VagabondJeep.Com
O|||||O Bernie and Dave
Jeep, Jeep. Beep, beep.
Bernie the Eclipse Chaser. It has a nice ring to it, eh? Bernie has decided to be an eclipse chaser, starting with the annular eclipse on October 14, 2023. She has joined leagues with the likes of umbraphiles, coronaphiles, eclipsoholics, ecliptomaniacs or just eclipse-chasers.
It's trip planning time. Singing, “Off the road again. We can’t wait to get off the road again. The life we love …” Before Bernie and I head west, we must face the peril. {Insert dramatic music} The peril lies at the Overland Expo East 2023 in Arrington, Virginia. We’re going to camp three nights at the Expo.
The Expo will be more overland oriented and not as Jeep™ specific as Jeep™ Invasion 2023. Great, it’s all camping, vehicle gear, and overlanding gadgets. Bring on the gadgets! There will be at least seventeen of everything that I cannot live without. Perilous, I tell you. How will I get out of there without buying something I will never need? {Insert dramatic music, again} What happens may determine the fate of this trip.
Vardo, our 2023 Jeep™ Wrangler JL, is dressed for the dance, nose to tail: lights, radios, bumpers, and tires. She is functional, not too flashy … with a winch (practical) and a flashy grill (not practical). She’s still stock underneath, axels and all that, except thirty-one-inch tires on stock rims. And Vardo has a Vijay roof rack with lights front and sides.
The Vijay roof rack with lights will get as much of a test as we can give it between NC, Virginia, New Mexico and back. We did a local test drive with water jugs in place and strapped down: a joyride around the block, then forth and back on Interstate. The wind noise is noticeable, but tolerable.
There have been a few additions and changes to our layout. My first big plan was to get the fridge from the driver’s rear door to the rear of the Jeep™ for better access, but I couldn’t get the baskets in and out on the BougeRV 112 Volt Car Refrigerator without tipping or taking the whole fridge out.
The refrigerator is on an 8 ½” high Car-to-Camp platform, making the lid hit the roll-bar. The platform is one of my favorite parts of the interior set-up. It stays. I expect a sliding refrigerator tray or a hernia surgeon to be about the same price, aren’t they? 
Our two Plano Boxes were perfect for what we had previously used. IVS, In-Vehicle Storage. That is a technical term that I made up. It means nothing. The two $19.95 Plano Boxes from BassPro Shop are being reappropriated and replaced by four Front Runner Wolf Pack Pro/Quad Set . The aim is dust and moisture resistance. AUM. Be the resistance. These boxes will be used for outside storage with a garbage bag liner inside. I expect they will fare well in the desert.
We’ll stay at the Expo from Thursday, October 5th until Sunday, October 8th. There is a two-foot long wooden dowel packed in the back of the Jeep™. I told Bernie there would be more vendors than we could shake a stick at. She didn’t understand. If have to demonstrate, I might as well have a good stick. She thinks we’re playing fetch. Bernie wants to visit vendors as many as we can, but she’ll never see enough. Any advice that we have is based on our experience level of none.
Sunday, we’ll begin Eclipse Chase 2023 … to New Mexico, after stopping slightly out of the way at home base in NC to launder clothes, shower, and overnight. Five hours is a good day’s driving. No need to push it. The path on the left in the photo, is the October 14, 2023 annular eclipse. The path on the right is the April 8th, 2024 total eclipse. Bernie is making plans already.
Monday, with I-40 under us, we will chase our shadows westward. I-40 is one of my favorite highways. Most of the time I-40 meant that I was getting close to home base or beginning an out-of-towner to see the world, as much as I can, a little bit at a time.
Mid-morning on Saturday, October 14th, we have a date with Luna, the Moon, and Sol, the Sun, near Roswell, New Mexico. Not that there was anything wrong with the old Mexico. Naming countries and states isn’t my department. Can we put you on hold? No plan survives intact past the first shot, right Barney? Barney, the Mayberry deputy, not Bernie, my service dog.
Back to our date with Luna and Sol. Bernie snooped out several BLM, Bureau of Land Management, sites in New Mexico that are near the line of eclipse totality. She used onXmaps. It goes beyond good. It works. Planning this trip would have been a challenge without onXmaps.com. Bernie gives it four paws up and a wag. I’m with her.
We may find the perfect spot or at least one close to perfect. Close only counts in horseshoes and a star ninety-three million miles away lining up with the Moon and the planet Bernie and I happen to be on, for an annular eclipse. Bless their hearts. That’s close.
We’ll tell you all about it along the way.
Peace, Y'all
VagabondJeep.Com
O|||||O Bernie and Dave
Jeep, Jeep. Beep, beep.