Talk is Jeep Podcast
Talk is Jeep Podcast
Talk Is Jeep EP21: Moab Odyssey Jeep Jamboree Review
In October of 2024 Art & Tom went to Moab UT for the Jeep Jamboree Signature event called Moab Odyssey. This is the conversation about that trip.
Hello and welcome to Talk is Jeep. I am Art Aldridge. I'm joined with Tom Chartrand. Hey, Art. How you doing? It's been a long while.
Tom Chartrand:It's been a while, yeah, but glad we're getting back to jeeping season. You know, for me especially, getting ready to hit some beaches and, you know, maybe dig some stuff up here or there. We'll see.
Art Aldrich:It's been a little while since we had our last Jeep trip.
Tom Chartrand:Yeah.
Art Aldrich:Our last Jeep trip was in Moab, Utah in October of 24. We had actually recorded a podcast, not a video podcast just because of the timing. But we had recorded a podcast right after the event just to keep it kind of fresh and accurate. And then we had some technical issues. And so we couldn't use it. And I wanted to get back to it because we actually met some good people there. And I actually recorded some interviews with people over Zoom who were at the event. So it wasn't just my voice and your voice. Awesome.
Tom Chartrand:I think that's great because we had a really diverse cross-section of Jeep enthusiasts on that trip because it was such a microorganism of a Jeep Jamboree. It was really cool meeting some people that were just so enthused by such a special event.
Art Aldrich:I mean, I will say this. At all of the events that I've been to, and I've probably been to, I don't know, 15 or 20 Jeep Jamborees over the last five, six years, you do meet really great people. I mean, I've met people there that I would be like, you know, I would definitely... sit and have a meal with this person if the circumstances permit it.
Tom Chartrand:Absolutely.
Art Aldrich:The Moab Odyssey trip, if you're not familiar with it, it's one of the Jeep Jamboree signature events, and that means it's got some special features. I mean, it also has a higher price point than the regular Jeep Jamborees by a good factor. And we'll talk about that later in the podcast.
Tom Chartrand:Right. And these experiences were all new, right? Weren't they new for 2024? Yes.
Art Aldrich:The one that we went to was the first event. I don't know if that was the first year they did signature events or not. I don't recall.
Tom Chartrand:Okay.
Speaker 05:But this was the first Moab Odyssey, they're calling it. Right. And so when I saw the posting... And the fact that it was being hosted by the YouTuber Fred Williams, I was just like, wow, this is going to be a great trip. I mean, to me, he's an interesting personality if you don't know him, which I was actually surprised that most people on the trip didn't know who he was. Let's hear from Jamboree participants Peter and Julia from Canada.
Peter & Julia:We told our kids that we were going to Moab on this Jeep Odyssey, and they were green with envy to start with. And we said, well, it's going to be hosted by Fred Williams. And my son-in-law's face just dropped. And he's a big fan. He's in his 20s. He used to tell the stories of coming home from school, rushing home to watch his movies. His episodes on. And so we really didn't know much about Fred Williams. We do know a lot more about Fred now. And since we both had been sick recently, we've been watching, catching up on a lot of YouTubes. Watching all the old episodes. Fred was amazing. We should know about Fred. In a heartbeat, we'd sign on to another Fred Williams trip.
Speaker 02:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 05:I mean, the whole reason of my interest level was because he was hosting the trip.
Speaker 04:And I think he was riding along more for the fun and a little bit of joviality than truly hosting, which let people still get away and do their own things and just kind of commiserate with him, which was different than we expected, I think. But it was cool.
Speaker 05:Yeah, it was different. And if you don't know who Fred Williams is, he used to be part of the Motor Trend Network, and he had a show called Dirt Every Day or Dirt Daily. I think Dirt Daily is his new show. Dirt Every Day was a show that was on Motor Trend, and he just did a lot of crazy off-road stuff. Not everything with Jeeps, but a lot of Jeep stuff. And he's a Jeep guy. Yeah. So we went to this trip, and one of the things that made it unique, aside from Fred, was the fact that they gave you a Jeep. Right.
Speaker 04:Not gave, but
Speaker 05:yeah. Yeah, they provided you a Jeep to use. And that was the first Jamboree I've ever went to where that was even an option. You could bring your own. They would give you a discount off the price of the Jamboree if you brought your own. Right. For us, if you remember, we were right between two jobs. Yes. And we flew in and we flew out and we went to work on both sides. Yeah. So it wasn't really an option.
