they can

potentially do differently

well

I mean

the way that

the Subaru booth

is set up

they did a

phenomenal job

yeah

I agree

you know

it's corporate Subaru

but it's

it's comfortable

it's inviting

and I think

that's a really big thing

yeah

you know

and it's like

if you look back

at photos and footage

a lot of people

are coming to the booth

and they're excited

that Subaru is doing this

oh yeah

you know

comfort of just like

you don't feel

intimidated walking in

like oh should I

walk into here

like you can just

come and walk in

sit down

show your Subaru key

get a free gift

and come into the little lounge

yeah we're sitting

in the lounge

we're sitting in the lounge

right now

shaded

yeah which is

amazing

yeah there's snacks

and drinks

I mean it's great

I feel a little VIP

to be honest

yeah seriously

yeah it's great

so they did a

phenomenal job

I really love

from every expo

to improve

man

off the top of my head

I don't

I mean they did such a

good job

I mean live music

on one of the days

of the expo

we've got Rihanna and

Gelsamino doing a talk

right now

which is super cool

which who else is

doing that

yeah exactly

yeah yeah

it's been great

so cool

to see that

to like

be here personally

and see that

we'll get to see that

you know

oh yeah

yeah I know

same here

so Subaru

does a lot of like

surprises for

like the customer base

future customers

and

and having

like owner vehicles

not just OEM

I think is a

really smart idea

absolutely

because

people that aren't

Subaru owners

they didn't know

you could do this

with Subarus

and so

they can come to us

and ask us questions

and they're like

oh my goodness

they only see

Jeeps and Toyotas

modified or something

right

maybe they've never seen

a modified Subaru

and then they come by

and they're like

well you can do that

to these too

you know

or whether it's

somebody that doesn't

own a Subaru

or somebody that does

own a Subaru

maybe they bought their

Subaru

and they just

because I know

I've talked to people

that

have come to

Overland Expo

the other events

where they

own a Subaru

they've been coming

to Overland Expo

that's why they wanted

to come to Expo

like oh I want to go see

Subaru

and then there's been people

that

own a Subaru

but

they didn't know

that Subaru was going to be here

and so they go to the Expo

and they're like

oh I didn't know

Subaru was going to be here

so

but I think you can

get a lot of people

who

own a Subaru

that maybe

are just a daily driver

and they see

Subaru here

and they see

all these things

that you can do with them

and like

obviously they're being built

to go

and maybe people have never

really thought about doing that

and now

they can talk to people

and be like

I never really thought of that

but maybe that's something

I'd be interested in

trying and then

now the wheels are spinning

yeah

but then also learning too

that

the Subaru

that they have

that's stock

most likely

can do a lot more

than they realize

that's what's surprising

to a lot of people

it's really

I think

I think the Subaru

is in the Overland Expo

just to get

kind of like a little

what do you say

oh man

a little underrated

yeah

I guess

because

like

you think over anything

the mid-sized trucks

the big trucks

the Jeeps and stuff

but these cars

out of the box

just being factory

are completely capable

so much more than what

people think

yeah

because when I bought mine

I was surprised

yeah

and then when you start

adding a bunch of little stuff

to it

they become

really capable

of doing some stuff

and

you know

I've had my Jeeps

my trucks back in the day

you know

but I don't rock climb anymore

I don't do anything

crazy crazy anymore

so

this is like a perfect vehicle

or out back

it's a great daily

it's comfortable

the gas miles

is still decent

but I can still

not every trail

that Jeeps and trucks can

but

of course

but

I'm pretty capable

well and the thing is too

is

you can have

a lot of fun with these

and get to places

that you just can't

with another car

you know

if you've got

because like

I had a front wheel drive car

before my Subaru

and there were places

that I would see

when we would go off

to our family reunion

in East Texas

and I was like

some county roads

and I'm like

I can't get up this road

but I

knew at that time

that my next car

was going to be a

cross-track

and I'm like

if I already had a cross-track

I knew I could get up this road

and it wasn't anything

super complicated

but I just knew

that my car

that I had

wouldn't be able to make it

and if it could

I would not

feel comfortable

or confident

and so now

like having experienced

especially the all-wheel drive

in some situations

where I'm like

this car is so amazing

so amazing

oh and also let's add

to that amazing

that's about your cross-track

that it's a manual

yes

that is very fun

you don't see too many of those

yeah that's why

I'm like hanging on to it

yep I would too

absolutely

that's amazing

do you have anything else

to add

man

besides this

being bummed out

the last expo

for the season

you know

but

you know we'll be back

next year

you know again

maybe with the same car

maybe a different setup

I don't know who knows

yeah

but

yeah we're just excited

for this trip

because we're going to continue

on eastward

after the expo

good

so we're driving

all the way up the coast

of Maine

cutting through Vermont

and Canada

and back to Michigan

for a week or so

and then

we head back to

Los Angeles

so

well this has been great for me

to

and I'm sure for you too

to meet a lot of people

that you've probably connected

with through Instagram

absolutely

because you're going to

different parts of the country

and getting to meet those people

in person for the first time

yeah

and like

me being involved

with all of the events

except for California

and you being at all of the events

getting to travel

and see

the same people again

you know

like it's great seeing you again

it's been great

seeing people from

you know

Subaru of America

anybody that's been involved

with each of the events

it's cool

it's like

I get excited

I'm like

oh I'm going to get to see

all these people again

and then I know I'm going to get

to meet new people

for the first time

yeah

and that's what's been great

about being a part of this

yeah it's like

and I said before

it's the Subaru community

like

we

I met a gentleman here

he said

he's like

dude I've been following you

for a long time

nice

I was like

what that's

I mean I'm nobody big

like you know

it's awesome

to meet like other people

that's not in your

surrounded area

yeah

I've been following you

for a long time

like it's crazy

yeah

in a good way

you know

it's like

not like a soccer kind of way

it's amazing

the community is amazing

I love it

yeah good

well thanks for taking the time

to chat with me

absolutely

and it was

great again

meeting you

and getting to travel

to all these events

and you know

seeing you again

and meeting your family

you know

just getting to

chat

and be a part of this

it's been great

yeah the same

likewise

yeah thank you

thank you

you're welcome

alright

awesome

sweet

okay

I'm here at

Overland Expo

with Milton

Silver Bullet XV

this day one

of Overland Expo East

and the end of the

Overland Expo Tour

and it's bittersweet

yeah it's definitely

bittersweet

we've been super happy

to be a part of all of them

this year

the whole tour

all over the country

meeting awesome people

and talking about Subaru

is the thing we love

so

ready for a break

this winter

but definitely

sad to see it

end so quickly

I know

it's been great

because

it's been cool to

like see you

at all these events

see Troy

see John

who's here

you know

helping people with

Subaru

learn more about them

and you know

just other people

from Subaru America

that have been coming

along here

new people

that we follow on Instagram

that we haven't met in person yet

absolutely

we've met new people

at everyone

and it's always really exciting

to have those conversations

yeah

so what I wanted to ask you

about

is you've been

to every single event

so far

yeah

and I want to get

your thoughts on

not like

each individual one

per se

because for the most part

the setups are the same

you know

I know we were talking

earlier how

in

Overland

and P&W in Oregon

we had a little more space

in front of the owner's lounge

yeah

actually we had

quite a bit more space

in front of the owner lounge

they had chairs

and tables

with umbrellas

and you know

here is similar

but we got less space

no umbrellas this time

but

like overall

for all of the events

like

what do you feel

worked really well

definitely

I think the

definitely the

lounge

there's so much

heat

this is generally being

this whole event

is through the summer

summer months give or take

yeah

and everywhere we go

there's been a lot of sun

yes

or a lot of wind

you know

west

and being able to have

a space for people to come

and you know

have that oasis

like we've talked about

in the past

where they can

kind of get out of that

and relax a little bit

eat some snacks

talk to people

that's been really awesome

and kind of

brings people in

to make it more

of a community

just a

I'm stepping in a booth

people are trying to sell me things

and they have to get away

because they're going to

just keep talking to me

you know it feels a little

bit more welcoming

and I think that's big

with Subaru

and with what they love

you know Subaru

is all about love

they're going to

giant sign

the Subaru Love Promise

so

what makes a Subaru

a Subaru

exactly

so I definitely love

that aspect of it

and then

just being able to

show off a couple

owner vehicles

gives them

people the opportunity

to ask questions

about their vehicle

you know at the end of the day

everybody loves their car

that's here I think

at least

or one hopes

yeah

but

everybody wants to do something

different with it

so being able to kind of

see different vehicles

ask different questions

and see people

really using them

I think is super awesome

to show that off

yeah

so what are some things

that you feel

maybe didn't work so well

that they could

potentially do

differently next year

yeah totally

I think

I would say

it would be nice to have

maybe some recycle

yeah

just you know

and this isn't necessarily

Subaru's fault here

but

it'd be nice to have some

some places

to throw some stuff away

and you know

take care of it nicely

I'd love to have

just

access to water

you know

Subifest events

they have that awesome

water truck

with the

the water cups

I feel like

that's a staple

of Subaru events personally

I'd love to see that here

it's hot

it's hot like I said once again

would love to have water here

yeah

I know they have the

owner lounge with drinks

and everything

but I think if they made

that accessible to everybody

that comes through

then that would be good

exactly

yeah

especially along the lines

of the Subaru loves pets

side of it

you know

we have all the toys

which is great

but

some snacks

or some

treats

and a water bowl

would be great

for animals as well

I know they have

a couple of water bowls

up here

a couple more around

I think it would be really cool

so

I think that would be sick

and

yeah honestly

I just love having the

owner vehicles

and I think if we can continue

to do that

that would do really well

but

also having more

varied vehicles

you know I feel like

we've had a tendency

to have a lot of

outback wilderness

which makes total sense

you know it's Subaru's

pride vehicle right now

or pride vehicle

obviously we're getting the

new one this coming year

which we have here

which we do have here

which has been super exciting

to just pay attention to

look at

see the things I like

see the things I don't like

you know

and just kind of get an idea

of it

but I would love to see

a more varied

cast

we'll see

you know right now

we have three outbacks

a forest during a cross check

it's pretty diverse

but

one of the events we had

mostly outbacks

and you know

we still do have

mostly outbacks

not that I hate outbacks

I love outbacks

I love the owners

but it would be cool to see

you know

maybe a lifted Impreza

maybe a lifted

WX

I'd love to see something like that

that would be really cool

you know we

I've met a lot of people

who love their ascents

and they want to know

if there's a wilderness coming out

you know who knows

if a wilderness ascent

is going to come or not

but you can totally show off

one that's been

an owner vehicle

and I think that'd be super cool

and that was a cool

like

the fact that you mentioned

a lifted WRX

because there's probably

people that

maybe have never seen that

and didn't even know

that you can do that

absolutely

and so I think that would be

definitely a good one

to showcase

yeah and especially when

you go into the Subaru space

from

or into the overland

off-road Subaru space

from the performance sector

you know

from that street oriented

WRX people

showing them that

hey your platform

that you love so much

can do really cool

off-road things

and can look super sick

and very mad max

in a good way

would be really sick

and I think a lot of people

would really appreciate it

and bring people in

bring a lot of interest

so intense

hopefully next year

we can build something

really cool

but we'll find out

and then last question is

if Subaru

next year

were to

not attend

all of the events

which ones

were your favorite

that you would like to see

like

these are the

top three or four

that I would

really

want to make sure

that we attend again

absolutely so my number one

and I'll say this

you know

maybe I'm biased

you know it's my hometown

or rather my

my home region

we'll call it right

it's not quite hometown

but P&W is definitely

my favorite

I was mine too

P&W is amazing

the terrain around is awesome

the food vendors are great

you know you're missing

some of your food vendors

from that particular event

right now

I'm missing some of my

vendors from there

absolutely love that

event

and the other thing too

it was so close to the entrance

so as people are coming in

they're passing right

by the Subaru space

exactly yeah

so I think that was

just a very prime event

loved it

would love to go back

to that one

I think

Arizona would probably

be my next favorite

it was

I mean it's the biggest

event of the year right

it's the largest

attendance

relatively cool area

I enjoy the space

it's a little windy

maybe perhaps

but once you get

over that

and can kind of

just enjoy the space

when there's

a break in the wind

or a break in the weather

I really enjoy

the layout

maybe not so much

how far away the

camping is of course

but everything else

is super awesome

the terrain around

is really cool

and then

my other favorite

would probably be Colorado

I really like Colorado

that one was a good one too

the mountain passes are great

to get up there

and around

so the journey was awesome

and

I like the venue

it's very dynamic

with a lot of

terrain change in it

so you kind of

get a chance to run around

and enjoy some really good food

but everything's kind of

mixed amongst itself

it's not as much

you know here

I feel like it's very much

you go here for this

type of stuff

and here for that type of stuff

but it's very much

more mixed around

so you get an opportunity

to see things

that you wouldn't otherwise

see maybe

so I think that's a really cool

spot to go

yeah

so just those three

those are my three favorites

I'm not going to go into

others

but those are definitely my

three favorites

alright that's good

for sure

P&W is number one

yeah

anything else you want to add

I mean after this whole

experience

I think

I'm just super happy

that we got to come

and talk to people

about Subaru's

about overlanding

off-roading their

really all-wheel drives

in general

but specifically of course

and I just hope that next year

we can come back even stronger

come back with more

educational stuff along

you know on my side of things

and really help people

learn

and so

maybe we'll figure out

what people want to learn

that I didn't know

yeah

maybe there's some stuff

I didn't know that

they're interested in learning

so we can put together

some different

seminars and programs

and maybe some more

live demonstrations

maybe some driving classes

maybe we'll do

an on-course driving class

that'd be super cool

yeah that would be

really really fun

yeah I'll get people

on the wheel of either their

own vehicle

or maybe even a factory

Subaru

maybe that could be really sick

hopefully we can

some fun stuff next year

yeah good

well thank you for sharing

your ideas

and your thoughts

and it's been

like I said it's been fun

to get to see you

at you know

all the events

that I've been at

and Kerry unfortunately

is not here

because the Rebell rally

shout out

Rebell rally

Kerry

and you know

it's just been

I'm very thankful

that

Subaru included me in this

and that I've had a chance

to talk to

a lot of different people

and meet new people

and it's just been

a great experience

overall

absolutely yeah

definitely excited to

to see how it goes

and hopefully

people can

really enjoy it

next year too

when it comes back

absolutely

alright

thank you

bye

alright

I'm sitting here

at Overland Expo

day one

Overland Expo

East

and Virginia

