Poised for Departure! Well, almost. Garage is finished and being packed, and The Turtle V is undergoing mechanical refinements for the long journey ahead. In a couple of months we’ll start looking for a renter for our home, and a serious countdown will begin. We’ve done this before, so we remember how many details pop up before we lock the office and drive away.

Poised for departure

For what was our last Christmas at home for several years, we celebrated with friends and family in the Swiss tradition with a live tree and real candles. The ornaments have been collected from our travels and each has a special memory. For sure, this will not be our last Christmas tree. It may be a piece of driftwood stuck in the sand on a beach in Mexico (like in Tenacatita in 1978) or perhaps just a branch of pine propped up in our camper (like in southern Chile 1988). We take the feeling of Christmas and the thoughts of family and friends wherever we go. Happy New Year to all of you both near and far!

As we follow the Swiss tradition, we always have a live Christmas tree with real candles. Our ornaments have been collected from all over the World. Each has a memory.

A farewell to the last Christmas tree we will have in our cozy home for several years as we again explore the World.

Since back in the early 80s when we met one of the founders of K&N Air Filters, Ken Johnson, we have used K&N High-Flow Washable Air Filters in all of our expedition vehicles. From the silt bed traps of Baja California to the Atacama Desert in Chile and across the frozen Steppes of Siberia, K&N Air Filters have protected our engines through some of the harshest conditions in the world. Their ability to be cleaned and re-used gives them a life of hundreds of thousands of miles and saves us a huge amount of critical storage space that would ordinarily be needed for extra filters. As we prepare for the Trans-Eurasian Odyssey we will not even carry a spare. K&N recently posted an interesting article on their website. Type “Turtle Expedition” in the Search Box to find current and previous articles. http://www.knfilters.com/news/knews.aspx

With the help of Jack Wardlow, an old friend and an expert woodworker himself, we finished the outside workbench on the new garage, a place for dirty tools like grinders and a drill press. With many projects to tackle on The Turtle V expedition truck in preparation for the upcoming Trans-Eurasian Odyssey, it will prove to be a great work area in the next three months.

In our preparation for The Trans-Eurasian Odyssey, every system on The Turtle V must be tested and retested. While not a serious winching job, moving a huge boulder in front of the new garage driveway was a perfect opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the Warn 16.5ti Winch, (www.warn.com), mounted in the new Buckstop Bumper, (www.buckstop.biz), and the Viking Dyneema® synthetic winchline, (www.vikingoffroad.com). Drawing on two Group 34 Odyssey Extreme Batteries, (www.odysseybattery.com), we didn’t even bother to start the engine for this short pull.

With our departure this upcoming Spring for The Trans-Eurasian Odyssey, (driving from Lisbon, Portugal to Shanghai, China following the legendary Silk Road), we are starting final preparation on The Turtle V. All systems are being inspected at Ken Imler Diesel Performance in Sacramento, www.imlerdiesel.com, and anything that might be a problem in the next 50,000 miles is being replaced and upgraded. Recently we installed a new Gates heavy duty water pump along with new Gates hoses, thermostat and belt tensioner, www.gates.com. The new Gates Green Stripe FleetRunner Micro-V belt is expected to last at least 100,000 miles under severe conditions. Coolant was drained and refilled with Fleetguard ES Complete Ethylene Glycol, www.cumminsfiltration.com, the same we used in Siberia where temperatures were often below minus 70° F.

The final day at this year’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas was as busy as ever. Last minute meetings gave us little chance to be at The Turtle V expedition truck to answer questions about the latest improvements. Our newly designed Buckstop Bumper www.buckstop.biz  received plenty of attention, fitted with PIAA’s HID driving lights www.piaa.com and the new Warn 16.5ti winch www.warn.com. We were also experimenting with both the ChaseCam and GoPro HD cameras on the special mounts designed into the bumper. The new K&W custom side box www.customtoolboxes.com for our ExtremeAire compressor system www.extremeoutback.com looked great. Many attendees stopped to study the photo collage of our Trans-Siberian adventure and the map showing our intended route for The Trans-Eurasian Odyssey, driving from Lisbon, Portugal to Shanghai, China through 26 countries and following the legendary Silk Road.

Beginning Spring 2012, we’ll be on the road for at least three years.

For The Turtle Expedition, the SEMA Show is about seeing and talking to many of our long-time sponsors and searching for products that make our life on the road easier. The crowds were as busy as ever with buyers looking for the newest and the best innovations. This is a trade show, not open to the public.

We took time to chat with the Hellwig Products team. Hellwig supplies the rear suspension air bags and sway control bars on The Turtle V and they also sponsored our expedition truck in the Feature Vehicle Area at this year’s SEMA Show. www.hellwigproducts.com

While the main focus of the SEMA Show is the amazing display of aftermarket automotive products, there are always celebrities on hand. We stopped to chat with famous race drivers Walker Evans and Rod Hall whom we have known for years through our involvement with off-road racing. We also took time to watch some of the drifting competition in front of the main convention center.

SEMA?!

SEMA stands for Specialty Equipment Market Association, www.sema.org. That means, everything automotive and more, from tires to roof racks, from driving lights to super custom wheels. You’ll find Ferraris and Lamborghinis next to Jeeps and Monster Trucks and mixed in-between amazing Hot Rods, Race Cars, and all the equipment to build your own. In addition to spectacular displays of sexy cars and trucks, there are always a few celebrities and an on-going parade of beautiful models that are part of this huge automotive show, the largest in the world.