Speaker 04:No, it was a jam. We couldn't take our time getting there or getting back.
Speaker 05:Right, right. And I actually talked about it on the last podcast that last year I had made a commitment to sort of take the next step of being able to bring my Jeep to these types of events. And I bought a trailer and I have a F-150 that I'm leasing. And, you know, I had that last year and I could have, in theory, brought my Jeep. It just, it wasn't time. Right. You know, there wasn't time to do it. So I wasn't sure how... That part of the trip would be, I mean, we didn't really have a choice, wanted to do the trip, so we did the trip as it was. But I was a little hesitant about, you know, using like a rental Jeep, so to speak. Here's another Jamboree attendee from Wisconsin, Amy.
Speaker 01:I wanted to use my own Jeep, but I didn't want to deal with the headache and hassle of it, something breaking that often happens with these cars.
Speaker 04:Of course, you don't know it. You're not sure what you're going to be given. Thankfully, they were all pretty great vehicles, but you're not comfortable with it. They were
Speaker 05:built and they were four-door JLURs, Rubicon four-doors, and they were built 35s and automatics. I think all of them were soft tops, but I don't recall if they were all identical cars.
Speaker 04:Only one soft top actually came off, though, during the whole trip.
Speaker 05:Yes, our soft top was the only one that was not up, which I just don't understand Jeep people who treat the Jeep like it's a car. It is a convertible. Take that
Speaker 04:top off. Exactly. Even though it's 42 in the morning, it's going to warm up.
Speaker 05:Yeah, exactly. And it did. Oh, it did. Absolutely, absolutely. So we flew into Grand Junction, Colorado, which I guess is the closest airport to Moab.
Speaker 04:Right, right on the border, pretty close.
Speaker 05:It was a drive that I think was like two, what, two hours? Two,
Speaker 04:two and a half, yeah. Got to go through a ghost town. That was kind of fun.
Speaker 05:Yeah, it was a small little airport. Yeah. You're going to have to wait because we waited a good probably 45 minutes for the rent-a-car line.
Speaker 04:Yeah, no automated, no walk out and grab your car.
Speaker 05:Right. There's no express lane. And there's like very, you know, I guess all the flights get in around the same time from all the airlines.
Speaker 04:Right.
Speaker 05:And so they get overloaded pretty quick.
Speaker 04:Yeah, I think there were just two gates there or two baggage claims. So it was, yeah, a little bit tight. But that's, you know, all good. Good to get away from all the big stuff sometimes. Yeah,
Speaker 05:yeah. So we drove to the Moab location. We stayed at the Hoodoo Hotel. Right. Which is a Hilton, though I don't think it says Hilton on it. It just says Hoodoo.
Speaker 04:Right. It was a part of the Hilton family.
Speaker 05:Yes, yes. Yes, and it was a very
Speaker 04:nice
Speaker 05:hotel. It
Speaker 04:was great. And they were townhouse type of units. So it was like a home of suites or something like that.
Speaker 05:Well, the hotel had like two components. It had the regular hotel rooms inside of the main building. Right. And they had these casitas, I think they called it. Yes. Which were like little, not even a studio apartment. It was a townhouse. It was a two- two bedroom townhouse.
Speaker 04:Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 05:Now we stayed in the two bedroom townhouse, but we were told that it was going to be double occupancy rooming for the whole trip.
Speaker 04:Right.
Speaker 05:Now that didn't turn out the way it, you know, it didn't turn out that way in reality. Right. And I heard that there was a snafu. I don't know whose fault the snafu was on, but I heard there was a mix up. either on the number of rooms or the dates at the hoodoo. And the casitas were like an 11th hour Hail
Speaker 04:Mary. Ah, okay. Because with only one king bed, that could have been awkward.
Speaker 05:Yes. Yes. So if you're hearing this and you're doing the Moab Odyssey, your mileage may vary. They may have figured out. the logistics by the time, uh, Moab number two comes around. But, uh, at least for number one, we had a pleasant surprise of a very nice, you know, like I said, a townhouse with a fireplace, I think, and a living room kitchen and the bedrooms were upstairs, two bedrooms, washer dryer.
Speaker 04:Yeah.
Speaker 05:I mean, it was,
Speaker 04:it was nice. It was, it was very comfortable to come back to. And, um, and it was eclipsed later on by even cooler, uh, accommodations. We'll get to that.
Speaker 05:Right. We will get to that. So we had sort of the kickoff meal. We met Fred. Here again, Peter and Julia.
