Subject:  Thoughts on OTR

Right, now that most of the jet-lag has worn off, it's time to put together a few thoughts on OTR.

1st up, the welcome we received. WOW!

Merv had told us about the hospitality at last year's CRW, but we've learned over the years that he sometimes likes to 'embellish' his stories a bit, so we hadn't taken him too seriously :-) We were amazed to find that for once in his life, he hadn't been exaggerating!

Apart from Rachel and Bill, I won't mention any other names for fear of leaving someone out (and the list would be huge, anyway), but rest assured that we were overwhelmed by the offers of drink, rides (titter! that means something different over here), food, more drink, etc. Some people were even foolish enough to let Merv under their trucks, thinking that he had some idea of what he was doing. You should know that back home he's not allowed use anything sharper than a pillow, so it might be a good idea to get under there and check out the things he 'fixed' :-)

Some brave(?) people even allowed us to drive their trucks. Needless to say, we didn't drive them through (or 'at') the more extreme obstacles. It's one thing to break your own vehicle attempting something you shouldn't, but it's quite another to take foolish risks in someone else's pride and joy. We'll have to get our own rigs over for that sort of thing :-)

2nd, the event. WOW (again)!

Never before have we seen such a well organised event. Apart from the now legendary IFWDC presentation on the Sunday night, everything happened when it was supposed to, and ran for it's appointed time :-) A bit different to what happens over here. We generally turn up late, and then stand around scratching ourselves wondering what's going on (and that's when we're supposed to be running things).
The seminars were excellent, with a whole range of subjects being covered. I
found the ones I did to be very informative, and I heard good reports from the others too.

3rd, Moab (Speechless) Off-roading Nirvana :-)

Photos and magazine articles don't do the place justice. The landscape and scenery are breathtaking. It was all a bit of a culture shock compared with what we're used to. When we go off-roading, we don't usually have to worry about bringing sunglasses, factor 45 sun-block, or gallons of water to keep us from dying of
dehydration....

As you've probable figured from all this, we had a glorious time at OTR. If you were there and don't remember us(!), we were to ones with the stupid hats and the permanent idiot grins :-)

Our big problem now is wondering if we can survive for a whole year before
we go back.

Ivor

Click below to see some photos of our trip to On the Road...Moab!
Irish Rovers' (Ivor, Merv, & Edwin) pictures