Slow Baja - Patty Upton On Her Guinness Record For The First All-Land Crossing Of The Infamous Darién Gap And Around The World Drive

Episode Date: June 29, 2023

When Patty Mercier jumped in Loren Upton’s 1966 Jeep CJ5, she knew she was in for an adventure. The man behind the wheel was on his fourth attempt to cross the Darién Gap. The first three trips had ended in death and disaster, but Upton, an intrepid adventurer, would not be deterred.  In addition to his determination to cross the treacherous Darién Gap entirely on land, Upton had raised the stakes on this voyage. For his fourth attempt, he decried that he would drive one American-made vehicle around the world. The route would be from North America’s Northernmost point to South America’s southernmost point. The only water crossing would be the South Atlantic. They would continue from the Southernmost point in Africa to the Northernmost point in Norway.  The trip started in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on 15 June 1984. They traveled more than 56,000 miles and took five years to complete the drive around the world. The crossing of the 125-mile Darién Gap was an astonishing 741 days. The Sand Ship Discovery, the name that Upton gave his intrepid Jeep, reached the Sletness Lighthouse near Gamvik, Norway, On 4 July 1989. The couple earned a citation in the 1992 Guinness Book of Records for the “First All-Land Crossing Of The Infamous Darien Gap From Yauiza Republic of Panama to Riosucio, Columbia 22 February 1985 to 4 March 1987.” Loren Lee Upton died at 87 years old on 9 August 2022 Patty Upton is searching for a museum to house Sand Ship Discovery, the 1966 CJ5, and for a writer to capture the story of their around-the-world drive. Please get in touch with her through her website: www.outbackofbeyond.com

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. Have you asked your doctor if Baja is right for you? Do you have a prescription that you're itching to get filled? Well, Slow Baja has the answer.

I've got three great driving adventures coming up. You can check them out at the new Adventures tab at slowbaha.com. First up is the Nora Baja 500, September 28th to October 1st. The Slow Baja Safari class is the happiest class inside of the happiest race on earth. You can get more information at slowbaha.com slash adventures. And when you're ready to sign up, it's at nora.com. N-O-R-R-A-com. Sign up for the Slow Baja Safari class.

in the Baja 500. Next up, October 15th through the 20th, I am so excited to announce the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition. This first of its kind, vintage off-road gathering, is for vehicles 1993 and older, and bikes 1980 and older. I'm not going to tell you any more about the bikes because I've teamed up with Adam Sheard at Speed Deluxe,

and the bike side is already sold out. So you can't come on a bike. You've got to come on a four-wheel vehicle. It does not need to be. four-wheel drive. If you've got a Manx buggy, if you've got a Baja bug, you've got a VW thing, if you've got a safari-style 9-11, I think you can make it. And if you can't, we're going to have somebody nearby to help you through the hard parts. It's for 1993 and older vehicles, and I'm probably going to let a few newer rigs

in if they look like a 1990s. So all of you 80 series land cruiser guys, you're in. All of you Land Rover defender owners, well, no, he's probably bringing a Land Rover defender to Baja anymore. If you got a Land Rover defender, you're in. Land Rover Discovery, you're in. Land Rover Classic, Rangeover Classic, short wheelbase, long wheel base, you're in. G-waggons, the older the better, but let me know what you want to bring. We've got five days of great dirt drives, lunch stops at my favorite taco stands, and when we get back to camp at night, it's cold craft beer and chef-prepared meals. We're going to watch the sunset. We're going to watch the sky go dark. There's going to be about a billion stars. We're going

to sip fine tequila around a campfire. And if this sounds like the way you want to experience Slow Baja, you better hit me up quick at Slowbaha.com slash adventures. That's right, slowbaha.com slash adventures for the Slow Baja vintage expedition. The third adventure to tell you about is the Slow Baja rally. It's February 23 through March 3rd, 2024. This slow roll through Baja is a loose one. You can do this drive any way you want and anything you want. From a sprinter van to a Vespa, it's all about going slow and saying hello. Fewer miles, more smiles. We're going to have a nice layover for a couple of days in Loretto.

There's going to be a one-day mule-packing trip, a one-day water trip, weather cooperating, a one-day volunteer project. If this sounds like something that interests you, you want to get to camp early, you want to cook, you want to share, you want to craft up a cocktail or share a brew, this is the trip for you. More infos at slowbaha.com slash adventures, slowbaha.com slash adventures for the slowbaha. rally. Hey, it's Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja today. It has been a minute, and my apologies for that. I had to take a little hiatus after the Nora Mexican 1000.

You know, I did about 5,000 miles in old Slow Baja last month, and I just needed a bit to recover from that. I had some family stuff, some business stuff, some dog stuff. RIP, Skipper. You're a great dog. And I also need to acknowledge. Hopefully, my dog, Skip, is sitting on off-road racing legend Johnny Johnson's lap up there, listening to him tell stories in heaven now. Johnny was an amazing off-road motorsports Hall of Fame.

And we recorded a conversation back in February. It aired on Slow Baja last month as I went off to the Nora 1000. RIP, Johnny. Thanks for sharing those stories and a few laughs with Slow Baja. It really, really was an amazing experience getting to know you a little bit. Thanks, Lynn, for arranging that and Carol Mears and Ivan Stewart. And before I start bawling here, I'm going to acknowledge a happier note. A happier note.

Slow Baja alum and pal-a-baha lover Steve McQueen. That's right. I'm talking about the one, the only Mary McGee. she's been voted into the Offroad Motorsports Hall of Fame class of 2023. I just reposted my story with my Slow Baja conversation with Mary, so if you haven't heard that one, please give it a listen. I've got two assignments. Watch Johnny Johnson on YouTube, listen to Mary McGee on Slow Baja.

All right. Well, today's show is with another amazing adventurous woman, Patty Upton. I met Patty at the Overland Expo last month, and that's what I did at. After the Nora Mexican 1000, I drove back from San Jose del Cabo, saw Sal Fish on the way. That interview's coming up. Video interview with Sal. Got back to San Diego, dropped off Ted Donovan, Baja visitor, my Mexico adventure buddy,

Ted, and picked up Adam Sheared, and Adam and I drove around northern Baja for five days, doing some mapping and some pre-running for the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition, which is coming up in October. If you've got something old and you want to come down to Baja and go slow with me, well, you've got to check that out at the Adventures tab. That's right, the Adventures tab at Slowbaha.com. All right, well, anyways, after all of that, I drove out to the Overland Expo in Flagstaff, Arizona, where I got to talk to people about Slow Baja,

I got to talk to people about Nora, and I got to talk to people about Baja, and my slow travel less is more philosophy. and it was really amazing. Parked a couple of spaces away from my old truck. It was probably the only other old truck in the whole place. And it was Patty Upton's 1966 Jeep CJ5 that she and her husband, Lauren, drove. They took five years to go 56,000 miles circumnavigating the globe.

And we're not going to talk about Baja. We're just going to talk about adventure and that trip. and her amazing experiences. Patty and Lauren earned a citation in the Guinness Book of World's Records for being the first vehicle to cross the Darien Gap entirely on land. That was a 125-mile ordeal that took nearly two years to complete. I don't know if anybody else has done that. I know people prior cross the Darian Gap on water,

and I know that some folks must have given it a shot on land, but they were the first to do it. And basically they hacked their way and winched their way and used a two-ton come along at a quarter inch, a click and clicked and clicked and clicked. And Patty brings the entire story to life. She's an amazing one. We sat down in her CJ5 and recorded it. And I can't wait to share it with you. All right.

But before I do, I got to talk to you about a few folks who have dropped a taco in the tank. And that keeps this shoestring operation on the road. So I really need to say thanks to the folks who. who've done that. Josh Sweeney, thank you. Colin Young, thank you, Aaron Quinn, thank you, Stuart and Sherry McMillan up there in Ontario, Canada. Thank you, Kyle Herrera. I appreciate you immensely. Andrea Hanks, daughter of famed Irv Hanks at the Banquet Bronco. Andrea popped down to Loretto, met up with me at the Nora Mexican 1000. She's terrific. She was in her sprinter van. She wishes she was able to drive her sprinter van on the Nora 1000, but she couldn't.

And I got to say thanks, Andrea, for sliding an entire tray of tacos and a couple of side orders of guacamole in. I appreciate it. Thank you. Nick Hodson from San Francisco. Thank you very much, Nick. BJ Ward, thank you, Amigo. Kyle Freud, thank you. Stephen Lime Groomer, Gruber.

Nice to meet you. Met you and your beautiful family, Mateo at Overland Expo. Keep adventuring, Amigo. Keep adventuring. Thanks for the support. Noah Twining, John Tucci, Kevin Bradburn. Thank you. Kevin Bradburn.

