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James River Rooftop Tent Rally 2022

The time is upon us once again for the 6th annual 2022 James River State Park Rooftop Tent Rally sponsored by Blue Ridge Overland Gear. This family friendly event offers kids activities, hiking and biking trails, river access for kayaking and fishing, bonfires and live music! There will also be multiple classes to help you up your overland skills. Don’t miss out on your chance to compete in the separate cooking and survival competitions this year as well! For more information about the event or to purchase tickets, please visit: 2022 RTTR Info/Tickets

We’ll see ya there!!!

Hipcamp, Could This Be The Answer?

When traveling to certain areas of the U.S., you’re bound to encounter at least one area that does not have any public land or dispersed camping options available. Crazy, I know. But this is more common than you might think. Take the East Coast for example. There’s plenty of places to explore and dispersed camping is readily available in the National Forrest of the Appalachian Mountains, but what if you wanted to get closer to the coast? Maybe you want to explore regions of New England, Maryland or even further south into the Carolina’s and Florida. Some of these areas are difficult to locate any public land in which you’re allowed to camp, let alone dispersed options. The go to in these areas has pretty much been limited to hotels, campgrounds (seasonal), or Walmart parking lots. The later only really works if you’re self contained in a van or some sort of camper.

Lately though, there as been another option that is starting to gather popularity. App based campsites. You can find these options through member services such as Harvest Hosts, Boondockers, and the like. The major draw back to these services are they are typically limited to actual hard sided campers, so no rooftop tents or pop up campers, and they are membership based. The one other caveat is neither really offer a dispersed option where you can be off on your own. With Boondockers you’re either camping in someone’s driveway or in front of their house and with Harvest Host it’s typically some sort of business that’s offering camping in exchange for you visiting their store/facility and potentially spending some money. Neither are bad options at all. But lately there has been another App based service that is skyrocketing in popularity, Hipcamp. This service is more like an AirBNB for campers. In the app, you can filter based on location, availability and amenities, scroll through pictures and reviews of the campsites and even book/pay right through the app. The best part is there is no annual subscription and each campsite has the price listed in the description.

Full disclosure, we’ve only used Hipcamp a couple of times ourselves. Our experiences were both great and mediocre. The great one being a dispersed campsite on private land inside a national wildlife refuge with firewood, fire ring, outdoor furniture, grill and even a composting privy at our disposal. The mediocre one was again on private property over on the side yard within eye shot of their home. It offered the same amenities as the other, but with the privy and a shower located in their detached garage. They also offer access to their pool, which was not yet open for the season. Both were gorgeous campsites, but we have to admit it was a little odd camping in someone’s yard, at least for us. We also knew, going into it that we were going to be staying near the house on the lawn. It was just our way of trying some of the different options out there that are listed on Hipcamp.

Again, the really nice thing about Hipcamp is it acts just like an AirBNB rental. You pick your camp and once you book it, you’ll have the comfort of knowing that there will be no need to hunt for a site when you get there, nor will you have to worry about someone getting there before you. Just show up, setup and enjoy. There’s something to be said about the ease of that. So if you find yourself traveling through an area that may be difficult to find a campsite, or maybe you just don’t want the fuss of trying to track a campsite down due to time constraints. You may want to give Hipcamp a try.

NOTE: This is not a paid post and we are in no way affiliated with Hipcamp. This is honestly our first impression of the service and will most likely not be our last interaction with it either. We truly see where this can and will be a valuable tool in our kit to locating campsites in the future. See the gallery below for photos of the aforementioned “Great Experience” campsite we enjoyed in Maryland. The link to this campsite is located here and the link to the video our YouTube channel is also located here.

Is This Overlanding?

Overlanding…. What is it? There are varying opinions and definitions of this popular term. Some believe its four wheeling across rugged terrain, miles from civilization and some believe it’s purely car camping. While both of those scenarios certainly fall into the definition of Overlanding, there’s a lot more to it then just that. You see, “Overlanding” can really mean something different to everyone. One of the best definitions that we’ve happened across is “Overlanding sees the journey as the purpose. Overlanding is about exploration, rather than conquering obstacles.” This is the definition that personally resinates with us the most because it’s how we like to approach the majority of our travel.

