Slow Baja - Dirt Sunrise Update With Overlanders Extraordinaire Tim And Kelsey Huber

Episode Date: December 24, 2021

After I ran into Tim and Kelsey Huber twice recently, I had to get them to sit down on Slow Baja to give us an update on their travels. Here’s how they describe themselves on their website: “Hi! We are Tim and Kelsey. We’re two ordinary people that just happen to live an extraordinary life. We are traveling the world in our 1995 Land Cruiser named Goose…to put it bluntly neither of us is overly talented, smart, rich, lucky, or retired. But that doesn’t stop us from reaching far flung destinations and having wild adventures. We do have one advantage in the type of travel we have chosen, and that is we are both experienced off-road driving and recovery instructors. After watching many of our students go off and have the adventure-of-a-lifetime we asked ourselves when we would have our own adventure? Well, we came to the conclusion that life is too short and holds no guarantees, so now seemed like a pretty good time to pull up anchor and go. We have no shame in admitting we want to squeeze as much out of life as possible. For us, life is an adventure, full of extraordinary moments for anyone willing to go after them. Our goal in life, besides enjoying it, is to inspire others to follow their dreams, to prove that life is what you make it. Traveling the world can seem like an intimidating task (It sure does to us) but if we can do it so can you, So as we continue to explore and learn we will take you along to inspire, inform, and maybe just maybe flatten that learning curve for all those out there that want to make their dream a reality.” Check out Tim and Kelsey on Dirt Sunrise Follow Dirt Sunrise on Instagram. Follow Dirt Sunrise on Facebook. Watch years of travel videos on YouTube. Support their travels here.

Hey, I want to say thanks for tuning into Slow Baja. And before we get on with my conversation this week with Tim and Kelsey Huber's from Dirt Sunrise, I wanted to say, take a moment to thank a few people who have dropped a taco in the tank. David Carlo, thank you, thank you, sir, Mark Perez, Richard Law, Nancy Warfield, Tim Nelson, thanks, Amigo. And Joe Dean, he slid an entire tray of tacos in. So, Joe, you're the man. Thank you very much. appreciate your Slow Baja merch orders as well.

And on that note, again, I know the cupboards are almost bare in the Slow Baja store over on Slowbaha.com and Instagram, but I appreciate you plodding through and trying to find something to share with your Baja family. Big shirts in black. I've got them sold out in large and below, but white shirts, large and up. We've got them. Hats, there's a smattering of them left. We have stickers.

Send me a note. I've got some secret stickers that aren't on the site that if you order now, you'll get a secret sticker. Got some pins, got some patches. So, hey, I appreciate you supporting the show and the work I'm doing over here at Slow Baja by making a purchase or sliding a taco into the tank. Enough of the business stuff on with the show. Tim and Kelsey Huber, Dirt Sunrise.

You can find them on Instagram, Facebook, and their YouTube channel is just superb. There's scores of videos, three, four, five years of, their travels, you know, they've been all the way down to Tir de'O fuego and up to Alaska, and they just got cold and said, hey, we're going to Baja, and that's where I ran into them. So, all right, enjoy the show. And I'll be back with something fun next week. Hey, this is Michael Emery.

Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches and hands down, my favorite tequila. Hey, I want to tell you about your new must-have accessory for your next Baja trip. Benchmark Maps has released a beautiful, beautiful Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas. It's a 72-page large format book of detailed maps and recreation guides that makes the perfect planning tool for exploring Baja. Pick yours up at Benchmarkmaps.com. We're working on it.

I hear the reason that people listen to me is because I put them to sleep with my soultry sounds. Yeah. Yeah, what's the guy's name that does the sleep podcast at San Francisco? Sleep with me. Oh, I don't know his name. Good to know. camera's name, but it's like, his voice, he's like, this is what I was cut out for. And it's just so perfect and sort of like bassy. And you're just like, and he just like reads a story, but then

goes off on tangents. And it's so random that it's hard to listen to. It's like somebody who's a horrible storyteller just kind of like, and then, well, what was I saying? Oh my gosh, there's this bird next to me on the wall here. And so like that's literally a podcast. And he's making his living. Because it's nothing you care to listen to. I mean, like you, it's sound, but it's not like interesting, so it doesn't capture you. And it just puts you to sleep. Yeah. Coming soon on Slow Baja, the sleep files. The sleep files.

On Patreon. You can just walk around in Baja and then describe what you're seeing. And that'll be the background noise to like, ah, there's a babbling brook. I know, there's a boat passing in the harbor. Yeah. Well, good friends, old friends now. I just looked at the Slow Baja log. Yes.