Again, complete tray, two trays of tacos and a couple sides of guac. I appreciate it. Kevin, thank you very much. And Judy Jarvowski, thank you for your support. It takes a village to keep Slow Baja on the road. So thanks for the folks who dropped a taco in the tank. And without further ado, Patty Upton talking about it, a magnificent five-year Odyssey to circumnavigate the globe on Slow Baja. Okay, sitting right on top of the gas tanks, just like my lane cruiser.

Exactly. There's one under each of us. Awesome. What's fun is when you try to cook in here. And I've done it. It's always striking that first match when you hold your breath. Your truck doesn't smell like gasoline at all. Mine always smells like gasoline. I got to tell you, there's, here we go, where is it at?

Here's the gas gauge. She's holding up, what, an 18-inch stick there, two-foot-long stick? Yeah, and it's an increment, so, you know, you know. Stars, let's get a photo of that. You know, that. That is an original. I still got Lauren's writing on it. That's the gas gauge.

I'm sure those mean something. These at least have some numbers. I'm not too sure what they relate. two. Gallons for sure. Yeah. And, but yeah, that's the, because there's no way to tell how much gases in the rear tank. There's no gas gauge for it. So these are for the front tank. So we'd always run the rear tank first. Oops, we'd always run the rear tank first. And then when you're out of gas in the rear tank, then you knew you had to switch to one of the ones in front. Simple. And the only one

right now with gas and it is the one you're sitting on. Awesome. Hey, Patty, I think you sound great. Well, thank you. I'm delighted to be here. I'm making noise. So let's just say hello and get on with it. Okay, hello. Hey, Patty. Patty Upton, Michael Emery, Slow Baja.

I'm just delighted to be here. We're at Overland Expo West in Flagstaff, Arizona. We survived a torrential downpour yesterday. We're sitting in the cab of your amazing Jeep. Right, CJ5, 1966, CJ5. and tell me all about it. How many hours? Let's go.

I've got 101 hours of capacity on this. She's pretty much stock. Lauren did very little to her other than cosmetically. He was six foot four, so the first thing he had to do is cut the hard roof off and raise it four inches. That's why when you look at the outside, it's got some funky black strips on it, and the doors have extenders around the bottom of them because everything was raised for four inches. That way he could see out the windshield. His height was from his waist up, not his legs.

So he still fit in, because that's another problem is with Jeep. There isn't a lot of leg room in here. He's got a roof rack on top that would come off and attach to the side of the Jeep and make a table slash bed depending on what you were doing, eating or sleeping. Engine is pretty stock. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let's talk about why I'm sitting in the year 19-19. 66 Jeep. Tell me the name again. The name of the Jeep is the sand ship, the SS Discovery, and Discovery is after one of

Captain Cook's ships of the mid-1700s. Lauren was a big historian, loved history. He was born 100 years too late, basically. If you read his writing, his stature, definitely old school, held the door for women, please thank you, yes ma'am, no ma'am, that sort of thing. He was just of the old school. And he had a goal or a dream. and that was to take one American-made vehicle around the world on a north-south course, all except for the South Atlantic Ocean. The South Atlantic was the only legitimate water barrier in the entire trip. And if you look at a map of the world, you'll see that there is a land route from Prudobay,

Alaska all the way down to the tip of South America. There's a land route from the tip of South Africa all the way up to northernmost part of Norway. The only catch in the entire trip was the fact that there's no road, between Panama and Columbia. It's known as the Darien Gap, the Topon de Darian, the stopper of the Darian. There is no road, there has never been a road. There probably won't be a road in my lifetime. It's all mountains, jungles, and swamps. And that was the really true, when you get right down to it,

if you want to call it, expedition of the entire trip. The rest of it was pretty much on a road. Africa was a little iffy at times, but it wasn't like there wasn't somebody somewhere around nearby. There was usually people close by. Where the daring gap you were out there, you were relying on natives to be your guide because we were lost the entire time.

We relied on them because we had no idea where we were. We would just say, okay, we need to go from here to there and remain on land because you ask a native, how do I get from from Boca de Coupe to Basal? They said, well, yeah, we get on the boat and you go up river. Well, yeah, we understand that. That's how you get there. We cannot do that. The idea was to

remain entirely on land. And that was our goal, and that we did succeed. It took 741 days to drive 125 miles, and we remained entirely on land. We crossed rivers, but never traveled up or down them. We didn't get to a difficult point and say, oh, this is too bad, let's get on the river and go down or go up. We'd always make sure that wherever we came out on a river, that it had a good place to go up the other side, so that we weren't going down a river to find another place to unload. There's been many vehicle expeditions through the gap.

National Geographic went through there. The British went through there. Mark Smith went through there with five jeeps. There's been motorcycle trips through there. There's been a couple of other, at least one other vehicle expedition. Three Swiss guys in a Toyota land cruiser back in the early 80s went through. But every single one of them traveled somewhere between maybe a dozen, 15 to 200, hundred miles by by river. So you have a Guinness book of world's record. Record for doing this

all on land. One hundred and twenty five miles in seven hundred and forty one days. Are you kidding me? Tell me about, hang on, tell me about Lauren's obsession. You must have had, he must have been obsessed to figure this out because it took a couple of tries. It did. It did. It did. He had three previous expeditions that all went belly up, learning curve there. The first one was a Ford F-250. He started in 75 through the Daring Gap. He arrived in Panama driving this Ford F-250 that he put dual rear wheels on and had it specially outfitted, that he specially outfitted, I should say. And he says that every spare part he carried didn't break and everything that broke he didn't have.

So, like I said, learning curve. Sorry, I'm laughing. Yeah, you can't. I mean, that's what it is. It is funny. It was one of those things. And he was 15 miles off an established gravel road in the Daring Gap when he broke an entire axle housing. And he had to go out for parts.

And there was an American construction company there working, and they used Ford F-250s. And they said, we'll help you get the parts. So he went out and was arranging for these parts. And while he was gone, Larry was the next. expedition member that was volunteered met him in Panama said he wanted to go with Lauren Lauren said yeah there's an empty seat you're welcome on board just kind of help out where you can and he kind of became the camp cook Larry was a retired Navy person he was a little older than Lauren at the time he had a prosthetic foot from a accident somewhere in his

previous life and so Larry stayed with the Jeep and they were parked fairly close to an Indian village and the Indians had come in and and natives would come in and spend time with Larry during the day, Larry spoke fairly good Spanish. So they became quite friendly over the time that Lauren was gone and Larry was with the Jeep. They'd bring them water, they'd bring them fruit, they'd bring them eggs, and he'd sit and talk with them and that sort of thing. Well, finally, Lauren heard this rumor that an American had been shot and killed, and when they finally tracked it all down, it had Larry had been shot and killed.

And nobody knows the true story, except obviously the gentleman who fired the shot, and he wasn't going to volunteer. The natives down there use firearms that are, I mean, literally held together with bailing wire and duct tape. Seriously, they're just falling apart. You look at Cook on our expedition years later, he had a firearm that I hated picking up because it would just almost fall apart in my hands. So whether it was just an accident, Larry was found, he was outside, the right-hand side

of the vehicle on the ground with a 22 bullet hole in the back of his head. and whether and his pipe and his Bible were right there so whether he was sitting there reading his Bible smoking his pipe and the native said hey see you tomorrow we'll be back and they took off and the guy threw his rifle over his shoulder and a shot one off nobody knows it's just hypothetical no matter what so that would that put an end to that expedition and that was one of the most devastating events in Lauren's life to have someone that you know he felt he he he didn't really talked the guy into it because the gentleman was obviously in his 40s he knew he knew what he wanted to do and he knew the dangers you talk to anybody in panama and tell him you're going through the very gap the first thing is that you're going to get shot and killed um so the danger was there so that put a trip into that trip so lorne came back in 77 with the cj seven that he had purchased and at that time he he was beginning to feel that he was becoming an old hand at this that he could do this and boom and he went through there in 49 days i mean he just blew and he was late coming down because of work at the in the california end so he was in a rush and he just went well they got to the

atrottal swamp area and they were rains were coming and he said we're done we're going to go get on a dugout and we're just going to take it down river and we're going to find dry land and go from there so that's what they did is they built put two dugouts together lashed him together put the jeep on and they went eight to ten miles down some rivers and up and over the river and found dry land and he took off on dry land after that so it was not an all-land crossing and that kind of always aggravated him but about three weeks later he lost that jeep over a cliff in ecuador uh the road turned he didn't and as a result the jeep went over the cliff and he says as he watched the headlights flip end over and he was beginning to plan his next next trip so he wasn't in

the jeep on this he was oh yeah they had four he had himself a canadian in the passenger seat that had gone through the daring gap with them that helped out with the winch and everything and two French hitchhikers that he picked up. And it was a cloth top. So as it went over, the roof was ripped off pretty quick. Lawrence says he remembers grabbing some brush. He thinks it went over one more time before John Blake was thrown free. And then the two French people, Marie Claire, and I don't remember the gentleman's name,

they were just young 20s, early 20s, probably were in it for another roll or two down the mountain before they were finally knocked out. And Marie Claire was unconscious when they found her. That was the second most devastating event for Lauren. Thought she was dead? Fine. Yes, he thought she was dead. He thought he had killed somebody.