So why are we talking about this? There are hundreds of articles and videos out there discussing this same thing. Well… Lately we’ve run into a lot of people who are interested in Overland Travel, but feel that they have to spend a small fortune to build a capable vehicle and have products X, Y & Z before they can even embark on their first trip. It really kills us to see how worked up everyone gets about having the right gear. So much, that they never even go on a trip. Listen, gear is great, but it’s also bad… Let me explain. Having the right gear can obviously make all of the difference between an alright trip and a fantastic trip. There’s nothing worse than waking up in a pool of water because your awning or tent leaked. Or shivering all night because you have the wrong temp sleeping bag. You won’t get any argument from us on that. However… Gear can also be a bad thing because you set in your mind that you have to have all of this “stuff” before you can do anything. The truth is, you probably won’t even use a third of all that gear on your first five trips. Ask us how we know. We, like many others before us, have fallen down the exact same rabbit hole a couple of times and had to claw our way back out of wonderland. It’s hard to do.

Okay, then how do we go Overlanding without gear? Well that depends on what type of Overlanding you want to do and how you define it. If your definition aligns with ours, then there is a lot that you can do without any gear. Remember, it’s all about the journey and exploration. Have you ever been to the next town, county or state over? What makes their area different than yours? What is their heritage/culture? What hidden gems rural and urban are hiding there? All you need for that type of exploration is a vehicle to get you there and a lot of curiosity. Overnighting it? No problem. Hit a hotel, bed and breakfast, or a cabin in a state park. Still not one bit of gear needed. And guess what… You’re still Overlanding!

Obviously when you mix car camping into the definition of Overlanding, things begin to change. Or do they? What does it take to car camp? For one to two people, not too much. Depending on the vehicle, you could just sleep inside with a pillow and a blanket. Need more room? Buy a small tent and ground pad and you’re golden. What about food? You’ve made ramen before right? How about Pop tarts? You laugh, but 9 times out of 10, we eat pop tarts for breakfast. It all comes down to how comfortable you want to be in relation to how much money you want to spend on the gear vs the travel. Believe it or not, you can be pretty darn comfortable for a reasonable amount of money.

I guess what we’re trying to get across here is not to fall into the paralysis by analysis trap. You want to go Overlanding? Then go, but go within your means. Try to add gear only as there becomes a need for it, not because everyone is buying it right now. We don’t even want to begin to think about the amount of times we bought something because it was going to be “life changing” only to sell it the following year because we only used it one time. That would be depressing. Honestly, some of our greatest memories and trips only required a vehicle and some clothes. If we can give you one piece of advice when looking at gear, it would be: “Think about if it is a need or a want… How much does it cost and how many trips could I go on instead if I were to just spend that money on the trips themselves?”

Friends Whom Travel

One of the most difficult things we’ve found about having close friends whom share our passion for Adventure Travel, is that they’re always traveling and are rarely in the same place that we are! October of 2020, we were finally able to meet up with one such friend and we had a blast catching up and traveling all over the Black Hills and Colorado with him. Looking back through our photos, it sure does make it hard not to wish that we were right back at this very moment in time. It was such a memorable trip for all of us and we’re so glad that we were able to coordinate and spend a good chunk of it with our great friend Chris. How about you? Do you hang with your friends every week? Or are you all traveling in different directions too, only to rarely run into one another along your travels?

WeBoost Cell Booster, does it work?

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Cell phones, as we all know, are relatively thin handheld devices. But as thin as they may be, there is a lot of technology sandwiched between the front and back. Cameras, processors, batteries and antennas, just to name a few. Those last two are what we’re going to focus on here. Antennas pick up radio signals. Not rocket science, I know. Where it gets interesting is when you start to block the antennas. You know, that really cool, super indestructible metal case that you placed over your brand new $1000 smart phone so you could protect your investment. Yeah, that blocks the cell signals. Ok, so you don’t have a metal one. Maybe you’re rocking the old school Otterbox or some other type of plastic case like a Lifeproof. Well, guess what? They affect the cell signal too. Sometimes it’s not even what is physically on the phone, it could be what’s around the phone too. Trees, mountains, valleys, buildings. Do you think radio signals pass through solid objects very easily? Think about when you’re in your car. It’s a big metal object isn’t it? Do you think that will affect the cell signal? As a matter of fact, anything that is placed on or over the phone will affect the cell signal in some way.

Great, so we’ve established that objects and even your environment can affect cellular signals. Ground breaking stuff, I know. But did you know that it will directly affect how long you can use your phone too? What a lot of people fail to make a correlation between is that other thing I previously mentioned above. The battery. Think about it. Have you ever noticed when you have poor cell reception, your battery dies a lot faster? Your phone is constantly looking for the best signal it can get. Switching from frequency to frequency searching out that high speed LTE signal. All the while, you battery is slowly creeping down. I bet you didn’t know that if you have poor cell coverage, you can actually prolong your battery life by switching off 4G LTE and leaving it on 2G/3G. That’s a little pro tip for you.