And your podcast was September 11th, 2020. Wow. Over a year ago. It's been that long. That's wild. Yeah. And today we are at November 21st. Podcasting here at the Hacienda Bougambillas in La Paz, Tim and Kelsey Uber.

Tell me about where the hell you've been since we spoke last. Man, we've been good. It's hard to believe how far we've gone. Yeah. So since then, you know, we did a few desert races and then we got to work. You went up to Alaska. Yeah, and then when we were done working, so working took us all over Western states and mapping trails and doing all that kind of stuff. And then as soon as we were done with all the work we could find, we were not really close to Alaska, I guess.

Closer than Arizona. Yeah, when you're in Oregon, I mean, heck, you're halfway there from Baja anyways. And so we just started driving north and went up to Alaska. Well, we actually took the ferry, I guess, on the way up. Yeah, we didn't drive up, but we drove down. Yeah. Yeah, it was really pretty. It was such a neat thing, and we were able to complete the whole Pan American technically,

which was also a cool thing, but not the reason we went. But we got to see a lot of cool animals, some that I didn't even know existed. The Musk Scobos. Yeah, I really wanted to see one. Those are real? They're not. They're from Star Wars, and they had one out for us when we're up in Puerto Bay. Right next to the pipeline, they put one out.

Just one. We only saw one. Yeah, the guys in the suit on the inside were really nice. It was cool day. But that was amazing. Yeah, I was seeing the animals was cool and just seeing the terrain. that's so different. Yeah. Yeah, and getting a taste of traveling again is nice because we've been kind of not stuck because the states is a good place to be. There's lots of adventures to be had,

but our passion is to travel more internationally. So we've come down to Mexico a few times during the time that we're in the U.S., and it was good to get up to Alaska, which is still obviously the U.S., but able to cross a border at least. Yeah, I just get far enough where things change. Yeah. Seenery and people and all that. That was a good feeling to feel like free again a little bit. And to go into Canada, although a lot of Canada was closed when we were there, but to non-essential anyways. But it was still cool to be able to do all that.

Yeah. And then after Alaska, first thing we wanted to do was come to Baja. Yeah, so, so funny. I mean, we ran into each other a month ago at the Nora 500. And I thought, hey a second, didn't I just see these guys in Alaska on Instagram? Yes, you did. I know there's like a delay. So celebrities, you know, they need to not let people know where they are

where we're there to keep the crowds down. We go with the tact of just to go really far away from where you last were. So we don't need to be behind. No, that one was almost live. We were in the Yukon. So we'd gotten into Canada. And we'd had plenty of below freezing and some below zero days. And, you know, you're just, we're seeing a lot of things closed.

Yeah. All First Nations land was closed in Canada. And there were some really cool stuff in that area that we wanted to see. And so we kind of been like, you know, No, lots closed. Winter's coming in. A lot of businesses say, see you in May,

like on the sign. You know, we had a good shoulder season up here. It's perfect. We missed a lot of the bugs. And then I was talking to my buddy on the phone about Alaska, and he's like,

so you're probably not going to make Nora. And he'd built a new car, a 5,600, like basically a Baja bug on steroids. He'd been working on it for like a year. Yeah, yeah. And it was, you know, it was a big deal for him

to build a new car for himself because he builds cars for other people. And so you're probably not going to make it. I was like, nah, I mean, we're in northern Yukon. And when we hung up, Kelsey goes, I'm kind of, I mean, you know, I'm kind of sick of the cold. Fish tacos in the beach, so I mean, if you want to go, like, you know, I'm willing. I was like, it sounds like you're more than willing. I think you want to go.

I was just like, I'd appreciate it. And I'm like, I think you just want fish tacos in sun. That's true, too. I love it. Yeah, I love it. It was three days of straight driving, just switching seats. And, you know, we slept two, but, you know, good 14 hour days or something of driving. Yeah.

And, yeah, hit Baja and made the NORA. So it was great. Yeah, and the NORA was, it was really fun. That I think has been my favorite race. The Baja 500,000, it's iconic. But as far as, like, fun to be at, that's more fun. You get a lot more sleep at the NORA. You get a lot more sleep.

Yeah, you get almost normal amounts. Not quite, but. So let me insert the plug right here. You know you can come with Slow Baja in the Slow Baja class on the Nora 1,000 in April, folks, April 30th through May 6th. to get a taste of what it's like to race in Baja while you're not racing in your non-race vehicle and have enough time for photos and tacos and seeing a few things along the way, slow Baja's the way to go. Check it out at nora.com.