and I'm sitting here

with Patrick

how's it going

this is your first

Overland Expo

experience correct

this is my first

Overland Expo

yep

considered coming before

and didn't work out

so yeah

I'm glad to be here

yeah

and even better

because your car

your Orbis Overlanding

cross track

is in the

Subaru booth

it is

or Oasis

maybe if we want to

call it that

yeah

I feel like

it's one of those

milestones in the

Subaru

my Subaru journey

I guess

to have my car

in the booth

is pretty cool

yeah absolutely

so

what do you think

of Overland Expo

first of all

as far as

I don't know

if you've had a chance

to walk around much

but what do you think

of the venue

and this event

that's pretty cool

to see all the different

brands

and companies

in place

and

I've gotten to

walk around a little bit

not a ton

because I've been pretty

busy talking with people

that's good

in the booth

so

nice weather

can't complain about that

yeah

it's been a little warm

at all the events

but

you know

it's summertime ish

so we can kind of

expect that

but

right now

we're sitting in the

shade and there's a nice

breeze

and it feels really good

yeah this is a good spot

it's been really nice

so

what do you think

of the Subaru

setup here

the setup's cool

yeah

you know

I listened to some

of your other podcasts

over the last few weeks

it's been a nice spot

nice little lounge area

yeah

it's a nice setup

they did it well

good good

is there anything

that you've seen

in the space

I mean I know this is your

only event

that you've been to

but

do you see anything

that you would

potentially do different

or want to see

differently for next year

I mean

I'm sure

I could come up

with things if I thought

nothing like

jumps out

like

immediately to me

I think it's

something pretty good

I mean

some more shade

would be nice maybe

yeah

but

yeah

I mean

I'd have to put some thought

into it

yeah and in Oregon

we had

they had some

umbrellas up

and chairs under the

umbrellas so that was

kind of nice

I do miss that about

about that event

so I think

that would be good

if they could

bring that back

to or have that

at all the events

you know next year

yeah I wonder if there's

a space constraint

here

could be

cozy

yeah

we've got five cars

in the booth

yeah

so for example

like

Overland Expo P&W

in front of the

Subaru Lounge

the owner lounge

we had a lot of

space

okay

and it was like

went pretty far out

and they had like

chairs and tables

and stuff

so it was pretty

nice there

but

yeah so

but yeah

this one is a little

more constrained

like as I was

thinking about that

and talking to other

owners here is kind of

kind of narrow

kind of short

yeah

but overall like

I love the setup

I think it's great

it's very inviting

and you know

of course the owner lounge

is just great

I think it's cool

they've

they've definitely plugged

into

the fact that you're

not just here

looking at the things

you know it's

it's the whole

owner experience

you know they're

giving away the stuff

for the dogs

they're taking a picture

as everybody gets

their pet

you know so again

it's that whole

super experience

super community

and some of the other brands

even at

arguably more

off-road

or overlandish brands

don't seem to

have that same

they just don't have

the same feel

yeah

and I've heard that

from a lot of people

and so

you were

camping

on

Thursday night

so what did you think

of the whole camp

Subaru set up over there

yeah that works good

you know

it's always cool

at these events

when Subaru does this

to be able to

meet, hang out

and interact with other

owners

and

see the different

builds

and

you know

just that ability

I think

anytime you're

camping

it seems like

you're able to

just kind of

hang out

at sort of

a different level

you know other types of

events right

you

you just have that ability

kick back

with a little propane fire

and just have a

fireside conversation

kind of a thing

yeah

so what have you

how has it been

for you here

in the Subaru

space

with having your car

and conversations

you've had

it's been cool

I get a lot of compliments

which is great

I mean

I've got a lot of time

and I've heard in the

end of what I built out

to make it functional

so to have

people kind of

excited

and think it's cool

is really cool

I got to share it with

Rihanna

which was really

neat and got to share

kind of my story with her

and

that was just

it's fun for someone

like that

to get excited

about what I've done

because

she's not an overlander

but she's in the

motorsports right

so she understands

the

for any of us

like this

she understands the

passion that goes into it

the time

so to be able to share

that with her

and have her

be kind of excited

about my build

is pretty cool

yeah and then

I remember like it

at Flatfest

you had Scott Speed

asking you about stuff

and I was like

how cool is that

you know

that was awesome

so what if you had

people ask you

about the most

about your car

has there been

like one thing

about your car

people have asked the most

or has it been

just a mosh

of different things

my bumper

my bumper gets everybody's attention

which is really

kind of ironic in some ways

because

I intended to build that as a product

and the shipping has just become

so

exorbitant

on it

that

I haven't been able to

turn it into a product

that makes sense

so

so that's kind of

ironic that that's

what people

really clue in on

but

you know

you

when I can start to share

kind of the other pieces

and you know

the way to carry

the water

the fuel tanks

you know everybody's kind of like

oh

that's

that's what you

produced

or

you know I had a couple people

it was actually funny

the same thing where

like I'm talking to them

and then I make a comment

like well

and this is my product

and they

it was like one of those

light bulb moments

they're like oh

wait

your

like this is a sponsored car

well yeah I know that's

it's me

yeah this is me

so that's so cool

so that's fun

yeah

those moments are always nice

yeah

it's like oh

oh you're the guy

yeah it's not yeah

this isn't just a sponsored car

that showed up it's

yeah that's really cool

anything else you want to share

about your experience so far

I mean I know this is

kind of early into it

but I wanted to

I kind of wanted to do that

on purpose

yeah I know

it's been great

it was

it's awesome to

hang out with

with you

and some of the other guys

getting into Milton

has been a lot of fun

because he's

he's a character

he's definitely

a legend

and

I mean I got to do some

trailing with him

yeah

yesterday

and so that was

really cool

I think to

hang out with him

yeah so no

it's been

been a good start

looking forward to

the next couple days

yeah and it's nice to

see you again

because I haven't seen you

in three years

yeah

because we

I drove up to

Flatfest

that was in

22

yeah

and got to meet up

and hang out

and then

well what I really

enjoyed about that too

is we had some time

afterwards me, you and Jen

had an opportunity

to go have breakfast

and hang out

just with the three of us

and

and we went to dinner

too

the night before

so that was

that was really a lot of fun

but and

and that's

I mentioned

and did a million times

that like

one of my favorite things

is getting to finally

meet somebody

that you've connected with

through Instagram

and you know

that you've started

a relationship with

and then

and then also

if you have an opportunity

to see their build

you know

because like

all these events

nobody's been able to see

my build

because I just can't

you know

take the time to drive out

but I drove up to

Flatfest

and y'all were all

able to see Pearl

and that was fun for me

because I'm like

I'm here in my own car

and like

at these events

I wish I could be here

in my own car

and maybe

it would be possible

like Colorado

wasn't too far away

Flagstaff isn't too far away

so

it's definitely a possibility

but so who knows

but yeah

it would be fun

to be here in my own car

and do it

yeah

but you're here

that's what's important

yeah of course

well thank you so much

for hopping on the mic

and chatting for a little bit

it's been

it's been fun so far

like I said

it's been great to see you again

and I'm glad

we get to hang out

all weekend

yeah likewise

all weekend

yeah all right thank you

that's it

yeah

it was really really great

seeing Patrick again

because

I hadn't seen him since

Flatfest in 2022

so that was really great

to catch up

but

so that was the end

of Friday

day one

of Overland Expo

and this

is the point

where if you want to

take a break

and listen to day two

and day three later on

day three

by the way

we had a conversation

because it was really really slow

and Milton and I

needed to leave to

I needed to get to the airport

to fly home

and he needed to get a hotel

near the airport

so that he could fly out

Monday morning

so we ended up leaving

earlier

in the day

I think we left

a little bit after one

which worked out great

because

got there just in time

for the airport

and he got his hotel

so everything

worked out with that

but yeah

so here we go

with day two

and day three

of Overland Expo

conversations with people

so hope you enjoy

alright I'm here

check check

at Overland Expo

day two

in Virginia

and I'm sitting here

with Cori

and she has

a cool little company

called

SoFly

SoFly yeah

that's great

welcome to your

first

appearance

on the podcast

I love being here

and seeing

all the different

setups

you know being a

Subaru person

it's really neat to see

all the different

variations people do

when customizing

their car

but since this isn't

a Subaru specific event

I actually get to see

some other really neat

setups too

yeah

but

but mostly like

the Subaru booth

is just look

it's beautiful

has beautiful cars

seeing the 2026

out back is

yeah

very cool to see

and

yeah I'm very happy

to be here

the weather's gorgeous

yeah it's so nice

so what do you think

like I know you said

that you've got

cars in the 2026

out back

but as far as like

the layout

the feel of the Subaru

this Subaru

Oasis

what somebody called it

what do you think

so I've

been observing it

from the outside

looking in

and it's nice

to like be sitting

in here now

enjoying it

from this perspective

and I

love that

there's shade

and it's welcoming

and we're sitting

on cushions

and not like

hard camping chairs

and

I like those

I always love Subaru

styling of things

it's very

um

welcoming

and

and it's not

too full of like

you know

overwhelming frills

and shiny things

you know

they give you that space

to walk around

observe

at your own pace

and they aren't like

hounding you

I really love it

yeah

well good

so how did you

get to this event

and

yeah

and obviously

you're over with

the camping group

so what is that

how did you get here

and then what has your

experience been like

over there camping

yeah absolutely

so I

I'm connected

with Patrick McKinney

through Orbus Overlanding

he sells the

SoFly car window rainfly

on his website

and he

told me that

he could help me get

in to participate

in the camp Subaru

and

I was floored

I was very excited

about the opportunity

I really wanted to

experience my first Expo

my first Overland Expo

yeah

and so

it's even more special

being able to camp with

a bunch of really cool

off-road

setup Subaru's over there

and

and be with people

that have already

you know bought my products

or

yeah that's so cool

I met at Wicked Big Meet

earlier this year

or Boxer Fest

and so

it's fun to

just continue

re-establishing

friendships

that I've made

at prior events

but also camp together

yeah yeah

how's the

weather been

for camping

it's been really

good

I'm surprised at how warm

it is during the days

yeah it's cool at night

it drops down

it's little

shocking when that

sun goes down

how cold it is

yeah

but

for car camping

since I

actually sleep

in my cross-track

I've been really

appreciative of

the cooler nights

it makes it much

more comfortable

for sleeping in the car

that awesome product

on there

the rain fly

blocking out

all that sun

I love it

so we'll get into

a full episode

with you at some point

but

tell everybody

what your product

is

just kind of

sum it up

because I don't

want to go too much

into how it's

solid and all that

absolutely thank you

just so you can

say

hey this is

what it is

what it can do

for you

yeah

just a quick

blurb about it

I've been

selling it to the public

since

December of 2024

and

it's a

fabric-based

rain fly

that sits on

the rear doors

and fits over the window

and

attaches with magnets

and a cinch buckle

and

it blocks out

wind, rain,

snow, sun,

bugs

but gives you

privacy

and that peace of mind

you're always

getting fresh air

in the cabin

and

I'm super excited

to offer something

that allows people

to have a really

positive experience

when they're sleeping

in their soobroos

how many

have you sold?

I have sold

over 130

units

nice

yes and I make

all of them

and I'm sure you sell them

as a pair

so that each window

can have them

so that's

single units

and so

that's

in less than a year

of being available

to the public

and the

support and feedback

from the community

has been stellar

I couldn't be happier

because you

you were solving

an issue for yourself

and then now

you get to help other people

have the same

experience that you did

it's so gratifying

to know that something

that you were looking for

to improve your

experience

is something that other

people were looking

for to also

improve their experiences

and that I can

offer that to them

it's so fun to be

both in the community

involved in the community

and offering a product

for them too

yeah

it's very fun

so have you been

eating the meals

over at Camp Subaru

yeah

how's that been

oh man

Chef Chad

with Trail Feast

is spectacular

he makes

so I got to

enjoy his food

at Camp Subaru

clinic

at their R&D facility

oh nice

so he did that too

yeah so I was there

a couple weeks ago

and so I actually met

him there

for the first time

and

so chatting with him

and realizing

he was going to be

doing the food

set up here

I was so excited

his food is delicious

I like that it's

it's not heavy

it's not rich

it's

it's chicken

and rice

and we had salmon

last night

I think we're having smoked

goat tonight

like just

delicious

I know you're a vegan

I'm sorry

because last night

he had butternut squash

that he made

with coconut milk

oh

and so I was

because I talked to him

on

I think it was

Thursday night

and I let him know

hey I'm vegan

because he was

making some potatoes

on Thursday night

but he was mixing in

with cream

and I said

do you have any potatoes

that you can make

just by themselves

you know just

with seasoning or something

and he was like

oh do we have any

potatoes left

he said no we're out

and then I said

you know I'm vegan

he said

oh well this is

we're going to have

tomorrow night

it's going to be

a mix of coconut milk

we're going to have

some greens

and then we're going to

have some

candy pecans

and he said

we're going to have

salmon

it wasn't really cooked

it was almost like

grilled carrots

yes those were so good

and I don't like

cooked carrots

where they're like

real mushy and soft

yeah that's so gross

but these were

grilled

and they were still

have like

not really a

crunch to them

but kind of chewy

they have texture still

yeah they still have texture

and it was

so I was like

apprehensive about

eating the carrots

it's just because

my pre bit

because I'm like

I hate cooked carrots

but these were

like so good

the cooking was amazing

and they were just

oh they were so good

his cooking is really great

and it was nice to chat with him

prior to this event

because I have celiac disease

so I can't eat any wheat

and so

talking to him

about that

he said

you know that's

not an issue

my wife is gluten

intolerant

and dairy intolerant

so I'm very aware

of these

you know

these dietary issues

and concerns

and honestly

like that was

such a breath of fresh air

because usually

for people like you

and I

you know

like

you go to these events

and you just bring food

because you

just assume

you can't eat any of it

so it's so refreshing

to be able to actually

enjoy the same meal

that everyone else is having

that's been really special

it is nice

yeah it's good

it's good when you can

find something like that

and then

and then when you can

talk to somebody

and let them know

what's going on with you

and they say

oh well we can actually

accommodate that

they're receptive

and helpful

yeah

and he's

he was so nice about it

he got that response too

from people

and just like

I can't help it I'm sorry

I can help it

I just choose it

right yeah

but it's the same case you know

yeah and so

it's just

it's been such a great

experience here

yes

and I mean

all these expo events

have been so cool

for me

and I know

like people like Milton

and other people

that have been traveling

around to the different ones

to meet so many people

that we've connected with

on Instagram

and get to meet them

for the first time

in person

it's such a full circle

and then getting to meet people

like see people again

that I haven't seen in a long time

like

I got to see

Pat

yeah Pat

and then Chip

who goes by

N.R. the underscore

O.B.X.D.