An innocent girl that he just, you know, was helping out, giving a ride to the next town. And, you know, after losing Larry and then having this, he was absolutely devastated over it. And fortunately, she was just knocked unconscious and she was fine. But it was several minutes before Lauren could breathe over that one. And that one always, you know, was in his mind and his heart. was that event. So that put an end to that trip. And he started again in 1979,

driving a CJ5, brand new, off the showroom floor, still making payments on the CJ7 that he rolled over a cliff. And he got into, this was 1979. He was in there about two weeks after Mark Smith's Jeeps went south to north.

Lauren was going north to south. And so he had virtually a freeway that he was firing, following. Mark Smith's groups, five jeeps. They were in there. They had a crew of natives. I don't know how many people they hired, but they all had chainsaws. So when he went through there, he was blazing a freeway through. They had no trouble at all getting through. They got to Columbia, and all of a sudden there's a sign there that Los Catios National Park, no vehicles. Lauren's saying, what? You know, what do you mean no vehicles? First of all, Mark Smith just came

through. Second off, is there that many vehicles wanting to come through here? He just went on. And And several days later, he was caught up by a park official. And the park official said, well, you have to have permission to come in here. Warren said, okay, where do I get permission? He said, well, you have to go to Bogota. Warren says, okay, fine. Now he's got men on the payroll. They're still on the payroll, even though they're not moving.

He leaves them with the Jeep. He takes 11 days to travel all the way to Bogota, walks into the National Park Office. They kind of go, you want permission. Here it is. I don't know what you had to come in here for, but, yeah, no problem. Gets back out there. Couldn't find the park official. looked at the headquarters, stopped at the headquarters, he wasn't there.

He said, rains are coming. I got to get out of here. So he went back to the Jeep, got the men working. In fact, it was like 6 o'clock on the morning when he got them all up. He said, I'm back. We're going to work. Let's get going. Started winching up this pretty long hill and get up to the top of the hill.

And all of a sudden, the park official comes in and says, you know, no, no, no, you can't go. You can't go. And Lauren says, I've got the permission. Let me get to the top of the hill and I'll show it to you. Well, the park official didn't want to see the permission. And Lauren, unfortunately, made a very bad choice of words. He said to the guy, well, it's going to take more than you and your gun to stop me. And Park officials said, okay, came back with more men and guns.

And Lauren saw the point of view. And he and his crew got out. Jeep was left, and it just stayed there. Whatever technically happened to it, I have no clue. I know that when Helga Pedersen went through on his motorcycle in 88, I believe, he took a photograph of the hood of that Jeep in a village. and gave it to me. So I have that in one of my slide presentations that's in there.

So Lauren had said, he said, you know, if I never vocalized it and said that I would take one of the American-made vehicle around the world, it would be great. But I actually said it out loud, so therefore I have to do it. So he started over with a, not a brand-new Jeep. This Jeep is in 1966. At the time, he purchased this in 83. and at that time, American Motors was partially owned or something owned by Renault.

And Lauren just didn't feel that that was a true American-made vehicle. He's pretty red-white and blue all the way through. So he bought this one second-hand or third-hand. I don't know exactly how many people had owned it. And then just did some minor cosmetic modifications to it and took off in June of June 15, 1984 to start at Prudeau Bay, which sounds like a piece of cake now. I mean, you can go to Hudo Bay, no problem.

Well, in 1984, only people that worked at Pudu Bay could drive from, I can't think of the last stop. Is it Dawson? No, it's not Dawson City. I should know this. I've been there. Anyway, couldn't drive the hall road to Pudor Bay. You had to work there or be employed there or have some reason to be there. You just, Joe Blow's citizen couldn't do that, which he didn't realize until he got there.

So he spent several days researching things, which are trying to get around it, wrote letters to the governor, telling him that he was on this trip, that he said he was going to start at Rhodes End, and Rhodes Ends at Pudor Bay, so therefore I have to start at Pudo Bay. And all to no avail.

And somehow he ended up meeting someone from Peter Keywood Construction Company, which was working out at the pipeline. Guy says, and Lauren was in construction, which is a great profession to be in sometimes when you're doing this, because everywhere around the world there's construction workers.

And this gentleman said, well, you know what? You're hired. Wow. I will give you this envelope. You have to deliver this to Prudeau Bay. This is your objective. It had a day old newspaper in it, I think. I don't know what it had.

You know, it was one of those things that could have had, you know, two paper tiles. But, you know, he said, you're now on the payroll. Give him the official word. Give him the official papers. You have to deliver this to Prudobay. And sure enough, got him all the way through all the checks. He got all the way up to Prudabay. And he got to a point where he was at Prudobay.

but he wanted to get out to the Arctic Ocean. Roads End. Lawrence a little relentless, isn't he? Roads End. You talked about obsession. Roads End. So they said, well, you know, he says, well, actually, I'm a, what is it, a photojournalist, and I'm doing this story, and I really need to get the pictures out.

Okay, fine, we'll let you go. Just go and do it and get out of there. So they let him get all the way out to the point where he was just a few yards from the Arctic Ocean to take his pictures and make that the official start. And this was on his 40th birthday, June 15. 1985 or four and started south I didn't join the trip till he reached Panama I had met him years before on other his previous expeditions but I was probably of the right age but I wasn't out of the right mind and when he came down in he got down in October of 84 he was looking for people

that wanted to join and help out and I'm thinking okay and I knew he was the type of person that if you said yeah I want to go then you better damn make sure make sure that you're your butt is in the chair when he pulls out because basically you say what you mean and mean what you say. And so I didn't say anything. I just thought, okay, I've got to make sure I've got all my things ready. Now, you're a married woman living in Panama, right? You and your husband were separated by this time, but yeah. Separated.

Okay. Yeah. And your husband, previous husband who were separated from had introduced you to Lauren on a previous trip. Yeah. When Lauren came down first and with his Ford, my husband saw him and says, oh, this guy's nuts. We got to take him home. So he brought him home. Yeah, and we worked with Boy Scouts with Jungle Survival.

So we had some information to give him. We had contacts with other people that knew a little bit about the Dary and that sort of thing. So we would kind of point him in the right direction to get other information type of thing. So by this time in 1984, he's had three runs at this. Yes. And he's driven this current vehicle that we're sitting in right now, your 1966 Jeep, from Prudo Bay, Alaska, to Panama already. pick it up from there. Yes.

And so I helped him. There were things we were doing, equipment we were getting, that sort of thing. And he was having problems with the Jeep. I still, when I go back through the journals, Marvel that we were so stupid to do this, the problems that he was always having with the Jeep. But she got us there. It was engine problems, you know, that sort of thing. But anyhow, he did contact his nephew in Washington State and said, hey, you know,

would you like to do this? So his 22-year-old nephew came down as well. and then Where did everybody sit? Well, nobody rode but Lauren And going through the gap Lauren was the only one inside this Jeep You've got the folk out in front

Yeah, and clearing away It actually helped out to a degree Ed Culberson, which I don't know how many people are familiar with, he rode and forgive me I'm not a motorcycle person I know it was a BMW, I want to say a GS80 GS80, exactly, that's the only bike they had to do that stuff. Yeah, it was the closest thing they had

to an off-road motorist. cycle. And Ed Culberson was, he came down and if you've read his book please take it with a grain of salt when he starts mentioning Lauren because not everything in that book is as it was. And when Ed gave us,

he gave Lauren and I each a book and he actually apologized when he gave it to us. He said that his editor wanted him to spice it up some. So he did. Which, okay fine, that's them. But I know that when we were reading the book, it was like I don't know for this. We got out our journals and said, well, this is what we wrote. This is

what I wrote. Lawrence wrote this. We had three people that had a different story from what was in the book. But that's neither here and there. Spice it up. Can't fault the man. He did the thing and he was well up in years when he did it. Got to give him kudos for that. But he was with us for the first 30 days. So when we left the canal zone, first of all, I was, my butt was in the passenger seat when we pulled out. And we pulled out, I think it was on February 21st, 1985. And Ed rode Lawrence. on the back of the bike, Amigo, down, got to the end of the Pan American Highway at Yvesa. And that night, we spent the night there. And next morning, we started working, getting gathering more supplies, buying gas, getting the boats lined up, getting planking for the boats, cross the river at Yvisa to a point of land that's four miles across, and then you cross. This is where a lot of people would avoid because it's only four miles. and then you're on another river

and to Pino-Gana and a lot of time they would just boat down the one river and then up the other and just eliminate that four miles. But we boated across to this point of land, did the four miles across and then cross the next river at Pino-Gana. And at that point, once we were

on the Dary and Gap, yeah, Lauren was the only one in the driver's seat. Everyone else walked. We hired natives to clear trail, search trail, work trail. We hired one to be a cook. We had anywhere from four to 14 people working for us, and believe me, you want to cook when you got that many mouths to feed. That was the deal. They got their daily pay, and they got three meals a day.