Speaker 02:I was nervous, very nervous at the beginning. I had butterflies. I was terrified. When we were all walking up to the Jeeps and they said, okay, just pick whichever one you want. And I had so much anxiety and concern about
Speaker 05:So the first day's trail was, I think, maybe going to be the day two trail, but they decided to do an audible, and we did Top of the World. And all of these trails are the Jeep Badge of Honor trails. So if you've had experience with the Jeep Badge of Honor trails, these were three of those trails. If you're not familiar with them, there's a Jeep Badge of Honor app. You download the app, you create an account, and then you have to check in while you're in the vicinity of the trail somewhere.
Speaker 04:Which can be dicey on some of those outlying areas.
Speaker 05:It can be because there wasn't a lot of cell service in there. But basically you check in and then you get in the mail for free a little plastic badge that you can. I mean, I know a lot of people put them on their Jeeps. I don't particularly like that. Right. GAC, I think is the term on my Jeep.
Speaker 04:That GAC. All right, all you kids.
Speaker 05:Yeah, I think, I don't know what I'm going to do with my, I have a few badges because we got one out in Drummond Island. We got a badge of honor badge, but I'm not going to put mine on my Jeep. I may put them in a picture frame or some kind of a thing. I don't know.
Speaker 04:Sure.
Speaker 05:How do you guys out there feel? Do you put the Badge of Honor Trail badges on your Jeep? Do you like to show that off? Is that your flex?
Speaker 04:What do you think? To me, it's a cool question because is it a conversation starter? Does it guide you into a conversation about, whoa, what's that about? What is Badge of Honor with your Jeep to get other people maybe more interested? And I know my Jeep didn't make that climb, but we did together, so... I don't know. I see it more of a conversation starter and it's not, you know, I wonder, so yeah. What do you guys think?
Speaker 05:Talk is Jeep show at gmail.com. Drop a note and, uh, and let us know what you think of the badge of honor badge. It's the only thing that I have under my Jeep. I have the stickers from each Jeep Jamboree year. Right. And so I just have a little strip of, you know, I've, I missed one year, uh, where I just, I, All the jamborees I signed up for, I had to cancel because of work. Because of work, exactly. So I have one year that I'm missing, but I've lined them up on my front quarter panel.
Speaker 04:There you go.
Speaker 05:But I don't think I want to do more than that.
Speaker 04:Gotcha. And in defense of anybody's... you know, opinion that your Jeep is such a personal thing, you know, and that's why I love looking at Jeeps that do so many different crazy things. You might see a hundred ducks on a dash and be like, Oh my God, what? And different stickers. And, you know, it's an opportunity for somebody to really make their Jeep their own. And I think that's part of the beauty of, of owning a Jeep.
Speaker 05:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Again, and it's not everyone's cup of tea. So, you know, But anyway, getting back to the trails. So Top of the World, the trail itself wasn't very technical. I mean, the visuals out there are stunning. We were commenting just on the drive in from Grand Junction. It's just this epic, epic canyon walls and rivers and just scenery that goes on forever. And that was awesome. And you get that on all of these trails, but the technical part of the Top of the World Trail wasn't really much.
Speaker 04:Well, there were some. Looking back at some of those pictures, there were some neat little inverted climbs. And in defense of the guides with the rental Jeeps from TwistedJeeps.com, they provided us some great, great vehicles. They didn't want to take a chance of doing damage, too. So that was one thing that was... It would have been great to take some tries and do some more challenging things, but they didn't want to take a chance to damage the rental vehicles. So I get that too.
Speaker 05:I remember one of the guides telling us that there's some restrictions on which trails you can run in Moab with a rented Jeep. And so the trails we did were approved, but again, they didn't want to... them up too much.
Speaker 04:Sounds like an insurance company had something to do with that.
Speaker 05:Yeah, absolutely. But it was like the feature, I guess, of that trail is this rock ledge that you get to, which is hanging out over this canyon. And I mean, Jeep has used it in their commercials. It's just an iconic spot where you literally can see around you for thousands of miles
Speaker 04:oh my god and thousands of feet down just the the panorama is amazing and i'm sure you're looking at a video of it right now from our drone which we were lucky enough to have out there just beautiful
Speaker 05:well this is a little plug here for the youtube channel because most of the people who are with us are listening on the podcast way more podcast views than are our youtube channel views so if you don't know we do have a youtube channel it's called at talk is jeep show at on youtube and there's a video component to almost all the podcasts or at least there will be going forward i don't think every episode has a video component going back you know all 20 episodes but This one has a video component. We have some great video. Tom, you shot most of it. You did an excellent job with the drone. Thank you. And the iPhone. And we had some GoPros running. Oh,
Speaker 04:yeah. All of that. It was fun switching it all. And we had a mishap with one of the drones.