You got to do it. Yeah, I'd recommend it. Yep. Plug placed. Yes, we had dialed that one. It was like teed up right there. Thank you, Kelsey. Hey, so, you know, I still remember our first conversation. I was so amazed to look at the map of where you had been and what you had done and all those miles. I think at that point was something like 70,000 miles as I remember. And you honestly just said,

yeah, you know, we kind of skedaddled through Baja because we'd been there before. But really, you know, like Baja is one of the better places we had been. And when you've driven all the way to Tiro del Fuego, I think that's saying a lot. Yeah. I think people are surprised because I think you have a tendency just innately to believe that distance equals like good, right? So Patagonia is far. Ushawa is the bottom. So that is a goal in your mind. And that would equal that it's really great. And it is great, actually. But I mean, if you really just take away the distance to places, I think Baja is still our favorite place on earth. Yeah. The terrain, the people, the food, like. You can be in beautiful cities. You can sit on the beach and pay for a palapa. Or you can spend weeks completely alone for

free on beaches and not see another person if you work to get there. So the hard to get to places are still so hard to get to that you have to know how to you know air down and this and that and sort of be willing to take the risk of getting stuck in some sand and some silt and fight to get out to these hard-to-find spots and they're still there so that's what i was going to ask are those spots still there has i overlander told everybody where everything is you know it's what's funny iverlander has made let's say like last night we went to the sand dunes just north of lapaz to sort of recover from the race and there was two ioverlinder spots out there and they were right on the sand graded road and like a lot i overlander spots they probably had a lot of tp and trash you know um but

if you're creative even in a two-wheel drive van you didn't have to go right to those two you could go anywhere along that road and then if you can you know air down and get into deep sand you can just drive out to these black sand dunes and go until you find your perfect spot and not see another car or hear another car or see anyone and just wake up to the sound of pongas, you know, heading out to go fishing. And so, and that's, you know, that's 15 minutes from La Paz. Yeah. One of the biggest, maybe the third biggest city in Baja, I don't know. It's large. Yeah, it's a big one, yeah, for sure.

Capital love. That's wild, right? That you can get that remote that easily. And that's the key to Baja, I think, is putting in a little bit of work to get remote. when you want to and when you want to sit on under a palapa and have a margarita brought to you, that's great too. Yeah. Yeah, I think Baja, like, rewards you for putting yourself out there.

If you're willing to interact with people and they'll give everything back to you. And that's really a neat thing when you're traveling. And it happens a lot of places. But I think there's something special about Baja that way. It's a good mix of getting away from people. But then when you do put yourself out there and talk to people and, They're just so kind and friendly that there's something special about that too. From giving rides to people you see walking, you know, like we've been out in the middle of nowhere

in the desert and seen a car broken down and then 20 minutes later you see two guys walking with a couple bottles of water and it's like, all right, get in here. We don't have seats, but you can lay on what is our bed in the back of the truck. And so, and then you're talking the whole way, you take them somewhere and learn a whole lot about secret spots to go, or not really secret, but just places that most people don't know about, yeah. Or those guys we help. you know, get their truck unstuck from the sand. It wasn't running right.

The timing was off. And then so once we fixed the engine, we helped get them unstuck and tow them out of the sand. But all during that time, the guy insisted that Kelsey go and ride the horse they had with them. And so she's riding their horse around. Kelsey's got a great look on her face. And she was loving it. She's like, yeah, you know, I grew up riding horses. This is great.

And somehow he could tell I was obsessed with horses because it was like two minutes. And he was like, you want to go ride the horse. And I was like, yes, I do. in fact want to ride the horse. Thank you. So when we were done, he says, just keep, enjoy it. Thank you so much. They were so appreciative. Keep, keep enjoying the horse ride as much as you want. When you're done, just set the saddle up on that dirt road over there that we were waving at you, you know, from as we drove along it or whatever to sort of call us over. It's like, no, you know, my Spanish is okay,

but I definitely think we're missing some part of that sentence. So one more time. And he says, yeah, just keep riding. And when you're done, put the saddle up there. I'm like, I don't understand. And then what do we do with the horse? He goes, oh, just let it go. I'm like, okay, well, we're done, I think, because I didn't want to... Don't take responsibility for that. Yeah, I didn't want to get it wrong. He's like, no, I didn't say let the horse go.