They had to bring their own machetes and axes and their own sleeping gear. And they wanted to work for them. It was one of those things. First of all, they'd known him. He'd been down there before, so he was a known employer. So, yeah, it was good. And the first dry season in, we crossed the river on the river on. February 22nd, 1985. That was day one of the Daring Gap Crossing. And from that point on,

Lauren was in the driver's seat and we were walking and the passenger seat where you are was literally filled with all the shackles, all the snatch blocks, extra cable, the high lift jack lived here, the two-ton come-along lived here, all of it. So it was easy to get to. If we got to a point we needed something that was right here, we weren't disconnecting it from somewhere else where it was stored on the vehicle. Because Lauren says we don't tip over. If we tip over, I'm a dead man, just from the flying debris in here. So that was always a big concern to make sure she stayed right side up. Can we talk about some of those inventions that Lauren created, the turnbuckles and such?

Oh, the turnbuckles. Yeah, we called them sidehill adjusters. I'm sure there would be another name, but we just called them side hill adjusters because side hills were probably one of our worst nightmares in the Daring Gap. If you got a straight uphill or a straight downhill, it was pretty easily overcome, but when you get something that's at an angle off vertical, it can be pretty touchy, especially with the vehicle as top-heavy as this. And that was one thing with this one being top-heavy. With the soft tops before, he could just pile all the people on that he wanted to to add extra weight, and it was a little bit easier. But with this one being as top-heavy and the hard roof, it wasn't as easy. He welded a nut on the axle in the frame, front and rear,

right and left sides, just behind the wheels. And forgive me, because I'm not too good at this because I didn't know the work. This is all from my recollection and just looking at it. And then he has two heavy-duty turnbuckles and he would jack up the low side, insert on the front and then insert the turn buckle and tighten it up and stiffen it, move to the back, jack it up, insert the turnbuckle, and stiffen it. And then take on a side hill. And what that would do is it would take some of the bounce out of the springs, but it would also throw some of that weight back to the other side to kind of level you out a little bit. And it, It worked fine. We used those a lot. We use those a lot with what, again, one of Lauren's inventions, I don't know what you want to call it, improvisations.

For side hills, if it was too steep or too much of an angle for just the side hill adjusters, he would attach a cable to a tree at the top of the hill, because they're always on a downhill slope, or uphill slope, put a cable at the top of the hill and then run the cable down the hill to a tree lower down. attach that and then he would put snatch blocks on the cable and then as the Jeep would drive by, we have chains that hang out at the end of the bumpers on all four corners. But on whatever side they had to be on, he'd attach the snatch block hook to that chain. And it would just glide around on a side hill without a problem. One of the people I was discussing with talking to earlier about it, they said, oh, it's sort of like ziplining, but you keep all four feet on the ground. I said, yeah, that's about it.

It just kind of kept it right on track and moved it around. Tell me a little bit about Lauren's background. What did he do? You said he was in construction, but obviously he's a creative engineering kind of a thinker. Yeah, he never completed. He did complete the ninth grade. He always worked with his hands, carpentry work, that sort of thing to begin with. And then eventually he got into, you know, over the years, into supervisory positions.

Heavy construction, freeway overpasses. He did 18 months in Saudi Arabia. doing box culverts, which I don't know what you need box culverts for in Saudi Arabia, but far be it for me to question. And he was the type of person that if there was a problem with a job, or if they were having a problem with a job, I should say, whether it be technical issues or personnel issues, that always say send Lauren,

because he would somehow be able to get the men's ship shape and get the job done. So he was kind of their problem fixer. And he would work for, you know, years and save all his money. He lived on the job site and saved all his money because he knew this is what he wanted to do and this is where the money was going. And that's how he'd fund these adventures. Yes, everything was out of our pocket.

Secretary and a carpenter. So you're in the past your seat when you're not walking along with the rest of the crew. when it's not filled with turnbuckles and whatnot, shackles and such. Let's get on to the practicalities of making this journey sometimes a quarter inch at a time. So, Patty, tell me about you're literally macheteing your way through, if that's a word, you're hacking your way through a jungle to make this portion of the trip on land. Right. sane people go down the river that's what the river's there for transportation yeah if you ask

people have done that yeah Lauren wanted to do something else had to remain on land and that was the only way to do it first time second time third time you're on the fourth trip now exactly and it was it's one of those things that you know it's it's hard it's tough there's a lot of work but if it's what you want then it isn't as hard you know any job no matter what job you're working at if it's really the job you love, then it's not really work at all. It's your love. And that was what Lauren. This is what he worked for so that he could do this. Can we can I be personal for a second? Just ask about love?

Sure. What happened? How did that, how did that two of you? Well, I was always kind of infatuated with them. Look, I mean, we're sitting real close here. That's why I said you talk about a test of a relationship. This will do it. Yeah. Yeah, this can be stressful doing this stuff. It can. It can. And Lauren is a very strong-minded person, but something that he brought out me, which I'm eternally

thankful for, is he made me a very strong, minded, and willed person. I was very meek and quiet and flower on the wall back in the corner somewhere type person. Wow, one never know that now. I know. Exactly. Exactly.

So, yeah, I mean, maybe it was a good thing, maybe it was a bad thing. We'll find out, right? But it was something that I just didn't feel complete. I wasn't all there. And then all of a sudden with him, we could discuss things, we could work on things. I could suggest things. It was, and he always, you read his journals, and he always said that, and this is personal too, I mean, he always said that I was the catalyst that kept it together. Wow. That if it hadn't been for me, it wouldn't have happened, which,

I mean, I appreciate that. I don't know if I believe it, but I totally appreciate it. He just felt that, you know, the organization I brought to it, which is true, lack of organization, big time on his part, packing this thing. It's a puzzle to pack stuff in here. You know, there are a few vehicles that are smaller than my land cruiser. This vehicle is 20% smaller, I would guess, than my land cruiser. Can we jump into a little bit of the, you showed a slide in your lecture earlier today at Overland Expo, where you had a photo of how this thing was packed. Yeah.

You're using space in the engine compartment to pack. Yes. Yes. Talk a little bit about. There was no space that was not. used. What did you bring and where did it go? Under the engine compartment, there was a shovel. Well, there still is.

There's a shovel. There's a pick handle and the pick header there. They're not attached because they pack in there better. The jumper cables aren't there. They're actually in my truck. But there were jumper cables in the, underneath the hood, the shackles, the turnbuckles, the snatch blocks. There's an oil wrench, oil filter wrench in up there as well.

Here where I are feet. This used to have, he put the wood in here because, of course, it's got headers and this thing can get hotter than blazes. So we put this wood in here and then we had some carpet down here. But this area right here, you can just see the old bungee cord there. We had plastic quart containers there that held motor oil. Right next to your seat there between the seat and the wall or the gas tank and the wall, long tools went. I know that my side, I think, had the long, I think craftsmen, make some, that your sockets go on, you know,

the plugs that your, your sockets go on and the socket wrenches and all that. So that was all easily accessible and quick right there. I don't know what tools were in Lawrence side, but he had, you know, not many, but a handful. The rest of the tools were in ammo boxes below the back deck, then any long tools, because he did have some tire tools with him. They were back there. That was more storage area.

Gear oil, I still cannot stand the smell of 90, gear oil, I'm sorry. I'm with you. If Lauren and I ever got to a point where I was going to turn around and walk out, it was when we lubed the Jeep. Oh, my God. And this thing, it leaked in more places than it had places to leak from. So it was done, not in the Dary Ann too much, because it was slow going.

But once we got on roads where we were putting miles on, it was sometimes every day we were checking fluids and doing that sort of thing. It's like, oh, my God, again, I don't get it. I hate the smell of 90-white gear oil. But we had no method to do it. And my part was to, of course, help out or pump the handle or whatever. And then, of course, help with cleanup. And always to say, in and tight.

