A month in the life: Overland Expo arrival day

Overland Expo Mountain West – Loveland, Colorado //

At noon, we’re packed up and back on the road.  We’re actually on a schedule today, and it entails needing to be at Overland Expo in Loveland no later than 4 p.m. to attend a mandatory instructor’s meeting for the weekend ahead.  But our first order of business for the day is to find a place to take showers.  Thanks to the iOverlander app, it’s easy to find the nearest public shower facility.  We gladly hand over $6 each to get access to the locker rooms at the Estes Park Community Center.  After a couple of hot showers, we feel much more presentable and ready to be in public.  

When we arrive at The Ranch Event Complex in Loveland, the Expo is buzzing with activity.  It’s the day before the three-day event officially starts, and hundreds of vendors, exhibitors, and instructors are all arriving and setting up.  It’s festival-style camping among hundreds of other camping rigs, so we pull into an available spot and cross our fingers that our neighbors are cool.  For the next three days we’ll be in closer proximity to other campers than we ever are any other time of the year. 

Somehow, this is already our third Overland Expo.  This time last year was our first, and at this very moment last year, I was supremely overwhelmed.  Being here this year feels entirely different in that we know the lay of the land, we now have public speaking experience under our belt, and we now know a handful of people here.  When we arrive at the instructor meeting, it’s such a delight to reconnect with awesome folks whom we met at the last Overland Expo in Flagstaff three months ago.  The energy and excitement for the weekend ahead is starting to ramp up, easing my nerves in the process.

After our meeting concludes, happy hour commences, and I am thrilled to finally meet the @mali.mish family.  We have followed each other’s travels and communicated online for thirteen years.  The weekend has hardly begun, and yet I feel confident saying that meeting this incredible family is already a highlight for me.  Dan & Marlene have raised their three kids on the road while traveling to 53 countries over the last 17 years.  They’re the epitome of inspiration and are some of the most kind, laid-back people you could ever meet.

Another couple whom I was eager to meet are Peter & Kathy Holcombe, who contributed an awesome interview here on the blog last year.  At happy hour, we cross paths and end up swapping stories for an hour or two.  Peter & Kathy have been living on the road full-time for ten years and just completed a two-year journey starting in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and ending in the southernmost point of Argentina. We hit it off immediately, and I can only hope to spend more time with them in the future.  They’re our kind of people and such an inspiration.

From the outside looking in, Overland Expo isn’t really our scene.  It’s rare that Mark and I choose to be in such a social setting.  But the people we met tonight make it entirely worth it.  And in addition to being inspired by others, we come because we hope we can be that inspiration too. 

In today’s instructor meeting, Azure, the director of programming, said, “You instructors have the power to change someone’s life this weekend.”  That sentiment lights me up inside.  If there’s one reason why we’re here, it’s that possibility.