Full disclosure: I am not actually an Overlander guy and I doubt I would become one even if I had the money. It just doesn’t take that much to get off of the beaten path. However, many others see it differently, and the market that emerged from this worldview created the Overland Expo which was recently encamped in Flagstaff.

My wife and I went, and while we paid to shop, essentially, we had a discount through some means I do not recall.

Amateur but veteran tip: we parked at NAU and took the bus in, and this was little trouble. Especially compared to a previous year where we spent so long hiking in from our found parking space that we essentially missed the event.

This is not a detailed review of what is a giant outdoor mall for people who want to see the great outdoors from the window of their expensive vehicles. We found a few cool things, and I record them here for my reference, but I share also with you.

More or less smallest to largest:

The Transcool portable evaporative cooler. A lunch-boxed sized evap cooler you can run from your car battery of other portable power. Or a wall outlet, I suppose. Couldn’t vouch for its performance in the humidity but the demo was blowing cold on a dry Flagstaff afternoon. https://transcoolusa.com/

The Aquaboost power station turns salt water to electricity, perhaps to power your Transcool for up to 12 hours, per their literature.  https://www.aquaboostpower.com/

Your state parks and local tribes are trying to save history – and they gave me a sticker, so I give them a plug. https://savehistory.org/

This is tangential to a previous post.

Finally, if money were no object, this would be the trailer I tow:

The Bowlus Rivet is an airplane fuselage disguised as a trailer. Our European host made us take off our shoes to walk inside the thing. Once inside we learned that while it has actually fewer amenities than trailers in its $150k price category ( you read that right) it is stupid lightweight for its size. That’s what you’re actually paying for. Sure the shower is clever, the other features are spare but well laid out, and thing outside is mirror-shiny, but what makes it worth it is the #2800 base weight. You can tow it with an SUV.

We would tow it with a cargo van – money being no object – for UnObtanium events. But we are not anywhere close to that kind of money.

Even so, it was fun to get out of the heat and daydream.