and then Pat

from Orbis Overlanding

I've met both of them

previously

and so

you know

and there's some other people

that I had met previously

like Andrew Compton

and so

it's just

it's so cool

being able to be a part

of these events

and connect

with all these people

and connect with brands

that are running the event

yes

people from G7

and other people

that are involved in this

and it's just been

like it's been a

it's been a really cool

networking opportunity

very much

very much it's been

I can definitely echo

that sentiment of

like you know

you know these people

online

from you know

what their cars look like

and what their

Instagram handle is

and to like meet them

in person

put a face to the car

and face to the name

and meet them

in person

and just like

it feels so solidifying

and say like

oh we're not just

social media friends

like we actually

we're friends in real life

like this is awesome

until you

run into somebody

and they've never

shown their face

and you're like

yeah

it's a little awkward

you're like

can you show me

your Instagram

because I've had people

come up to me

at events

and they're like

hi I'm so and so

and I'm like

I don't associate

the name

with the account

most of the time

I just

know the account

and a lot

because there's

a lot of people

I don't respect that

that's really good

yeah and I do too

100%

but like

if they come up to me

and start talking to me

like they know me

because they listen

to the podcast

I'm just like

who are you

and I feel bad about it

it's a little awkward

of like

trying to make friends

as an adult

when all your friends

aren't Instagram

but then as soon as

they say

their Instagram handle

then it's like

oh

now I know

who you are

and it all comes

together

and I was

and I'm like

okay introduce himself

and I'm looking at his car

and then I look over

I pan over

and I see his

Instagram handle

and I'm like

oh

awesome

mind explodes

but then also

like you see some of these

cars in person

and it's like

that looks way

cooler in person

than online

yeah

cause I feel like

the two dimensional

in a photo

you don't really

get

the full experience

like when I saw

Pat's car in person

for the first time

of being I was like

oh my god

yeah it's so cool

uh I want to emulate you

yeah

uh huh

awesome

anything else you want to add

I'm just really

glad Subaru is here

and I'm so happy

that they're embracing

the overland

and off-roading community

and me too

they belong here

they really do

like it feels natural

it feels

like it's meant to be

and so I'm just

very excited

to see

how they grow

and continue this

like overland

exposure for Subaru

yeah

and to also be

a part of that

oh yeah

you're excited about it

yeah

thank you

you're welcome

thank you for hopping on the mic

thank you

you're welcome

thanks Raf

alright

so I'm sitting here

with Amy

and the owner

lounge at

overland expo

east

and uh

why don't you

let us know

what you drive

currently

I currently drive

a

2022

Subaru

Outback Wilderness

okay

a little bit about

your apprehensiveness

of getting a Subaru

so kind of talk about

that

and then what

got you into the Subaru

okay

um

so I was driving

a

Scion TC

oh yeah

and my husband

and I were

talking about having children

and I needed to get

something that was a

little more practical

yeah

so

where we live

in southwest Virginia

we do a lot

of trail riding

and I wanted something

that was capable

yeah

and not too capable

yeah

um

but I did not

want to get

something that was

a mom car

I wasn't ready

for a minivan

um

and I wanted something

that was cool

but not something

that was gonna

look awful

um

so I

looked at several

different vehicles

I was sold

on the Jeep

Rubicon

and my husband's

like yeah

I don't think

you should buy that

let's go look at

the Subaru's

he's like

with a new one this year

they come out with

a wilderness edition

let's go look at it

so he took me to the car

dealership

and I was like

okay I'm sold

let's buy it

this is the one

yeah

so I ended up

ordering the one

that I wanted

and it came in

and I've been driving

it ever since

I love it

what color did you get

I got the

magnetite gray

oh okay

very nice

yeah

so what was it

about the wilderness

that attracted you

to it

because you

not getting a Subaru

I was

because you didn't

want a mom car

yeah I was

dead set against it

so I liked

I like the stance

of it the way it looks

it doesn't look

like

with the badges

and the

contrast of the colors

with the wilderness

that copper

pants

it really just

it looks

it looks cool

yeah

I also have

a awning

that I've put on mine

I've got the

truly large

I have on mine

so I've

added a few things

but I like

how capable it is

oh yeah

we

it goes

my husband has a

Sierra

GMC Sierra truck

okay

and he has a 79

square body

and when it snows

we take the Subaru

it goes better

in the snow

than both of those

vehicles

that's great to hear

yeah

so

did you know much

about Subaru

before you bought it

I have

a friend

that has a forest

I've ridden in it

a couple times

and I mean

it was okay

but I wasn't like

oh my gosh

I gotta have one of these

it wasn't till I saw

the wilderness

out back

that I was like

oh yeah

this is what we're doing

so you've

I'm sure you've taken it

off-road some

and everything

were you

surprised with the

capabilities

and like

were you thinking

that it wasn't

gonna be as capable

as it has been

actually yes

we got

a pretty deep

snow

which is

wow

and so we actually

took it back

National Forest Roads

oh no

and my husband's like

let's just see

what it can do

I was like

alright

so we took it back

there and

there were spots

that his truck

were spinning

and

my Subaru

did not

yeah

it just kept going

but it is a beast

yeah

the all-wheel drive

system too

is just so amazing

and it's like

I have

you know

a base model

and so

like

I've never driven it

through snow

but I've driven it

through mud

a lot

and I'm just

so surprised

like I'll just

drive out in the

middle of a mud puddle

and stop

and then

like

let me see

if it can go

and it just goes

so it's just

and I think

a lot of people

like you

don't realize

the capability

of the Subaru

until they actually

get a chance

to really

and that Subaru's like

okay

what else you got

like it doesn't

it doesn't even

flinch at it

yeah that's great

so you said also

that you're thinking

of upgrading

now

yes

so we have

a child

and we have

a big German shepherd

and this

the outback's

a little tight

when we're

all in there

and have

still have room

for cargo

so

I'm thinking

about getting

an ascent

okay

I haven't

I still

it's probably going to be

fall of next year

before I'm

able to do something

but it's in my mind

now that I need to

start looking

and need to start

figuring out what I want

but I do want to

look at the ascent

so I'm so happy

with my Subaru

I want to keep

keep going with the Subaru

yeah

and this was

your first Subaru

you said

mine too

it's like

I didn't even know

much about Subaru

I didn't know

that there was a

community out there

until I bought mine

that they were

capable just from

watching YouTube videos

because like

once I decided

I was going to get

a cross track as my next car

I started watching

because I live in Houston

so we don't get snow

but I was watching videos

of cross tracks

driving through snow

I was looking up

those kind of videos

on purpose

because I just wanted to

see what they were

capable of

and I'm seeing

these stock

cross tracks

driving through snow

with so much ease

and I'm like

that's the car

I want

that is so cool

I need to drive

other Subarus in snow

just from traveling

and meeting up with other people

so I know

that they're pretty awesome

in the snow

but yeah

I love it

they're so great

what do you think

of the whole

Subaru space here

I haven't gotten to

look at much of it

but I'm

looking around

I want to

definitely look at

some of these accessories

that they've got

oh yeah

they've got so

we have

three owner vehicles

we've got this one

here

the blue one

and then we've got

that's

the plasma

yellow or plasma

pearl cross track

and then we've got

an out

or

the

forester wilderness over here

and then the new

outback wilderness over here

okay yeah

we definitely want to check that out

but

what we all like about it

is one of the things

that we like about it the most

is the owner and the

island cheer

because we've got a place to sit

we've got the shade

snacks

drinks

so it's really cool

yeah

well thank you so much Amy

for taking the time to chat

for a little bit

alright thank you

you're welcome

where would you like to sit

over here

sounds good

okay

we can be

in the shade

a little bit more

or try to be

yeah I was sweating there

I had a like

I was embarrassed

I was like

oh my gosh

is it good here

I'm great here

okay

it was just over there

like

yeah right

directly in the sun

I think yeah

because the shade

isn't really covering

like there is it

shade for the

stage next

next year

thank you for doing this

is this on

it is on

look at that

that's a good flash

I know I love these

look at the upgrade you're making

I know it's so cool

I'm impressed

so anyway

so I'm sitting here

with Rihanna and Gelsamino

at Overland Expo East

day two

are you not sick of me yet

no of course not

no it's

always so great

talking to you

I have a lot of fun

I know everybody

else enjoys talking

to you

talking to you as well

thank you for coming out

and doing this

no problem it's been a lot

of fun already

we've done two rally 101

sessions

they were packed to house

which is great

you never know

when you come to an

overland event

if there's an

interesting rally

I guess it's off-roading

still what we do

but it's a different form

so it's really cool

to see so many people

out here

interested in

this border rally

and great questions

and all those sort of

things

yeah and hopefully

next year as

they do it again

we can get even

more people out

some stuff

ahead of time

a little bit more

and promote it more

but yeah

it's great

to see people

sitting around

listening to you

and

listening to you talk

talk about rally 101

but yesterday

you were talking about

some of the different

words like

you and travis say

and you and your dad

and how there's

like

some

miscommunication

and stuff

and so

we were all

just sitting around

cracking up

listening you were

laughing too

and so

can you kind of go through

some of the stuff

that like you and travis

say that are different

the words that you say

that are different

than like you and your dad

because that was just

really really funny

it is pretty funny

like I've lived over here

for 13 years

I moved to America

in 2012

mm-hmm

but

I am

still

use a lot of

a strange language

yeah that makes sense

awesome

Paloma

can you turn it down

a little bit

sorry

that's okay

I did not know

you're fine

yeah that's okay

you're fine

they did not tell me

no we just

it was a preemptive

kind of thing

yeah

we'll put it back on in a second

doesn't matter

don't worry I'm sorry

we're stressed

yeah

that's why you

have editing

capabilities

that's right

yeah

or I may just

leave it in

it's fun

yeah

so you're talking

living over here

yeah I've been living here since 2012

and I still use a lot of

Australian slang

which is quite funny

and I was saying yesterday

when you guys were all

cracking up as we say

it's pretty funny

because like now

I'm so busy in America

I don't get to go home

to Australia very often

and I'll go home to

Australia

even you my dad

he's like

definitely like

a crocodile

that need

I guess is a good way

to explain him

and I'll be like

hey mate

how you going

that's not a knife

that's a knife

we'll be at dinner

and I'll accidentally be like

dad can you hand me

the ketchup

that's not ketchup

it's tomato sauce

dad can you hand me

the french fries

they're not french fries

they're chips

like and so

dad's very like

hey you live in America

but you're still Australian

like when I was

getting my citizenship

he was like

make sure you still race

under an Australian flag

and I said

yes that's really important to me

like I'm a dual citizen

yeah

but it's so funny

that like

everyone in America

hears me as an Australian

I don't have

you know any type of

accent

I go home and family is like

oh you're starting to sound

very American

but like

I definitely don't think

that's the case

I slow down

I slow down my speech

a little bit I guess

but there's so many

it's just so funny

how often like

little words like

on our race car

for example like

I call the hood a bonnet

so the

the service crew

now know like

on the service

sheet if I've written

something about bonnet

what it means

and Travis knows

but it was pretty funny

like

the

I say driveshaft

the

prop shaft

is a tail shaft

the hatch

is the boot

so there's like

countless things

that like

you just don't think

we all speak

the English language

yeah yeah

different words for it

different words

and then I was saying

it's quite funny

when I'll

make a post on Facebook

or I'll

text my mum or something

in America

we don't put you

in a lot of words

so like color

for example

I would put

in Australia to be

how

O you are

here we don't have the U

so my mum will be

like have you forgotten

how to spell

and I'm like

no mum I haven't

forgotten how to spell

my laptop

which is American

spell checks

and takes out the U

that's so funny

anything like

with

like I was talking about

Bluey yesterday

Bluey's teaching the kids

on TV

the alphabet

and the last letter

of the alphabet

here in America

we obviously say Z

in Australia

we say Z

so apparently there's

a lot of kids

saying the alphabet wrong

because they

they go blah blah blah

A B C D

they get to the end

and they go Z

and the teacher's like

what?

