The Great Things LLC Podcast

Patty Upton : Jeep Overland, Crossing the Darien Gap and Circumnavigating the World.

• Patty Upton • Season 4 • Episode 3

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Join us on an extraordinary adventure as we delve into the remarkable journey of Patty and Loren Upton. For more than five years, they embarked on an overland expedition, circumnavigating the world entirely in their trusty Jeep, The "Sand Ship Discovery". Their story is a testament to the indomitable human spirit, the power of determination, incredible self-reliance, and the wonders of exploration.

An Independent Spirit and Simple Mission

It was a dream of Patty's late husband, Loren Upton, to circumnavigate the world in an American-built vehicle.  These were the foundational principles of the excursion.    From Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Punta Arenas, Chile,  then a cargo ship ride to the African continent (this was the only part that the Jeep was transported on water), from Cape Agulhas, South Africa they ended the 5 year odyssey in Gamvik, Norway

The Darien Gap Challenge:

One of the most jaw-dropping chapters of their journey was undoubtedly their conquest of the Darien Gap, between Panama and Columbia. This dense and forbidding rainforest region had thwarted countless adventurers before them,.  There were no roads and this 125-mile strectch took them 741 days to complete.    Share in their triumph as they navigate treacherous terrain, forge wild rivers, and overcome the many challenges of this untamed wilderness.   This excursion landed them in the Guinness Book of World Records, as the first overland crossing of the Darien Gap.

Global Encounters and Cultural Experiences:

As they crisscrossed continents, Patty and Loren found that an unshakable commitment to the dream, unwavering self-reliance and help from good people around the globe was the reason for the success.

These connections with people in every corner of the world show the good nature of strangers.    Gain insights into their encounters with people from all walks of life and how these interactions enriched their expedition experience.

Resilience and Adversity

What is most inspiring and noteworthy is how their daily resilience was tested daily for over 5 years.   The Jeep would break axles, springs, brakes, and other mechanical problems could not stop them.  Patty had to carry parts in from Panama into Columbia.  Axel replacements were shipped via train, mules, and hand carriers.  

In the most challenging days, the Jeep broke an axel in the vast desert of Sudan.  With nothing and no one around, they found the Nile and floated for 2 and 1/2 days to find a town.    It took 70 days to get the parts and back on the path.  During this time, Loren survived on limited rations in the desert while Patty coordinated getting the parts shipped in from around the world.   A few fortuitous encounters and helpful strangers ultimately made the difference. 

The Jeep That Made History:

Patty and Loren's Jeep, The Sand Ship Discovery, deserves special mention. It became more than just a vehicle; it was their home, protector, and constant companion throughout the journey. Discover the limited modifications and extensive preparations they made to ensure the American-built 1966 CJ-5 Jeep made the entire route.

In this captivating Podcast interview, we explore the incredible adventure of Patty and Loren Upton as they drove their Jeep across continents, completed the daunting Darien Gap crossing, and embraced the world's diversity. This is a tale of human tenacity, environmental stewardship, and the transformative power of following your dreams. Join us on this epic journey!

To contact or support Patty, reach her at outbackofbeyond.com

Josh Meeder:

Welcome to the great things LLC podcast, the show that celebrates people who are making an impact on the world, people creating conscious businesses that are in alignment with their own personal values. Each episode shares the wisdom experience and the intentions of those that are following their dreams. visionaries who have chosen a different path, found their purpose, and create join abundance while helping others. Whether you're already a trailblazer, or still searching for your path, the stories will inspire you towards being the best version of yourself. So today, I'm excited to welcome Patti Upton and share her incredible journey and her story. So Patty, welcome to the podcast.

Patty Upton:

Thank you so much for allowing me to be here.

Josh Meeder:

So Patti, let's dive in. And you've done something extraordinary. And you're sharing your story that you and Lauren took an incredible adventure. And this adventure was over 56,000 miles over five years, and share a little bit with the audience of just the overall of the trip, where it went to and we'll dive into how you got involved.

Patty Upton:

I finally got it all down. In a nutshell, we went around the world and into the Guinness Book of Records. That's what we did. That

Josh Meeder:

is the most concise thing I've heard. So. So you did this in this was Lauren stream. And he wanted to do all this overlanding in a an American made vehicle, right,

Patty Upton:

his dream was to take one American made vehicle around the world on a north south course, when you look at a globe, that's going to be your most land, less water. And he wanted to be able to stay entirely on land, except for the South Atlantic that was being the only legitimate border barrier. There was. And you again, look at the globe, you've got our land route from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to the tip of South America from the tip of South Africa to the tip of Norway. However, in between Panama and Colombia, there is no road that links the two countries together, there hasn't been a road, I don't think there's going to be rolling in my lifetime, probably not in my kids lifetime. It's just a contentious area, and it's gotten more contentious. It's known as the Darien Gap, or El Topo. And that en, and it's mountains, jungles and swamps. And there's been a few vehicles that go through there. Most Well, all of them except us have gone through by using a combination of trails and traveling by the rivers because you ask a native How do I get from point A to point B, they say you get on the boat and you have dugout and you go up the river down the river. And that's it. That was not our option. Our option was to remain entirely on land.

Josh Meeder:

Yeah, so that's a pretty big route. So let's start back at the beginning of the story. So Lauren had attempted some of these trips in the previously and at that point. Let's start with you. You were living in Panama at that time? Correct. So you had met Lauren on one of his previous trips, and let's start with the time that you heard he was back in town and how you got involved in this crazy adventure? Well, he'd

Patty Upton:

been through or into the Darien Gap through on three previous attempts to make this goal of entirely on land. Those three attempts, didn't work. One one thing or another. That didn't work out. It was his fourth attempt that he began in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and 84 June 15 1984. He was on the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay. And he arrived in Panama's I'm gonna guess sometime in October. And a friend said, Oh, that guy that was going through the dairy ins back and the last time I'd seen him was probably sometime in early 78. Mid 70, or spring of 78 was probably the last time I saw him. I had no idea what he'd been doing where he was nothing. He doesn't really write letters. And as a result, I thought, oh, okay, where is he? And they said, Well, he's out at the Jeep club. So I went out to the Jeep club and he was there with his jeep. He had a 1966 cj five Jeep on this trip. He it wasn't it's made by Kaiser. He kind of was reluctant to buy a brand new Jeep as the past two Jeeps had been because Renault had a big controlling interest in American Motors at that time, and he didn't feel it would be a truly American made product with Reno's name in there so he decided he'd go with an older Jeep besides it had a great winch. It had a 9000 pound Ramsey power takeoff winch on there. So that was kind of the big selling event for sale selling thing for that particular Jeep and I again helped him organize stuff, places, things, papers, that sort of thing. Okay,

Josh Meeder:

and Lauren just To educate everyone was pretty much a purist and very, how would you describe him he was very particular in his beliefs.

Patty Upton:

He would have been right at home during the Teddy Roosevelt era. He, he believed in a man's word was all the man was worth. And he said he was going to do this trip entirely on land, and he stuck to his guns and did it entirely on land. He was going to do it in one American aid vehicle, not a series of them, he did it in one American made vehicle. He's always been a man that he kind of he doesn't demand your respect, but his persona kind of wants you to respect that. And he's very fair. He's very even tempered. He's not a hot head and nothing like that. Even though he was six foot four, well, over probably 225 pounds, 230 pounds. And he, you know, he had a commanding presence for sure. And yeah, when he listened when Pete when he spoke, people listened.

Josh Meeder:

Okay, and so you met him again here in the mid 80s. And, and he's now in Panama, and he's getting ready to make his fourth attempt. And at this point, there was an offering or an opening for you to join him for that.