Speaker 05:If you're listening and you're curious, go head over to YouTube and check out the YouTube channel. The scenery out there was beautiful. And at Top of the World Ledge, we spent a fair amount of time there. They... You know, obviously, if you brought your own Jeep, they would let you put your Jeep out on the ledge and then take pictures. Right. Because most of us had rentals. There was only one or two people, I think, that had their own Jeeps.
Speaker 04:Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 05:And they got to put their Jeep up there. Everyone else, we just used one of the rentals. Right. We did a group photo. We, you know, you could do a few different takes up there. But it was, I think we had lunch there, too. And it was, you know. We did. It was epic. I mean, the views were epic, but
Speaker 04:I think overall drive up there.
Speaker 05:It was. And the overall trail by there were, I do remember as you're saying it, we'll show some of the stuff. There were a couple of technical, I mean, you know, my, my driving, it didn't really seem too hard. I know a few people had some trouble on, on some of the obstacles, but if you, if you follow the line and you, you know, Yeah, I mean, I guess there was no way to know really everyone's level of experience in driving.
Speaker 04:But being a passenger with you over the years, I know you're willing to take some chances that other people may not, and you come out on top 98% of the time. So I know it was frustrating because you'd see something, and I remember looking at your eye like, oh, I want to go there. Yeah. But, you know, overall, and you'll see looking back at it, that it was a really, really cool trail and definitely worth the journey. I'm looking at some of the pictures now, and it was even nice seeing a few really nice lifted TJs, because that's my soft spot, you know, with some nice lifts and 37-inch tires. And there were a lot of happy Jeepers out there.
Speaker 05:Once again, Amy.
Speaker 01:It seemed like, if you noticed, over the course of the three days, the three trails, Day one, everybody was stopping. They were getting us over all the obstacles. Day two, they pedaled it back a little bit. And by day three, what did he say? He's like, hey, if anybody needs us, just call. We're on the radio. And we were just jamming. I'm not saying I can run out and do this by myself. That'd be stupid. But I felt confident in a group setting. to be able to look at the obstacle that was ahead and read it right or watch the person in front of me. I'm like, yeah, I don't want to try that. I'm going to go a little around this way or that way. Instead, I felt good about the trails.
Speaker 05:Here again, Peter and Julia.
Speaker 02:Something I did like was that every trail we did was very different from the one before. We didn't seem to be going over same stuff you know like they were all very very different like top of the world and steel bender and metal masher like i didn't feel like we were repeating things
Speaker 05:day two we did steel bender right i and from what i remember definitely a little more technical
Speaker 04:yes yeah Steelbender, I want to say that's the one we came in low. There was a lot of waterways we rode along and just high arching walls on top. And we rode over some arches. And it culminated, I think, in this crazy drop that I... had no desire to be a passenger or a driver on
Speaker 05:it. Well, that was the one where we stopped for lunch at the top of the obstacle, and everyone had a good hour to kind of stew over it. The problem with this one
Speaker 02:is
Speaker 05:you're being forced to go on the right edge as you come down. And if you can't stop for some reason, you're going over.
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 05:That's the problem with that. Because you can't come on the right. You can't be driver, right? You have to be passenger on that rock. Jesus Christ. Right? And if you miss the...
Speaker 02:If you miss the landing, if you don't stick the landing...
Speaker 05:Yeah, you don't stick the landing... Oh,
Speaker 02:my God.
Speaker 05:That was like, I definitely, there was a Parker factor. The way the guys were talking about it, they wanted to put a tow line from the top. From the top, yeah. Especially if you had a two-door, they wanted to put a tow line or a safety line on the Jeep just in case it wanted to go over.
Speaker 04:Yeah.
Speaker 05:Because you were definitely off camber.
Speaker 04:Oh, it was freaky. And there was no forgiving area that if you did go over, because you were just toppling over the end.
Speaker 00:There was no bypass.
Speaker 04:No, and just shout out to the guides who really had good eyes on the ground and knew everybody's vehicle and kept an eye on everyone.
Speaker 03:Here again, Peter and Julia. I'll say that if we had been on our own, and we had not been with guides, we wouldn't have had the nerve to go the places we went. So that was one of the, I think, great benefits is that it safely allowed you to extend beyond your comfort zone. And...