Cell boosters, let’s start off by stating what a cellular booster does. I’m not an expert by any means, so we’re going to keep this as simple as possible. An exterior mounted antenna picks up a cellular signal and sends it, via wired connection, to the booster module. The booster module then amplifies or “boosts” the signal and sends it, via wired connection, to an antenna mounted in the interior. This antenna then transmits the cellular signal wirelessly to your devices. That’s about as simple as I can make it.

Here’s a scenario. Let’s imagine that we’re rolling along in our car and we notice our cell reception is just teetering on one bar of LTE. We pull over and step out of the vehicle. Alas, we have three to four bars of LTE. So what gives? Like I said before, anything around the cell phone that stands between the antenna and the radio signal will affect the strength of the signal. The big metal box on four wheels that you just stepped out of is no exception. Now let’s look at the same scenario, but with a booster installed. One bar of LTE, we simply switch on the booster and boom, three bars of LTE. Pretty cool huh? The booster basically takes the affects the car has on the signal out of the equation. It’s almost like you’re standing outside.

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To be 100% clear here, cell boosters boost signals. They do not create signals or connections. So if you don’t have a signal, guess what, you still don’t have a signal even with the booster on. You may get lucky and pick up one bar, but it’s unlikely. Oh, and speaking of bars of service. It’s a lie. That little icon at the top of your phone is there to make you have warm and fuzzy feelings inside. Don’t believe me? Have you ever had a hard time pulling up a webpage or loading an app, even though your phone says you have a good LTE connection? Yep, that’s what I’m talking about. If you want a real representation of what your signal is, just google “cell signal in dB” and you’ll find out how to pull it up on your phone. WeBoost also has a good write up on this on their support page.

One other thing I have to give WeBoost credit on is how easy they make installing and setting up the booster. Each component in the box is labeled in order of installation, making it a foolproof install. The hardest part we had was figuring out where we wanted to mount the exterior antenna and how to run the wire inside. They have some great reference video’s on their webpage and YouTube channel to help with that as well.

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So the burning question still to be answered. Does it work? It does exactly what they claim it should do. In every test I have performed it has increased the cell signal profoundly. Does that mean I am able to pull up the weather app or Instagram or Google maps anywhere that I am. No. Just because my cell signal increased, does not mean that the data will always increase. That has more to do with the frequency channels that are available or provided by the cell tower in that area and what your phone can use. I’m still rocking an IPhone 8plus. A little out dated I know. Admittedly, it’s falling behind on the bands/channels that it can take advantage of these days. Cellular providers are always updating their network and adding bands/channels to help improve their speeds by spreading the load out. Something that older phones cannot take advantage of as they do not have to provisions for these new channels. What I can say is that there was a very noticeable difference when using my daughters IPhone XR. I was able to pull up maps in more locations and faster than I could with my phone. Either way, this was not an issue with the cell booster, as both were connected at to the same booster at the same time. Even with my older IPhone though, everywhere I tested with my signal was boosted, I was able to place a voice call.

So there you go. You made it through my very long winded write up, just to tell you that it works. The next obvious question is “Should I spend $500 to get one?” If you’re serious about a cell booster, then I’d say yes. This is without a doubt the best one you’ll get for the money. But you really need to look at why you want one. If it solely for emergencies, I’d almost suggest you buy a Garmin InReach instead. The booster is just that a booster. Nothing in, means nothing out, not something I’d trust my life too. But if you’re somewhere where the cell service is spotty/weak and all you need is a little boost, then I say go for it. As a matter of fact, we have a friend that has a cellular hotspot that he keeps next to his interior cell booster antenna. He shuts off all of the cell antennas on their phones and connects them to their hotspot via WiFi. This allows the hotspot to take full advantage of the cell booster signal while still giving voice over WiFi and data to all of the devices connected to the hotspot. Genius! It’s little things like that idea that really show how the WeBoost can shine!

In an attempt to remain transparent, I want you to know that the unit we tested was provided by WeBoost in exchange for testing and writing of a review. In no way did they influence any of the information provided in this article. The results that we experienced are what we have conveyed above. That being said, the choice to to purchase one or not rests solely upon your shoulders. It is an excellent product and we have enjoyed it’s use. But we also do not turn it on all of the time. It is just another tool that we use when the time arises. This article is true a true representation of our experiences with the installation and use of this product.