Two overlanders walk into a Jeep show. There’s no punchline because it’s not a joke. Feel free to laugh though. For the last few years I have been going to the Toledo Jeep Festival to celebrate the history and legacy of the Jeep brand. My first time to Toledo for their annual Jeep show was back in 2019 with Dan “The Real Deal” Grec from The Road Chose Me. He and I split time on the main stage talking about international vs domestic overland travel and our shared love of Jeeps.
Read about what Dan & I did after the 2019 show here.
Hear more from Dan as a guest on the Echoes of Adventure Podcast
In 2020 there was no show due to the global pandemic at the time, but I went back in 2021. This year it was just a solo-talk for me on the main-stage. In 2022 there was no main-stage talk. Instead I was overseeing a “Toledo Jeep Fest Base Camp” that the Toledo Metro Park system was co-sponsoring. It was a little cliche, being that we were literally camping under a bridge down by the river, but it was honestly a lot of fun.
This was in addition to our main-stage talk.
This is also in addition to the “Base Camp” overland Jeep camping area.
In 2023, things took a sideways turn with my Jeep deciding it no longer needed a cooling fan. The motor seized which caused it to overheat. The overheating caused it to draw more power than normal. That increased draw popped the main fuse for the fan. The lack of cooling fan, combined with August weather and towing a trailer, caused the Jeep to overheat. Needless to say it was not a fun trip and it required me to swap out a cooling fan on the floor of the convention center. Let it not go unsaid that we Jeepers are a persistent bunch. This time around, my main stage talk was on the Jeep Badge of Honor system and some of the resources out there people can use to research those trails.
They were also kind enough to set us up with a few chairs and some tables.
For 2024 we decided to ramp things up. My friend, fellow Jeeper, fellow overlander, and fellow instructor, Walt, had come in 2023. In fact it was his Jeep that towed my trailer to the show while it was on the lamb. He expressed wanting to come back for 2024. With him onboard we opted to not only do a main stage talk like in years past, but we proposed to also offer multiple half-hour mini-sessions. We were given our own corner of the convention center dubbed “The Offroad and Overland Skills Area.”
Got to talk about everything from gazetteers to Purple Lizard Maps.
With a topic list that included recovery gear overview, a rigging demo, navigation, radio comms, walk-arounds, and overlanding with a trailer we had a full slate. Walt does a great talk on “What to do about gates?” which goes above and beyond that basic question to really drive home the point that before you go out on an adventure you should do lots of research. No joke, he said, “research” at least 100 times during the 40 minute talk. I was able to back him up and toss in my occasional two-cents given my resent work with Tread Lightly!.
All-in-all our sessions went really well and we got a lot of positive feedback. It was really nice to have people coming up to use with our names circled in the program and carrying notebooks hoping to learn a thing or two from us.
(If you didn’t get that joke, scroll up and read the poster.)
Jeep shows like the Toledo Jeep Festival bring out a wide range of Jeep owners and enthusiasts. Some are nothing more than “mall-crawlers” while others are more “hardcore.” It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you’re a “pavement princess” or a seasoned “overlander.” What’s great about these shows is that everyone has one thing in common: their love of Jeeps.
He was also keen to mention it’s not exactly 2:1 due to friction.
We are already planning on Toledo Jeep Festival for 2025. More classes. More cool overland Jeeps. And of course, more fun! Thanks again to Jerry, Whitney, and the TJF crew that never fails to put on a great show. Also a huge thanks to Walt for not only co-teaching over the weekend but for bringing both his Jeeps to the show to display and use for the classes.
Post Script:
Oh, yeah, if you’re wondering why my neither of my Jeeps made it to Toledo this year, and why things have been a little quiet around here, well, the 2004 has a blown head gasket and the 2006 has death-wobble. I am also still feeling some after-effects from the accident last year which has been a struggle to say the least. Hope to get things going a little more this fall. We shall see.