Speaker 05:I mean, everyone was talking about that, you know, all through lunch and even at dinner. That was sort of, you know, the big point of the day.
Speaker 04:It really was. And to give it a little perspective, too, for people that are going to jump over to YouTube, you and I, you know, we both work on the Iditarod up in Alaska, too. And when you're in a plane or you're out in an area like this, the vast, open, unknown, your eye... your cameras just don't capture and the drone didn't capture it. And the phones don't capture the expanse, the drop of what was going on on that particular one. It's like, it's, we can talk all we want about it, but until you're looking at it, oh my God, you know, it just, in fact, just, just multiply times a hundred percent the, the fear factor you get when you see those visuals.
Speaker 05:That's true. I mean, out of, out of all the stuff that we filmed, you know, all the time, sometimes video can't capture the, the reality of it. It always looks more tame.
Speaker 04:Right.
Speaker 05:Right.
Speaker 04:Yeah. It doesn't, the, the pucker factor filter doesn't a pucker factor filter doesn't always come through. I
Speaker 05:do. I do think though, the, the day three trail, which was called metal masher. I think that was my favorite trail of the, of the week of Moab. I mean, there's probably hundreds of trails.
Speaker 04:Right.
Speaker 05:And actually, one of our participants that we became friendly with, Amy, she had a guidebook. There's a Moab off-road trail guidebook that I was never aware of. She had she's very detail oriented and her and her mom were out there on a road trip and she had really done some research into it and she let us look through the book and it looks like you know you could basically go out and do some self-guided uh right trips if you wanted to though it's probably not recommended to do it alone
Speaker 04:right and she was with her mom so it was they were you know, families there. There were, you know, Jeep guys like us that were just having fun being together because they love Jeeps. It was a really, again, a cool, diverse cross-section of Jeep lovers, which was a neat experience.
Speaker 05:Here again, Peter and Julia.
Speaker 03:We had so much fun with everybody on the, the other people who did the trip plus the guides and Fred was a great, It
Speaker 02:was a great crowd and we had a lot of fun.
Speaker 05:The trails overall, I guess, not as technical as I would have liked, I guess, overall. But again, maybe we were limited by skill of participation overall, plus the rental Jeeps.
Speaker 04:I'm sure there's... I think that's a big part of it because, again, you're so used to doing the cat skills and really getting dirty in there. And this was... as much about your surroundings as it was about climbing some rocks and getting and seeing some amazing vistas and taking some funky climbs to get there.
Speaker 05:Well, let's talk about it from this aspect because I think this gets into some of the other areas of the jamboree that make this one unique. And that is, like, who is this jamboree for? Because it's not your typical, like, go-out, hardcore wheel... And you're camping or whatever. This is more... I would say this is more like the Disney World variation of a Jeep Jamboree. In the sense that you can bring your wife. You can bring your girlfriend. It's comfortable. It's expensive. But you're getting nice accommodations. You're getting certain things that make the trip more of a luxury experience. trip. When you go to Disney and you're going to stay at Disney property, when you're on site at Disney, you know you're paying upper level. But you have a certain expectation that they usually live up to with that Disney...
Speaker 04:They deliver the goods. They deliver the
Speaker 05:goods. And Jeep Jamboree is priced this one, I would say, in that stratosphere. It's the higher echelon of pricing. It's $11,000 for two people
Speaker 04:right
Speaker 05:but i think what they gave you what they gave us was a very good trip and that's why i say like i would never bring my wife to like the catskill mountains jamboree just because she wouldn't enjoy you know the accommodations but i could bring her to to moab on that signature trip I think she would enjoy it. She would have the option of not even going to the trail but still having something to do. The hotel had spa services and there were other things to do in town. Here again, Peter and Julia.
Speaker 03:I think we were the perfect audience. I think it's good for people who haven't done a lot of jeeping that want to push the boundaries a bit and do a few things they might not do on their own before they get into trouble. And I think it's highly suited to people who have to come from the East Coast or elsewhere that won't have their own vehicle, that as well. Yeah,
Speaker 02:and I think we learned a lot. Like, I feel like we were probably the least experienced people that were part of the jamboree. But gosh, I learned so much. And I learned a lot from Fred. Fred was very good at sharing and teaching certain things. I mean, I know he wasn't there as a teacher, but he definitely was guiding us and helping us along the way. If we had questions, he would answer them.