and then they'll say

zebra

and they'll say

so it's quite funny

to think that

like this little cartoon

Bluey is also like

and Travis in my

rally car last year

was actually called Bluey

so we had some funny

conversations

about some of the things

on Bluey

and the words they use

and so it is

interesting that

yes I've lived here

for 12 years

I'm definitely

Australian and American

I still get confused

with some of the

lingo that's different

from each country

yeah and then you said

something too

like you say H

and we say H

because like when I had you

on at one time

you were saying something

and you said H

and I was like

okay that's a little

different you know

what we would say

when I spell my name

it's a disaster

you're like

what did you just say

and even when

Ken Block was around

it was so funny

the kids would be

growing up

and all three of his kids

name ends in an A

so Lia

L-I-A

Kira

K-I-R-A

Micah

M-I-K-A

and I

my Australian accent

instead of it being

Lia like just A

I'll be like

Lia

Kira

Micah

and so Ken used to think

it was funny

he would walk around going

Lia

Kira

so it's still the

running joke

us and the kids

I raised with Lia

probably six weeks

ago

and we were all laughing

because Lia was in

the car with me

and we had Micah

and Kira working on the team

and they're like

Lia you still see our name

E-R instead of A

I'm like

sorry it's my

straight accent

yeah cause I've noticed

that too

like it'll be like

E-R

and I'm like

I guess that's just

obviously an Australian

thing the way that you

say stuff

but like yeah

the whole

boot and bonnet

thing

so me and my son

have been watching

the show on

I think it's on

Disney Channel

and it's called

oh what's it called

it's basically a show

where they restore

their rides

like people's rides

and so

and it's

I think it's a British show

and they're always saying

like the boot and the bonnet

you know and all this

and so we're watching

these shows

first of all we love

the British accent

and I love

Australian accents too

but then we just

kind of

you know crack up

whenever we hear

all the different

words and everything

but it's

it's just so cool

that

how you have

people speaking

words differently

you know like

we call it an elevator

they call it a lift

it you know

so it's like

call an apartment

they call it a flat

exactly

I think we said something

about parking yesterday too

yeah

what did I say

parking lot and you guys

I can't remember

we said something

and even tyre

that's another funny one

I spell tyre

T-Y-R-E

yeah

here we obviously

spell it with an I

and so the engineers

I deliberately

were like

do tyre shit

with a Y

and now they're used to

when I first started

working with Subaru Motorsport USA

they're like

you spell tyre wrong

every time

I'm like

no you spell tyre wrong

so we have a little bit

of a debate who's wrong

or like

I'll be like

that's a drive shaft

no that's an axle

no it's a drive shaft

so now they just

whatever we

we'll just

we'll go with her terms

we know what she means

is there

any of that

like whenever

you're calling

pace notes and stuff

where you had some

troubles at the beginning

with Travis

so Travis

when it's a really

short corner

he likes to use this thing called

Schleft and Schreit

which is

an absolute mouthful

for anyone

but especially in

Australian accent

I really struggle with it

and so

a few times he's had

slowing Schleft 5

Schreit 6

and like

when you're at speed

and you're trying to

spit that out

and he's like

really it's your

Australian accent

I'm like

no it's the word

you're using

so sometimes he'll

jokingly say

so Aussie

and I'll be like

sorry about that

and it's usually

when it's a fast section

and I get a little

bit tongue tied

on these different

Schleft Schreit

slowing

I think that would be hard

for anybody

Schleft Schreit

Exactly

we cut it out

for a little while

and we just used short

but he was telling me

no it's shorter

than a short

so he needs

Schreit

Schleft

he needs short

he needs half

he needs

oh it's a lot going on

so it's always fun though

and we get a good laugh

talking about

all these different things

going on between

and I think that's the fun

part about travelling

and stuff too

like I think

you know

when I have my

Australian family

or friends come over

they'll be like

oh they call it a hotel

in Australia

we always say motel

but if I say motel

here everyone's like

I wouldn't say in the motel

Exactly

yeah

whereas all of our

hotels

whatever we always call

a motel

and a hotel is more

like a pub

or a bar

that has like

accommodation

a motel for us is usually

worse than a motel

yeah

so it's quite funny

so my friends were like

oh they kept saying

this and that

and I'm like yeah

it is quite funny that

we're all speaking English

but there's little you know

twists and turns

that make it a little bit different

tell us about

the experience you have

with your dad

at Cracker Barrel

that was so weird

I forgot about that

so I was really excited

I wanted to take dad

to Cracker Barrel

I actually really like

Cracker Barrel

because I'm a country girl

from Australia

so I enjoy meatloaf

mashed potato

you know

corn, broccoli

all those sort of things

so I'm like

oh dad's coming over

I'll take him to Cracker Barrel

he'll enjoy it

it'll be like a good

country Australian meal

so we get there

and I

he's looking at the menu

and the lady says

you know

what would you like to drink

and the first thing

that happens is pretty funny

because I say Coke Zero

and I say that

all was one

so if I don't

if I don't say

Coke Zero

I say Coke Zero

they're like

what what

and so that was funny

because the lady couldn't

understand my order

so I slowed down and said

Coke Zero

oh you want Coke Zero

now I get it

yeah now I get it

and then dad says

can I get white with one

and she looks at him

and she's like

sorry we don't have that

and dad's like

white with one

and she's like

no you don't have that

and I look and I say

a white cup of tea

with milk

and sugar

and the lady goes

oh cream and sugar

dad's like

not cream milk

so we've started off

on a good step

with this poor lady

so she goes

and gets our Coke Zero

and our white with one

and comes back

and then she says

what would you like to eat

and so dad says

whatever he wants

like meatloaf

or whatever

and mashed potatoes

and gravy and whatnot

and then she says

would you like

biscuits

or cornbread

well if you know anything

about Australians

biscuits is a cookie

so my dad

looks at him

and goes

why would I have a biscuit

with lunch

and there's mine

he's picturing a cookie

that's dessert

he's picturing a

chocolate chip cookie

not what we would

refer to more like a scone

or a scone here

so I say to dad

it's like my grandma's scones

and dad's like

why would you call it

a biscuit

and the lady's like

I've got no idea sir

so then she comes back

and she's got the biscuits

and my dad gets into

these are scones

and the poor lady's like

I've got no idea sir

like

what is going on at this table

what is going on

I'm gonna give this to you

you can handle this table

so it was so funny

and in Australia it's very common to have

virtually what those biscuits are

to be honest

with jam and cream

then like you whip your cream

you put your jam on top

very common

my grandma would always make a forest

for like what we call morning tea

which is like

usually you might start work

say at six o'clock

and then you work till nine

you'll have morning tea

and then you'll go to twelve

which will be lunch

and you have lunch

and then you get to three

and you'll have afternoon tea

so you'll have scones

and jam and cream

and cup of tea

and then you get to lunch

so in Australia

we sort of break it down that way

so dad thought it was great

because cracker barrel had virtually

what his mother's scones were

even though we call them

a little bit different

I forgot about that one

those are

they're really good

they're scones or biscuits

are very good

but they're very good

and I actually had it the other day

we were always

oh when I was driving here

there was one on the way

and I was like

oh I'm hungry

I think I'll get cracker barrel

do you like send a picture

to your dad

look I'm having some biscuits

my brother still thinks it's funny

because my dad hasn't been over

for like

it's nearly been three years

he was over

started 23

Travis flew him over

for a daytona 500

oh nice

that's so cool

so he put us in the RV

in the middle of the track

it was absolutely phenomenal

like I couldn't ask for

a better Christmas present

and my dad had the best time ever

and the cracker barrel

was right next to the track

so that's how that all happened

because every morning

we'd get in a golf cart

go out there

so even Travis

the whole team knew

about this joke with dad

so it was a funny running joke

and like

so then when we'd go

each morning they're like

hey Mike you want a white we won

so he was doing his best

to say it the American way

yeah

well it sounds like he had a good time

he had a great time

so it was awesome

and it was really cool for Travis

to do that

yeah that's

like that's so nice

yeah he knew dad loves

NASCAR so

yeah that's a good thing

for him to do

I mean he's

Travis is such a great guy

oh he's fantastic

I think that's the cool thing

about him

there's no ego

he's just a chilled

really nice guy

and you know

I think that's why

there's so many fans

and that's why Subaru is

I think it's been 21 years

or something

that's a long time

to work with an athlete

and for him to be

at that position

and that level

and that

level of success

and that level of

notoriety

and fame

if you want to call it that

you know I mean

and for him to still be

incredibly humble

and be so much about the fans

that's like

it's

you know

you want to see that

with more people at his level

and it's

it's great

hundreds and agree

and I think that thing is

that a lot of people

just assume athletes

like that

with millions of followers

and who they are

they have an ego

but there's

Travis says

I'm still an everyday person

you know

he said I was just lucky

I worked hard

and I had a dream

and I was talented

and I am where I am

you know what I mean

so I think that's why

he's just like a brother

to me

so I think it's why

we get along so well

there's no

you know he respects me

I respect him

we've both got a job

to do

and then

get to hang out with fans

and sign autographs

and do all those fun things

so

it means that we get to

enjoy our job

from the other side as well

which is really cool

oh yeah

and like when I had him

on the podcast

I was like

cause like so many people

for a long time

were like you gotta

get him on the podcast

I'm like

I can't just make it happen

but

yeah

I mean I just

you know

thankfully it's

knowing the right people

and then

thankfully and unthankfully

I guess you know

he was recovering

which was perfect for that

but yeah

talking to him

it was just like

in kind of a way

I was somewhat intimidated

you know

but then at the same time

like as I'm talking to him

like

I'm realizing

like he is just another person

and he's

where he is

because he's worked hard

and everything

but at the end of the day

yeah he's still another person

and he's just

so nice to be able to

sit around

and talk to people

and he

I don't

I mean

I haven't been around him

very much at all

so many other people

is you never get this sense of

like him

being like

get away from me

I don't have any more time for you

you know

I know he over extends his time

signing autographs and stuff

yeah he's good like that

he's actually an Australia

at the moment doing some work

and

one of the guys

working with a team

that's actually driving the truck

is Simon Evans

who's four times

Australian rally champion

and I wake up to the messages

from the guys

saying

you know Simon Evans

I'm like guys

more like

you should know Simon Evans

they're like the truck driver

he's one of Australia's best

every rally drivers

and they're like what

and I'm like

Simon Evans is four times

Australian rally champion

I said

he raced my dad

he raced my brother

and I said

he's an absolute legend

and the nice thing was

Simon messaged me

and he was like

Ree

this team is amazing

he's like

he's over there

very much sports car

Travis

and he's like

Travis is so nice

with how he talks with them

and works with them

he's like

there's no ego

he's like

it's a really cool team

you're involved in

I'm really proud of

you know

the opportunity I have over here

and how hard I've worked

to be where I am

because

Simon's known me since a little girl

you know

and to see

what I'm doing

and I was so proud to think

how cool that he doesn't

have an ego either

they needed a truck driver

to move around

their logistics

and whatever

while they're over there

Simon had the capabilities

but he didn't go there

and be like

hey I'm Simon Evans

like

Toyota factory team driver

who's won this many champion

he never did that

you know

so I thought it was cool

I was sort of messaging

questioning

do you know this guy

he said he knows you

from a little girl

yes

so cool

so I think that

I think that in our sport

I gotta

admit that I feel like

rally is a sport

where we don't have

the egos as much

I feel like people

far more humble

which I think is why

we all love it as well

yeah

and it's a

it's just such a good thing

to be a part of too

and with Subaru of course

we love that

I mean

Subaru has been amazing

to think that

I started with a team

20 you and I have

in this conversation yesterday

like

I always tell people

dreams don't work

unless you do

and I have worked

so hard

like you have to be here

with your podcast

we're here with Subaru USA

you're like

I know that

and to think that

I went from co-driving

to Travis now

they have me

you know I did a talk

at the Subaru headquarters

I've spoken at

Subaru summit

I come to the

SuviFest

I come to the Overland events

I've even got now

other people

getting me to do

motivational talking

and stuff

from it

so it's amazing how

if you work hard

and you're committed

and you dream big

just like you have

with your podcast

how big it's got

and you're here at this event

as well

it's amazing where you can get in life

so I think that

Subaru is great

for giving opportunities

if you work hard

and you're showing

that you're dedicated

to the brand

and you know

showing

what a great car

Subaru is

and what a great

manufacturer

they are to work with

and there's so many people

just in the community

doing everyday stuff

that

I talked to you on the podcast

that

owning a Subaru has

changed your life

and because of the community

and it's just

it's such a great

brand to be a part of

amazing even the dog

adoptions

they were doing this morning

the cat adoptions

you just don't see those things

you know what I mean

and I think that's amazing

the dogs this morning

were the most beautiful

little things

they just need a home

and I think it's great

I go to the SuviFest

I come here

and the pet adoption

thing

I think there's a couple

little cats as well

I think it's really cool

the different things

they're involved in

yeah absolutely

so

well thank you so much

for your time

yeah that was great

I appreciate it

you too

see ya

alright

we're here at Overland

Expo East

day two

and I'm sitting here

with a cross track owner

I want you to go ahead

and introduce yourself

I'm Ginger

Ginger nice to meet you

nice to meet you

so what model

or I guess what year

do you

cross track

do you own

we both

my other half and I

we both have

and what got you into

is this your first Subaru

it is

for both of us

driving back and forth

from one location

to the other

we drive from south of Dayton

to Hilton Head

okay

alright

and did you know anything

about Subaru

before you bought yours

no

absolutely nothing

I got treated poorly

at one of the other dealerships

and

my other half

sat there

and looked at a car

and said

well this one gets

used to a tank

yeah

so I said really

yeah

so he bought one

that

his second favorite color

which was a dark gray

okay

and

his first color

he wanted that orange one

oh yeah

they couldn't get it

yeah

and so I said okay

a month later

I liked it enough

where I bought one

and I bought the orange one

and I sold his gray one

okay

nice

so technically

we both have them

yeah

that's good

so what has your

been owning

Subaru's for the first time

for the

and you bought them brand new

I'm assuming

but two brand new

same one

same year

2019's

okay

love them

they're great cars

for mileage

and driving places

I don't really do it

at all

for overlanding

it's just for

going back and forth

great fuel economy

yeah

great car

we have big dogs

okay

so

we just sit there

and have the dogs

in the back

actually we had one

too

so we're thinking about

upgrading to the

outback

okay nice

which outback

are you looking at

the 26

the wilderness

it has to be wilderness

yeah

nice

because I missed

the wilderness package

I bought one year too early

oh okay

yeah

for the cross-trick

yeah

so are you

so with the

wilderness outback

you're wanting it

just more for the size

and then the capability

are you

planning on

doing any

I know it sounds

terrible

I have other vehicles

for off-roading

more for the fuel economy

and for the dogs

and I love the way it looks

okay yeah

but

you know

my other half will

probably take it

off-roading somewhere

yeah

they're actually

very capable

especially like just

you know as they are

as a stock vehicle

and they're

a lot of fun

I mean I bought

mine initially

with no plans

to do

anything to it

I just like

there was

we have a family reunion

in Houston

but up in East Texas

there was some county roads

that I couldn't get up

with my other car

and so

I was like

oh I can get up

these roads with a cross-trick

and that was like

the extent of what I thought

I was going to use it for

and so

it's turned into so much more

well I'm sure

and with the wilderness

packages

higher up

which I like

yeah

and I just like the size

and I

love the colors

yeah

you can't get those

yeah

so what do you think

of the whole

layout of the

at the Zivitz

yeah

so just like

just a super

second largest exhibit

right here

I believe so

yeah

yeah I don't know

which one is number one

but I thought this was

the largest

I walked by yesterday

yeah

five times

I'm like

if I come in here

I'm going to want to get

another car

yeah

and in all reality

my 2019

it's wonderful

can't say anything bad

about it

but the big thing

we're running into

is we have two

yes

oh okay

so my puppy right now

is 85 pounds

and he's going to

outweigh me

yeah

so we're going to

have to upgrade

okay

so I don't know

if we're going to

get rid of both of them

and do

two of them

I don't know

I want to do the

cross track

wilderness

yeah

but he wants

the outback

wilderness

okay

maybe get one of each

well that's what we did

in 2019

we're probably going to

end up doing the same

but it has to be the wilderness package

okay

it has too much to offer

that the other ones don't

yeah

they're very nice cars

and Subaru