Now I don't have a horse. Yeah, yeah, we lost our horse somewhere in the desert. And so he goes, okay, no worries. And he just takes a saddle off, puts it in the bed of the pickup truck, and then slaps the horse on the butt, and it trots off into the desert. I was like, oh, he was serious. Yeah, okay. The horse kind of knows where they're at and must come to them for water at the ranch

or at a waterhole. so they can find it whenever they want. Right. And that's what he meant. And then he pulled out a rabbit from behind the back seat that they had caught. And he's like, you want the rabbit? Are you hungry?

It was still alive, by the way. Yeah. Alive rabbit. Yes. Yeah. And so he, you know, just held a little knife to it. And he's like, do you want me? I can just take care of it for you.

And I was like, ooh, we're full. We left the rabbit alive and it went back in for the seat. I don't think the rabbit is currently alive today. I don't think we can pretend he's now. Last we saw. He was. he was not on your hands yeah not on your watch but I think what you're getting to is um back to so it's such a common theme on on my podcast just talking getting on to the real real yeah of

baha the real real the people yeah 99.9% you know got to make a disclaimer I guess but the people are just amazing yeah they really are and you know in this event I don't know how many stories you could collect from chase teams that got helped. Yeah. Race teams that got helped. Yep. Class 11s that got pushed here or drug there or what have you. Yeah.

I mean, it's just one thing after another, after another, after another. And it really is legit. And for us to have chased and driven a bunch of miles on dirt and seeing the people just packed in, having fun, watching the show. And, you know, it's something. There's a love of life here. Absolutely. Yeah.

And I think there's like a culture of giving where, You know, and in the resort cities and at a hotel or something, people are still great, but that's, you know, the business of tourism. So that's a bit different. I just mean the people in the most remote spots of Baja on these ranches we've come across, the culture is just, you know, giving, invite people into the home. Yeah. We've never stopped somewhere to ask directions or anything without them going, come on in. Do you want a Cerva? Do you want some water?

Do you want a soda? What do you want? Yeah. But let's take care of you. And that's the culture of it, I think. And so the hardest thing is to be able to, like, give back enough to feel like you've sort of set an equilibrium, you know, because people are so giving that you find yourself by the time you leave Baja, you know, you're stopping to give gas to a car on the side of the road that maybe ran out, you know, and you're just trying to do something to give back to all these people that their way of doing it is to give to you. Yeah. Yeah, I think little things. I mean, I went into like a pharmacy, a, this morning just to grab something and I was talking to the lady at the, you know, checkout stand and I don't have great Spanish or anything, but like she was just so kind and so nice that you leave randomly a pharmacy feeling like, oh, that was nice. I like her. She was so nice. It just makes you happy, makes you smile.

It does put a little fullness into your heart, doesn't it? Yeah. Everyone seems genuine. Not everyone. Disclamer again, but you know, for the most part, genuine. I think that it's sort of like, for us, it was the beginning. You know, we've been coming to Baha our whole life pretty much. And so it was the beginning, though, of our big trip. And it's a good reminder to always give the benefit of the doubt and reach out and talk to people. Put yourself out there. If somebody is, you know, waving at you, stop and talk to them.

If somebody's, you know, on the road, you check and see if they're okay and if they're broken down. And it's so many good experiences added up that it helped us when we went to all these different country used to go, you know, I'm going to do that same thing. And by all means, if your gut is telling you some other, then okay, go with that. But there's your gut and then there's that overly cautious side of you that's like, you know, it would just be easier to keep driving. I don't know. I know if it's worth the risk. I don't know. You know, that one you need to kind make shut up, I think. And it takes good experiences to turn that volume down. And then, of course, by all means, you know, in all these countries we went to, if your gut was telling

you, I don't like this area here, you know, it's something's going on. I don't know, whatever. Just trust it and go, but it's so rare. Don't let your own fear of, you know, maybe speaking the language or that sort of thing inhibit you from trying. It's that quiet fear, that anxiety that I think keeps people from even going, you know, like we were just talking about. Yep, I'm going to go with you guys to the race. I can't wait. It'll be my first time in Mexico and my first time in Baja. And then as it gets there, that quiet fear is eating away at them. And they go, you know, I don't know. I read an article.

I heard about something happening in some town. And it's like, I know, but, you know, do you want me to send you other articles about the town you live in about what happened last night? Exactly. Downtown, wherever. I get it. I get it. Something can happen everywhere. But, yeah, it's tough to get over that.

I think the moment you do, you'll be happy you did. Yeah, for sure. Haiti, wish you had joined us on the Nora 500. Well, here is your chance. It's double the mileage, double the fun, double the parties, double the dirt. It is the Nora Mexican 1,000. We're going to drive by day. We're going to party by night. I'm pouring Fortaleza tequila. April 30th through May 6th, 2022. We're driving the entire peninsula. You don't want to miss out on this one.