Patty Upton:

He was looking for someone that would help or take photographs more than anything else. He's busy in the vehicle. He's the one that he's the only one that's going to be in this vehicle. Once we get into the jungle portion. Anyone else is going to be out walking. He contacted his nephew Lawrence, who lived in the Spokane area at the time, he was over young 20s. And he had just gotten out of the army. So it was wintertime in Spokane. So yeah, why not get out of Spokane. So he came down and was with his uncle. He hadn't seen his uncle. He doesn't even remember meeting his uncle in his lifetime. This was his really first recollection of meeting I mean, even though that Lauren says no, we met when you were about five years old. So he had his nephew with him. So that was really good because it takes a takes two good English speaking people that can communicate with each other when you've got the winch going. And you've got someone in the vehicle, someone's got to be out there watching to make sure that when to stop spooling properly, isn't bunching up on one side, snap a cable, whatever. And Lauren just never felt he could really put he doesn't speak Spanish. So putting a native out there who has no clue for corresponded when she is let alone what he's doing. So not having that communication. So he had to have a gringo out there in front of the vehicle. So Lawrence, that was Lawrence's job. And that left me with wanting to do the photography work as best I could. It wasn't that I did all I mean, I did the photography work. Yes. But I mean, the other hands were needed for doing running cables, hooking cables on booking cables, you name it. Everybody did something at certain times.

Josh Meeder:

Okay, great. And so what was the what was the offer? He extended to you? You're in Panama, he's getting ready to go. So it was a short term offer? Correct? Right.

Patty Upton:

We thought at the time, we thought it was gonna be 30 days. I mean, he'd been into the Darien Gap on three previous trips. So he actually crossed it in 77 and 49 days, and he did about 10 miles strapped to tarp to dugout canoes up the Toronto swamp because the rains were had come. So it wasn't an all land crossing. And that really bumped up well. Two weeks later, he lost that one over a cliff and Ecuador. So that put an end to that trip. So yeah, he said, you know, it may be 30 days, maybe a little bit longer, we're not sure. And I said okay, I can arrange to take 30 days off of work. Without pay have someone take care of my job for me, the bookkeeper come in and do it full time. Had my daughter taken care of no problems there, nothing on my social calendar, everything was taken care of. And I really made sure all these things were done before I said, I can go because I knew I would lose a lot of respect from Lauren, if I said, I want to do this, I want to go and then when the day left came to leave, if my buck wasn't in the seat, because of some fluke that came up that I you know, unless it was a limb missing, then he might have forgiven that but I mean, it was just he's just that type of person. You don't want to let down and as a result, I didn't want to let them down. So I made sure everything was taken care of had a good camera had my equipment as far as that goes. I had what I needed to take care of me. And I said I'm going and we thought we were going to do it in 30 days. That was a pipe dream. Yes.

Josh Meeder:

So if for clarification, 30 days was the initial estimate, but took slightly longer than that. How long did the actual process take from

Patty Upton:

the end of the road in Panama at the town of U Visa? till we reach the beginning of a road in real, the town of Riosucio Colombia was 741 41, day seven and 41 days, and we traveled 125 miles. Yeah,

Josh Meeder:

I can't do the math off top my head, but that's not a lot of miles per day.

Patty Upton:

No. And there's two rainy seasons in there where we didn't move the first rainy season POTUS at the village of pooka Rue, and Lauren made arrangements with the chief of the village that pika camp near the village. And he stayed there in the Jeep for the nine months of the rainy season. And as he termed it, watch the bananas grow when the rains fall.

Josh Meeder:

And during this time, so you were with him for a while, you did return home for a brief stent. But when did you go back? And when did you rejoin with Lauren?

Patty Upton:

Well, when we did the first 3030 days realize we were not what there's a national park that was created in Colombia that created a problem to his third expedition. And that created a problem to the point where we portray like he says it was a poor choice of words a Columbian Park official. Again, a man is as good as his word the park official said you need permission from the head office in Bogota to go through the park once it's okay fine. 11 days it took him to go by trail boat larger boat bigger boat bus, another bus into Bogota walked into their office. The guy says you here take it you got permission go no problem. Repeat that all the way back out there. Rains are now coming. It's getting close to rainy season. Lauren's getting a little frustrated with all this political nonsense. He can't find the park official to give him the letter that has been signed by the the head office and he gets back out to the Jeep and buy two pumps in the morning he made the guys pull all night not out there are six o'clock in the morning got everyone up we're going we're moving we got to get up this hill we've got to get miles go and because the rains are coming well Park official comes up and says Wait wait wait you can't go You can't go and launch this I've got the permission here. Let me get to the top of the hill so longest the top of the hill and reaches for the paperwork to give to the park official and the park official says no, no, no, no, no. And Lauren then realizes the guy wants money. And this was Lauren's like you say sometimes he could get his mouth going he said it's going to take more than you and your gun to stop me or especial said fine. And back the next day with more men and more guns. As a result Lauren saw his point of view in his men got out Jeep was left to the jungle. So we knew this national park was there we wanted to see if we could find a way to skirt around it as much as possible so that we could avoid a repeat performance. Because we couldn't get permission we tried again to get permission from the park officials and in Colombia and they wouldn't give it to us. So we said okay, then we're going to when we get to the border we're going to go in a different direction that has never been before and see if we can get around the park. And when we got to pooka roo rains we're going to be coming rainy season was fast approaching so Lawrence's we're going to stay here. I went back to my job in Panama City Lawrence went back to his job in Spokane. I'd send supplies down by the missionary pilot that would fly into the little grass landing strip every six weeks. And Lauren stayed there for nine months. I worked for nine months and then I arranged again to go back down there in the beginning and dry season of 86 and we started out again. I had my cousin and his brother in law with us. They were with us for about two and a half weeks because they had jobs in Miami they had to get back to it was just kind of a lark spur of the moment type thing for them. They enjoyed it but I still say they do speak to me so that's a good thing. But then we were out again for oh, I think it was 37 Maybe maybe close to 40 days that seconds. dry season in there. And we both and we both broke both rear axle shafts. So at that point we were down and down hard but we were out at the National Park or whatever because we were no longer in just jungle we were in little farms there were little individual farmers there with with little corn crops and stuff like that. So we ended up taking out the entire axle house or the entire rear end. The whole axle housing everything. Put it on mule went out by mule when out by boat went out by larger boat again bus to mid 18 where it was left. We had permission to bring in new axle shafts. And that was it. So Lauren said, Okay, I'm gonna go back to California and I'm going to work, get the axle shafts. I was going back to my job in Panama City. Well, I got back to my job in Panama City and found out that they were going to phase out my position. I worked for the USA girlscouts in Panama. And because of the treaty with Tony hosts, the Carter Treehouse treaties, they were going to an all volunteer office staff and I said, Well, you know, volunteering is nice, but that's not what I need to do. I need to have an income. I went ahead and oh, I worked till probably beginning of July, and then office was closed. And I said, See you later. I think this is what I want to do. And I went back to the states and Lauren Ben asked me if I wanted to go full time and I said, you know, like not yes, but hell yes. And we went back down in the dry season at seven and took in. He brought in the axles from the Colombian side, I hiked through from the Panamanian side, I'd flown down to Panama, with some other parts I had, oh, driveline gear shift and I don't know if you have probably a couple of you joints and a few other things. And then I hiked through with natives to where the Jeep was and left everything I had there met him in the town of turbo and Columbia, picked up gas and a new battery and went back out there he had the axle shafts already in the housing and fired her up and she probably ran on five of our six cylinders, but she started right up

Josh Meeder:

That's amazing. Yeah, carry carrying the parts in like in this country, we're so used to the convenience of being able to get parts and being an American made vehicle they probably didn't have many there's no part store. There's no auto parts stores. So you literally carry that the remainder of the parts that Yeah, so you're up and running. And from this point now, where are you and what what's happening next year getting into South America at this point? Oh,

Patty Upton:

yeah, we we went out on mule actually, before we started the Jeep that one before we started moving the Jeep that third dry season in there in 87. We went on out on mules to kind of scout out because we're now in an area that's known as the tribal swamp. And this area when you look at a map, sure enough, it's indicated as a swamp. But it's only a swamp during the major rains of the season. I mean, so you want to get there towards the end of the rainy season to attend to the end of the dry season because it didn't leeches out because we went through there and mules and there was 18 inches of water standing in some places. And when we got there with the Jeep, it was like 18 inches of mud, but it wasn't with water standing over it. So it was a it was a different. What do you call it? The curveball thrown at us with having to deal with more mud and flatter terrain for sure. And which also was not the best because sometimes there weren't a lot of trees around winch too. So yeah, it was a little bit again, a slow going following some logging roads that they were punching through with big pieces of equipment. But if you've ever been on any type of a trail, that's mud that's now dried, that was put in there when it was wet by those big pieces of equipment, you're talking ruts, two and three feet deep. So it was almost better if we weren't following the roads that these pieces of equipment put through there because they were so rough and so hard to travel on.