Speaker 03:And... We broke a Jeep, but it wasn't ours.
Speaker 04:And also I'd look at it as well about, you know, it's also an opportunity to see a part of the country that you've maybe never seen from a place that not a lot of people get to see. And there's a lot of people that can't get their Jeeps out to places where their bucket list is. So it's an opportunity to say, you know what? I don't have to throw caution to the wind with my Jeep and get it across country. I don't have to take chances with something that, might break down. We had one participant whose personal Jeep did break down and again, twisted Jeep stepped up and got them a rental. So it is, it's a bucket list kind of an event that you don't have to worry that everything's going to fall apart if something does fall apart, right? Once again, Amy. Well,
Speaker 01:Jesus, what if I go somewhere and I break it and it's not an easy get it home and you've got to get it repaired out of state. So, It was difficult. I felt silly bringing my own Jeep, and it's sitting in the parking lot, but I also felt comforted that at least I have a ride away to get home.
Speaker 05:The thing that I like in general about the Jeep Jamborees is that if you break down on the trail, the guides will go above and beyond to get your Jeep running again, get it at least off the trail, or better yet, back on the trail for the next day. They go through tremendous amount of effort to to make sure that, you know, you're not stranded.
Speaker 04:Right.
Speaker 05:Right. So I think you could say that about all the jamborees. But again, like this one, this one had some more creature comforts that the others don't. But but again, you know, you you're paying a higher price for it. For sure. Yeah. Now, let's talk about the Fred Williams part because, again, the Fred Williams part, as I alluded to earlier, was the real hook
Speaker 04:for me. Right. I didn't know as much as you did coming into it, but you had been a subscriber to those shows and shared a lot of it with me, and I'm like, this guy's crazy. crazy
Speaker 05:yeah he's he's he's a genuine character and a genuine person yeah but here's here's the thing so you know the way it was sort of built up was that he was going to be the host of the jamboree and as you sort of pointed out he wasn't really the host he was more of like a guest he was a guest
Speaker 04:of the jamboree he was ed sullivan to johnny carson
Speaker 05:He was– in a sense, he was there at the meals and he was there on the trail rides. I thought that he could have been more leadership, so to speak, like more– like I would have loved to hear him talk about– and he did a little bit if you got him one-on-one and asked him a question. But as a group, I would have loved like after dinner to have a little Q&A or just talk about some of his– experiences, his TV stuff, some of the crazy things that he's built or done with Jeeps. It
Speaker 04:wasn't organized. It wasn't organized like that. And it could have been because for you, like you said, that was a main draw. So it could have been Q&A chat with Fred after dinner or something like that. Or show and
Speaker 05:tell, like he could show clips. Now, what was surprising to me is that when we got there and I was talking to people as we were gathering and meeting, a lot of them, I would say maybe 75% didn't have a clue who Fred Williams was.
Speaker 04:Right, right. I knew his name, but didn't know as much.
Speaker 05:But I guess that wasn't really the appeal for them, which is interesting. That was the main reason I would pay extra to go on that. And I think that's how Jeep Jamboree thought it was going down. Right. But in retrospect, I think many people didn't know who he was.
Speaker 04:Which is interesting because his name has been in the game for so long. And like you say, it didn't come out with all the variety of people that we had out there.
Speaker 05:But now I think if you took... Like if you brought Fred Williams to like the Casco Mountains, I think like 80% of the people would know who he was as opposed to 25%. I think it just depends. It depends. Because I think, again, this trip, I think the people who wind up going on this trip weren't necessarily the hardcore four wheelers.
Speaker 04:As
Speaker 05:much as people who were... There was a father and son. There were a couple of married couples, mother-daughter, couple of buddies. But it was much more of a... We're here for the experience as opposed to the Fred Williams hardcore rock crawling.
Speaker 04:Because Fred was... if you could, if you were able to engage him and get him aside, he just kind of let loose and it was great.
Speaker 05:Yeah. It wasn't hard to get him engaged. It's just, it wasn't, it wasn't structured. You had to go up to him and engage him. He wasn't necessarily going. And he did try to ask some questions a little bit of like who you were or whatever. But like what I thought would have been cool was have him ride with everyone in their Jeep for a little bit. That would have been easy to do.
Speaker 04:100%.
Speaker 05:They were all four-seaters. He rode with the guides, and I thought that was a little bit of a missed step, a missed opportunity.
Speaker 04:I didn't even think of that until you brought it up, but absolutely. Maybe they just didn't use him to the extent that he could have been used because I think if people got to know him, it could have been like a two-way thing. It could have gotten more for him as well as the participants.