Again, if I can do it in my 1971 Toyota Land Cruiser, totally stocked, you can do it in any modern 4x4. The Nora Mexican 1000. It's the happiest race on earth. Check it out at nora.com, N-O-R-R-A-com or on Slow Baja. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. The website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at BajaBound.com. That's Bajaubound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994.

And how have you two dealt with it? Because you freely told me the last time we spoke that you're both introverts. For sure. And so that has to be another level of personal challenge. Yeah, for me, I think it was really hard to get over. Spanish, I'm not great at Spanish, but the fear of saying, like, I didn't know how to say the full sentence, but it doesn't matter. If you try, people are so friendly again that they will help you out and you'll make it work somehow. But the fact that you are willing to say hi or ask for help or ask where something is, is fine.

You don't have to know how to speak the language perfectly. That was a big thing for me. But I think also just so many experiences of being rewarded for, you know, putting yourself out there that even being an introvert, It's still worth it to take that step and you get so much back for it. Shy smile breaking over her face. And I think too it's like it also helps you, for me anyways, I feel like I have enough of me that was naturally a bit of a cynic about people, about the world. And so it almost feels like the best medicine for that to be, to try being sincere with somebody who you don't know and that doesn't know you.

and they're they're so giving and so kind and then you're so giving and so kind with them that you kind go everything's all right you know world's all right people are pretty good and it's it's almost like a therapy in a sense when you travel I think to to try and embody the person you'd like to be you know the more optimist and the more sincere person and constantly again and again go wow people are good people are genuinely inherently good but if you ask me you know different points I think in my life, I might have a different answer, you know, and you start to go down a path of, oh, gosh, you know, everyone takes advantage, you know what I mean, all those cynical thoughts that you may have inherently in your brain. It's the best sort of medicine for that, I guess, you could say.

Yeah, I think so. So let's talk about the new house. Yeah, new truck, new house. Since the last time we spoke, Goose is gone. Goose is gone. Goose is gone. Goose is gone. Long live goose. Yeah, we miss goose. We get photos of them. I think he lives in San Clemente at the moment. We'll see where he ends up. But yeah, we miss them in the sense that we do anthropomorphize trucks a bit, you know. But you do. You do gain a bond, I think, with the vehicles you live and drive.

But the new truck is dusty, and we... His name is dusty. He is also dusty after the ball, 1,000. Yeah. We absolutely love this thing. For us, it's like, it's a massive upgrade in home. And oddly enough, it's a decrease in total vehicle weight. Yeah, it's a platform.

It's an increase in range so we can do 1,500 miles. Yeah. It's crazy. That is 10 times the range of slow Baja. Yeah, exactly. Well, to be fair, you know, half of slow Baja, you could smell it coming out. That's enough. The last time, certainly.

So with mine, I know, it's. The last time, for sure, we had some fuel issues. No, but Dusty, it's a similar platform, the 80 series. It's a diesel now, so that's a little bit to learn for us. But it was nice to be able to keep that because we were. so familiar with the 80 series so it feels very similar driving him yeah the new truck versus the old truck we just rebuilt the axles and it was great because it was all identical to to goose and so some of that is familiar and if we had issues it's you

know you're kind of building on the platform you already knew and then yeah for me just learning the diesel engine more and how to you know take care of any issues that might come up and how to do all the preventative maintenance is what we're in the stage of right now but we put something like 45,000 miles on it in the nine months we've owned it just because for work we were off-roading every day. Yeah. And then for travel going all the way up to Alaska and back and then down to Baja, now we're back in Baja. It's getting good shaked-down. Now this time all the way at the bottom, yeah. And so we've replaced every single bushing on him that

exists, you know, sway bar suspension and everything. Wheel bearings we just did, all the axle rebuilds, every fluid. I mean, just so many little things. The whole electrical system we've replaced, added solar, lithium batteries. I mean, we've really tried to dial him in. And then these few luxuries like having hot water, you know, after getting out of the race car yesterday, you're just a, you're a powdered donut but with silt instead of, instead of sugar. But so we got out to the dunes and I could just take a shower standing behind the truck

and feel like, you know, pretty darn good and have hot water. Those luxuries are, are massive. And I didn't think that I wanted them until all of a sudden this truck had them. And I was like, wow, that's nice. I thought I wanted them. Yeah. But I think the good part is, too, when we're super remote, we don't use the shower because that's water. And water's precious.