Josh Meeder:

Right, you can get hung up on those and and there were previous expeditions that had tried that part of the swamp and and I believe you said that they were You were told that like you can't get through it. And they were there in the rainy season. Two

Patty Upton:

slugs grew. Yeah, we were told by members of one expedition that went through in 79. And with I think it was four or five jeeps and American Motors sponsored that one. They came from south to north, and which which of Colombia, Panama and I say South to North. Because if you look at a map, it's actually east and west. So yeah, you have to really know your geography but most people think okay, South America South. Well, at that point, it's actually east but so south to north from Colombia, Panama. And they got their course at the beginning of the dry season. So the swamp was still full of water. I mean, there was no real dry land for them to travel on. So they said there is no dry land route through the a Toronto Well, yeah, there is we found one but we went from the other direction, finding it at the tail end of that price season. So we were very fortunate to do that. We were able to find that route. We had good guides, we had been working for us. We didn't know where we were we were lost the whole time. If it wasn't for our guides, then yeah, we'd still be down there going in circles. Now mid 80s

Josh Meeder:

There's no GPS you know, they're the maps are probably out dated and, and there's no markers or roadside and so you weren't completely out maps were

Patty Upton:

totally useless. The ones from the the Panamanian government put out it had, they figured, well, we don't know really where the town of bizarrely is. So we'll put it on both sides of the, between the river that way one of them will be, within reason, probably where they were, but they just put us all on both sides of the river. So then there were some maps that Lauren had gotten from the military, they were maps used by pilots. And there were just blank spaces. I mean, just white, you know, there were two epigraphical maps, which was great. But then there was just these blank white spaces in there, like they had no idea was there, I just kind of put a little sticky note there. And I said, there be dragons. No way. They were airmail from pilots point of view. And they had no idea was actually there.

Josh Meeder:

Wow. So starting in Colombia, let's go through the trip of South America because there's there's some great experiences that you shared in there. But what was the rest of the route? Like, from Colombia south,

Patty Upton:

it was reasonably good. It was good roads. When I say good roads, good roads by you know, South American standards. So we're not talking roads here in the states by any stretch of the imagination. Um, but yeah, so we stayed on the Pan American highway most of the time, we got off an occasion on on side trips and stuff. So

Josh Meeder:

you're ready to go you're sitting back out from Columbia. And the rest of the trip, you'll you mentioned we'll probably be on some some roads, share what happened in the share what happened going on further south in South America, other

Patty Upton:

than being a wonderful experience with the country and the people and finding places to camp and meeting people farmers that would you know, we'd find a farmer and say, you know, can we camp on the on your your farm tonight for just so that we're safe. And you know, they always give us permission. And then we had one time the farmer came out with the next morning, we were getting ready to leave, he had a bag of green beans to pick. And he's giving us a bag of green means and I mean, these people are literally, you know, subsistence farmers. We've got more right there in the jeep than they probably have, but they're giving to us. And it was just so heartwarming to meet these people and talk with these people. That to me, that's what made the trip was the people that we met. brakes went out in Santiago, Chile, we just got Santiago no further up. Oh, I can't remember the name of the town. Further up from in Santiago, still in the desert portion of Chile. And that not completely out. Just we knew we were having problems with them. And Lauren just happened to pull into the right little hole in the wall. Fixit shop, young man in there spoke no English. He said yeah, you can fix them. And he worked for several hours. And finally his wife came down to the shop to find out why he wasn't home for dinner yet. And realized that we were still in the process of bleeding the brakes. I was inside pumping, and he was underneath doing the the bleeding part. Again, not really speaking Spanish that well, it was kind of a difficult situation. She says here, let me help and she gets in and she gets in the jeep and she pumps and he's bleeding the race. They didn't want anything they did not want he worked for probably three or four hours on the G didn't want pay. He just wanted to be a part of the trip. Because we you know, again, we can talk to them. Our Spanish is not perfect. We can talk to them and tell them what we're doing. We have a world map that we've painted on the rear side windows, both sides of the Jeep. So we could we've started with a red line through the yellow map showing where we've been so far. So he just wanted to be a part of something. And we got to Santiago, Chile and had to hold up because we needed to find transportation across the Atlantic we were looking at a huge probably close to $6,000 Bill to get across the Atlantic Ocean for the jeep and the two of us, plus we're going to be without our house for 30 days. Again, you just turned down the right road at the right time and big farms just north of Santiago. And this farmer was growing seeds that he sells to the states and he said I've got an old house on the on the on the farm that my workers aren't using anymore. You're welcome to that. We didn't have running water but had a well. We said Great well we'll take it so we stayed in this little concrete house one bedroom bathroom type thing with with a well and it was cold it was wintertime we were getting close to wintertime so we did get a big bottle of propane so that we could run our little stove in the house and cook and heat it a little bit. And I started knocking on doors of shipping agencies in in Santiago. And finally they said, Well, we found one that was called the in tailor shipping agency. He said, well call us back in a few weeks and we'll let you know. So we went ahead and took off for further south. went as far south in Chile as we could go at that time. Now there's roads, way further south in Chile. We crossed over a barrel, low j into Argentina, and then down through Argentina, and to arrive at whoosh. WIAA is on the island of Tierra del Fuego while we were on both okayness There we go, whoever it is. That's as far south Well, that's the town. But we found out that the Pope had been there, I don't know several weeks before and visited a Boy Scout camp. That was a little bit further south. So we took off and we just kind of asked questions I saw Yeah, you can drive and we kept driving finally came to a point where there was no more road and we were literally on the streets and Magellan there. And that's what we considered the end of the road on the South American continent. It was about 27 miles south of Pennsylvania's Chile. We had called the Ian Taylor agency, and they said, Well, we've got free transportation for you, Lauren and the Jeep across the Atlantic. And that was just like the biggest relief at that point. Lauren was afraid we were going to have to go to ground once we got to South Africa and then go to work somewhere. So by having this this opportunity of having them foot the bill for us to get across the Atlantic, it was just a lifesaver. So while I said Well, most people consider the island of Tierra del Fuego, the tip of South America and whoosh, WIAA. The southern Well, it is the southernmost town. But you can't drive there, at least when we were there. I don't know that there's a bridge yet know when because it's over the Straits of Magellan. So you have to take a ferry across the Straits of Magellan border barrier. But since we already achieved the goal of remaining entirely on land, going to South Dakota veinous. We went ahead and splurged and went to as far south as we quit on the island to do Tierra del Fuego. The roads down there were pretty rough. It was cold. It was wintertime, we hit some snow. Yeah, we had some really rough dirt roads that were just potholes, filled with water. They were little, we actually the rear bumper started the well and started to break and we found a place in Santiago when we got back up there that would repair it for us.

Josh Meeder:

What's really amazing about this story is is how radically self reliant that you all were, you know, today we have GPS, we have maps, we have all the conveniences but back then and undertaking a trip of this magnitude. There. You can't really plan for this, you you have to show you showed up every day and figured out what was in front of you for the next mile or the next two miles, right. Like that. Part of the story is it's just really inspiring to me. Now, you said, moving on to South America. The other part of the story is you you guys didn't undertake this with massive corporate sponsorship, you would work as your pay your way this was almost entirely self funded, right?