So that whatever plug had been removed, it was in and tight. So that he always remembered that he'd put the plug in. And so I would always double check with him and make sure in and tight. He said, in and tight. I said, okay, we're good. All right. Well, you said you were going slow. And you went slow.

Yes. You went extraordinarily slow through a couple. of sections. Let's talk about that that section where you used to come along basically to get up a hill down a hill. Can you tell me a little bit about that? It was called the

M.A. River Valley and M.A. is the way the letter M is pronounced in Spanish. And that was, we'd usually ask the natives. We did not name places. We tried to ask the natives, you know, what's the name of this river, you know, that sort of thing. So if a map is ever created

to some semblance of reality. We'll have some idea of where we were. But it's a very steep downhill slope into the river valley. And it was pretty straightforward in that it wasn't twisty or turning or side hill or any of that. And it had been cleared. So Lauren turned the Jeep around backwards, hooked up the winch cable. We have a Ramsey 9,000-pound power take-off winch.

Hooked up the winch cable, got in, and set it up, started the winch, put her in reverse, and just let it on spool slowly so that it would start down the hill. Well, there isn't too much you have to do, and he just happened to look at the temperature gauge or the oil pressure gauge, and he realized he had no oil pressure. Well, being a power takeoff winch, it has to run with the engine, and when you don't have oil pressure, you can't run that. So he shut everything down,

and we got out the Wild Scott-Tuton come along, hook that up, and it was a six-hour ordeal of hand winching to the, bottom of the M.A. River Valley, and it was a total of 90 feet. So I'm not doing the math, but it was slow. And the thing of it is, it's not like hooking up the winch and then the hand winching, and just winching, winching, you had to hook up the winch cable to anchor the Jeep. Then you had hook up the come along to do the work. Then you had to unhook the winch cable and hand winch. Then you had to hook the winch cable back up to anchor the Jeep to reposition the come along. It's like mountain climbing. You've got your belaying your way down a hill. Yes, exactly. And it's slow going.

Exactly. And thank God for Lawrence. I always say we. Thank God for Lawrence. He was the one on the come-along handle most of the time. And we got down to the River Valley and put oil in. Everything was fine, fired up. Oil pressure was good. No problem. So the thought is that it was the rear main seal was leaking. And again, this is above and beyond my pay grade. At that steep an angle, it either was not picking up the oil out of the oil pan or it was leaking somewhere out. But it did. It had to obviously leak out because we had to put oil in when we got down there. So whatever it was, it was leaking. So no problem. Fired right up, able to get across the river. It was just a shallow little riverbed. And next day we started up the upside of the M.A. River Valley, and it was steeper and longer than the downhill side. And Lauren tried to drive it, got two feet started up and, or not drive it, winch it.

And no way. Lost oil pressure said, okay, we're done. got out the hand winch and this time it was 315 feet and it took two and a half days to go that and that was working six hours a day probably literally quarter inch literally a quarter inch at a time and the dogs on the the the come along were almost worn smooth by the time we finished that particular trip and or that particular particular pull so it was slow going but again Lauren's philosophy is if it doesn't work, you make it work. So we found a way of making it work.

Did he ever just lose his temper, swear at God, or have a rant? Did he ever scream at you? No, no. That's stressful stuff. The natives would irritate him sometimes. He had this particular trip, we didn't have too many problems with our crew. I know on a previous trip, he had a group of, oh, I think it was a group of Chokho and a group of Kunas. those two tribes

and there's another terms for them but these are the names that they were known by when we were there so that's why I stick with them they don't really the Coonis didn't get along with anybody the Chocco got along with everybody just a different philosophy it's a different culture you ask a Chokoh do you want to work for me I'm paying X amount of dollars a day bring your

bedding and your shovel or your machete and a axe if you have one and he'll say yes or no or you know screw you I'm gone or whatever The Coonas, they have to take it to the town meeting. They have to discuss it and they have to say, oh, you know what? We want you to hire him. He's 80 years old, but that's okay.

And we want you to hire him. He's 10 years old, but that's okay. So you had to deal with the politics of it. And that was very frustrating for Lauren. He's a very, you know, free market guy. You want to work, you work. If you don't want to work, you don't want to work. Don't put me through these hoops.

That was hard for him to deal with. So, yeah, he was on a previous expedition. He had two groups working for. and they were fighting about God knows what. He doesn't know. He doesn't speak Spanish. And he had a Norwegian with him that spoke Spanish fluently. And he told Lars, he said, go down there.

And I want you to tell. He said, no, don't do it. I will do it. You just come down and translate. So Lauren went down there and in perfect English told these men that, fine, you guys want to fight? No problem. I don't mind that at all.

You don't do it on my payroll. You want to fight. You do it on your time. So I will fire every one of you and I will go find another. crew. There are people waiting to work for me. That's not a problem. Otherwise, you get back to work and you work together while you're with me and on the payroll. And he told Lars, he said, go ahead and translate that. Poor Lars was a very meek, mild-mannered guy. And so Lars did his best to translate, but between what Lauren said in English and the tone that he said it in, the message got across

and he had no more problems with the win. They worked just fine together. Wow. Wow. Amazing. Can you highlight again, let's recap, 315 feet a quarter inch at a time. What other sort of crazy, ridiculous hurdles did you have to get through to make this, you know, at what point were you picking up the Jeep and putting it on your shoulders and carrying it by hand? Have you ever, I've not read this, but Lauren read it and told me the stories of the Citron expedition across the Himalayas, where they were literally, because he said, If we have to, we will disassemble it, and we will pack it across if we have to. That's how they did the Citron Expedition back in, I don't know what year it was, 40s maybe, through the Himalayas,

is they literally took them apart, packed him over the pass, and then put them back together on the other side. He says, if I have to do that, that's what we'll do. I mean, Warner Herzog made the movie of taking the ferry boat and having people carried over the jungle. And so get on to that. I mean, he was that committed. Yes. Yeah, he never liked the word obsessed because he always felt that the word obsessed meant you would do anything, you would run over anybody, you would get rid of anybody in your way to meet your goal. So he never felt obsessed. Committed, determined, yes, definitely that. Because he would not hurt anyone else to make his goal. He would definitely do other things to get around that person in order to make the goal. But he would not physically hurt someone to do that. So walk me through, you got through it. Oh, yes.

We got through it. 741 days, and it was an excellent feeling when we crossed the river at Rio Succio. 125 miles. 125 miles. 741 days. And it was a joy for us. It was a joy for the town. Yeah, yeah.

Well, we crossed the, Trah River to the village of Rio Succio, which is, of course, dirty river. I guess there's a river that comes in at that point. There had never been a vehicle in that village or that town. It's a fairly good-sized town. because it's right on the Atrato. And Atrato is a huge river. And they let the school kids out to come down to the waterfront to see this Jeep crossing the river into their town that day.

And we paid all the men off. We had one man we kept with us. And there was a tractor trail, what they called a tractor trail, that led out to a paved road that was 38 miles. And we drove that in 10 hours. And that was the fastest we had done in over two years. so we thought we were on a roll. You were hot-footing it out of there.

We are just beating down the road here. Laughing. But you didn't stop. No, because the goal was to go entirely around the world by land, except for the South Atlantic. So we continued on through South America, and South America was, I don't want to see a pace of cake because you throw in border crossings

and they're always the unknown variable in any international travel. But, you know, there were a few hiccups here, a few hiccups there. I want beer money here. And, you know, we usually didn't have, we never paid a bribe. I mean, not that it wasn't asked for, but it was like, you know, sorry about that. We don't have any money.

We got to get travelers checks. Look at us. Yeah. And so, yeah, and when we got to, when we were in Lima, Peru, we had stopped and did an interview with the Lima Times newspaper. And it was a British guy interviewed us, English-speaking newspaper. And I think that helped out a lot because we were also started looking for shipping across the Atlantic because we knew that this was going to come up. I mean, we've got to find a ship that's going to get us across to Africa. And we were pricing airfare for the two of us,

shipping price for the Jeep. Okay, now we're going to be without our house for 30 days while it grows across the Atlantic. So now we got lodging for 30 days. And we were looking at about a $6,000 price tag here to get us across the Atlantic. So we started approaching shipping companies. Is there any way you can ship it? We'll work our way across. We'll do whatever we can. No, no, no, no, we can't do that. I knocked on more doors than you can count while we were in Lima, Peru. And one of them was the Ian Taylor shipping agency. And it was an old British company, and I think, in our mind anyway, from what we understood, the originator, Ian Taylor was quite an adventurer in his time, and I think he had since retired from the company. And he had

read the article in the newspaper. And so when I went into them, before we took off for the tip of South America, they said, we'll call us back in two weeks. We said, okay, we'll be down in Puntarenas by then. We'll call you then. So we took off down to Punterrenas and went to Rhodes End south of Puntarenas. We went as far south as we could, which was, I'd have to look at my notes. I don't remember several miles south of Punterenas right on the streets.

