Nowhere to be: Overland Expo

Next stop was to be the Overland Expo Rally in Mormon Lake, Arizona via Flagstaff first. I had been having perfect weather over the past few weeks minus the rain in Page yesterday. Figured since it was now into late May and headed south that this would hold. How wrong I was. I decided to stay at the KOA in Flagstaff as I was getting in late, needed a shower and the clean clothes pile was disappearing rapidly. As I rolled into Flagstaff late that afternoon it began to snow. The snow and the state of depression that was coming over because I had to stay in a KOA were almost overbearing. KOA was packed with campers, screaming kids, barking dogs, boom boxes at level 10 and they wanted $38 a night. If I wasn't in dire need of a shower and laundry facilities I would have stood on the gas pedal and been out of there. Family next to me had been there for two weeks and told me they loved staying in KOA's. I just stared at the guy and thought to myself.... good God almighty have you lost your friggin mind. My girlfriend tells me that I should be glad the masses like to camp like this otherwise they'd be out where I like to be in the middle of nowhere. I have to remind myself of this when forced to stay in an established campground. Spent the one night, showered and did laundry. Was out of there before the herd arose for more of their camping experience. After a breakfast at Denny's, it was south to Mormon Lake and the Overland Expo. I had contacted them earlier in the year and signed up to be a volunteer. I was going to help set up the audio visual stuff for the films and slide presentations so they wanted me there on Wednesday even though the event doesn't kick off till Friday. Free camping comes with volunteering so I didn't mind showing up a couple of days early. By arriving early, I had my choice of camping spots and boy did this pay huge dividends a few days later. The forecast was for some heavy rain and the camping is basically done in a huge pasture area with a clay base. When it gets wet it turns into something that can hardly be described. Slick concrete comes to mind though. The forecaster got it right and it not only rained but snowed, hailed, blew like hell. It was an interesting week of weather but I had a great time. Met some great people, saw lots of cool rigs, vendors were still displaying their wares despite the extreme weather, and got to talk with people that were on some great adventures. Amazed me how many people though, who call themselves Adventurers, who bitched and cried about the conditions pack up and leave because of a little weather. Some who had paid good money to attend the event packed up and left after a day of it. What's really funny is that they had the balls to ask for a weather refund. I couldn't believe they expected a refund. Like the event organizer had some kind of control over the weather. There are some real dumb asses running around in the world. I saw two people get up Saturday morning, throw their crap in their rig and simply leave the tent. Made the announcement as they were driving off that they were leaving and anyone could have the tent as they didn't want to deal with packing it. Real adventurers!

Didn't take many pics other than the rigs due to the weather but here's a photo dump along with a drone video. Video isn't mine as I took it off a FB post of the event. Saw the drone flying over a few times during the event. He got some good stuff.

I picked out the highest spot I could find in anticipation of the forecasted weather. It paid off as I stayed fairly dry throughout the event. Guys in the next picture.....not so lucky. They were camped about 40 yards from me!