Patty Upton:

My husband was a carpenter worked heavy duty heavy construction, started out building houses and that sort of thing eventually worked on freeway overpasses, but he you know, he was a car he was in that he was not an engineer and he was not a supervisor. He was out there with his tool belt on just like all the other guys he may have had to accrue under him. But he was out there with his tool belt on. I was a secretary. So yeah, this is what I try to tell people is you have to prioritize, prioritize the things you want in your life. It doesn't take massive amounts of money and store houses full of equipment and that sort of thing to do something like this. All it takes is something in here and something in here. You get those two working, and you can make it work. Yeah, that's all it takes. We've always said determination, patience, and a little bit of money go a long way.

Josh Meeder:

And good people along the way. Certainly make make the drill magical and so so you you happen to find through your efforts and knocking on the doors. You got passage to South Africa. So take us across the ocean and into South Africa. The

Patty Upton:

trip across the ocean was not without its interesting parts. We hit to what they call Force Nine storms. I think they only go to 11 on the Beaufort scale. So nines pretty much up there if it's Yeah, I don't ever want to go to see in a ship any smaller than that freighter that we were in for sure. And it was by no means a small ship. But yeah, it was not it was not fun for oh probably Good day and a half, two days when the first storm hit that hit at night. And Laura and the Jeep was actually loaded on board and tied down to a cargo hole, cargo hatch up on the bow of the ship. And there were some containers tied down next to it. And he went up to the bridge, and he says, You guys turn on lights out there. I want to see if the Jeep is still out there. Because they had told us that every now and then when they do hit some of these storms, these containers can be just washed overboard. So cables just snap and wash them overboard. So they've turned on the floodlights, and they're the Jeep was still sitting there, tied down as tight as she could be. And second storm was also Oh, it was several days later, further out. And they had told us that the South Atlantic in August was the roughest. And yeah, it is. I don't know what it is any other time. But it certainly was pretty rough when we crossed and it was 30 days. From the time we left. Taco one Oh, I believe was the name of the port in Chile, where we loaded and went down through the Straits of Magellan and across to South Africa, and got to South Africa. And it was nice, because we're now in a country that at least English was spoken more widely, because it was still under the apartheid government. So the offer cots, and they were in power. So the offer constant language was still the government language. So but anything else, it was mostly English, which was at least something for us that we can deal with a little easier. Getting through customs and immigrations there was I don't think it took us too long at all just a few hours to get the Jeep off, loaded and out off the dock and everything. took her to a place that we could get a steam cleaned and steamed clean the heck out of her because she just swallowed. I don't know how much salt water. And then we made a phone call and to a acquaintance of my sisters from many years prior to this. She had met a South African man backpacking through the Mediterranean when she was backpacking through the Mediterranean. And they had kept in touch. And he said, Well, you know, I'm married. Now I got a family. But you know, I'm your sister Call me when they get here. So I called and his wife answered, she says, we're expecting you. My sister's expecting you. You're going to stay there that night. Then you're going to come here and you're going to stay here. We've got the bed made up, you've got a sales room, and just went on. And it's like I knew her all my life. I don't know who this person is. Yet these people. They opened their house to us. We were there three or four days. They says, Oh, we have to go away this weekend. Do you mind feeding the goats and the chickens and pigeons and the Silkworms and I forget whether they're animals there were that we had a fee. We're just gonna be gone for the weekend. They walked off and left you know the house with complete strangers. But no, it was just it was family. I

Josh Meeder:

bet you were very welcoming to a big unsteady land in a restful bed at that point. Yes,

Patty Upton:

we were very much so it was nice to not have something moving under us. Because yeah, that Yeah. Not not a sailor. I can remember years ago, I read Rob Robin Graham, I think was the author of was at that time, I think the youngest solo sailor around the world. This was back in the 60s. I wanted to do that. Wow. Wait, am I glad I didn't follow that team.

Josh Meeder:

Great. So what did you stay in South Africa there long? Or did you get on the road pretty quickly.

Patty Upton:

We were on in South Africa for about six months. I'm traveling in South Africa, we had some actual problems. Again, we've gone to free floating axles in the Darien Gap. But we've taken a Jeep that's made for two people in life just to go out for a weekend. And we carry spare parts we carry everything including the kitchen sink. I mean, you know, granted, it's not like we carry a lot of frivolous stuff. Everything did double duty. I mean, the dish pans or the dish pans, the bathtubs, you lined them with a plastic bag, you drink the oil in them. I mean, you did just multiple things had to be used that way because you don't have the room. But all that adds up. And we were extremely heavy. And yeah, we broke another we have actual problems there in South Africa had hadn't fixed Adam new incentive and we had new hubs want a hub flange on them. And it was actually the hub flange was stripping out. The axles weren't breaking but this hub flange was like a weakened metal. And if it started to slip too much than that hub flange would the tongue and groove or wouldn't be on call. It's not tongue and groove. That's Carpenter, the split line up. So yeah, it would strip it out. So we actually had new hubs that had flanges sent and we had them taken to a place in South Africa and the heat treated of course make them a little harder. So that helped. Then we traveled over into Southwest Africa, Namibia, into the Kalahari. We went through Kimberley, we just did a lot of sightseeing because we had saved money coming across the country and we weren't spending that much money there. It was fairly inexpensive travel. So we just thought we're not going to get back to this part of the world. We're going to take advantage of it. And yeah, we spent six months yeah, traveling through game park over in the Etosha pan to see the animals Kalahari, also some of the big animals and really, really enjoyed it went through the mining the gold mining district up outside Johannesburg, kind of west of Johannesburg, at a tour of not the deepest mine. There was still more we were down a mile into the earth. And there was still another mine that was below where we were these mines, you know, it's not acres on the top of the surface of the earth. It's cubic volume type stuff. So yeah, we were down a mile in this, this coal mine, and there was still another Goldmine deeper than we were.

Josh Meeder:

What didn't experience moving up through there, there is a place because you were going towards where were you looking to do the land crossing at

Patty Upton:

Egypt, there's only you can only cross it Egypt everywhere else. I mean, that's the only place that African touches the science while and actually it's the Suez Canal is there, but there's a tunnel under the Suez Canal. We didn't know if it was a tunnel or a bridge, we knew that we could get across the Suez Canal at some point without having to take a ferry boat. Most people that travel overland at that time, they were all Europeans. And they were coming from the south. So they are coming from the north going into Africa. And they go down to Spain, and then they cross it through Gibraltar and into Morocco, or over to Tunisia, and ferry boats are running there all the time. Well, that's a water barrier that isn't legitimate. Only Egypt was where we could go.

Josh Meeder:

So leaving South Africa during the apartheid, there were definitely some political things that were a surprise to you. And there were travel restrictions. So moving north, on your trip leaving South Africa, what did you run into?

Patty Upton:

Having been in South Africa under the apartheid government, we couldn't come up through what East Africa Tanzania Kenya area because of their the apartheid government in South Africa. So we were kind of regulated, we had to go through the center of Africa. We went into Botswana and Zambia. Both of those countries have relations with South Africa. So we had no problems there. When we got into Zambia, we went to the US Embassy and had to get passport, new passports from the US Embassy there, because of the stamps that were in our passport entering South Africa. So we got fresh passports in Zambia. And then from Zambia. It was into Zaire. And Zaire was a real eye opener because it was just it was a sad, sad state. I mean, it really was I mean, the Buddha says the Seiko was in power. And he was one of the richest men in Africa in this country was one of the poorest. And it was it was really sad. And when we went to Lubumbashi to the US consulate there, we walked into the US Consulate, and we talked to them, we said, look, we've got these us passports that we need to send back to the States. They said, well, we can't do that. We said, we mean you can't do that. We've we've done that before throughout the US. And while we can't do that, we said okay, then we'll have to take them down to the Luma Bashi post office and send them through the local mail back. Well, you can't do that. We said, we're not going to go through the rest of Africa with us passports on us that have South African stamps. So what are we going to do and we went back and forth and they wouldn't budge. And we literally turned around, walked out and in the way they were we're having an alarm probably got a little loud. There was an Air Force Colonel out there. He said given to me, I'll put them in my pouch and send them back. And sure enough, he did. I mean, it was just again, people are just fabulous. And some of them aren't but it are frustrating but especially those in government positions. That

Josh Meeder:

might be the one universal truth that you've discovered is all government bureaucracies are not fun to deal with.

