Road to Alaska | Pt 1: Austin, Arizona, Overland Expo (5000 Miles In A Storyteller Van)

foreign [Music] sun comes up real early over here on the east side of time zone because we're on the west side of Texas [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right team good morning we're here and pulled into Guadalupe Peak last night spent the night here actually in their kind of campsite RV area what nots what's killer about having this van but we trekked in from Austin and we're beginning our travels all the way up to Alaska it's going to be epic we're going to stop by a couple different places we're taking a longer scenic route the more direct route probably shave off about a thousand miles for us but the reality of it is is that we want to be able to hit up a couple things we've got some equipment to pick up especially for the van on the way and this is about taking our time and enjoying the ride we've done this trip before kind of takes seven days with your head down and just constant 12 hour drives every single day not a whole lot of fun so we want to do is enjoy the scenes as we move along the idea behind this trip is really threefold one to get up to Alaska where we got some Expeditions we're going to execute two be able to test drive this van again we've had rooftop tents camping on the floor airstreams pull behinds all those kinds of things we really do think this is going to be the mode of transportation that we need to get from A to B but it still takes some honing in even yesterday as we were getting settled in for bed we realized there's just everybody is kind of doing a little dancing here and figuring out where things are at I know I've stepped in crockets water bowled more than a couple times so my feet were wet I think that was water man from your bowl I'm just going to assume it is otherwise I just slid inside the bed with a big p foot all I had to say that I um we're stoked to give this thing a try and hone in how we live in this thing and how we create efficiencies right now we know we're probably loaded up with more than what we need and I would say it's still fairly minimal but the idea is is that we're going to start shaving it down as we move along and then the third reason is just to be able to see the scenes here in America if you haven't been around and traveled and seen the world from just the open roads here in the United States go do it we take for granted here how easy it is is for us to be able to get from A to B and be able to have some amenities along the way nice bathroom good place to hook up dump your RV if you need it or just get out into the Backwoods Into the Wilderness [Laughter] what are you doing here you want to get the brief or even just being able to get in the Backwoods in the wilderness just from a main road you know and then you got gas stations everywhere food everywhere when I say that because we've been in parts of the world where you got to be really self-sustaining so take advantage of the United States we are we're stoked to see uh different parts of Arizona Utah California kind of this entire western part of the U.S and to include Alaska as we move all the way up and then our little visit up there to our friends in Canada all right stay tuned we've got a lot more coming at you this is going to be an epic Expedition not a bad setup huh not bad man yeah that's actually good wait do your dance this is the wad dance Squad dance squad dance what are you making meat I see that you're gonna be making some meat all right I got my sous chef here crack it he's making chicken looks like yeah make some meat and some stir fry veggies Crockett solid move dude he's not on the menu tonight nice good thing we got these induction things mm-hmm [Music] oh hello shower time right not for you my man you gotta stay put [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right team we just pulled into Arizona last night right outside of Mesa at this epic spot called The Lost Dutchman kind of a gem it breathes as if it's like a RV park or something like that but when you show up I mean it's pretty Dagon cool like I don't know if you all can see that's our view this morning it's a really killer but here's what we're about to do the reason we went through Mesa is because we needed a few things installed at our buddies at Owl van we could have went straight from Texas all the way up through Colorado probably the more direct path but we decided to take one a detour just to go check out what's going on out here in the southwest which is epic but in addition to that to go do a few things here which is get this rig set up space is a commodity out here so one of the things you want to make sure you always do is figure out how to optimize even with taking a little bit of things and trying to minimalize you want to optimize steel for the things you still do take so here's the things we're going to get installed number one is on this rack here we're going to put a big old large Expedition box hold our tools hold our power cables anything that we don't want inside any dirty hiking equipment poles Expedition gear anything that goes Clank Clank we're going to go put in there the other thing we're going to do I don't know if you can see it here I'll try to climb up and show y'all but we actually installed the starlink already let's just say not the pro solution way of installing it so what we did was install the starlink and what we did was I'm pretty proud of how we did it we clamped it up top let me see if I can show you how that looks here with the one arm climb here's the cool thing about these storytellers these ladders are Epic but I install this starlink up here I'm pretty proud of how I did the grommets and the different things like that it actually it's pretty stable on there the guys might end up reinstalling this thing anyways but we needed internet and some service while we were getting moving and then what we did was Route this wire all the way down and if you can kind of see followed the path and snaked it through this window and so with that it works it just doesn't look very clean and that window doesn't really have a great seal so there's actually a bladder a little access point we're going to have the guys at all also help us install up top seal it up make sure it's good to go they've done it a hundred times and so they're the experts before I start cutting holes and metal and things like that let the