We have 20 gallons. And so we still don't have to. But it's so nice, like, you know, hey, we're here racing waters available in all these cities. Let's use it. It's a really great chase truck because it has the bed in the back. So when we could, which was not very much, I think, over the last, what, three days, we got like three and a half hours. But you have a comfortable, quiet space. to just crawl into, which is pretty cool.

Yeah, yeah. And let's talk about the amenities, the kitchen and all that. Yeah, we have. I'm quite familiar with old Westphalias, you know? So is the Maltech a similar layout? It is. It's like a fancy Westphalia in a way, in the sense that they are, they geeked out on the weight, you know, like keeping the weight down.

So all of the cabinetry on the inside is like water jet cut. It's not even just solid aluminum, which would be light enough, you'd think. it's like sandwiched over a composite material so it's super light. So it's space age. Totally. Totally. They really, they really were probably, you know,

and they've been building this model that we have for 15 years. And so it's an evolution. And I think the original concept was to be a chase vehicle for Dakar. So it kind of comes from the race world, which is, I don't know, kind of neat. Yeah, so the owner of the company race dirt bikes.

And then for Dakar, they did trucks and they built the first one as sort of a support vehicle that could keep up with the race. and go out in the dunes and recover the race car. Like it had to almost compromise nothing in a off-roading sense, but then give you all this room for tools and support stuff and somewhere to sleep. And he was saying that he didn't sell that many to racers, but then all these other travelers wanted it.

And so it's been an evolution. So like our model is 2017. And then, you know, I'll talk to them and say, hey, which fuel pump do you use to transfer fuel from the auxiliary tank? And he goes, ah, yours has this. We've now upgraded to this style. If you're going to get a spare, get this one instead of that one. Got it.

So it's constantly moving. And that's why we wanted it. We didn't want to go to them with a clean slate. We couldn't afford it anyway. But to say, you know, well, you know, instead of an 80 series, which is your normal go-to, let's do this or let's do that. Let's change everything that you've sort of learned and evolved for our own purposes. We wanted it to be like, what is the most evolved, so to speak? and I think that's how I found them

is because I already liked Land Cruisers and Toyotas and so I'd already knew about them and the fact that he chose this specific model that I always have thought was kind of a high point in Land Cruisers was interesting and I went maybe he sees all those advantages and it really seems like they do and so it's got a diesel Wobasto Cooktop in there

so we have 65 gallons of diesel 40 gallon auxiliary tank 25 or 24 in some gallon main factory OEM tank and so you can do a lot with that one fuel source. Basically the whole truck can function off of electricity so we have solar on the roof and then batteries or diesel so we can heat cook with diesel and so traveling that makes it really nice one fuel source for everything is really really handy. In Central and South America finding propane wasn't that hard finding the right

attachment wasn't too bad but as soon as you leave the Americas the attachments get really strange and now you're gonna have a different tank you need a different tank. And you're going to try and well together a different mount to hold that tank because, okay, we're in South Africa or Southern Africa. We'll need this attachment. Okay, now we're heading to Northern Africa. We'll need a different attachment. Now we're in Europe. We'll need a different one. And so you're constantly hunting for the propane because it's a sort of finite resource. Whereas electricity with the solar every morning we have enough to boil water for coffee or it's at nighttime. We'll make soup, you know, and boil some water that way. So we have a

couple of ways to heat up water. It's just it's a nice setup to be simplistic I think. Yeah. And then you know, 20 gallons of water. We put it, we've changed that system to be a bit more stringent so you can fill up with almost any water and still trust it. And it's, it's nice to be able to carry so much water too. Yeah. That's a very nice thing. Like 14, but then it was all in jerry cans and in different spaces within the vehicle. And so now it's kind of nice to have a solid 20, and then as a backup, we'll always have a little bit in a separate container in case that water got contaminated in case the tank burst a leak and it leaked out or something. So it's just nice to have it all in one area. But that's kind of the luxuries, I think, of the truck, right?