Patty Upton:

Wow. Yeah. So yeah, for sure. And so then it was serious. I Air and Air was a pretty it was all four wheel drive. There were no real roads, everything was there were no bridges. Bridges had all been I mean, there were logs across where there had been bridges, because there were concrete abutments and everything else and they just have logs now laying on top of them. Or there were no bridges and you said afford the river. It was a red clay mud, terrible, terrible stuff. And it was too is to just keep on plugging we are again overloaded. So we had a tendency to break springs a lot. And I think we Lauren got real good at changing springs fairly quickly. But he was replacing him with someone else's discard, you know, we find a town go to the town dump and he goes through the discards there and find the best ones that he could find that might fit the jeep. And that was what we we used. And from Zaire, it was into the Central African Republic. And that's where most people then would continue north through the Sahara towards Morocco, or Algeria. Well, because we have our goal to get to Egypt, we had to go through the Sudan. So we turned east and went into the Sudan, and went through North northern part of Sudan, and again, another extremely sad country, because they were at war when we were there, and they're still at war. And we were there in 1980 87, late 80s, late early 88 Night, yeah. 1988. So that's really sad.

Josh Meeder:

And somewhere along this path, it this is to the point where you got sick on the trip for a little bit and got taken down with with malaria. Yeah,

Patty Upton:

um, I think it was probably we had run out again, it was taking us longer to get through Africa than we had anticipated. It was true. Yeah, Africa. Once we left South Africa, it was a total of six months from the time we left South Africa for the time we reached Cairo. And it was just a little bit longer trip than we had anticipated, and our malaria anti malarial pills had run out several weeks prior. And I came down with malaria and amoebic dysentery which I didn't know what I had, I just knew that I was very, very sick. And we stopped at one little construction. It was a Greek construction camp of some sort. And they put us up for a few days, I drank lots of water, they actually took me down to the clinic in town, and they gave me leader of flu IV stayed with them at the camp for several for a day or two, and then I felt better. And I said, Well, let's go. And we took off and it was like, a day and a half later, and my fever came back and I was just pretty much out of it. I don't I don't have a lot of recollection of what happened. I had to read Lauren's journals to find out what was going on. The Jeep is made up. We can make the inside of the Jeep up for us to sleep in. I don't go going through the Darien Gap. I slept in the jeep every night. I mean, that was that was the Taj Mahal as far as I was concerned. It was had mosquito netting and everything while he could make the bed up for me to sleep in while he was driving. So that's what he did. Because again, we're doing this it's summer, June, late May. So it was pretty hot. And when we left the Greek construction camp, they gave him a business card of their head office in Khartoum. So when he got to Khartoum, he parked he found a park city park town park, in some shade left the Jeep opened and got a taxi and said, Take me to this place and gave him the business card and he says okay, now you wait here for me, because I don't know where the Jeep is. So you got to stay right there. And the guy said, okay, so he went up and talk to the people in the office. They said, Okay, well, let's go get her. So they came down and follow the taxi back to where the Jeep was. And then they took me to a small clinic, not the hospital, small clinic in Khartoum. And that's where I was visited. And then the test showed that it was malaria and amoebic dysentery. And I was there for I think three days while they gave me the it's just an overdose of the anti malarial pills for the malaria. And then we just started making our preparations for going north through Sudan at that point, because now we're in Khartoum. So now we're headed north to Egypt. And that's another whole

Josh Meeder:

Yeah, this part of the story is what really just blew my mind. So you had I don't know if it's even fair to call it an adventure. But you this was an interesting part of the trip. You said this was one of the harder parts. Yeah, this

Patty Upton:

is the one that it was the trouble of life threatening situations as they're anti climactic because you've lived through them. But this was truly the really what I would consider the only life threatening situation that we were ever faced. We had taken off out of Khartoum. Again, looking at a map, the Nile makes a big loop. And you cut across this part of the desert, from Cartoon up to I think it's the town of Dongola, which is on the river so you avoid this big loop. And it's a weld traveled route. There's tea houses along the way buses trucks dongle is a big town. So there's a lot of traffic along there not a problem. We had to check in with the police and dongle on most of these third world countries, you always had to check in and out with the security police of just about every town you went through, did that. And then we started up the west side of the Nile River. And we had no GPS that was not something that was available. In fact, the only compass we had no longer worked. So we knew that the Nile River, we had to keep the Nile River to our right to our east because we knew that that was our water source. Because again, this is late June, we got to have water. And it was also our direction to travel. We knew it was going to go to Egypt. And that's where we were going all we have to do is follow the river we just and when you look at it by this time, it's not making any of these big loops, but it's not perfectly straight either. And we were doing really well. It was hot. Very hot. We in fact, at one point, I think he turned the heater on to pull some heat away from the engine. But we were several days out and Dongola and we broke an axle shaft with the terrain had gotten real rocky and had come right down to the representative. So we had to swing around this big rocky outcropping to get around it because there was no way to go between the river and in this rocky outcropping. Well, when we swung around, we got into some really soft sand and we broke an axle shaft. And we had already used the spare shaft that we had with us. So we knew we were down and down bad because at that point, the last human we'd seen was 45 miles back and it was like a 10 year old kid with goats or something. And so we had and we had no idea where we were, we didn't know where the Nile River was, because we had made this big swing to the west. And so we just were that first night was probably one of the roughest nights I can ever remember because I was a total basket case. And Lauren being the person he is says, Okay, what we need to do is we need to sit down and we need to make a list of everything we need to take out of the Jeep and take with us, we don't know how we're leaving yet, but we know we are going to be leaving the jeep. So I need you to make a list of everything you think we need to take from pencils, to papers, to journals to passports, everything. So he said, we're not going to talk about it, you just make your list. I'll make my list. And then when we're done, we'll compare our list and see what we got. So we did that. And I know now that that was just a calming effect that he was having and putting my mind out of taking it out of the negative space that it was in and putting it into a constructive, void apart and get it working. And when we compare the list, I think the only thing he had that I didn't have was the inside rear view mirror. He was going to pop that off and take that as a signaling device. So now we have our lists. So things were pretty calm. And he says I'll hike up to that. Mountaintop that rock rocky outcropping and I'll see what I can see tomorrow. So he did found out the Nile River was probably about a mile from where we broke down. There wasn't a person, anything that even indicated a person had ever been out there. There was nothing there was nothing like a rock hut, house, a farm nothing. It was just desert and a big river. And then he hiked down to the river and found that it had a current so we knew we weren't far enough north to be on Lake Nasser. So we knew that we were still in Sudan, and that there was still occurred. And we also knew that the village of Wadi Hoffa snore. And we knew from Mali Hoffa, we could get a train back to Khartoum. So our goal was to get from where we were to what he how far we had no idea how far it was. He said Well, the river is going to be our best mode of transportation. So he secured the Jeep into some brush that was there. And using a tin drawer that's in the back of the Jeep that's probably 32 inches long by 11 inches high and 17 inches wide. He sealed the seams. And then he used some tamarisk branches he caught and then the we had a bunch of jerry cans, plastic jerry cans to carry extra gas He put all the gas in the tank so the cheat turned the jerry cans upside down lashed him to this so we had an outrigger and either side and then all of our supplies went into this tin box it was you know the cooking pot the food, the water, the water container, the halogen pills to purify the water. Everything important papers, clothing, whatever we could fit in a 32 inch by 17 inch by 11 inch box. And then he inflated the spare tire inner tube that we had which I'm going to take a little side trapped right here, because so many people nowadays think Well, that's no big deal. Because everyone's got compressors nowadays. No, not everybody had compressors. What we had was old school, of course, you remove the spark plug, you screw this into the spark plug socket, and then you put it on your tire and turn your engine on and the air compression pump fire up. That was our, our method for pumping tires, we're still have it still works. It's one of those things that I mean, duct tape will fix it if it breaks. So there's nothing there's nothing much to go wrong. But anyway, blew up the inner tube, tied that with a long rope to the raft we got in the river, we held on to the inner tube or the raft, we were not above the water. And we floated down the river, the rest of that day, got out that night made camp, cook beans, cooked rice, boiled water for drinking, and you'd lay there at night and you'd listen you'd almost strain your ears to see if you could hear a dog bark or chicken or a baby cry.