put a lot of thought

into

creating the wilderness package

you know you've got

like the extra height

like you said

and then other amenities

that the other ones

don't have

and just the overall

styling

is just so nice

on those

it's more the styling

I know it sounds terrible

but

no that's

I mean if you like

the way it looks

and that's

you walk out to your car

every day and enjoy

what you see

so that's great

I notice that the grill area

I'm guessing that it's because

of air flow

yeah

it's like that

but I don't know

yeah

and it's definitely

a new look

for the outback

and there are people

that really like it

and there are people

that don't like it so much

got to think about

the fuel economy

yeah

that too

yeah

that's important as well

I think it looks great

yeah

so yeah

and then this is nice

owner lounge for everybody

to come sit in

and grab snacks

and get out of the sun

for a little bit

and the giveaways

yeah

like the silverware

giveaway

yeah those are great too

everybody's really nice here

compared to the other places

I've been

I've kind of been ignored

two or three times now

really

well that's good to hear

because I

think a lot of people

really like

the welcoming

aspect of

the Subaru booth

and then

just like

how open it is

how relaxed it is

everything

I ended up with the Subaru

because I got treated poorly

at another dealership

they totally ignored me

wow

and

I think somebody

said to me

do you want to go in

get your husband

and ask him about it

and like

no

why do I need to do that

no

and I walked into the

Subaru dealership

the guy sat there

walked over to me

didn't hound me

asked me

do you know anything about

the type of car you want

I have no idea

told him

what I'm looking for

and he's

want to point me

to the cross truck

and then he went there

and got me a soda

oh yeah

there you go

he sold me

good

I'm glad you had a good

experience here

and I'm glad you had a good

experience at the dealership

I'm guessing the next one

will be just as good

I hope so

well thank you so much

for having a chat

alright I'm sitting here

at the

Subaru

booth

space

oasis

whatever you want to call it

at overland expo

east

guess who I ran into

I ran into the brick

man how's it going

hey it's me

you just can't get rid of me

yeah

nobody can see you again

in person

anywhere there's Subaru

is

I'm here

I'm there

I'm everywhere

nice to hear it

yeah

so what do you think

of the whole Subaru

setup at overland expo

this is cool

it's actually very

so I did get to

stop by overland

expo mountain west

for just a short amount

of time

and it's essentially

the same setup

that they had there

but it's really cool

they've got

some kind of

Xebo type thing

they've got some

delicious drinks

over here

they've got a lot of cool

a lot of cool Subaru

is actually

looking around

and the new outback

wilderness

yeah

that's sweet

yeah we were

when we started off

with the overland

expo tour

we were like

I hope that by the end

of this

we get to see

the new outback

and here it is

yeah it looks

even better in person

honestly

so what brings

you to this

overland expo

is

an hour and 45 minutes

from my house

very nice

so this one was

very easy to come

check out

obviously we need

Subaru would be here

yeah

and it's just kind of

you know we want to

stay in touch with

things in

the aftermarket

and

you know with Subaru's

stuff growing

quite a lot

in the overland

zone

that's just

something that

we want to be

in touch with

so I just wanted

to come out here

and you know

check it out for

for

you know

our events as well

okay

have you gotten any ideas

about

ways that you can

incorporate more

overland stuff

into the

subi fest events

or subi events

yeah well those

so that's what

that's what we're working on

and part of that is

trying to

attract some more

overland

type vendors

which would be great

so you know

if you've got any

overland vendor

that are listening

any outdoorsy types

or something

that want to come to

our events

we've already got

the crowd for it

like a lot of our

events we have

a lot of requests

for more overlanding

things

we've started doing

our own

like special overland

parking

zone

for

that's you know

it's part of the

general parking

but a special designated

area for the

overland people

to meet up

and roll out the

rooftop tents

and awnings

and all that

good stuff

we also

this year have

started

with

the

vehicles

which

it's a little bit

difficult to do

we've got a

ship a bunch of

pallets around

the country

to do

the

subi events

stuff

but we

have a

pallet that goes with

us now

that is

basically

like wooden

obstacles

but just

some articulation

stuff

there's some

rollers

that are kind

of opposite

because

like those little

balance

things

I don't know

what they're going to

yeah it's basically

like a

big platform

yeah it's like

a metal

tube

with a

platform

welded on to it

yeah

so it makes like

a little ramp

and you put

like

one in front

of each

tire

and then you have

to slowly

drive up it

and just like

find just

the right amount

of

like

big obstacles

with

what we ship around

but we're

always looking for

more ways to

expand it

more fun things to have

at our events

so

coming out to

events like this

is just always good

to see what other

people are doing

and get some ideas

and it's

a really good time

yeah

I know that

the overland

people

and off-road

people have

kind of

requested

or something

for

doing off-road

but

I know it's difficult

some of the venues

because

especially if they're

like in a big parking lot

or like a motor sports

like the

speedway or something

because

you just don't really

have

the infrastructure

for it

you know

like

I know that

at Subaru

Flatfest

where they do

there's

at the motor

speedway

they have

some property

off to the

bigger and bigger

so

I think

that would be

the only way

that you'd be able

to do it

is if you had

a spot

that has some land

that you were able

to use

and utilize

and create

some sort of

off-road course

and so

I mean that would

you know

because I think

people would be

would want

the more authentic

off-road stuff

although

you're doing

what you can

and I think

that's great

because

you know

we do have

quite a bit of

our attendees

are

still more

the performance oriented

or the car show

like super low

cars

where if

you know

for example

if we had

an event

in this field

that we're currently

sitting in

half of the cars

would get stuck

on the way in

so we do have to

consider everyone

but yeah

we try to

do what we can

we also have

to consider

yeah

we need a place

to be able to do

our driving demos

we need

a big area

for SOA

to set up

their double-decker trailer

and all the displays

that they have

so finding venues

that fit

all of our needs

is actually

probably a lot harder

than most people

might guess

but yeah

we're always trying

you know

if we find a way

to improve something

or a venue

that works better

or something

we're always open to

we're always trying

to improve

just to

balance that

with the needs

of everyone else

yeah

well

I'm excited

and many other people

who live in Texas

are excited

that

you know

Subifes

Texas came a thing

and then

is continuing

and

that's going to be

next weekend

yes

Subifes

one week

exactly from now

so

yeah

will this go on

before then

no

okay so

Subifes

Texas

well I mean is this week

so

this week

a few weeks ago

yeah this week

a few weeks ago

event that was in the past

yeah

in the future now

but in the past

yeah exactly

well thanks for

you know

swinging by

I mean it's great

seeing you again

and I'll see you

in a week

and I don't know

it's just always fun

you know

running into people

in different places

and getting a chance

to meet people

out there

in the community

thank you sir

all right yes sir

all right

bye

cool thank you

no problem

no

all right what are we talking about

I don't know

we'll just wing it

okay

I'm sitting here with Alex

at Overland Expo

East

this is day two

how's it going man

it's going well

how about yourself

I'm doing well

why don't you give us

your Instagram handle

and then I'll tell

the funny story

sure

so

I guess I have

two main accounts

I got

an account

which is

Escargo

how do you

yeah

yeah it's spelled

Es-C-R-G-O

the thinking behind that

was

I could have

gotten a vanity plate

for that

that name

that account

except

where I live

Rhode Island

they ended up

shutting down vanity plates

like a month after

I got them

oh my

that sucks

apparently some guy

like

with a Tesla

got FK gas

as the license plate

and then

they took it away from him

he said it's not

what do you think it is

it's fake gas

oh yeah

okay buddy

yeah

so it's rough

yeah

that's my first account

for my car account

and then the business

is

snailworks.us

okay

nice

and just

can you tell us

briefly what snail.us

is because

we're going to have you

on a full episode

at some point

sure

but

what do you do with that

sure yeah

so

I bought

the

Microstrick

in

2021

it's a 21 model

okay

it's a metallic gray

same as me

yeah

same as you

it's also a manual

yes

we love our manuals here

yes

and I got it

when I was in college

because

you know

as a lot of college kids

need to sort of

convince their parents

at some point

to

for them to get a car

it was like

yeah

so it was a budget friendly

vehicle

absolutely

my trim is like

the base space

space trim

so is mine

yeah

but

I mean

it's a great car

I've driven it for

four years going on

four years now

it's fantastic

so I remember

like

about

three months

into ownership

of the car

I had a friend

in college

who was crazy

into like

overland builds

he had f-150

he did all this

and he kept

sort of like pressuring me into like

starting to mod my

cross-track

and do crazy stuff to it

and then over time

I put a roof basket on

I did the rock blocks

I went through all that phase

and then eventually

I had like

enough balls to

buy the

relation race rules bumper

when they're still making it

oh yeah

I

at the time in college

only had enough money

to buy the front bumper

not the rear bumper

so I bought the front first

with the full intention

of buying the rear

when I had money

mm-hmm

and

uh

by the time

I was ready to

pull the trigger

and buy the rear one

they weren't

they stopped making it

they just continued entirely

I remember like

months I was just sending emails

to them being like

when are you gonna bring it back

yeah

they're just like

yeah I just don't want to do

anymore

and so

me like going to school

for industrial design

I was like

okay

I'll just whip up

a design of a rear bumper

and I already had

my Instagram at the time

so I ended up

posting a few photos

of the CAD drawing

for the bumper

and I remember

just a ton of really

great responses

it turns out a lot of people

also had the same idea

as me

bought the front bumper

had intention of buying

the rear and never got to

and so everyone was like

you gotta make this bumper

to fit with my

RW front bumper

yeah

and

I didn't know

how to bend the tube

I didn't know

how to like

really mig well

I had done some

TIG welding in school

but like nothing

really serious

yeah

and

yeah

I was just like

I don't know how to do this

but let's try to

figure it out

I went around

all of

Rhode Island

just like

asking fabricators

if they could make this for me

and eventually

I found a guy

in New Bedford

who was able to do it

for a price

that was

reasonable

except

when I got to his shop

it wasn't his shop

I'm doing

air quotes

air quotations right now

it was just his

stepdad's backyard

that's interesting

and he had

two saw horses

and

he had a

a pipe

fender

which is very different

from an actual

mandrel tube

fender

and so

we ended up making

the first prototype

of the bumper

with pipe

instead of tube

okay

which is

the structure

of pipe

is very different

from actual

DOM tube

which is what we use

now for the bumpers

okay

and that was

the first prototype

the prototype bumper

is still the one

that I run

on my vehicle

to this day

oh nice

yeah

I know

and I saw your

cross-track over there

I met you

and then

it's like

oh you know

Alex

and then

I

but I didn't

associate you

with the car

and then

I'm

literally scanning

looking down

the length of your car

and I see

S car go

and I'm like

oh yeah

I was talking about

your business

and I was like

so what's your business

and Milton's like

Snow or

I'm like

okay I feel stupid

I mean

in fairness

I don't really

make a huge effort

of linking

S car go

and snow works

in terms of media post them

or sometimes you'll see

both of them

like

as the

the authors or whatever

of the Instagram post

but

yeah I guess I don't do

that much

social media work

in the other day

so like

when I first met

Jin

who goes by

eccentric designs

yes

and

I didn't know

for a while

that

she was also

ghost extract

because

she didn't really

combine the two

back then

like she had them

completely separate

she didn't have

like

you know

on her car

account

I'm the owner

of eccentric designs

or on eccentric

designs like

this is my car

account

I just

what I do remember

is that

like

I didn't know

it was the same person

and I've had that happen

with some other accounts too

where I didn't know

like

the car was associated

with the

business or brand

or whatever

they were doing

but

yeah

I think

a lot of us

like to

sort of

like

we like the idea

of our car

accounts being

our alter ego

and sort of

there's a distance

between our personal

think of the whole

Subaru

setup here

as far as like

their space

within Overland Expo

you know

not the camping space

but like

where we've got

the owner allowance

and everything

yeah I think

Subaru have really

put in

quite a bit of effort

this time around

this is actually my first

Overland Expo

from what I've heard

from what

Milton

Silver Bullet

XP has told me

this is like

the most amount of effort

that Subaru has put in

Subaru's one of the lead

sponsors of

this Overland Expo

East this year

so

it's pretty impressive

that

Subaru's putting so much effort

into

you know

overlanding in general

and this sort of lifestyle

because

me as a creator

specifically for

Subaru cars

it makes me have hope that

you know

this is a direction

that can also go in

yeah

and it's nice

because you've got

the little stage over here

for doing presentations

you've got the owner lounge

with Rhiann and Gels Amino

just hanging out

talking to people

which is super cool

yeah

and then of course

you've got Patrick

with his car

almost overlanding over there

and then Troy

with his Outback

and then a couple of factory vehicles

one of them being

the new Outback

which really

what are your thoughts

on the new Outback

oh yeah

and then you

we're sitting right

behind

Leo's car

over here

yeah

lots of really

tricked out cars

first time seeing

the new Outback

in person

what do you think

so it's

it's a wilderness

which I didn't realize

it was a wilderness at first

I just noticed

it had like the graphics

on it and everything

because

not having seen

one of these in person

I mean I could have taken

the clues by

the accents

and everything

but I was just like

focused on the car

as a whole

just kind of looking at it

and it wasn't until

I saw the wilderness badge

near the

near the rear window

that I was like

oh it's a wilderness

but

I've been

I've been wanting to

see it in person

so that I can kind of

do more of an assessment

of it and

I mean

I like it personally

I mean I think

one of the things

that

has always attracted me

to

a lot of different

things throughout my life

is things that are

different and funky

and it's very

different and funky

and

I think that's

one of the things

that I kind of like

about it

I know a lot of people

don't like that

it's

being called an outback

like maybe

people have said

like maybe they should

just release it as a new

model

and not call it the outback

because it looks so different

but

I don't know

I like it

I don't

you know

there's not really

anything I look at it

and go

oh man that's just

totally awful

again because

I like things

that are different

and funky

and this is

different and funky

and your thoughts

yeah I mean

absolutely

on its own

I think

if you're not

considering the rest

of the Subaru lineup

this is really

a fantastic car

I mean they've

really taken a lot

of the feedback

that people have

given them

they've really fixed

the main infotainment

it's actually

a really large

usable screen now

as opposed to

the last generation

where it's sort of

like the Volvo system

but a lot slower

so they've actually

taken the feedback

they've added more

physical buttons back

which is great

overall like

the whole thing

is like a step

in the right direction

I think

if you do

look at the whole lineup

that Subaru has

it starts

to get a little bit

more confusing

because

you know the outback

used to be

the wagon option

yeah

and then there was

the cross track

which was the small

sort of

a small crossover

option

and then you had

the four star

which was an actual

SUV

and then you had

the Ascend

which was a big

SUV

and now you have

the outback

which is now

essentially an SUV

and then there is also

the four star

which is also an SUV

and seeing them in person

they're quite similar

in size too

yeah

so

I think the new

outback

is

it looks great

I know a lot of people

weren't

sort of

digging the design

from the very beginning

but

I mean

the WRX

when it first came out

I remember so much

hate for that car

the new one

seeing it on the road

just seeing people

drive it ever since it came out

it's

it's literally

become my favorite

WRX that

Subaru has put out

nice

driving it also

is one of the best driving

out there

I still want to drive it

I've never driven one

it's great

once you get in

the WRX

the six speed

gearbox

and that compared to

our cross tricks

it's not the same

yeah

it's not the same

our slow baroos

yeah

not even like the speed

I wish we could get

you know

the F824

in our cross tricks

that'd be really cool

but just the way

that the gearbox

the tightness of it

it's just a really good gearbox

and one of the best

parts of the car

is the gearbox

on that car

the WRX

yeah

so how has your experience

been over at Camp Subaru?

oh it's been awesome

it's been

really cool

hanging out

with the

Adventure One crew

they've been really

awesome to me

they've always been

and a lot of the

Adventure One crew

they're

very good

we've done a lot of

work together

so I'm super appreciative

of

all the support

that they give

yeah

and it's been good

also

having Rianne

over and shooting

videos with all of us

about our builds

of our builds

and yeah

it's been a great time

yeah

and then the food

that they've been

making over there

it's been pretty incredible

at Camp Subaru

the breakfast

and the dinner

I

surprisingly have not

been able to try it out yet

oh okay

yeah but hopefully

this afternoon

will be my first go

okay good

anything else

you want to add

about your experience here?