Magellan. Wheels were right in the water. May 7th, 1987. We were on the Straits of Magellan. Roads End on the continent of South America. And we went back to where we were staying in Punter Arenas and called Ian Taylor's shipping agency. They said, yes, we will transport you and Lauren and the Jeep. You'll have to pay for your food, but that's it. Wow. You know, not yes, but heck yes. And, you know, we're in. What a boon. It was. It was truly a saving of a lifetime for us. And so we thought, well, most people consider Terro de Fuigo the tip of South America, even though that was not all on land.

We thought since we had the free passage, we'll spend the extra money, go across on the straits on the ferry boat, go as far south on the island of Terre del Fuego that we could go. So we did. We went as far south, which was below Usoyah and slightly east. We went as far as we were out on a rocky beach, and we drove as far as we possibly could. It was cold. It was wintertime down there. We had snow on the Jeep, and we were right along the Beagle Channel. And we said, okay, this is as far as we're going to drive. This is as far south as we can go. So we said, okay, that's it. And then we ended up driving all the way back to Santiago, Chile.

And we spent, oh, it was about a month and a half or two months in Santiago waiting for our ship to come in. And we were very fortunate. There was a farmer who loaned us an empty house on his property that we stayed in for that time. So we had no nothing but food, which you're paying for no matter where you are or what you're doing. So that doesn't count. So we had no expenses. And went and met the ship, and they used the chains that are on the end of the bumper's front and rear and put hooks in them and loaded her aboard ship and tied her down. And across the Atlantic was about a 30-day crossing.

And your little Jeep rode on the deck. Right, yeah, that was a concern. Right up forward. It was right on the forward cargo hatch, right behind, several containers. And we had been told that on occasion, these containers get washed overboard. Sure. Oh, yeah, that's what I want to hear.

So the first, I don't know how, it was after we'd gotten through the Straits in a gel and because they'd said, they told us, they warned us the South Atlantic could be rough in August, which was when we were crossing. And sure enough, we hit this force nine storm, and I don't know, I just know that I'm not a sailor. And about midnight or whatever it was, Lauren went up to the bridge and said, can you put the lights on out there? I got to see if the Jeep's still there.

And they show them the lights out there. And she's still sitting right out there. A little red speck. Yeah, a little red speck out there. And she lasted the whole time to force nine storms, 30 days. Glad to get in Cape Town. And get her rinsed off because she had swallowed a whole lot of salt water. Yeah, sure.

And we spent about six months in South Africa, again, feeling that we're never going to be here again. Let us see the country. And we did a lot of sightseeing and touring through South Africa, stayed with a wonderful family that literally opened their house to us when we first got there and recouped and everything and then went off and toured South Africa over to Namibia, southwest Africa. We were on our way to the Atosha Pan. No, Okavango, the Okavango.

The Delta. Yes, with a guide. He was a wildlife guide in South Africa. And he was on vacation, so he was taking his families. And he asked us if we wanted to go along. We said, yeah. And we broke an axle. So that put a squash on that.

In two-wheel drive, we turn around and get out. And that was our first axle in Africa that we broke. Had to go through that whole thing and get another axle. And we were fortunate, again, the amount of people that you meet that help you out, when you need that help, it's like the right person at the right time. We got a really great tour of a gold mine. We spent some time with some great people in Johannesburg. Because again, okay, now we're actually physically getting ready to leave the country.

And we're asking people that we keep meeting. Do you know anyone that's traveled over in through Africa recently? Well, I know somebody who knew somebody who said they got shot. Or, you know, so-and-so thinks they know somebody whose sister did it six years ago. And it's like, no, no, I need somebody that's a little bit more recent firsthand. And we actually called the South African Automobile Association and talked to them. They said, well, yeah, we do know a family, a couple of people. that did it a year ago we said could you give them our name and put us in contact with

it or give our name to them and make a time and we'll get together you know contact your office or whatever they put it he put us in contact with them Ken and Angela self they said yeah come on over again houses opened up to us and we'd sit around at night with maps in fact I have the some of the maps here and go over the maps and he'd say okay you know this one here not a good place to stop from fuel they didn't have much fuel better to go here because he got out his journals, and so we're raking notes and everything else going through maps and getting ready to do this. Their only difference was they, of course, went up through West Africa and across the Mediterranean from, I think, I don't know if it was Tunisia, Morocco, wherever the main route is. Most people go that way.

Remaining on land, that was not an option. That's a water barrier. We had to swing through to Sudan, which is not on any tourist itinerary. And take it just a quick break here for the Beastie Boys to go by. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. And when we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajabound.com. That's Bajaubound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994.

Big thanks to my new sponsor Nomad Wheels. They stepped up and sponsored the Slow Baja Safari class at the Nora Mexican 1000. and I don't know if you've seen the pictures, but Slow Baja is running a set of 501 convoys in utility gray, and they look pretty damn sharp. They were a little shiny. I will admit that they were a little shiny when I got them installed at Basil's Garage just before the Noramexican 1000, but after, I don't know, 3,800 miles from Baja dirt, they look perfect. They really do.

Nomadwheels.com. That's right. Check them out, reflecting a minimalist approach to off-road travel. Nomadwheels. Hey, we're back from the Beastie Boys. I'm with Patty Upton, and we're talking about getting through Africa now. So they've made the Dary and Gap. They've been on a 30-day ocean crossing.

They're in South Africa. They've got a broken axle that they've overcome at this point, and now they're planning their trip up through Africa. Through Africa, and you went up the... Kind of the center of the country, because having been in South Africa, it was still under the apartheid government, so we weren't able to go over to Tanzania and Kenya. So we were basically, Zambia was on relations with South Africa.

And so was Botswana. So we went through Botswana and then Zambia. And then from Zambia, it was into Zaire. And Zaire is where it all kind of went sideways as far as roads and just about anything else. It was just nothing. And then through Zaire, then into the Central African Republic. and then most people that are traveling overland through Africa kind of continued north at that point.

Well, we then swung east from Central African Republic over into Sudan, and we came in just north of Darfur, Darfur, Darfur, Niala. Again, ran into a great couple there that put us up for several days and everything, then took off from there and headed for Cartoon. And shortly after we left Niala, and I'd have to go through journals to get this timing right, but I got very, very sick. And I didn't know what it was. I was running a high fever.

I had terrible diarrhea. Literally felt terrible. And the sickest I'd ever been in my life. And I've had typhoid, so I knew it wasn't that. So it was serious. Yes. And we stopped, Lauren stopped at a construction camp run by a Greek conference. that was working on a section of road or something wherever we or maybe it was

something else I don't know what they were working on because there was no road and they had a doc no they took me into town with it to the doctor doctor said well she's dehydrated sent Lauren to the dispense the pharmacy in town and came back with a bag of fluid and IV stuff and they pumped a liter of fluid back in me and that was all well and good I felt better after about a day and they let us stay at the construction camp and eating the the camp kitchen and everything and then I said I'm good let's go well it wasn't more than a day or so out, I was bad again.

And it's, let's see, it had to be sometime around May at this point in Africa, and it's getting pretty warm during this time. And it got to the point where Lauren made up the bed in here, like we talked before, where these two boards come over and lay here. So I laid down here. I was out of it. And I only know what went on because I read as journals. and the

Greek construction camp had given them a business card that had the address of the company headquarters in Cartoon so when he got to Cartoon he found a park

with shade trees parked the Jeep under the shade trees left all the doors windows open with you in it with me in it and took this

got the name of the park and got a taxi cab driver and said okay I need you to take me to these people right now so it took them to the the Greeks and head office

and they then took him back to where the Jeep was, then they escorted him to the hospital with me. And they took me to, I think it was the maternity hospital for women or something. It was not that he says, you don't want to go to the main hospital. And I was diagnosed with malaria and amoebic dysentery. And we had been taking the hydrochloroquine pills, but had run out somewhere several weeks before. We didn't know it was going to take us this long to get through Africa.

Because we actually had a breakdown in Central African Republic with our axles and we were able to make that repair and move on. So anyway, I was hospitalized for four days there. They had to put four liters of fluid in me because I was severely dehydrated again, as well as the overdose of hydrochloroquine to combat the malaria. And it was not the type of malaria that returns. It supposedly was a type of malaria that affects the liver. I don't know.