Speaker 05:Absolutely. So that part of it was like a mixed bag. Now let's talk about the other parts of the trip that were not the jeeping or the Fred Williams part, the hotels and the meals. Because all of the meals and the hotels were included. That part of it was, again, based on double occupancy. We sort of alluded to the fact that we had these townhouses in Moab at the Hoodoo. But I think that was in error. I'm not sure whose error, but that was in error. I think we were supposed to be basically in a shared room. And so we had a much different experience because we had this nice townhouse. I
Speaker 04:just want to say, coming back after day one... the guides who, you know, they put in serious hours and, you know, they had our Jeeps ready the next day. They had them gassed up. So that part of the experience, there was nothing we had to worry about. You know, the next day we were ready to go and they were on top of all that, which I think is a nod to them as well to, you know, be on top of the rentals and, you know, make that part of the experience all that it was.
Speaker 05:Yeah, there were three guides plus Fred. They all were working tremendous hours to make it smooth. I mean, lunches, beverages, like you said, fueling it. Yep. You know, mine didn't get washed every night. I'm not sure if that was an oversight. I had requested that.
Speaker 04:Well, you were the jerk that put your top down when no one else did.
Speaker 05:Oh, it was so dusty. It was so, so dusty. And then when we had to, so we had to check out on day three. Oh, day two. Right. We had to check out on day two because we were moving hotels. Right. And when I say hotels, so we had the beginning and the end of the trip was at the Hoodoo. But the middle night of the trip was at Ulam Resort.
Speaker 04:Yes, in Monticello, Utah.
Speaker 05:Which was not a hotel per se. Resort might mean different things to different people. It was basically a glamping resort. It was a tent resort. That was like a platform tent with a fireplace and a bed and running water, you know, toilet, a sink.
Speaker 04:Almost no Wi-Fi, which somebody will say, oh, you don't need it out there, right?
Speaker 05:Yeah. Well, when you're trying to get stuff done, either cameras or firmware. That's true. Whatever. But yes. But anyway, it was a great experience.
Speaker 04:Oh, yeah. It was beautiful. It really was. I didn't expect it to be that neat because it was– I don't camp. It's not my world. But being able to have a great dinner there, get good coffee in the morning, and start your own fire, it just– it really was a Disney type of experience.
Speaker 05:Again, we were supposed to have double occupancy. We were supposed to be sharing a tent.
Unknown:Yeah.
Speaker 05:Again, that would have been interesting because I don't think they had tents with doubles in them.
Speaker 04:Right.
Speaker 05:And they wound up basically you got your own tent, I got my own tent. Other people who had that situation, I think the father and son wound up getting their own tents. So I'm not sure if that was an oversight or a fortunate accident or just the fact that it was maybe the time of year where they weren't busy getting And they were able to do it for us.
Speaker 04:I mean, in my mind, it really might just be that that was one element they didn't think of going into it, you know, so I don't fault them hugely for it. But, you know, so somebody has to sleep on a couch for a night. big deal no
Speaker 05:it's not it wasn't a fault or criticism oh yeah yeah just it worked out that we had our own tents yes but again it might have been it might have been a different experience if someone you know slept on a couch or a chair or whatever
Speaker 04:especially if i'm snoring in the tent you know
Speaker 05:so but but again beautiful beautiful accommodations the only the only you know It was chilly at night. Overnight, it got really cold.
Speaker 04:It did.
Speaker 05:And the fire goes out. I mean, I don't care how much raging fire you have when you go to sleep. It's only going to burn about four hours.
Speaker 04:No, and that canvas is only as thick as canvas gets.
Speaker 05:And so I remember having to get up at about 3 a.m. and get the fire started again, which was, you know. whatever it was you know an experience i mean it was beautiful and i wish it was wish we had some more time like to just you know even take video like we just didn't have a lot of time we were tired as it was
Speaker 01:once again amy i kind of felt like when the the morning came that we had to do the pack all your stuff up because we're going to a different place i was kind of like Not excited about it. But when we got to Ulam and saw the accommodations and just the resort itself with all the tents, is that a yurt? I don't know if I would ever do this on my own, like intentionally, purposely book something at a place like this. So once we got there and I saw it, I was okay and it wasn't that bad. much of irritation because we got the experience of doing that. But then also we were kind of, I felt like kind of cut short on that experience because we were out on the trail so long.