um

I had a lot of

events

planned

for this year

mm-hmm

I'm going to

um

obviously we did

Wicked Big Meats

I ended up

Skipping Boxer Fest

but I still have

um

I got SEMA

to go to

next month

nice

I'm not really sure

if this was

the event

to go to

but now that I've been here

I'm

very certain that

I will

be at least

attending this one

next year

if not more

of Overland Expo

great

that's great to hear

yeah

it is a

it's a good event

I mean it's

it's great

for

anybody

whatever

car brand

you own

for

looking around

and seeing

all the different

you know

makes and models

and so it's just

especially in

you know Subaru

definitely belongs here

especially with where

they've taken the brand

with the Wilderness

editions and everything

and like you said

listening to the

customers and stuff

yeah

so this is

Overland Expo

it's all about

being outdoors

and outdoor life

and outdoor lifestyle

and that's what

so many of us

are doing with our

Subaru's

yeah couldn't say

better myself

alright well thanks

for hopping on the

mic for the

so how close

just

like this

okay

yeah

alright so I'm sitting here

with Chip

goes by

in our

underscore the OBXT

yes

okay

and

we're sitting here

actually in on the stage

at Subaru

booth

and

I just wanted to

talk to you

and ask you about

your experience here so far

especially

Camp Subaru

but

what do you think

of the space

here that

Subaru has laid out

where they have

all the factory cars

and everything

I'm very impressed

with

everything that

Subaru has done

at this event

not just from the

camping part

but this section here

with the display

of the cars

the new vehicle

the Outback

which I love

yeah

couple of

individual

their

Subaru's

I think it's great

because you've got

a little station

to sit and relax

you've got a stage

here for the show

last night

they've done their homework

is there anything

that you would like to see

differently done here

differently

I don't think so

I just think it's been

really well done

I commend the Subaru staff

all of them

the organizers

the people here

their feet on the ground

doing the leg work

it's just been

very welcoming

to all of us

we've talked about it

in different times

about how well

it's run

yeah

so how

what's your experience

been like

over at Camp Subaru

so you were invited out

and

had an opportunity

to camp with a bunch

of different Subaru owners

so what was that

how was that

it's been great

because

while A. they're providing us

fantastic food

for lunch and dinner

by

pretty well-known chefs

chefs

food's been great

excuse me

but they had an organized

breakfast

and options for

hiking

a trail run

or

a drive through the

Canada

skyline trail

and

it's been

just to have those options

alone

it's been great

but yeah

it's

the area there

we've met

a number of people

that we probably

normally have not met

a lot of us

kind of staying together

because we're

kept together

but there's so many people

here

it's in the Subaru section

that are

just super

it's been great

good

yeah

you think you would

come back again

absolutely

if I was lucky enough

to be chosen

I would come back

I've got a good

travel buddy here

she's a pretty

game to go anywhere

we go

yeah

and it was nice

because you had

your little

heater thing

that

I've been

since I'm not from

any places

that it's cold

it's been nice

to snuggle up next to

that

and get a little warm

since I'm not used

to the cold

as much as all of you

are

I bought that

a few years ago

and I saw one of those

I'm like

I didn't get it

bought it for

myself around

Christmas time

after Christmas

and I've used it

a handful of times

but it's really nice

it's just nice

to have

it's quick, easy

setup

but the fuel

doesn't last that long

so

yeah

I guess you

probably have to

maybe have a couple

of cans

on how many

nights you're

going to stay

I know you kind

of cranked it up

a little high

so that's going

it's been fun for me

to just kind of move around

and chat with a bunch

of different people

and meet people

that I haven't met before

and see people like you

again

question for you

you've been to all

five of these now

as far as sites

except for

I didn't go to California

oh that's right

you did four

as far as the size

how is this compared

to the others

this one's the smallest

the smallest one

yeah the

entire venue

the Overland Expo

is the smallest

of all the ones

I've been to

and then

our space

where they have

all the factory vehicles

and the owner vehicles

from like

side to side

it's been

it's about the same

but from like

front to back

this one's more narrow

it's more narrow

than the one we had

in P&W

I think P&W

where we had stuff

set up

was the largest

and then

but

they've all been

relatively the same

yeah you know

as far as like

the amount of space

but

you know to be

able to see

all the same stuff

set up

very very similar

at each event

you know it's been pretty cool

yeah I would imagine

P&W would be a huge event

yeah it's

like just the terrain itself

is going to

lend itself to

more off-roading

overlanding

yeah and then

also at P&W

we were right near

the entrance

so that was really cool too

oh nice

very nice

so this one

set up a little bit differently

because where you

drive in

and then

park

I guess at least

for us

for the vendors

and stuff

might be also because of the

except for Flagstaff

for Flagstaff

I parked

in the vendor parking

okay

and then everybody

was kind of funneling in

to the same entrance

but like here

we were kind of coming in

the back end

and not through the main entrance

even whenever I went

like even when I went to

well no I guess

that was kind of

a side entrance

I'm messing up my own story

no I guess

because like

when I was at P&W

I just parked

along the front

and went right in

the main entrance

and there we were

so it just

everyone's been different for me

where I parked

and then where I came in

I assumed where we came in

was the only entrance

there was a different way in

yeah there was another entrance

over here

up at the front past

where the food is

so yeah

I didn't realize that

until yesterday

because this one

and then like

for all of us campers

and vendors

and stuff driving in

it was like

one narrow drive

yeah

so that was

that was a little bit different

I just

I feel

very honored

and blessed to have been

all of these

it's

I can't imagine

the amount of work

to organize

the entire

trip

but the Subaru side of it

is for us

like I said earlier

we've all been

really appreciating

what they've done for us

as far as food

the planned trips

just everything

it's been great

so

I gotta commend

everyone involved

yeah absolutely

and big big

huge shout out to Joe

because this was

kind of his

baby in his project

and really appreciate

everything that he's done

yeah

he's been amazing

and

I'm missing him on this trip

because he

he went off

and went on vacation

which is fine

he deserves it

he's been working

really really hard

Sean's been

picking up the slack

so it's been great

it's been great

with everybody

we've worked with

so both from

Subaru and from

G7

and from all the other

people involved

you know

it's just been

it's been amazing

and you know

if you got

Elizabeth is getting married soon

oh sure yeah

so yeah

so

she's been great

working with us this weekend

well thanks for

being here

at all these

and an update on everybody

because

listening to the podcast

I heard a couple of the updates

from the other

other shows

and then you had

mentioned the camping aspect

and that's when

I kind of reached out

and

hey is there a chance to go

and

like I was lucky enough

to pick so

it's been good

awesome

I'm gonna see

if I can come over

and chat next

sounds good

thank you

you're welcome

alright

I'm sitting here

at Overland Expo

and

Overland Expo East

and we're

talking about

your outback

and your experience

a little bit

yeah

and your Nina

and your

another green outback

and I discovered

that last night

yes we just met last night

in person

so that was really cool

yeah

so what has your

experience been like

here

do you think they have

all of the

the vehicle set up

like

give us

give me

your opinion on

all of this

and what you've seen here

I think it's interesting

they have

like the newer models

to actually

like sit in

and look at

all the new

controls and features

yeah

I drive an outback

so I was

looking more

at the

outback

but

I'm glad they went

to some more

like

buttons

and kind of back to that

until today

when I was sitting in there

and they've got

all the push button

controls

for the HVAC

stuff so that was really cool

yeah

and then yeah overall

I think

it's nice to just see

be able to see them

because in pictures and stuff

it looks

they look a lot different

in person

it's

cool to see that

as far as the overall

layout here

what do you think about it all

I think it's good

I think it's pretty welcoming

compared

I feel like some of the booze

I know not everyone

is a title sponsor

but some of the booze

seem very tight

I feel like you can walk in

and like look at things

maybe

but

so you did a nice

job like kind of a whole

community space

yeah

especially the owner

lounge

owner lounge has been really nice

because it gives people

a spot to sit down

get out of the shade

grab some snacks

and drinks

and yeah it's been

really cool

so as far as camping

what has your experience

been over there

in the campsite

so I've never

done something

exactly like this before

I was a little nervous

because I'm not

a very big people person

I'm an introvert

but I got to park near

the Adventure One guys

who I have come to know

kind of well

so I'm really glad

I got to park together

and it's been

it's been a positive experience

and everybody loves your dog

yep

Tobin definitely helps

he's good for the introductions

yeah

and he's had fun too

he's been getting

all the attention

oh yeah yeah

so coming into it

and like you know

being nervous

and like you said introverted

which a lot of people

are including myself

even though I do the podcast

yesterday yeah

definitely

I'm not one to just like

walk up to people

and be like hey how are you doing

you know

I'm trying to get better at that

because of the podcast

and being at events like this

but you know

being around other people

that own Subaru

did it kind of

did you feel more comfortable

because everybody's there

for the same reason

yeah definitely

kind of

we all have like

like minded

I don't know

we just

have a lot of similar

I guess opinions

and

yeah

just overall views

and just

it's a big community

and it's nice to

make new friends

and meet people

who I haven't met before

in person

yeah yeah

I've known online so

yeah and I think that's one of

the best parts

is when you get a chance

to meet people in person

yeah definitely

and then meet new people

too that maybe you didn't

even know

follow new people

make new friends

yeah

and there's people here

from all over

so it's nice

like people who

I wouldn't usually

meet in person

because they're from

like Michigan

yeah it's nice

so and what year is your outback

it's 2022

okay

yeah nice

and it's green

because it's another green outback

it is yes

yeah cool

well thank you so much

for having a chat

thank you

and yeah

it was nice to come out here

and just

meet people

and see the event

definitely

thank you

you're welcome

sitting here

again

Overland Expo East

I'm sitting here with Kyle

how's it going man

I'm doing good Raf

how are you

good

what's your Instagram handle

Instagram handle is

the create outdoors

alright

and if you don't know

he's been on the podcast

before as a guest

I have

what episode

because I don't remember all of

I was episode 197

okay great

so

what do you think about

the Subaru booth

if we can call it that

as far as like

the way it's laid out

and everything

like what's your

take on it

I think this is

a really great start

I like the symmetrical

piece of it

because you know

you have the

the main booth

in the middle

with the hangout spot

and the snacks

and then you have

you know a car on each side

and then you have

like the stage here

that we're on

on the outside of that

and I think it was

the trailer was

on the other side

yeah

it was definitely a good start

I mean a pretty clean

layout

honestly

I feel like

the only thing

I would

change

maybe is

and obviously it depends

on the booth

if it was like

a deeper booth

having the cars

or one of the cars

closer to the back

so that way

everyone sees

everything in the booth

yeah

on the way to the car

yeah

you know

because people are

probably going to come

to see the cars first

and then everything else

is secondary

so

doing that would be

maybe a good idea to do

yeah

so

for this space

in particular

we got that up

I think with this space

we were just a little

more constrained

because

Overland

Expo P&W

it was a lot more

spread out

like if you think

of the space

in front of

the owner lounge

yeah

it's less

than what we had

at P&W

because we had

at P&W

there was

quite a bit more space

in the front

and so

there was an opportunity

to lay things out

a little bit better

so that you see

mostly everything

kind of from the front

and

because there were like

chairs

and

some little tables

and they had

umbrellas for shade

so that's kind of

what we're missing in this one

but

this one

it does feel more constrained

but it's also

still more open

than a lot of the other

booths

and very welcoming

I agree

so

they did a good job

you know

with the space

they

they utilized this space

well for sure

I agree

and so what has your

experience been like

over at Camp Subaru

has been

been good

I know there was

a little bit of

you know

confusion in the beginning

I don't think it's anyone's

fault

but

you know

because we

you know with Adventure 1

we've been camping

you know for so many years

we kind of like

have ideas of how

we want to set things up

and I guess

at the beginning

when we're all parking

everyone's just going to

park next to each other

like a regular parking lot

and we're like

oh

hold on a second

we can do different

setups here

because I think

when we registered

there wasn't really like

there weren't any questions of

oh what kind of camping gear

do you have

and I think

you know

if people knew

oh

some people have rooftop tents

some people have

ground tents

other people are sleeping

in their cars like I am

you know

you have a better idea

of how people

might want to utilize

that camping space

yeah

that's a good point

and I think

if maybe like

moving forward

like for next year

that would be a good question

like

what is your particular

camp setup

like how much space do you need

do you have an awning

you're going to put out

are you going to put out

a ground tent

or you have a rooftop tent

because I think

that would like

really help with

thinking about

how people can

lay out their spaces

and everything

and you know

and if you're coming

as a group too

you know

definitely probably want to

be all together

and maybe you have an idea

of how you all

want to lay out

some good things to think about

yeah

because when we go camping

at a campsite

we're always figuring out

alright

one person could park here

someone could park here

like we're having that idea

in mind of like

what's going to be the best

way so that way

people can go in

they can also get out

if they need to get out

so

yeah

good points

anything else you want to add

about your experience here

I mean this is my first

Overland Expo

and I liked it

there's some stuff

I still haven't even

looked at yet

because there's

so much going on here

but I like it

I kind of like it more

than Wicked Big Meat

because I think

Wicked Big Meat

still has that

you know

track car

road car

focus

you know

this is more

we're all in the outdoors

I could go to every

single booth here

and find something

interesting in it

that could apply to me

rather than

you know

Wicked Big Meat

so

yeah

I mean

and I know like

CB events is more

performance car

focus

and it kind of

always has been

you know

vendors

and I know that

and I actually

asked Brick about that

earlier

because I was talking to him

and talking about some of

the challenges

and stuff that they're

trying to do

so

you know

we understand

that they're at least

trying

and they want to be

able to do more too

but then

you know

they have to coordinate

that between

what the

guests want

you know

the people coming to

the event want

and what kind of vendors

would be

you know

that might be

a good thing

where we can start

trying to

maybe come up with

the list of vendors

that we would think

would be good

for

CB events

so that

you know

they can

reach out to

some of those brands

and be like

hey

we're trying to get

more

overland

off-road

focus

at these events

you know

we have people

that are really

interested

I think the reason why

you're getting more

road cars

than say

overlanding vehicles

is I think

everyone with a performance

focused

Subaru

is probably an enthusiast

where everyone

that's overlanding

a Subaru

or going outdoors

with a Subaru

isn't

you know

so

you know

the average Joe

who goes camping

with their Subaru

isn't in Subaru culture

might not have any idea

of what

Wicked Big Mean is

or anything like that

you know

the other thing

the other point that he brought up to

which was

I didn't even really think about it

but he said

like

for the performance

side of

you know

Subaru

they have to have

places that are like

you know flat

and level

you have people with really low cars

and stuff

and if he did it

a venue like this

like

they would have issues

because

you know

this is gravel

and grass

and stuff

you know

I told him

I said

you know

there's a boat

where you've got somebody

that has

you know

pavement

that you know

the show cars can go on

and then like

grassy area

that's available

for all the

overland cars

and stuff

so

yeah

but yeah

it was nice chatting with you

nice chatting with you again

too Raf

alright

thank you

you're welcome

let the interrogation begin

is that still recording

yeah

yes

alright

really an expo east

and

got a nice surprise

that you stopped by

and

said hello

and introduce yourself in person

because

a lot of times

I don't always recognize somebody

but

I'm sitting here with Isaiah

how's it going

it's going good

yeah it's finally nice to

put a name to a face

or voice I guess

yeah

over podcast

but yeah it's good to be here

my first

overland

and

so far it's been pretty good

good

and your Instagram handle

is court low

yep still court low

yep

not that it matters

it comes up either way

yeah

so

and another guest that I had

on the podcast

which is cool

so what

or what are your thoughts on

the way they have

like their booth space

set up

so yeah

so the booth space

is

it's very well set up

with the owner experience

kind of in the middle

with the couches

and the snacks

and stuff

as well as the owner cars

kind of surrounding it

with the

I guess dealer provided

I guess you could call it

cars

kind of

behind the owner cars

I think it gives a good

atmosphere

to the public

that Subaru does care

about their owners

in addition to promoting

their own brand

yeah definitely

yeah

I think

the owner lounge

is definitely a big hit

because you give

people an opportunity

to sit down

get out of the shade

grab some snacks

grab some drinks

and a lot of the feedback

that I've heard from

people is like

how welcoming it is

and I think that's

really important

and like you said shows

that Subaru cares

about their owners

because

it's really good to have

owner vehicles

out here

and then also gets people

an opportunity to see

what you can do

with your Subaru

what's possible with it

that people may not

have even known about

yeah absolutely

did you

camp

did you get here today

or did you camp last night

I came in yesterday

in the evening

so I camped last night

and I'll be camping again

tonight

okay so what has your

experience been like

over at Camp Subaru

camping has been great

obviously can't control it

it is a little cold

here at night

yeah

but that's okay

that's what sleeping bags

were for

yep

the food has been excellent

oh yeah

the catered chef

has been absolutely outstanding

and it's probably the most

gourmet food

I've probably had in my life

and now I want to

try and figure out

how to make it at home

but probably won't go

nearly as well

yeah it was good stuff

so as far as like

you know people over there

and everything

have you had a chance

to meet

like a lot of different people

I mean I know

there's a lot of people

here that you already know

any new people

that you hadn't met before

um yeah

it was cool to finally meet

Milton

um

from Washington

I've been following his page

on instagram with the

cross track and the new

new forester

and it was cool to finally

meet him today

yeah

um

it's been good to see a

lot of people again

um that I've gone on trips

within the past

and gotten to meet

in passing

but not really

actually get to talk to

for more than a couple

minutes on the trail

so it's been really nice

yeah

yeah it gives people

an opportunity

to relax

and there's so many different

settings here

you've got

you know like stuff

that's going on here

at the stage

that we're doing

so you get an opportunity

to be around people

and chat with them there

and then

you've got dinner time

and then

they're doing karaoke later

tonight

which is cool

they got yoga in the

morning

so I think

there's just so many

different opportunities

throughout the day

to like

spend time with people

and being here

for three days

you get a chance

to learn stuff

and I think that's really great

yeah it's certainly nice

yeah

so thank you so much

for sharing

your experience

yeah and maybe we'll

see you at karaoke later

I won't be singing

because I only hold the mic

behind the scenes

same here

I won't be singing either

but it'll be cool

to see what everybody

else does

there we go

yeah thank you

you want to go next?