I just know that it was horrible. and we spent another couple of weeks probably in, now probably not even a week. Lauren was too anxious to get on the road, maybe another 10 days after I got out of the hospital. I think I was lucky I got 10 days. And we were on the road north to Egypt because, again, the land route is through Egypt,

and then there's a tunnel underneath the Suez Canal. So we were well above Dongola in Egypt, following the Nile River, and it was getting obvious, less and less habitation as we went along. And we always were trying to keep the Nile River within sight because that was our direction to travel. That's our lifeline.

That was our water. And we knew the Nile's going to go to Egypt. We got to go to Egypt. So we're going to keep following it. Well, at one point, these mountains came right down to the river. So we had to swing way out to the west around these mountains and then work our way back towards the river. And while as we were working our way back towards the river,

we hoped we were and hoped that the river wasn't turning at the same time we were, We broke an axle shaft. And that night was probably one of the tenser nights. And reading Lauren's journal later, I realized how upset he was. Because again, he felt he had put somebody in harm's way, meaning me. You know, he'd had Larry in his mind. He'd had Marie Claire in his mind. You were that sick.

Yeah. Well, this is, no, this was after when we hit the breakdown now. We're broken down. I mean, I'm recovered from the malaria, but now we're in a life-threatening situation where there's nobody. There is nothing but shrubs and rocks. The last person we saw was 90 miles back. There is nothing. There's nobody there.

And he says, I don't know how we're going to get out of here. He said, we've got to devise a plan. And his first thought was, okay, you sit down and you write down a list of everything you think we need to take with us to get out of here. I don't know how we're going to get out of here yet, but think of what we have to take. I'll do the same. So we compared lists. He says, don't talk to me and I won't talk to you. When you're all done, let me know.

So we compared lists a little while later And we actually had identical lists The only thing he didn't have on his list Was the rearview mirror Or he didn't have, I didn't have on my list He had it on his but the rearview mirror To take us a signal mirror So this is a replacement, it's a plastic piece of crap

He'd pop the glass off the original And we had taken that To use for signaling To use for signaling And we didn't know where the Nile was Lauren hiked up to the mountain top That was right there And found that the mile was about

a mile, Nile was about a mile away and it had a good current. We weren't sure if we were so far north that we were on Lake Nassar, which would have really put us in a pickle. Had a good current, so we thought, okay, it's going the direction we want to go. We came back, or he came back,

and sealed up one of the tin boxes that it's in the back that holds our food stuff, built a used some tamarisk trees to build a frame, use the empty jerry cans for flotation devices, turned them upside down, and lashed them to the frame.

We put our bedding and our food and our important papers in the tin box. We inflated our spare tire tube. We have a tire inflator. I don't know what else you want to call it. But you unscrew a spark plug and you screw this in. Yep. It's the old-fashioned way. Yeah, it doesn't take up any room.

Hardly is not going to break unless the hose does, and that's where duct tape comes in. So, yeah, we inflated the spare tire tube, tied it to the raft with that rope. and we floated in the river for two and a half days until we could find civilization. We'd get out every night and you'd lay there at night and literally you would strain your ears. Was that a dog? Did a dog just bark?

Baby cry? Nothing. And so now there was nobody there. So second day, same thing. Halfway through the third day, we saw this white cone tent on the east bank of the Nile and we made our way over to it. and through hand gestures and broken English,

he was going to have his produce taken to the village of Wadi Halfa that night. We could get a ride on the truck. So we waited around and got a ride on the truck and got into Wadi Halfa. And from there, we were able to get on the train to go back to Khartoum. And from there, we're able to make a phone call to the states to order the spare parts, the spare axles. Meantime, Lauren says, you know what? The Jeep means too much.

It's come too far. I don't want to leave her out there by herself. He said, I'm going to go back out to the Jeep. I said, okay, fine. I was staying with Americans that we had stayed with previously. I said, no problem. Go ahead. So he bought six weeks' worth of supply of food, got on the train,

52 hours on a flat car, back to Wadi Halfa, and hired some people to take them back up river to where the Jeep was, and that's where he stayed for the duration. Eleven days after my mother mailed the axle shafts, I had them in my hand, courtesy of an American embassy official. He said, yeah, have them sent to me, no problem.

So we had them sent to him. I got them. That day or that night or that more, I don't know, it was right around that time within days or days, hours of it happening. Torrential rains in the headwaters of the White Nile and of the Blue Nile and in Khartoum. All happened at the same time. Cartoon was literally an island when viewed from above. I saw photographs of it. They had taken from planes in the newspaper, and it was surrounded by water.

all the way around. The only thing out of cartoon was international flights. The train tracks have been washed out going north to Wadi Haifa. So now I'm stuck in the city. He's stuck at Broken Axel Camp. No idea why I'm not coming. I can't get any message to him to say, hey, just hang tight. I'm on my way, but got a problem.

I spent the next probably 10 days knocking on every door of government agency, aid workers, I, man that we traded money with to get Sudanese dollars. I said, camel herder going north. I don't care. Just somebody somewhere that's going in the northerly direction. Nobody. And finally, it was arranged. Last minute, I got a call the United Nations.

They had a loan of a Belgium Air Force C-130 that was flying relief supplies up to Wadi Half of the next day. They said, you can be on board. I said, I'm there. And an hour later, the next day, an hour later, I was in Wadihaelhoff. hired people to take me up river to where Lauren was. 15-minute repair job. You don't jack the Jeep up. You don't have to take the tire off. It's free-floating axle. You undo six bolts.

You slip out the broken axle, slip in the new axle, tighten everything down. You're ready to go. 15 minutes. 70 days we were down for that 15-minute repair job. Four and a half hours later, 36 miles. We were on a tarred road in Egypt. But put me in, you've given me your mindset. Put me in Lauren's mindset.

How many days were the two of you apart with no idea what the heck was going on? I don't remember how many days that was. How much weight did he lose? You showed a picture of this, and he was a skinny boy. Yeah, because he weighed over 200 pounds, and I'm sure he was somewhere below. Yeah, I'm sure he probably lost 30 or 40 pounds on that trip. Because his supplies were getting low, so he was cutting back. And, I mean, rice and beans is what he had, so an oatmeal.

So, I mean, it wasn't like necessarily the healthiest diet. Nothing you're going to put weight on with. Right. And hiking to the river every day for water, every couple of days for the water. He did realize something was up because the river was so dirty. He knew something was different because by the time he was, because he was going down to the river for water every day or every few days, it was when I got there, of course, it looked like chocolate milk. It was actually thick.

It wasn't just dirty, but it was actually thick. thick. There was so much silt in it. So yeah, he realized at that point that there was something going on that he didn't know about and that obviously was causing the delay because of the condition of the water. How'd he take me home?

You know, you had the 70-day repair for the broken axle, but let's put it in high gear and run me up to Norway and let's talk about how it all wrapped up. Once we hit that tarred road in Egypt, we knew we were going to

on some form of a surfaced road from that point on. So it was a good relief. I mean, we thought, okay, you know, maybe no more four-wheel driving, you know, when we were done with that. Under the tunnel, got into Egypt, under the tunnel at the Suez Canal. We saw some sites in Egypt, of course. We had a site sea. Went under the tunnel underneath the Suez Canal into the Sinai,

went into Israel, could not get from Israel into Jordan. Again, remaining all on land, the only. other option was Lebanon. This was in 1988. Three years, four years after the Marine Corps barracks bombing in Lebanon, we said, big red Jeep, California license plates, probably not the best place to show up right now. So we were really kind of stuck with the Israel-Jordan route. We couldn't drive to the two. They were technically at war. We tried again. Many, many options, nothing panned out. So we ended up taking a ferry up to Akaba, traveled through Jordan, Syria, Turkey, into Romania, into the Soviet Union, and this is the old Soviet Union.

And we had prearranged in Cairo for our paperwork to cross the Soviet Union. It had to be prearranged with their official government tourist agency. And they said, okay, you can pick up your paperwork in Bucharest. You just pay for it there. We said, okay, fine. Well, we should have known something was up. Got to Bucharest, and they never heard of us. And they said, well, it'll take about two weeks to get the paperwork.

This is now mid-October. And we said, we're not going to Norway this time of year. We're done. We're not going to wait two weeks and chance getting up there when weather's bad. So we said, we'll come back in the spring. So we headed across Europe, crossed to Cali, from Cali, France, over to England, and made contact with a Land Rover Club, and they arranged with, through somebody somehow, again, meeting the right people at the right time, and Lauren spent the winter at Chislet Court Farm just outside Canterbury.