experts do what they're going to do and then the last thing we got is gonna have to come inside for that is where this young man is hey Bubba come on hold on a second hey Crocker come on show them show them why okay with this show them why you see that all right so the problem with a little guy like that and US jumping in and out you got dirt everywhere and so with dirt everywhere you got to make sure you keep this place clean and so one of the things that we're doing is installing inhabit carpets all the way through we order them through the out van guys and so they're gonna they have them ship from and have it two out we're gonna go pick them up in Mesa we could have them shipped down to Austin Texas but we decided that that wasn't going to be our best bet we might miss it as we got on the road and it would arrive we just didn't want to cut it too close what we did is hey man Crockett hey he's doing a little Recon he's doing literally a merry-go-round while she comes back again hey man come on come on so the amount of times he goes and does that back and forth back and forth and us just get dirty everywhere so these carpets are heavy duty thick and they also got a lip around it we'll show you when we get them installed here where that lip allows you to just kind of keep the dirt more Center instead of in all these nooks and crannies and those nooks and crannies I'm talking about are every little crack here all the little spots and even little things like the grooves within the doorsteps and stuff that's all going to have carpets in there so we're stoked to get this stuff going we're gonna go see the owl guys there in Mesa then we're going to hit the road again continue moving North all right we'll talk to you all soon [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] so this actually so it actually kind of snakes through that headliner and then comes right back down right behind this panel exactly that's so easy man [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right so we got these in habit Maps the fawn colored they look Epic you can install them by drilling holes and grommets in there to secure them but the team here at Alice says hey man these things are pretty heavy enough anyways like they'll probably just slay down flat so don't sweat it give it a go so we're gonna just see if gold gravity will do its thing and keep these things in place here we go this is a blank clean and empty van ready for carpets mostly as good as you can get hey man thanks for your help appreciate your service team the carpets went in and gravity did do its thing so we're ready to go I think these things are going to work perfect they're nice high quality material but they're almost like this marine grade intense uh like I don't think you can mess these out they seem like waterproof good to go and they got this lip all the way around this black lip that's going to keep the dirt I think in the center and allow us to clean this place up what do you think these are 10 minutes because he saying something all right carpets in Expedition boxing and starlink ready to go [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] up our Arizona chapter as we head north to Alaska what you see behind me a bunch of Toyota gear off-road course can only mean one thing Overland Expo here in Flagstaff Arizona here's the funny part I had no idea this thing this is a total accident we did Kelsey and I even came across this thing we were getting some stuff done at Owl Vans getting some last minute gear put on the van and the guys are like well you're probably headed to the Expo after this and we said what the heck are you talking about like are you kidding me probably the largest Expo out of here that you can go to from Overland so we went got tickets last second went in here an incredible showing I'm talking about hundreds of vendors everything from the latest technology and Overland gear all the way to recovery equipment coolers dog stuff tents Vans Adventure mobiles the 6x6 semi truck things that roamed the Earth incredible place we also got to run into the X Overland guys which was really great they got a huge exhibit and their following has become so enormous but they spent a few minutes there talking with us it was really great to see how humble they are and how driven they are to keep pushing things forward the last thing that's really neat to tie off this chapter here before we continue to head north is the new 2024 Toyota Tacoma a big Toyota guy and so when I saw this thing in pictures when it got released here not so long ago I was wondering when I was going to see it in person had no idea I was going to see it pretty quickly they got so many different models out but the one they got here is called the trail Hunter now what makes the trail Hunter really unique it used to be the TRD Pro was kind of top of the line off-road from the factory the trail Hunter I think is going to give this thing kind of a run for its money not only does it look really killer but it's also got cool features on it like ARB type equipment steel bumper those kind of things it's meant for when I've read it's really meant for more over landing and for folks looking to take kind of the sports series more coming out of the gate so we're going to see what it looks like I don't think you can test drive it right now but it's really neat to see this this vehicle they have here it's got this really cool kind of bronze dark green metallic color with those bronze killer wheels and it just looks like those old school like Toyota Racing Trucks just really intense much more aggressive look and something that I think Toyota did a killer job with we'll soon tell what it's like when it hits the roads but even a peak in the interior I mean the thing it's like riding in a Cadillac but it's a Toyota so all that to say this has been a really great trip here to Flagstaff we're super pumped to be able to make this surprise visit but now we're headed north see y'all soon [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Joseph Cabrera

Views: 7,847

Keywords: Joseph Cabrera, Adventure Van, Storyteller Overland Beast, Alaska, Arizona, Overland Expo, Flagstaff, Owl Vans, Austin Texas, Headed North, road trip, Overland Expo 2023, Lost Dutchman, Van Life, Camping, Adventure, Austin To Alaska, 5000 Miles in a van

Id: 8_SIBJDe3Aw

Length: 16min 4sec (964 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 24 2023