I'm calling you out Eddie and Cindy

Sharkey

Word Ninja
Ok, most of us pretty much live vicariously through Eddie and Cindy's trips. It's time to give them a challenge. It's also an open challenge to anyone else who thinks they have the ability to compete with them.

I want to see who can drive through the greatest number of states, for the most miles, without touching pavement. Running donuts through the four corners doesn't count. Driving circles for 500 miles in the Nevada desert and then crossing into California doesn't cut it.

If someone decides to take this on, I want to see some real effort at route planning.

This is the "Overlander Challenge".
 
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We have to come up with some reasonable rules. I don't want this to be driven by how much gas you can carry. What about something like a 5-10 mile pavement pass for every 100 miles driven off-road?
 
Greatest number of states or most miles? States and the East coast has advantage; miles and the West coast has advantage.
 
We have to come up with some reasonable rules. I don't want this to be driven by how much gas you can carry. What about something like a 5-10 mile pavement pass for every 100 miles driven off-road?

Can I borrow your zombie apocalypse jeep to undertake said challenge. It is well prepared for this. [emoji106]
 
Not even close. Most of their driving was on the street.

It's been years since I watched it, just remember a lot of long dirt miles, in Mel's words "overlanding". Either way, this sounds like fun. I've done from just north of Phoenix to the Grand Canyon without touching pavement. That was a blast.
 
It's been years since I watched it, just remember a lot of long dirt miles, in Mel's words "overlanding". Either way, this sounds like fun. I've done from just north of Phoenix to the Grand Canyon without touching pavement. That was a blast.

How far was it? I love the idea of doing a really long self-support trip, even if there are a couple of pavement crossings.
 
Sharkey, how about North thru California into Oregon, then East to Idaho, South down to Nevada, then West home? 3-4 days? You would also see an amazing amount of diverse landscape. Just my $.02
 
Sharkey, how about North thru California into Oregon, then East to Idaho, South down to Nevada, then West home? 3-4 days? You would also see an amazing amount of diverse landscape. Just my $.02

I think Eddie and Cindy have done something similar and have logged about as many off-road miles at once as is probably possible. I'm just throwing down the gauntlet to make them outdo themselves. ;)
 
That's a great idea but that pretty much disqualifies the east coast. To much road to drive on to get to dirt and even then most of the dirt trails aren't that long cause it's in a park
 
I think Eddie and Cindy have done something similar and have logged about as many off-road miles at once as is probably possible. I'm just throwing down the gauntlet to make them outdo themselves. ;)

:cheesy: Awesome thread. If nothing else, you've certainly have gotten Cindy and I talking about it. While gas is a limiting factor, the biggest hurdle will be the need to cross as little pavement as possible. On our California or Bust trip, we tried really hard to make our way on as much dirt as possible and in spite of what self-proclaimed overlanders out there seem to think, that's really really hard to do here in America.

That being said, I'm giving this some thought now. The real question is, would you be joining us? :crazyeyes:
 
I think Eddie and Cindy have done something similar and have logged about as many off-road miles at once as is probably possible. I'm just throwing down the gauntlet to make them outdo themselves. ;)

:cheesy: Awesome thread. If nothing else, you've certainly have gotten Cindy and I talking about it. While gas is a limiting factor, the biggest hurdle will be the need to cross as little pavement as possible. On our California or Bust trip, we tried really hard to make our way on as much dirt as possible and in spite of what self-proclaimed overlanders out there seem to think, that's really really hard to do here in America.

That being said, I'm giving this some thought now. The real question is, would you be joining us? :crazyeyes:

If you are looking for lack of pavement, might I recommend South America. It sounds crazy, until you look at how cool it would be to drive from Nevada to the Cape Horn and back. You could even look into sponsorship, a lot like Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman did (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Way_Round). That was a really fun adventure. The beauty of it is, you guys could film the whole thing yourselves and possible look into a TV deal. I think you both could VERY easily sell a network or a production company with your existing material.

You could even have Moby Dick shipped back in a container and just fly back, a one way trip. Have Trail Bud travel with you guys for back up. THAT would be EPIC.
 
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