Speaker 04:And I was so excited to get up that next morning because the day before on Steelbender, We had ditched the drone. I was taking a shot. You were going up rocks next to a river. I hit a tree. It fell in the water. And for some odd reason, it worked throughout the day. And we were able to get all that great video of that crazy drop that we were going on. But that next morning, everything went to hell. And there was this great, feature of the desert where there was a great big hole in the middle of this natural statue out there and I wanted to fly through it and I couldn't get it to work so we have no aerials from that area but it was just such a beautiful area
Speaker 05:it was the stars that night were very epic and I would say that the fact that that was in the middle of the trip and it was very far out of the way It was. It wasn't really close. Right. And so granted, I enjoyed it, but I probably could have done without that experience just from a convenience standpoint.
Speaker 04:Right. I mean, if you bring some of the factor in, you know, with people that want a different type of experience, it was cool. You know, the food was great. The surroundings were amazing. You know, time of year, you definitely had those cold, cold evenings and cold early mornings. And so I get that. But that's kind of nitpicking. I mean, it was a cool. It is nitpicking. We got to see a lot.
Speaker 05:And this kind of brings me to the last point, which is obviously the cost, because the cost will deter a lot of people. Look, there's a market for luxury in everything, right? There's a luxury market in every aspect of our lives. Some people can afford the luxury and some people can't. And at the end of the day, if you have it and you want to do it, you'll do it. And they have people, I mean, they sold out the trip this year. They sold out the trip last year. People will pay it if they, you know, think it's worth the experience. And at the end of the day, let's just say five years from now, 10 years from now, I'm not going to remember the money part. I'm going to remember the pictures and the videos and the memories of From that trip, the people that we met, I'm not going to remember the money part. So here
Speaker 03:again, Peter and Julia. It really felt like, in spite of the fact that it cost what it did, was that you were getting your money's worth. We didn't feel like we were getting gouged or hosed at all.
Speaker 01:Once again, Amy. To me, the Moab price was because we were celebrating my birthday, my milestone birthday. It hadn't happened yet, but now... Now I am 50. I guess it kind of, to me, that was the, not excuse, but, you know, you earned it. It's your birthday. This is your birthday celebration. But so that way, when we were looking at the Iceland trip, I'm like, yeah. That's too much for just a regular vacation. And I said, why don't we put that on the back burner maybe for when I retire? And we can see what kind of signature trip they're offering then and do something like that then. So, yeah, the price was not that expensive for Moab. But, yeah, it was because we were doing it for a celebration. So
Speaker 05:anything else that you remember or you want to share about the trip?
Speaker 04:You know, the one thing I would say is there wasn't a lot of away time and we made our own away time. So people, I think, would love to go somewhere. They want to experience something. And it was very segmented. And it might not be a bad thing to consider that, you know, that last night we saw, oh, my God, there's a barbecue place. Let's check it out. One a little bit of time away. And we went out, had some drinks. Very good. I wouldn't say it was the best. Barbecue and a beer and just a little alone time to sort of explore where you are. And I think that's something that they could consider that might be a little bit of savings on people. Like you don't have to provide every night for meals and things like that because it gives you a chance to explore and see things.
Speaker 05:Right, well, maybe they could option out the package a little bit, like you do it with the meals or without the meals. I don't know if it makes it harder for them or not. I think they're about trying to make it simple on many fronts, so it's probably simpler to just have everybody in on the one plan. But like I said, I do think there could be ways to make the trip cost less. I'm not sure they're necessarily interested in that. I would have liked to have seen some more difficult trails. Maybe I didn't need the tent camping part of it. I would have been okay just staying at the Hoodoo. But overall, great trip. I would definitely love to go back to Moab with my Jeep. And that will be something that I will be planning for maybe next year. We'll see how my cross-country
Speaker 04:trip
Speaker 05:goes
Speaker 04:this year. I'd like to hear that for you.
Speaker 05:We'll have to see how that goes. But I think overall, the people that we met, the things that we saw, the experience as a whole was A+.
Speaker 04:Absolutely. Stories shared, people that we met. It was just a cool experience to get outside of your own area and what you're comfortable with and to experience that. So, yeah.
Speaker 05:Here again, Peter and Julia.
Speaker 02:It was really nice and very personable. You know, it was... It didn't seem like it was them and us. It felt like we were all one unit, like a team, just all of us together, which was great. All
Speaker 05:right. Well, until next time, I'm Art. I'm Tom. Talk to you soon. Thanks for listening.