Josh Meeder:

No, nothing, just the total isolation

Patty Upton:

total. And not even he did virtually nothing out there. I mean, there may be a few birds, but there was no wildlife. There was no vegetation. I mean, it was all just wrong. Really, it was just kind of gravelly rock. And it was not a it's not it wasn't a pretty desert as far as deserts go. The next day it got in the river started out again, we got in a little early, we thought well, we'll get an early start found out that you can get get close to getting hypothermia when it's 128 when the air temperature is 120 degrees. And that river is so cold. And the water was moving so fast that I got to the point that I said I can't do it. I got to get out. I am shaking so hard. I couldn't focus my eyes were no longer focusing my hands were going numb, my feet were tingling. I had to get out. Get out, we build a fire with hot tea. Warm up, get back in the river, go another few hours. And then that's it. Gotta get out. I've got to warm up, get out, build a fire, have some hot tea, and do it. And I mean did hypothermia did 120 degree temperatures. But yeah,

Josh Meeder:

close to it doesn't take much cold water to chill the body just those few degrees. No,

Patty Upton:

and it was and you're in it and you're completely submerged. The only part of your body that's not in the water is really your hands may be in your head. Everything else is in the water. And water sucks the oils out of your skin like nothing. And it was the third day. Halfway through the third day we saw white content on the east bank, we made our way over there. And through broken English and sign language we found out that this guy's produce was going to be picked up that night by a truck and taken into YT alpha, which was maybe about an hour or so by rode away. We said can we get a ride? They said sure. So we stayed there and waited for this truck to come in. And then got a ride into what alpha. And from there we knew we could get that train back to Khartoum and got back to Khartoum. And, again, nothing is easy. Nothing is simple. You can't just pick up the phone and make a long distance call. You don't have one in your pocket you can pull out. Oh, the only place you can make an international call in Khartoum was at the Hilton Hotel. So we went down to the Hilton hotel called my mother got her answering machine. No, we do and it took several times for them to try to get the call to go through. Finally her answering machine answered. And I was able to get a message on the answering machine that we will call you tomorrow night at this time, that your time this time. Whatever time it is in Seattle right now. That's what time we're going to call tomorrow or begin calling. And we will continue to begin calling or try calling for two hours. And she's we left that message on there and prayed that she got it. Next night we got there, tried to place the call and it took several it took about almost that full two hours before that call finally went through. And my mother answered. And we said we're doing good. No problems didn't go into a lot of details. No sense in doing that. Lauren found out at that point that he was a grandfather. His granddaughter had been born in late March and this is now late June. And so that was a big surprise and then you welcome surprise and told my mother okay, this is what we need. This is who you call, this is the length. This is the number of splines This is the number of grooves, you know, when you get on we had made contact with a guy in the US Embassy there in Khartoum. First of all, the one of the counselors, he wasn't going to help us can't have anything mailed to the to the US Embassy. And we'd already checked with Sudanese customs and we either actually a letter from the Sudanese customs saying to have it so To the embassy, it would be a lot easier and cheaper if it went right to the embassy, then through Sudanese customs, and this guy wouldn't even look at it and launch this. I'm gonna speak to your boss. So we were taken upstairs to see his boss. His boss says here, here's my name, Here's my address. Just make sure it's only my name on the box. I'll know it's for you. Have it sent to me. I said, Fine. I told my mother the address and everything. And the next day Lauren said, you know, I don't like the Jeep sitting out there all by herself. She's come too far. And she means too much. To just be sitting there all by herself. I can't, I can't bear to have something happened to her at this point. He said, I'm gonna buy supplies, and I'm gonna go back out. So he bought about six weeks worth of supplies, took the train back to YT alpha and hired a local there to take him up river to where the Jeep was. And that's where he stayed that I mean, I that's what happened. I don't know other than reading his journals, but you know, because once he left, I had no idea. I had no communications with him. And I was staying with an American family there in Khartoum. 11 days after my mother posted those axle shafts, I had them in my hand. However, the blue and the White Nile converge at Khartoum. There were rains in the highlands of Ethiopia, rains in the south of Sudan. And both the Blue and White Nile went into flood stage was the highest the river had been since like 1940 something and the railroad tracks North Khartoum or North Swati house that had been washed out. So now I'm stuck in the city with no way out. I started knocking on doors I started with you know, businessman. Well, first of all, I started with the railroad they kept leading me on like it was going to be fixed right away. And I go down every day. And every day they tell me no, well, then, after three or four or five days of this, I finally said, Well, when is it going to be fair? I've got to talk to somebody. So they finally let me talk to somebody. And like I said, this is not late June. He says, oh, probably sometime near December. I said okay, good to know. I am be okay. No. And I started knocking on doors, government offices. US Government tried them. They weren't much help United Nations programs that were helping out with relief supplies. And then after about, oh, I'm gonna guess good two weeks of doing this. I was put in touch with the United Nations Development Program that was doing work there. And they said they had the use of a Belgium C 130. Hercules that was going to fly to Whitehall for the next morning with relief supplies, and I could be on board. They should be out on this corner here, these two streets at seven o'clock in the morning. And I was out there at you know, six o'clock in the morning, and was flown up to Whitey Hoffa and in a C 130. And when I got off the plane, there was a man there. He was the shell agent for the show Gask because of the ferries that run between Egypt and mighty alpha. And he had a letter from Lauren, he'd learned gotten a letter out to him address to me and he was there. He knew His plane was coming and he was there to give it to the pilot to take back. See if they could get it to me. He was that what was going on? Why was it taking so long? But Lauren said he kind of suspected something was amiss, because he could see the river had changed. The river was now literally like, you know, milk is thicker than water. Yes, that's about what the river looked like. And just that consistency of being that thick. And that color of chocolate milk. And that's that's what the river looked like. So what an

Josh Meeder:

amazing amount of trust for Lauren with you, knowing that he had prepared for six weeks, but there's no communication. It's either you're coming back or you're not or he's got to repeat the trip. Right and the the serendipity of him having the forethought to send a letter to you because he heard of the transport and you happen to run into the guy when you land to get that letter is amazing. Yeah.

Patty Upton:

And so yeah, I hired Mubarak was the name of the shell agent. I hired somebody through him to take me back up river to where Lauren was. Got there. The next day extended stay the night in Whitey Hoffa got there the next day. Lauren had lost probably 30 pounds. I mean, he looked like a greatest great suntan, but just practically just bones. Because he cut back on his food. He was just getting concerned with his food that he wasn't going to because he didn't know what was going on. So he had food rations.

Josh Meeder:

How long how many weeks was this between when you separated to getting back? I

Patty Upton:

don't remember exactly. I just know from the time we broke down to the time we were repaired and moving was seven The days so just over two months, so most of that time was him out there by himself. I mean, it was, you know, we had Yeah, it was, it was a long time and like he said it was changing the, what do you call it, the free floating axles union check that the Jeep up, you just undo those six bolts, take that home flange, I'll take the axle shaft off, put the new one in, put put the same hand flange on and put a new flange on tighten up six bolts, you're good to go. We were down for 70 days for that for that job. And it was 36 miles and four and a half hours later we were on a tarred Road in Egypt and Egypt, we'd be on a road.