sure

alright

we're sitting here

on the stage

at Subaru Space

here at Overland Expo East

with Milton

talking about lifts

and stuff in the background

so for everybody listening

why don't you go ahead

and introduce yourself

and give your Instagram handle

yep my name is Ken

my Instagram handle

is Blue Root Ventures

it's blu.roo.adventures

okay alright

so what is your thoughts

on the way that Subaru

has like laid out

the space here

for you know

people to come

and visit their booth space

I've quite enjoyed it

the open happy hour

they had last night

was delightful

yes

definitely enjoy that

they're showcasing

some owner vehicles here

it's nice to see that

and

show people that

hey this is what you can do

with your car

if you want to go

a little OEM plus

get a little adventurous

get your hands dirty a little

don't have to keep the car

as we sell it to you

have a little bit of fun with it

and you know

I think that's good

that Subaru does that

because

they're not afraid to showcase

that people are adding

aftermarket products to their car

that you know

they

you know they're like

really showing people

like our owners

really like to have fun

with their cars

and accessorize them

and stuff

and I think that's amazing

that people get to see that

and like

I'm sure a lot of people

that probably come through

and be like

you know especially being

over the course of three days

you get a lot of people coming through

and being like

I didn't know you could do that

had no idea

so it's really cool

to see them doing that with these

yeah and we've had the same thing

with people walking through the camp

and seeing some of the cars too

and wow I had no idea

you could do that with a Subaru

and they're like

we didn't either

until we tried

exactly yeah

and it's so great

because you start connecting with people

within the community

start asking questions

and start getting answers

and you're like

oh these people are like

helping me out

they're super cool

absolutely yeah

and that's something we love to do

we want to see more people

get into this

and get adventurous with the vehicles

take them off the B and path

yeah so as far as like this space here

they were sitting in

is there anything about it

that you would think

that they could do differently

honestly the one thing

I'd like to see if they

whether it's next year

or next event

is the owner's lounge

be a little bigger

I've thought of that too

yeah it's

I mean it is definitely

a nice space

it is yes

it provides seating

provides shade

which is really nice

with these days being so hot

and then of course snacks

and drinks

but I

so I know

at one of the other events

they had

the couch

but then I think they had like

three chairs

so they had a little more seating

yeah

right now seating is a little lacking

yeah

four or five people can sit down

but

it'd be nice to be able to sit down

and have conversations

with a larger group of people

like we've been doing at camp

yeah I agree

and

I know somebody talked about

the lack of shade on the stage

because they do have

a shade over it

but it's so open

on all four sides

oh yeah

depending on the part of the day

it doesn't really provide

that much shade

yeah

but

you know

this is their first go at it

and so

I know that

they're going to take

a lot of this information

and

you know

kind of figure out

what they can do differently

what they can do better

next year

I think that

put a positive note

I think that

my favorite thing was

seeing all the

optional accessories

and how much they're

judging interest in that

they want to see if people

like this accessory

or this accessory

and

testing with the waters

with stuff they haven't done before

yeah

so what was one of the

like your favorite accessories

that you saw

honestly

I really like the idea

of having a super

to install

livery

or decals

on the car

as an option

some people really like

to have something more

than

a gray car

yeah

to have your super dealer

put on

a decal for you

mm-hmm

and just to show

a little bit more personality

in the car

yeah

I really like

I didn't notice it until

like later in today

but the

forester

wilderness that they have

over there

did you see the decal

along the side

I did yeah

it's like

got a mountain range on it

it's very intricate

and it's very well done

yeah I like that a lot

and again

I said I didn't notice it

until later

but I was just

and I think I didn't even

notice until they turned it

around because

they wanted to show

the back of the vehicle

as people were walking

okay yeah

it was facing forward

initially yeah

and it was after

they turned it around

I just

I was looking at it

and I was like

well I didn't even notice

that

but they did a really good

job

yeah both

both the cars

look really good

with the

I think the

the paint colors

and the decals

they chose to display

them with

I think they really

accentuate the

style of the cars

definitely

our

car awnings

angle together

into an easy up

but it's been nice

because we have that

open space

for to set up our tables

and our chairs

and all hang out

and get out of the sun

during the day

and a lot of room

to set up the

fire pit at night

but it's been

really awesome too

seeing all the

different levels

of Subaru owners

everyone from

us who are sitting

here on

jacked up Subarus

with

ridiculous amounts

of lift

and Milton crawling

under them

to just

couples who are here

and they're

you know camping

in a mattress

out of the back

of their cross track

and

you don't need to

have a crazy car

like we do to just

get out and camp

and that's what

I love to see

yeah and you

don't have to

have like

do crazy stuff

with it to

thoroughly enjoy

your Subaru

absolutely

because they're so

they're so capable

of the way that

they are

because not everybody

is going to

want to do

and

he wants to do more

stuff to it

but like

he doesn't really

like decals

and a lot of people

like decals

because it helps them

personalize their car

so he's like

yeah I'm not really

into putting decals

on it

but he does want to

do like

other things

eventually with it

but so yeah

so seeing

seeing that some

people are

doing a little bit

and some people are

doing a lot

and then the

diversity within

the community too

is just like

there's no worship

there's nothing stopping you

from rolling right out

and just going camping

oh yeah

absolutely

they're built so

capable now

and Subaru

really seems to stand

behind their performance

and I respect them

for that

yeah and I

I really like too

that you

can have

somebody with

you know a setup

like yours

which is like

super cool

like I was looking at

at the other day

just looking at

everything you have on it

and then some

you're welcome

and then somebody

completely stock

Subaru

whatever model it is

and

you know

while they may

feel kind of intimidated

at first

people find out

really quick

that

just because they don't

have anything

on their car

they're not like

not welcome

you know

it's like

even if you have a

stock car

we're so excited

that you're here

you know

why did you

buy a Subaru

what do you like

about your Subaru

and that's how

I started out

didn't do

anything to it

for a while

but

I got involved

back when Mountain Real

was still

in the game

I met

some of the guys from

Tri-State

I went down to them

with the Pine Barons

when my car

was still stock

I should say

not fully stock

I had an engine

skid plate

but I still had

the stock

17 inch tires

and the all seasons

it was sold

with

to me

and I

ripped that thing

through the Pine Barons

and I went

you know what

I want to play around

with this little bit more

yeah

it's definitely fun

to do more

with them

and everything

but yeah

I mean

there's so many people

that end up doing

something really cool

with them

and you know

when they're stock

and then get really

surprised

how capable it is

I was

thoroughly impressed

with my Forrester

how it

performed stock

and definitely having

a skid plate

is really

much more

it should be skid plates

100%

yeah

well I guess

it also depends

on what you're going to do

with it

I should say

if you're going to be off-roading

if you want to go off-road

you want to

find some campsites

out there

in the middle of nowhere

you need to

put a skid plate

on your engine

yeah

because you may not

be doing

like going over

any rocks

or anything crazy

and stuff

but you never know

what you're going to

find out there

you could kick up

yeah

if you

you just hit something

on the trail right

and I've seen

you know

tree branch get

kicked up

and it just

lodged itself right

through

especially some newer

cars that have

aluminum oil pans

yeah

it's a good point

or even if it just

hits the drain plug

yeah

and then

you don't have a way

to hold the

oil anymore

that's a really

good point

you're in the middle

of the trail

and you're done

yeah

and I was

getting underneath

and I had

kicked up a rock

because it's

it's very

rocky there

and I was

I guess kind of scared

me at first

and I was like

I thought I

like dropped

and hit something

but I was like

I was

I was still just

driving across

the gravel road

and then

I realized

that my

tire

must have just

like

kicked up a rock

and hit the

underneath part

of the skid plate

and it's

really dense

especially

take your

transmission pan

on the edges

the edges are quite

vulnerable

and if that

gasket

starts to break out

and you slowly

leak out fluid

over

six months

yeah

it could

yeah

you may not damage it

that day

but you may

be doing some

long-term damage

to the car

that you're not

going to know

until it's

a problem

yeah

and

when we put it on

because I have a manual

so I don't

necessarily need

a transmission skid plate

but

when I had primitive on

they gave me a full set

of skid plates

yeah

so I have

a transmission skid plate

but

when

when I was under there

I was like

I can't believe

like how vulnerable

the

transmissions

the transmission pan is

it is

it's just right there

because I'd never

looked under one before

and I'm like

I definitely

at some point

skid plate

yes

that would be very helpful

it sits surprisingly low

and that's

why I wanted to

I didn't

when I went around

for the first time

I didn't cover the

transmission skid plate

and at some point

I did nick it

and I was getting

a very slow leak

out of the pan

okay good

I was able to

quick fix it

you know

loosen the bolt

shove some RTV

in there

and call it a day

and then immediately

ordered a

transmission skid

plan

and a rear diff skid plan

I'm always learning

something new

and I'm recording with people

and you know

talking to them

about their experiences

so it's very good points

so

thank you

well thank you so much

for hopping on the mic

absolutely

all right

talk to you later

all right

continuing on

with my interviews

with the interrogations

sitting here

on the stage still

at overland

expo

east

sitting here

with Andrew Compton

how's it going man

pretty good

can't complain

it's been

what's your Instagram handle

it is

at

a Compton

94

okay

I knew it had your name in it

somehow

I just couldn't remember exactly

what it was

too many

Instagram handles

in my head

so

what has your experience been

like here

at overland expo

and then

like

what do you think about

this

booth space

that Subaru has set up

honestly

I'm blown away

by the whole thing

I

this is my first time

being here

what to expect

so

I said a couple of times

throughout the weekend

this set a high bar

the whole thing

and

Subaru's display

in particular

awesome

I may or may not be biased

but I think they had one of

if not the best displays

here

super welcoming

it's

open

they've got the community spaces

they had snacks for owners

they had a lot of representatives

talking

to

anyone interested

yeah

absolutely

knocked out of the park

yeah

and then

so

being that you've been able

to come through the space

for you know

a good part of the day

or the weekend

is there anything that you see

in here

that you would like to see

done differently

or you know

added for next year

um

I mean

this is nitpicking

but you know

how hot it was this weekend

so

more shade but

that's

it's kind of hard to

work around

but

honestly

I'd have to sit on that

off

but now this was a stellar

display

I

like I said

it

this sets the bar high

yeah

and that's good

that's good to hear

so what has your experience

been like over at Camp Subaru

it's been a fun time

uh

I came down here

met a lot of people

who I'd followed on Instagram

so

it was super cool

to meet them in person

put

names and faces to vehicles

uh

we've all kind of

we set up a

communal area

if you will

uh

we had

Rhian and Gelsomino

come over for dinner

a couple times

which was awesome

yeah

uh

everyone's just kind of

sharing their stories

sharing experiences

everyone's super nice

welcoming

so

the Camp Subaru

experience has been

stellar

okay great

that's good to hear

and

uh

yeah

and then you've got

the amazing food

that they've been

serving up

from Chef Chad

absolutely

they

had about your experience here

um

I hope to come back

in the future

uh

if not to

this particular

overlay that's so possibly

other ones

but uh

yeah hope to do it again

yeah it was great to see you again

because I saw you

48 hours of tri-state

for sure

it's uh

it's always cool

when you get a chance

to either see somebody again

or meet somebody

for the first time

anyway it's funny you mention that

that is

I've had this thought

a couple times over the past couple weeks

I was out

in Indiana

two weeks ago

while the Subaru owners

who

I'd followed

and

seeing them

seeing more people

who I've

known tangentially

out here

and actually met them in person

Subaru likes to say

they're more than just

a car company

and I think

that phrase

and this experience

really

goes hand in hand

this experience

really embodies

that uh

sentiment

definitely

you know

and they say

love

it's what makes

a Subaru

that they put together

and just bringing

Subaru owners together

and

people who enjoy

their Subaru's

and just

wanna

you know

see what this experience is about

and I think it's great too

that they

reach out to

people out there

in the community

that may not

necessarily

have like

you know

be connected

with other people

in the community

and bring them

to this kind of experience

so they can see

like

what Subaru is all about

and to meet

other Subaru owners

for sure I am

immensely grateful

for the opportunity

to be here

good

glad to hear it

well thank you so much

for hopping on the mic

thank you

you're welcome

awesome

alright

how close should I

uh

just

put it all up in your

uh

nah I just like

you know

like that's good

so uh

yeah

I'm sitting here

again

still

on the stage

at

Overland Expo East

why don't you go ahead

and do something

so uh

I'm Sean

I go by

at

Jamie the

Subaru on Instagram

I have a

2015 Subaru

Forester

oh nice

very good

so as far as

like the

Subaru

booth space

here

what is your

what are your thoughts

on the way

that's laid out

and everything

um

I liked it a lot

I mean

it was cool to see

the new

um

you know

much more

capable skid plates

compared to

the previous generation

um

uh

I like the layout of it

it was cool

you know

watching

the

um

uh

shows from

from Milton

um

about building Subaru

or

um

you know

the rally class

it was uh

yeah it was pretty cool

good

yeah

is there anything

like about the space

that you

have

I kind of wish there was

like

some

some more cover

uh

there were

you know

I guess

you don't know

the space until it's there

and the weather you're going to have

but you know

it's pretty hot

pretty sunny

and so having some extra cover

would have been nice

yeah

so when we were

in

Pacific Northwest

they did have

more

they had some

umbrellas

and chairs

sit out

and I think that had to do

with the fact

yeah the space here

definitely seems a little limited

yeah

which I mean

isn't anything Subaru can really do

it's more

you know

the Expo

yeah

so what has your experience been

like over at Camp Subaru

oh I mean it's

it's been great

this is

definitely a very

memorable weekend

I've had an absolute blast

every day

um

I'm going to be a little sad

when I

you know

leave

on Sunday

um

but no

I've had an absolute

great time

it's been

I've known online

but

have never met in person

um

so

yeah and just hanging out

with the people I do know

you know

um

yeah it's just

it's been a great time

good

yeah have you

talked to

like other people

that are over there

that you didn't

because I know that you've

followed some people

so coming to who they were

and then obviously

you're here with people

that you already know

yeah

but did you get a chance

to meet

even other people

that you

you know weren't following

people that

super invited

um

it seems like

you know

they're very new

to the whole

super camping

kind of scene

um

and

yeah it was great

being able to talk to them

um

and

you know

talk about

mods

and

um

you know

adventures we've

you know

I've been on

they've been on

and

you know

share

you know

and we

we kind of

I have all these

people that we've

connected with through

Instagram

but there's like

so many other people

out there

you know

some people may

just be a daily driver

and they may not

want to have anything

to do with other people

and

you know

doing some of the stuff

that we do

but

I can only imagine

that there's a lot

of people

also that

love their

Subaru's

yes

may not know

that there are

people that may want to be

a part of that

and so

I think it'd be really cool

to try to reach

more of those people

for sure

the

kind of more

regular people

I would say

yeah

I know

it's like

you don't want to sound

bad saying that

but I mean it seems like

that's the best way

I mean we have

Instagram accounts for our

cars like

yeah

we're not regular

we're not normal

because I remember

like when I

bought my car

and

before I even bought my

cross-trick

I knew I was going to buy it

mm-hmm

and

I

just remember like

got the car

a few days later

I was like

I guess I'll

do that silly thing

and start an Instagram page

for my car

and I remember thinking

like man

what are people going to think

about me

having an Instagram page

for my car

I had the exact same thought

for like

I don't know

how many months after

I started the car

and was like

posting consistently

like I told

friends or my family

like hey

I actually have this account

for my car

yeah

so we're definitely

a little bit different

of a breed

which is why

it's so nice to meet

people that are different

from that

and

you know

who still

enjoy being in the

community

but aren't

you know

posting every week

about what they do

or

you know

modifying their car

as crazy

as some of us do

you know

it's

it's very nice