And I flew back to the States and started writing letters for sponsorship. We got a lot of products. I went back in May of 1989, started up the trip, went back across at Cali, France, because we wanted to pick up just where we left off, went back through, oh gosh, I can't remember all the countries now. The Netherlands, I think it's Belgium, the Netherlands. And at that time, we had West Germany, East Germany, Poland. These are all still communist-bought countries at this time. And then into the former Soviet Union. We paid and bought all our stuff in England before we left.

followed their rules and regulations of, you know, no more than 500 kilometers a day. Not before, you can't drive before daylight, can't drive after dark. If you've ever seen a map, well, I'm sure you have, of the national parks, the ones they pass out at the gate. Step up from a childhood, child's drawing is my impression of those maps. That's the map they gave us to follow in Russia. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, this is going to get us through Russia or Soviet Union to Norway. Right. Anyway, with a lot of directions, we found our way through Moscow. That was horrible, getting out of Moscow. Spent four nights in the Soviet Union, into Finland, Norway. And then when we got to Norway, we had to start checking around because we didn't know how, we wanted to go to the furthest road north.

We didn't know where that was going to be. So it was kind of like following maps and people's recommendations and this, that, and the other thing. And we finally realized that, okay, through a police station we stopped at, they said, or Gambic Norway is the furthest road you can drive to north. So that's where we ended up. And Lauren decided that since it was American-made vehicle that he took around the world, that we had ended on an American holiday. So the 4th of July, 1989, we drove to the Slutness Nighthouse. And that was the end of the trip, except that we still lack that gap between Israel and Jordan.

So five years doing 56,000 miles. Right. You look at a globe that's about three. thousand, Gampick is literally about 3,000 miles across the pole to Pudo Bay, Alaska. In this little 1966 Jeep. Yeah. We're going to wrap it up here because you've got some friends. You two were a couple after this, right?

Yes. Yeah, I have trouble remembering time frames. I mean, we've known each other for over 47 years, 40-some years. We were together for 36 years. We were married 28 years. at what point did you say we got to get this old Jeep back to Israel and close that little

loop that we missed actually his nephew that said well we thought we were going to do it in 2000 we actually started on it started making plans but September 2000 things went haywire in the West Bank and kind of went screwy and we thought again red Jeep California plates not the place to be

so we put it on hold and then it kind of stayed on hold and life comes over things take over other obligations come in and it just kind of took a back burner even though it was always kind of sitting there gnawing at Lauren specifically and finally his his nephew said Lawrence that had been with us in the Darian for 30 days he says I'm going to do my best to get you guys back to Israel so you can complete what we called the final mile and he took the jeep to his house and with the friend with help of a friend and the friend's father Mary Larry and Mike Merck they I don't know

mean they didn't we didn't want it showroom perfect that wasn't this jeep was never showroom perfect except the day she was on the showroom floor so she didn't want that we didn't want that the dents that are there she earned she still has those we took they took the rest out they made sure the brakes all worked put new stuff in there new headers I have a list of mile long of the stuff they refurbished the truck and got her in good running shape and put a coat of paint on her and it was you know a reasonable coat of paint but it works makes her shiny and bright and then our long-time employer that we've been working for in Idaho said, I will pay for your transportation for the Jeep and the two of you to get to Israel and back.

But you have to, because we were going to do it in October of 2018, because that would have been the 30-year mark. And he said, but you have to go sooner than later. He said, he didn't see Lauren but every few months, and he could see the deterioration in Lauren's health. He said, if you don't do it now, you're not going to be able to do it. it. You must go now. He said, I will pay for it because that was our biggest hurdle. I mean,

that was 99% of the whole budget was transportation just to get it across the Atlantic and us. So we said, great, we did it this. So we shipped it to Israel and had some problems when we got there with it starting,

met a great group of jeepers that helped us out immensely, and basically their only payment was to tell us that it's a Jeep thing. And let it go with that. They never wanted a penny from us and we completed the final mile which ended up being four and a half miles from where we were in a road in Israel 30 years prior to where we were in a road in Jordan 30 years prior maybe you turned and came right back to where we were well and let's bring it right up to

today you're you've got some takeaways on the people you met along the way you've got some some advice that Lauren always had share that He always felt that it was the common man that made it work. There is a piece of music that's a classical piece of music called the Common Man. And that was one of his favorite pieces. And he always felt it was very fitting because it was literally the ordinary everyday mechanic that we all of a sudden just happened to go into his shop. But he knew how to fix whatever was wrong with the Jeep. It was the stranger that we stopped and asked for gasoline in Central African.

public that said, yeah, I can get you some because we couldn't find any at the gas station. It was always just those ordinary everyday people that truly make traveling for us the pleasure that it really was. It was just extraordinary, the number of people that we met that helped us out along the way. We're going to leave it right there. You've got a couple of things that you're still looking for help on, so I'm going to say, let's talk about that for just a minute here. you're looking for a home for this Jeep.

Right. A Jeepers museum, an off-road museum, some place where people can see it in the flesh and it can live out the rest of its days. Correct. She needs to retire. To be cared for and on display. She needs to be retired.

She's really not probably up to too much more off-roading. She's seen her fair share of off-roading. She needs to sit somewhere where people can look at her, climb in her, feel her around, open up her back, see how the beds make up and know her story. And that was both of our dreams. And that's what I want to do is I want to find a home for her. I'm going to cry.

And your story. Let's talk about that as we're going to both be shedding tears in a second here. Your story needs to be told as well, so you're looking for a writer. Right. And it's not my story, it's our story. And, again, Lauren always felt that I didn't put myself in the story. When I talked about the trip, it was always, you know, Lauren did this. or we did that or whatever.

It was never me. I was there, yes. I participated a lot, yes. I was involved in it. Yes. I had my important moments, yes. But it was Lauren's dream. And I want it out there.

I want it told. I want to share it. And when he passed away last year, I thought about it. And I thought, oh, they say not to do anything for a year after a loved one passed away. And I thought, I'm going to be 70 here. I don't need to wait a year.

I got to do this before I can't do it and if nothing else life has taught me that if you don't do it you may never do it so and I say that always say that first steps the hardest one is one out the door and I said I'm doing it and through Lawrence's help again Lawrence was phenomenal in helping me figure out which trailer I should get the length

the extra axle support the whatever and again over my head because I wanted an enclosed car hauler for the jeeper I wanted it secure while traveling and then there's places I need to store it and that way she's locked up and secure I don't want it out in the weather I mean yesterday in the rainstorm I watched the water you and me both in my open truck and in my tent so yeah yeah so I know she doesn't need to be out in the rain so yeah she needed to be in the enclosed area so yeah I'm going to go to various overland expos jeep fests whatever I can do to put her on display and tell her story because it is her story, which then, of course, is Lawrence and my story.

Best way for people to contact you. If there's a writer out there who's itching to jump in and tell your story, tell that story, write that story, what's the best way for? My email address is Patricia P-A-T-R-I-C-I-A at Outback of Beyond.com. It'll be in the show notes, folks. Perfect. All right. Well, it's been a real delight getting to park just down the way, seeing something that's a little. little bit older and a little bit smaller than mine. You've been an absolute delight, and thanks

for sharing your story with Slow Baja. Thank you, Mike. I really appreciated it. Phenomenal. Oh, we did. Thank you. All right. You know, I'm a minimalist when it comes to Baja Travel, but the one thing I don't leave home without is a good old paper map. My favorite is the beautiful, and I mean beautiful, Baja Road and Recreation Atlas by benchmark maps. oversized 72-page book. It's jammed with details. It brings the peninsula's rugged terrain into clear

focus. Get yours at Benchmarkmaps.com. In fact, get two. One for your trip planning at home and one for your Baja rig. And while you're at Benchmarkmaps.com, you've got to check out all their other atlases. I think they're up to 17 now, including British Columbia. They've got folding maps. They've got digital maps. They've got giant wall maps. My favorite, and I've got it up on my wall right here at Slow Baja HQ is a 30-inch by 46-inch Baja wall map. It's so great to just look at one thing, see the entire peninsula there. I love it.

Benchmarkmaps.com. Slow Baja approved. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Patty Upton. I really enjoyed it, even though it didn't specifically revolve around travel through Baja. She is an amazing woman, and really that adventure that she took, and a bunch of subsequent adventures that she's taken since

are really outstanding, outstanding achievements. If you enjoy these sort of intimate conversations, they take time. Time is money, they tell me. I don't know. But what I'm going to ask you to do is do drop a taco in the tank. It makes a huge difference to me to keep this show on the road. It really is a tiny little shoe string operation,

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June gloom sale. You folks in San Diego, you can still get your sweatshirts. A few bucks off on those. If you can find one that fits you, and I always appreciate filling those orders, send you a little handwritten note saying thanks, stuffing a couple stickers in there. So again, thanks for rep and slow Baja.

I'll be back next week with something fun. And to quote Mary McGee's pal, Hall of Famer, Mary McGee, her pal Steve McQueen, Baja lover, who said something to the effect of Baja's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.