Josh Meeder:

But even getting on the tarred roads, not half the battle because Egypt had you had something with the title or this, you called it a package getting into Egypt, there was documentation there's a

Patty Upton:

lot of foreign countries require a bond be posted in order for you to bring a car or a vehicle into their country because they want to make sure they get their their fair share of taxes if you decide to sell the car there. So what they developed was this thing called a corne. I don't know, years ago, you could get it from the from AAA. And you posted X amount of dollars of what your vehicle was worth in a bank account. And that was then payable to AAA and to Lauren. And that way, if you never exported your car out of a country, Britain, AAA would be contacted. And then they would send the money to that country and say here's your money for taxes because obviously the car wasn't exported because it doesn't show up on the paperwork. So Lauren had a corne for the jeep. And in big red letters, and I'm talking a stamp as big as a silver dollar or more on all over the front page and every page inside in big red letters not valid in Egypt. Egypt required a 3000 or 300% deposit. And he was not going to post that much. He needed the money for the trip, not for the deposit. So this was not valid in Egypt. And so when we got to Egypt, you know, we're we're totally ignorant. We're not going to say a word, mom's the word as far as we're concerned. And when we because we weren't shipped into the country legally until we got to Aswan, which was I don't know how many miles further up into the country because that's where the the ferry boat leaves to go to Wadi halfa. So there's nothing down below for tourists. It's all just you know, you can go down to Abu Simbel and visit the temple, but there's no offices there. So we didn't get checked into we got to Aswan. And we were going through the rigmarole and we showed up at the place and we handed over this, but it's a big book. It's like a 711 by 1711 by 14, I guess pages are big. And it's a book and you handed it to him. And we're just saying, Okay, please, please, please, please, please, please. And he takes it and I don't know they do something. And he says, and they speak relatively good English. He says, Well, you're going to have to come back tomorrow. We can't finish this. It's too late today. Okay, so we come back tomorrow, and they verify the VIN number and this, that and the other thing and then they stamp our current day and they give us our current a they give us a license plate that you provide that we have a Gyptian license plate, and we get a license plate for the jeep and we are legally in the country even though it says not valid. They could speak English, but they couldn't read English. Oh, that one was so that was a tough, tough one for us. We held our breath a lot on that one.

Josh Meeder:

Yeah. And so Egypt is a relatively easier to travel through. And you're going now now. Yeah, Egypt was

Patty Upton:

good. I mean, it was I think it was hard. Yeah, it was hard road the whole way. We went up to the Red Sea road instead of following the Nile because there's so many towns along the Nile River, and the road that follows the Nile that it would just be one town after another. So we went over to the Red Sea and it was much more scenic and peaceful and easier to camp and that sort of thing. And we went over towards the Red Sea and followed the Red Sea up and then cut across to Cairo, which no, that may have not been the best thing because you had we had to almost go through all the way through Cairo. Cairo was I think, 15 million people when we were there. And every single one of them drove something. It could have been a bus. It could have been a truck. It could have been a garbage truck. It could have been a bicycle. It could have been an oxcart, but everybody drove something. Oh, traffic was horrendous. And of course the pyramids are on the West Bank, and you have to get over onto the west side of the Nile and we stay there was a beautiful campground out by the pyramids that we stayed at. And before we got out there we went into Do a little shop there in Cairo and I went into one store with lights lectricity refrigeration, I was able to buy hot and cold stuff, fresh stuff, price stuff, everything all in one little tiny little shop. Oh, this is I mean heaven. You know this is great because I'm not in the market marketplace bartering with everybody not knowing exactly or how fresh things are. And that night after we main camp, there was a overland truck that came in from England. Well, the truck is based there in Cairo. They fly the clientele into Cairo, this overland truck that holds 20 People goes to pick up and then they take them down to assemble. And then they put them on the ferry and or no, they fly them then they bring it back to Aspen and they fly him to Kenya, or Tanzania, Kenya first, I guess. And there's another truck that meets him down there. And then they go down through Kenya and Tanzania, and then eventually down into South Africa. Whereas the trumpets in Egypt just stays there. Well, anyway, they had their 20 clientele and they said we were camped right next time. They said do you want to go into the city for us with us for dinner tonight, we're gonna go into not a McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, a Kentucky Fried Chicken. We're gonna go into Kentucky Fried chicken for dinner tonight be secure. So we climbed in the back of the truck. And we're going through the West Bank, west side of the pyramids in that area over to somewhere to go have for dinner. And this one young gal, she was probably about 19 or 20. And she was looking at the back of the truck. So it's so dirty here. It's so nasty. These people are so poor. This is awful. And I said, if you think this is bad, you may as well just get back on the plane and go back to England because it only this is good. This is good. This is the this is the cream of the cream. You know, it's gonna get a lot worse when you go from south. And I said, you know, my thought is, you know, aren't you traveling to experience these things anyway? I mean, isn't this isn't if it's if it's like home, why are you leaving? You know, if you want it to look like your front door or your front yard. Why are you going to leave today? Oh, yeah. So yeah. So anyway, I often wonder how she survived her trip to Africa. But yeah, we stayed out there. And then it was back across from Cairo to the Suez Canal and under the Suez Canal, into the Sinai through the Sinai and into Egypt, and now into Israel. And there, we ran into our first major roadblock that was caused by human nature, not Mother Nature. Yeah,

Josh Meeder:

this you said that was probably one of the tougher parts for Lauren with because again,

Patty Upton:

it was political. It was all political. The two countries Israel and Jordan were technically at war, even though there was no fighting. It was just something on paper. And we were told by the Jordanian people that we spoke to, they said, Well, you know, we have to live in this part of the world. So that's why we don't have time don't have relations with Israel. You know, they're an Arabic country, and they needed to maintain their sovereignty. So they just said, you know, okay, fine, Israel's. We're at war with them, even though there was nothing happening. So we again, we worked at a trying to get the Jeep to Jordan, by land. The only other option was to go through Lebanon. And this was three or five years after the Marine Corps barracks bombing in Beirut. So we knew driving a big red Jeep with California license plates was probably not the wisest move. So we knew that Jordan was where we needed to get to, and we ended up talking with UN. What do you call it, the embassy people, tourist agencies that were referred to travel agencies, and the UN, we said, look, you know, you can paint it white, like a big blue blue un on it, you drive it across the bridge, across the Jordan River. And we'll get across some other way we can fly or go down to go back into Egypt and fly or go back and DJ and take the ferry and then we'll come up the other side. I said, we can't even drive our vehicles, the government vehicles across the bridge, we have to go up to we're driven up to the bridge, we get out. We walk across the bridge, and we're picked up by another government vehicle. We said okay, that's not going to work. So and we knew we needed to move on because we were headed to Norway, and it was getting later in the year. And so that was that was a hard one to leave that area behind because we had to go back into Egypt at that point and take a ferry up to aka Jordan and then continue on. So there was that water break in there of, I don't know a few hours from new wave of Egypt into aka by Jordan. And then we went up and went through Petra. And a few of the other ruins going up and then into Syria, and Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. And we were to pick up our paperwork to enter the Soviet Union because this is now it's still Soviet Union. And we are pre arranged in Cairo at their official tourist agency, the the suit the Soviet tourist agencies known as Intourist. And our paperwork was not there. They never heard of us it, the one in Romania, and that we said, okay, fine, we're not and they said, it'll take about two weeks, we said, well, we're not going to it was this was middle of October, or getting towards the late end of October, we said, well, we're not going to go, we're not going to wait here two weeks, and then go up to Norway. And in November, you know, that's just the wrong time of year to do this. So Lauren says, we're just going to go to ground and we went over, drove over to England, he was able to find a, through the Land Rover club of England get a connection to a farm where he could park the Jeep in a building. And basically, they had a little separate room there. And he could just stay right there in the building and stay on the on the property. And he stayed there near Canterbury. I went back to the states and wrote letters looking for sponsorship. We didn't get products. But that was about it. And which, you know, everything helps. And then in May I flew back, we took back off across the back to Cali, France. And then we went through, oh, Belgium, the Netherlands. And then at that time, it was West Germany, East Germany and Poland and then into the Soviet Union. And yeah, the Soviet Union was definitely an eye opener, because when I grew up, it was a world power. You know, their US and Soviet Union were world powers. While we found out that they have a third world country for the first world army. That was it, there was so many things that didn't work there. And you had to turn in your passport and when you checked in at your campground for the night, and then you had to get back in the morning. And if you checked into a motel you had to check, check your passport at hotel desk, and then you got it back. So yeah, the Soviet Union was definitely an eye opener, the people without a doubt, super friendly. This is during Gorbachev and Reagan, of course, and of course, having California plates. They all want to know if we knew Reagan. Oranges. Yeah, I had lunch with him yesterday. So yeah. And Laura, when we entered the Soviet Union, Lauren, made the list, not necessarily mistake, but he wanted to get photographs of us entering the Soviet Union at the border crossing, and they won't allow photos most most liberal countries won't allow you to take a photograph at the border. And he said he'd like to get a picture and then said, No, you can't. We'll go ask your boss. So this young soldier goes in and comes back and he says, No, you can't, we can't. Florence's will look, we're on this trip. It's really important. We're trying to document it, blah, blah, go ask your boss again. So I think the third time that the guy went in to ask his boss, the boss probably said, No, you're going to search them now. So they actually took us into a separate building, where we drove over a pit, and they got underneath, and they could look at everything underneath the vehicle. And then they went through everything in the vehicle. And they want to know if we had any firearms. And we said no, and we're talking with I mean, there's two young soldiers, they're nice young men. And we're talking back and forth, and they said, no firearms, and then all of a sudden, this guy says, oh, pistol, and he pulls out this plastic bag with what looks like a pistol. And Lauren says, No, it's a timing light. So it opens it up. Sure enough, it's timing light. For the engine, so yeah, okay. But it was, it was definitely interesting people, the men again, the people were very friendly. We I'd asked a cab driver next to us, we couldn't find our way out of Moscow. They don't give you a city map. They give you quote, unquote, a map of country of the roads you can drive on. And if you're familiar with National Park maps, it looks a lot like a national park map. Which doesn't necessarily mean that they're correct. Well, anyway, we couldn't find our way out of Moscow. And so I was asking, and it's, you know, four and five lanes wide. And I asked this taxi driver and he says, yeah, yeah. So as the light turns, he throws a handful candy in my window. So we get up to the next traffic light and we're stopped next to each other and I'm looking through the glovebox to see what I can pass to him. I found a whole pack of gum and a pack of gum in his window and their thumbs up, you know, Americans we'd have cars, honk their horns and pass us and then stop further up the road and they all be out with cameras to take pictures and down the road. So yeah, they were very, very friendly. We got lost in Leningrad and the Soviet Navy was there and they helped us find our way out of there, that wasn't another one. But it was Ben from Soviet Union, it was into Finland. And then I think we cross a little bit of Sweden and then into Norway, I think the way the countries are aligned there. And we had no idea where we were ending, again, no internet to check where the furthest road north is. And so we're just going north literally following our noses going north and we'd stop into town and we check with the police station and ask Is there another zone further north and you know, next time and finally, this one little town said, yeah, there's a little fishing village further north, but the road isn't really that good. It was just a dirt road that was more or less one lane. And then pretty straight, not you're well above the Arctic Circle. So there's not much vegetation, um, with little pullout, so that if a car is coming, you can pull off into a pull out and let cars come. So you had always been watching while I had this if somebody was coming, for sure enough, that's where we took off again, Vic Norway and got there and found out that the roadie went a little bit further north in the village to a lighthouse, just out just a few, probably half a mile north of the village. And that's where we officially ended the trip, was at the Gam pick might house on the Fourth of July, Lawrence is finished and we're going to finish on a good old American holiday, we've taken one American made vehicle around the world, we're going to do it on an American holiday. So we actually held up for a day so that we could do this on the Fourth of July. Then because we had gone to Tierra del Fuego in South America, we went ahead and splurged and spent the money and went to the island and North Cape in Norway, which now has a bridge to it. But it is further north and where Gambit lies. But again, it's an island. So it was you had to take a ferry to get there when we were there. And we went as far north on the island that we could go. And what were

Josh Meeder:

your emotions at that time? What was the emotion getting to that lighthouse? Like you've been on this trip for years now? What were the emotional?

Patty Upton:

I remember writing in my journal, Lauren was like a five year old on Christmas morning. You know, he just he was just full of excitement, just full, full, full of excitement that he was just he just couldn't couldn't contain himself that he was finally done with it, and then leave it but But Israel, Jordan was still there that what we call the final mile was still there. And that one took us until 2018. Before we finally were able to ship the Jeep back and drive from Israel from a roadway run in Israel to the road we were on in Jordan, turn around and come back into Israel with the jeep with the San Juan Sanchez. I don't even think I mentioned her name. Her name is the sand ship discovery. So she's now had all four wheels on TerraForm around the world except for the South Atlantic. Wow,

Josh Meeder:

Patti, that's absolutely amazing. And, and while we're wrapping up here, there's just so much that has happened and to condense it into a small time is is really difficult. But looking back on your experience, if you had any advice to give anyone or anything you'd like to share that you've learned from this experience, what would it be?

Patty Upton:

Open the door and get out there? Just go see what's there. Don't be afraid. Somebody was on Facebook the other day they want to go along the Camino del Diablo The which is right along the Arizona border, or Juma and they have to sign a waiver and they're really worried they have to sign this waiver to do this. Well, they have to sign the waiver because it's a US bombing range. That's why they have to sign the waiver. That's the you know, it's not because it's along the Mexican border, and it's a heavily patrolled area by the US government. We've been through there we've been buzzed by the helicopters to make sure that we were legit. So yeah, it's it's a bar as I'm concerned to say very I don't I don't know. I just don't like letting things stop me if it's something I want to do. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, You prioritize what you want in life. You figure out what that is, you work towards it, you save your money for that you build things for that. And that's what you go for. And that's, that's what life's about is to enjoy it. Yeah.

Josh Meeder:

Now I know. So just to bring everyone up to speed now. So unfortunately, Lauren passed a few years ago. Yes, it was a year ago this past August year ago this past August and what's next for the SS discovery? What what's looking forward here you're getting your story out there and

Patty Upton:

right trying to get her story out there as much as possible. And I traveled this past summer to five overland shows, overland expos and Jeep fast across the US, again, getting her story out there. So many people have heard of other expeditions, the five or five Jeeps that went through in 79. They all think that that we were part of that and we weren't. Because they only saw the movie on YouTube. No, that wasn't us. Sorry. And so yeah, it's it's just getting this story out there. So many people have never heard of it, which Yeah, we haven't done that much with it. And I want to get her story out there. I want to get the Jeep out there. I want to showcase her. Give slideshows to advertise what we've done, what you can do, just don't let things hold you back. I mean, you got to be smart, but you don't have to be absolutely paranoid. And this summer, I've got another whole summer planned. I'll be doing I think a total of 10 maybe events from British Columbia, all the way over to Arrington, Virginia and back. So I'll be towing the jeep and setting her up at various various overland rallies, overland expos, that sort of thing. And then I am going to, I have a what do you call it invitation to put her in a museum in Manhattan, Kansas. And that may be for maybe six months, we'll see how it does and go from there. Because again, I want her story out there where people can see her and read about her.

Josh Meeder:

Well, thank you for your sharing your story Patty in the podcast here, I'll leave all your contact information. So if you'd like to be a part of this story, and continue to keep this amazing trip alive, please check out the comments you can contact and support Patty there. And Patti, thank you so much for your time. Yeah,

Patty Upton:

thank you very much.

Josh Meeder:

All right. Best wishes to you and take care.

Patty Upton:

Thank you so much.

Josh Meeder:

I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the great things, LLC podcast. If you did, be sure to share the link with this episode with your friends, and share to your social media with your biggest takeaway tagging me a great things LLC. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. There's so much more to come. You can support me by leaving a rating and a review of the show and that will help others to find their purpose, dream, collaborate and create their own success story. Until next time, this is Josh Meeder your host signing off

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