Yeah. Yeah. The lithium is nice because you can charge it all the way down to almost zero versus the AGM batteries in Goose. Yeah. And then we have one thing that I really love that we didn't have in the last truck was an ability to sleep. We call it downstairs. But without the top popped. And that's really nice. I mean, just during the race, we used it because, one, it was cold up north at night. And then two, it's just your noisy pit area, usually. And so there's a lot going on. So to be able to close the top and kind of be cocooned in this little area is a really nice option. Yeah, you've got some privacy. And then to some degree, you know, that truck doesn't call a lot of attention to itself. So there's a, it's a bit of a stealth mode

to not have to have to pop up the top. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. It's nice if you if there's nowhere to camp legally, you just find a street in a decent area and crawl on the back. That's it. You're done. And so it's kind of nice to be able to do that stealth camping when you need to. And then for all the other reasons, too,

like in Alaska, that negative 12 degree night, we were down below. You know, we have a little Wobastow heater. I forgot to mention that luxury. Yeah. So you turned that on. You've got a little hot air pumping in. And that was super nice.

And then, you know, like last night, you got the top popped. You can go up to the upstairs bed and really like, enjoy the bigger bed and everything. So these are all luxuries to us. When it's your full-time home, it's so nice. If it were a weekend camping vehicle,

I think this truck is pretty overkill. But for what we're doing and how we're living, I couldn't design a better vehicle. I was already going down this path of a box on a truck of some sort with a pass-through and all these basic ideas. But this one takes my same thoughts and gives it 15 years of work, which is great. Yeah.

So where are you headed next? A year ago, we were trying to go to Australia. And, you know, I think we all thought when COVID started that it would be shorter than it has been. And so we were thinking that we'd be able to. Alaska was a great side trip. And that was amazing. But we're looking to head somewhere new. And we're kind of looking at Africa.

Yeah. We've been getting shipping quotes to try and head to Namibia or South Africa. Yeah. And we have some friends over there. And that's the great part of traveling like this is you have friends in places on earth. that you would never dream that you knew someone. And so they're saying how quiet it is, how the animals are back more than ever

because there's not this influx of, you know, 50 or sometimes 500 tourist vehicles per day heading into some of the preserves. And so it seems like a great time to go before it's fully ramped back up and you might be able to see the country like it was the 70s or I don't know, some other era maybe when there was less tourism going on, less organized tourism. So we'd love to. So that's the goal, but we've kind of learned not to make solid plans and say we're definitively going to X. I mean, even when we talked last time, I think when we were heading south, it wasn't that we were heading to the tip of South America.

It was we're going to keep heading south. We'll see how the budget lasts. We'll see how the truck does. Well, I mean, I don't know. See if we're liking it. We hate it, you know. So it's kind of like that too. Now the goal is to head hopefully to Africa.

But, you know, Mongolia is a place I've always dreamt of going and explore. lowering. So there's so many that we just sort of like do the research, uh, do the budget and see what sticks and what looks like it's going to work. And Africa is the goal right now. And I, I sure hope that in January we're shipping the truck. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. Shipping right now is interesting to say the least. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then one container is a pretty small job for an agent when they're used to, you know, a Costco or something like that coming to them with an order. So we're trying to get our one container load done and find where we can send it that would be interesting. Yeah.

Kelsey, what advice do you have? Everybody's an overlander now. Everybody's got an Instagram page and a YouTube. You're really actually doing it. Yeah. And you're doing it beautifully and thoughtfully and seriously. Spending hours every day or week putting together films so people can live vicariously through you. What advice do you have for folks?

how do you get them to just get out and go? I think just being genuine, you know, getting to what makes you, what you're passionate about, and it doesn't have to be what everyone else posts or is passionate about. I think if you find what really gets you going, that's something that's really huge. And for me, I do like making videos, so it just so happens to be a cool thing. But I am really passionate about that, and I try to share the parts of travel that I really, really like, you know, that get me, so the people, the genuine people that we meet and food is something that I like too. But I don't know. I just, just genuine, I think it would be the bottom line.

Yeah. I think honestly, Kelsey was the big push from the beginning to stick with just doing what we feel like doing, posting what I feel like posting, whether or not it's, you know, statistically going to be the best photo or whatever. And so she kind of made me a believer, I think and going, you know, I know that we don't, our page we've been told doesn't have a, was it a theme or a sort of look to it? And it's like, yeah, it's not curated. It's, you know, if we post something, it means something to us. I was obsessed with maybe some strange cars in a foreign country. And so I just, I could just see in each one the owner of taking care of it in a certain way, let's say. And I wanted to post it. It doesn't matter that it was not maybe. Yeah, the cool thing

is then that way you find your people, you know, people that are into the same things that you are not this perceived person that you're making up kind of, you know. Well, and I think the biggest fear then is if we're growing this and we have a lot of people watching our YouTube channel but we weren't sincere from the get-go, now you need to be that person that you pretended to be in the beginning forever, right? And it's much easier to just kind of go, take it or leave it, here's us, and then if people like it, that is awesome. And if they don't, that's okay. The internet's a big place. There's a lot of different types of folks for people to follow along and watch. And so that's been something that,

Kelsey's been really big on sticking to from the beginning. And I'm definitely a believer now. We're just going to do what we're going to do. And we'll stop and work as much as we need to work. And then we put, you know, Kelsey puts in 30 to 40 hours a week editing video. And then I'm doing the Instagram and emails and trying to do orders and stuff. And we just try to keep this thing going. And it fills the fuel tank up a few times for us each month.