you know

the weekend warrior

who

you know

just take their Subaru

on forest roads

to get to like

a trailhead

to go hiking

or to get to a campsite

it's definitely

nice to hear

a

slightly different side

of

you know

the off-road

overlanding Subaru community

and the modifications too

because

I've seen a lot of

Subaru's around

where I live

because I live in the

Houston area

and we don't really

have a lot of

opportunities to go

off-roading

we have like

campgrounds

that are not too far from us

we have state parks

and stuff that people

go camping in

so I see Subaru's

that might have like

an awning on it

or like a roof

roof rack

or like a basket

and maybe like

a storage thing

or something like that

but very rarely

do I see one

that has

a lift

and wheels and tires

and all this other stuff

it seems like

they have more

lifestyle accessories

yes for sure

and

you know

I mean

like my car

I don't have a lift

because I don't need one

mm-hmm

you know

yeah I think for most people

like it's not really

practical for

their daily car

or you know

maybe it's something that

they haven't even thought

about

which if they're not even

thinking about it

they don't need it

you know

so as long as

they can get them

to the place

they want to go

to you know

go see nature

and go explore

I mean that's

you know

all you need

yep it's been great

thank you so much

thank you for having me

yeah you're welcome

yeah I know

they're getting ready

to do karaoke

so

are you going to join in

I'm not going to sing

oh come on

I can't

I can't sing

just because

I can talk on the mic

doesn't mean

I can sing

yeah so

yeah thanks again

yeah thank you

you're welcome

okay

right now

I am doing

something different

because

I am

sitting on

the deck

of the Airbnb

my girlfriend

here in Seabrook

because she was planning

she had been planning

on coming down here

for

I think

a month and a half

or two months

or something like that

and

the plan was

for

me to work

while

she

was

out

with her daughter

going to the beach

and stuff

and I was going to

stay here with her dog

and her cat

and just kind of

make sure everybody

is doing okay

but

as you know

life changed

I was laid off

this past Monday

that I'm recording this

so

I don't have my

I don't have my whole setup

I'm just using the

microphone

on my MacBook Air

to record this audio right now

just to see how it's going

because I

I realized I got to the end of

day two

of Overland Expo on Saturday

and I wanted to do

a little intro

to transition into day three

in the last day

in the last conversation

and realize

I don't have a mic

I don't have a way to record it

but I do have the

onboard

MacBook Air mic

so I'm giving it a try

but anyway

I don't know how this is going to sound

until I play it back

but

I'm going to get into

we're going to get into

day three

in the last day

of Overland Expo here

alright we're sitting here

at Overland Expo East

day three

sitting here with Leo man

how's it going

doing well Ralph

thanks for having me

you're welcome

why don't you let everybody know

what your Instagram handle is

my name's Leo

my Instagram handle

is wilder feels

that's wilder as in wilderness

not wilder like most people say it

yeah that's how I was saying

in my head

so glad you said that

so it's W I L D E R underscore

and then feels with the Z

at the end

okay cool

so how did you

get out here

into Overland Expo

I was actually

invited

by Joe

who's one of the corporate

people at Subaru

I met him in California

in a small

Overland Ex

show

okay

that was kind of like a

pre

pre-production for the Overland Ex

done with Troy

at one of his shops

and I was just there

you know doing my own thing

and I met Joe

and then from there

he liked my Subaru

he saw how enthusiastic

I was about towards Subaru

and how involved I've been

in the community

he's like hey

it'd be cool if you came

with us

it started off by

asking to be featured

on the loyalty program booth

or area

yeah yeah

and then

I was like what I gotta do

to get my car in one of these booths

I was originally supposed to participate

in like Colorado

but then I recently moved

so I wasn't able to do that

Virginia was closer

so I decided

let's pull the trigger on Virginia

nice yeah

since it's the last

of the five stops

so with the

all the space that

you know the area that Subaru has set up here

is like their booth space

what do you think of the way it's all laid out

and what they've got going on here

I really like

what Subaru has done

in getting into the Overland Space

out of the

ones I've been in

the California was really nice

the one in Oregon

was really nice

I've been to

this one in Virginia

is probably the least elaborate one

yeah

because of the spacing

but overall

I do like what they've done

they really

went over the top

it wasn't just a small little

booth

it's a big presence

they came in hard

and I really

I'm happy to be a part of it

yeah

yeah it's been a good experience

you know the layout is basically the same

as you know throughout

all of the expos but

some of them have allowed for us

to spread out a little bit more

but I think this one might be the most constrained

at this location

but it's still really spread out

and I feel like you said

you know it's not as constrained as a lot of the other

I don't want to just give my opinion

on this one in particular

I'm kind of putting all my experiences together

overall it's been a great experience

being able to do the

camping experience

at PNW

being

like a guest

and then also being able to be an exhibitor

in the booth

I'm able to see both sides

I'm able to see what it's like

to be a consumer

and doing the customer side of things

and then also being as an exhibitor

seeing the behind the scenes

how much work goes behind it

the crew members

because I'm camping in the booth

so I'm up at 6.30 in the morning

so I see

the first people that show up

the cleaning crew that comes and wipes down the cars

the ladies that come and they start sweeping the floors

they come and

setting up the chairs

they start setting up the chairs

and I'm like man a lot goes into this

you know a lot goes into this

and I'm talking to the people because I'm the only one here

and I'm getting to know everyone

so what do you do?

this is what I do

so it's like

it's so fun to just

learn

the behind the scenes

you've been more of a part of

the whole process I think

than a lot of other people would do

now that I'm talking about it with you

I'm like the first one

I'm already here because I'm sleeping on the ground

and I'm here since 6.30

the sun's not even out yet

and Troy rolls up with his car

and then he starts taking pictures

before the sun comes out

and it's like I get to see it all

and it's been fun

so is there any like looking at the space

and like you've been to other ones

throughout the year but

what do you think like is there something

that you would like to see done differently

or maybe a little bit better than

what you've seen that they did here

I think what they're doing

at the booth

is good

they're marketing

this cool little

loyalty program

people come up they show their

key fobs and they get some snacks

and waters a little bit of shade

I do think all that's really cool

how they have the outdoorsy

decorations with REI collaborations

they have Thule out here demonstrating

the products, the stage

how they have shows throughout the day

different people come up like Rhiannon

yourself, Milton

I think they

first year

I feel like they really hit it on the nail

and then going above

and beyond

inviting 30 plus people

and renting an entirely

separate camping area

and letting them enjoy it

wine and dyeing them with the gourmet breakfast

and dinners and then

the karaoke at night

there's some things that I would recommend doing over there

but as far as here

I think it's perfect the way it is

what would you recommend doing over there

a little bit more involvement with the community

like at night time

maybe doing some bonfires

like it was cool that there was

karaoke last night but that was the first time

I've seen it done

but it would be cool if there was a movie night

maybe bring out a projector

play a Disney movie or something

get the community to get together

like this morning

waking up and seeing the circle

and everyone's having breakfast together

that was fun

it's a good point because that's the first time I've seen that

at any of the events that I've been to

because it's kind of like

you go back to the campsite

and then it's kind of like you're just on your own

I usually see someone

we say hello

and then I may not bump into them again for the rest of the weekend

it's cool when you see them

on the meet and greet on the pre-meat

on Thursday

and then you wake up the next day in the morning

and then you're sitting next to them eating breakfast

on the next day and then at night time

and it's like you keep seeing the same people over and over

and over until they become your friends

by the time the event's over

I don't remember their names unfortunately

but there was

two girls that were walking back

to their cars because they were

getting ready to leave

and I said y'all didn't know each other before

this event

and they're like no and I said this is great

because this is what it's all about

is bringing people, Subaru owners

to this event and meeting other Subaru owners

and

ever since like I think maybe

Saturday morning

or maybe even Saturday or Friday evening

those two girls have been together

the whole time like every time I see

one of them the other ones with them

and so and I know over at

in Colorado

there were some women that were camping

they were meeting each other for the first time

and they talked about putting together

like women's trail runs

group and all this kind of stuff

these are people they never would have met before

and they met each other because Subaru

decided to bring these people together

and create

a presence at this event

with Subaru owners

and I think it's been great

yeah definitely

for me I'm new to the whole

Subaru scene

and outdoor scene as well

I'm trying to be more explorative

your car does not look like you're new to it though

see I came from

the street

scene I had a BMW M3

prior to this and I would mod it out

and I would do car shows

but it was all about like the street

and then

I needed to get more

of a adult vehicle

for the family but I didn't want to lose

that

you know the ability

to play with it mod it out

have fun go to car shows and people look at it

hey your car is unique

like what you've done to it is pretty crazy

and then at first

I wasn't really sure about

a Subaru my wife brought it up

because of its reliability, the safety

the resale value I'm like yeah that's cool

but a Subaru to me

was like

it's like a grandma car

do I really want that

wagon car I used to feel that way

a long time ago too yeah but then

they have a wilderness

what you want you know it's got a turbo charger

it's got the lift it

the lift and it's got

everything you want and I was like alright

I went to go test drive it

the guy at the dealer was super nice

and

it did check off all the boxes so I ended up

placing an order I picked it up

and then little by little I've just been

doing what I've known to do with cars

is swap out the wheels, the tires

start putting accessories, researching

so modding was already on the radar

I was going to do something with it

I just didn't know to what extent

I wanted it to be a daily driver

I didn't think it was going to become

this crazy overland

adventure vehicle

but you can do all

of that stuff and still have it

as a daily driver that's great

I do drive it daily it's the only vehicle

I have but

it's been fun the experience

has been fun I go online I research

I look at other people's builds

the crazy part is that the people that I researched

that I looked

up and got my inspiration from

I'm starting to run into those people

at these shows and then they're like

oh man your car is my inspiration

I was like no way because your car inspired me

it's pretty cool and it's cool that

I'm running into these people and seeing them in person

and it just comes full circle

so what has your experience been like

here having your car in the booth

and having people come up to you and

ask questions and stuff like that

a lot of people want to know

how did I do certain things

like how did you mount to the light bar

to the OEM rails

you know they have questions about

my tire sizes

and how I was able to fit

a six piston big brake caliper

you know they want to know

how do you like your

comic awning or how did you get those mounts

for your max tracks

do you think the wee boost is worth it

does it do what it says it does

and it's basically just answering questions

which I don't mind at all

because if it's going to help them

decide whether they should buy it

or not I'm happy to be able to give them

my honest opinion and say you know what

this is garbage don't buy it

don't spend your money on it

but every item I put in my car

has been thoughtfully

processed in my mind

with intention and I've done a ton of

research and if I don't like a product

I'm not gonna put out my car

or I will return it and take it off

but everything that's on my car right now

I'm very happy with

and a lot of research and thought has gone

into it with intention

so when someone asks me a question

I can probably say this thing is definitely

worth it some things are a little pricey

maybe not your priority list

but if you ever have

a little extra cash and you want to spoil yourself

sure go and get this

but it's not a priority you don't need to have

a big brick hit you don't need to have

you know a trail

swing in the back it's for convenience

oh yeah 100%

but it does make your car look cool

I'm all about the cool factor

so did you have anybody ask you about

like the your car itself

because you've mentioned all the accessories

that people are asking about but have you had people

like you know what has your experience been like driving

the wilderness

I have but I feel like

the people that have

approached me already have

an outback

so their research

is already done

they know that Subaru is reliable

they know it's very safe

they know they have good resale value

so it's going to be a good investment

and now at this point

that is no longer in their minds

now they're just thinking of what can I do with it

I haven't been approached by someone

that doesn't have a Subaru yet

they usually already have

the Subaru and they just want to know about

the accessories that goes on them

every once in a while I get asked

you know

how do you like the turbocharger

is the wilderness worth it

versus the one that doesn't have the turbocharger

they ask if it's a smooth ride

how's the gas mileage

are the seats comfortable

I do get those kind of questions

okay yeah

good anything else you want to add

about your experience here

overall it's been great

getting to know the cast

getting to learn

the process

of

marketing a Subaru has been kind of cool

being able to meet people

like you

like Kerry, like Milton

all of the community

people that come out here with their crazy

built-in foresters and chopped up

cross tracks with cool bumpers

even like small little mom

and pop shops

like Alex from Snailworks

I just met him today

and it was cool to see his

cross track in real life

because I've been staring at that

thing on Instagram and that's a really

sexy cross track and I finally get to meet him

and stuff like that's really cool

overall it's been a great

experience I think that

being able to camp at the booth

brought a different element

right because I knew that by 7am

this place was going to be packed

with people working different

angles so I was like I gotta be the first one

up and ready so that

not only I can get my

my glamour shots in the morning

when the sun's not over

exposing all your shots but

you also get to see how everything

works and you get to know

people and overall

it's been a very awesome

experience you get to try some stellar

snacks you know

they don't put away the snacks

at night so I

help myself to some munchies

I'll be like in my car watching

some YouTube and I'll be like

I want some chips

I'm going to go over to the suru

snack section and grab some of those cool pretzels

that Ralph brought

so cool man thank you for hopping on the

mic and having a little chat

yeah no worries

looking forward to having my

own episode yeah you will

alright man thank you

man thank you for having me and I'll see you around

alright thank you

okay are we

ready we've got

one two three

can't see through

hello everybody thank you

so much for tuning in to this

very long episode

I think we made

a record here

in the longest episode of the

Subin U podcast but it was

the last event and I had a lot of great

conversations so

I have no regrets

that it was this long

but I hope you all enjoyed it

and again thank you so much

Subaru of America

thank you so much Joe, Sean, G7

everybody that

participated in the event

thank you so much for including the Subin U

podcast as part of the Overland

Expo series

and I hope that I can make it out to

all of the events next year

if Subaru does end up going

to all of the events again

I think that would be a lot of fun

and I'm looking forward to seeing

what they may change up and do a little bit differently

next year but one of the things

that I would like to see and then I've talked

to them about already is having more of a

presence more of a visual

presence for the Subin U

podcast so that's something

that I definitely want to work on

and we might be doing things differently

with the podcast next year too

we've already thrown out some ideas

that we can make it more of

just more of a visual presence

and you'll just have to

wait and see but anyway

thank you again so much

if you're

able to help support the podcast

you can join Patreon

and help support

my efforts and what I'm doing here

and it would be greatly greatly appreciated

especially now

with everything that's been going on

in my life and

no longer having a job

so I would greatly appreciate it

and thank you all for

the ones that have helped

it really means a lot and

I'm extremely grateful this community

is absolutely amazing and I'm

blessed to be a part of it so

have a great weekend

much Subi Love

Raf

The Subin U podcast is hosted by Raphael

in a closet in Houston

produced by Raphael in a room

next to the closet in Houston

and edited by Raphael on a computer

in the room next to the closet in Houston

with music by Luke Ruiz

in another room in Houston

you can find the Subin U podcast

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that's all for this week

see you next week

Subin U podcast

BONUS EPISODE - Overland EXPO EAST, Arrington, VA

Subaru Outback

Outback Wilderness

Chrysler Pacifica

Scion Tc

Wrangler Rubicon

Gmc Sierra

Subaru Ascent

Ford F150

Subaru WRX

BMW M3

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