And that's the goal is to travel further on what we have than we could if we didn't put the work in. Yeah, yeah. And where can people find you? Dirt sunrise. If you look up Dirt Sunrise, we're the first thing that comes up. So YouTube, Instagram. We have a website that will direct you there. And Dirt Sunrise.

We just kind of, you know, we've always joked around that we like getting lost and we like kind of go, where's this dirt road go? And we do a lot of, we do a lot of U-turns, you know, because we just go down a dirt road. Oh, there's somebody's ranch there. Oh, there's this. Ooh, oh. Occasionally, though, you find a beach. And it's your beach because, you know, not everyone's trying all these random roads.

And so we have always said. Tim and Kelsey get lost is kind of our second name, I guess. But yeah, generally everything is under Dirt Sunrise. Yeah. All right, folks. That's Dirt Sunrise on YouTube. You can see the great videos in Dirt Sunrise on Instagram, which is a almost a daily dose of inspiration and fun.

It's really been a delight just seeing you last month and again this week and having you here in front of me instead of on a Zoom call. I know, it's been amazing to meet in person. I know, right? No more Zoom. Yeah, I hope not to ever have to do Zooms again. I really don't like them. But during COVID, you do what you can.

And if I wanted to talk to you and you weren't here, we talked on Zoom. It was okay. It worked. But it's good to be hanging out in person and it's been fun running into you. And for us, getting to spend so much time in good old Baja. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think you'll stick around here for another week or two?

You have some reasons to get north sooner than that. You know, we're going to hang out as much as we can. Yeah. You know, we tend to rush off, especially if there's a side job to do or some way to kind of, you know, we feel like we feel lazy if we sit still, but we're getting better at it. So I think the goal is to enjoy La Paz. and then travel as absolutely slowly as we can on some dirt roads. Yeah, yeah, eat lots of tacos and go as slowly as we can heading north.

Yeah. So again, we're just going to wrap this up, but you just experienced fast Baja, even in the slowest vehicle in the very fast race. But Kelsey, you experienced the chase, which it's, you know, three hours of sleep in three days. I was five hours of sleep in four days. Yeah. It's a grind. Yeah.

It's a grind. It is. made me think there is something to slow Baja. Yes. There sure is. I'll tell you what. You know, these other people are doing great and the trophy trucks ripping by you, that just, if your hair isn't standing up, if you're not feeling fully alive, it's like when the blue angels fly over my house in San Francisco. If you're not feeling fully alive when that goes by, it's like, I don't know, like a trophy truck two feet from you. Holy moly.

Yeah. But I'm going to say it. There's nothing wrong with slowing down. Nothing. And, you know, and it's so funny how similar the two can be and so different, you know. to race, race, go, go, go, all that camaraderie, all that excitement. And then you wake up this morning and you're sitting on the beach and... You can take a breath. I don't know exactly how the two are related or a good way to articulate it. I think there's a good community. Yeah. Yeah. Community. I mean, even when you're rushing, you're sitting at a pit and like you said,

hurry up and then you sit there and you wait forever. Yeah. But you, everyone's working towards the same goal. So there's a good sense of community, I think when you're doing this race, which is something pretty special that I may have never met you, but we're working towards the same goal. Right. That's kind of neat.

Right. I just gave a ride to the airport for a guy that I don't even know his name. But we've been together for last week. That's awesome. Yeah, I'll give you a ride to the airport. Well, it's about yin and yang, right? So we just did all the fast Baja, and so now it's time to pump the brakes. And it's time for Slow Baja.

All right. Well, thanks for making time for Slow Baja. Very good to see you again. Check them out, folks, at Dirt Sunrise on Instagram, on YouTube. See what they've been up to. And Tim, Kelsey, thanks. Thank you. Can you show me the truck before you guys head out of you.

Okay, we give you tours. All right, cool. All right, we did it. Sweet. Have I told you about my friend True Miller? You've probably heard the podcast, but let me tell you. Her vineyard, Adobe Guadalupe Winery is spectacular. From the breakfast at her communal table,

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