10 TIPS for Better Overland or Vanlife Camp Cooking: COOK EASIER, EAT BETTER
10 TIPS for Better Overland or Vanlife Camp Cooking: COOK EASIER, EAT BETTER

Camp cooking gets a bad rap. It’s either known to be freeze-dried backpacker meals that require boiling water, premade food that can easily be reheated, or the usual hamburgers and hot dogs. There’s an air of inconvenience whenever the topic of cooking at camp gets brought up. 

“It’s a hassle.”

“Camp meals are just for sustenance.”

“I hate doing dishes.”

Times have changed. The economy has changed. Budgets are tighter. The landscape of food has changed. Chinese take-out is no longer considered an exotic cuisine. Kale has become an accepted part of contemporary salads. Cooking at home has become a haute couture again for families and households that watch their pocketbook. People love food and love talking about food. These sentiments also moved onto the world of camp cooking. Hamburgers and hot dogs have been replaced by street-style carne asada tacos, kimchi egg fried rice, or chicken adobo.

Read More
Tipsgondirtincamp cooking, travel tipsComment
LEAVE NORMALITY: Breakaway to life in Baja California Sur
LEAVE NORMALITY: Breakaway to life in Baja California Sur

Karissa and I were peacefully woken up from our slumber by the sound of soft waves breaking on the beach. It was a distant, but gentle, pop. It was infrequent, but just frequent enough that, through our crusty, dreary, eyes, we were curious enough about it to poke our heads out the tent’s window.

Pop... pop... pop….

Our eyes strained to focus against the tent’s mosquito netting. But it didn’t take long for us to spot the source of the noise: a distant pod of whales playfully slapping their fins on the calm pink and purple predawn water. 

Read More
blog, Troopygondirtinbaja california, troopy, troop carrier, land cruiserComment
RIG TOUR: Our Overland Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier RV, "Troopy"
RIG TOUR: Our Overland Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier RV, "Troopy"

There’s no such thing as a perfect travel vehicle. It has quickly become a social media hot take to get those precious, precious clicks. Overlanding is a very personal type of lifestyle. No one truck, or setup, can be considered perfect for a wide swath of people with very different outdoor lifestyles, cultures, interests, or ways of living. Not everyone wants to rock crawl for endless miles to poop in a hole. Some prefer the calmer routes that lets them experience the world around them. Everyone brings something different to the table. Everyone has different needs, and check boxes. Just because the market is currently pushing everyone to own full-sized trucks with slide in, or flat bed, campers, does not mean that’s the way forward.

Read More
Troopygondirtinland cruiser, troopy, troop carrier Comment
CATCH AND COOK: Popping the Cherry with FISH N CHIPS in Baja California
CATCH AND COOK: Popping the Cherry with FISH N CHIPS in Baja California

As an avid cook, I find building a relationship with your ingredients is incredibly important. These relationships form the more you use them. I quickly started to know what good, and not so good, products were and where to get them. The more I cooked, especially with any kind of animal protein, the more I wanted to be a part of the whole process —from hunt to plate.

Read More
blogLinhbergh Nguyencamp cooking, baja, catch and cookComment
The Importance of that First SHAKE-DOWN Trip: Or, How We Learned We're DEFINITELY Not Finished with The Build
The Importance of that First SHAKE-DOWN Trip: Or, How We Learned We're DEFINITELY Not Finished with The Build

When you cross the finish line of a marathon, you can finally take that first initial sigh of relief. Months of training for the race lead up to that very moment. You did it. You’re finished. You did a great job of getting there. You kept to your stringent training diet, you kept going to the gym, and you gritted your teeth and showed up to those Saturday morning 6am mileage runs. But, after receiving your medal, taking in a few much needed after-race refreshments, you know that’s when the hurt really starts. You take your trainer mandated ice bath, then a massage, and followed only by days of leg stiffness and pain.

Read More
blog, Troopygondirtintroopy, troop carrier, 70 series, HJZ75 Comments
WINTER IN YOSEMITE Or: How I learned to Combat FOMO
WINTER IN YOSEMITE Or: How I learned to Combat FOMO

Living in the moment is something I always find myself struggling with. We patiently waited for the winter weather, and our schedules, to align for our trip to Yosemite National Park. We’re always on winter weather-watch. We missed most of the big snow dumps this season, and was quickly becoming late season. Snow days were becoming rarer and rarer….

Read More
bloggondirtinyosemite, national park, land cruiser, troop carrierComment
REVIEW: Camp Chef Mountaineer 2 Burner Stove
REVIEW: Camp Chef Mountaineer 2 Burner Stove

There comes a time when your not-so-serious hobby crosses the line into serious territory. You’ll know exactly when that happens. There’s this inner push to keep learning, and keep progressing forward. Cooking is one of those things. One day, you’re making spaghetti from a jar, and the next you’re in a kitchen for a few days prepping all of Thanksgiving dinner….

Read More
gondirtin Comments
We Imported a Land Cruiser TROOPY to the USA from AUSTRALIA!
We Imported a Land Cruiser TROOPY to the USA from AUSTRALIA!

Here it is. Our new rig. It’s a 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier. It has come a long, long, way before it nested into its quiet parking spot in California. It was trucked across the land mass of Australia, boarded a giant ocean-going ship, floated around the major ports of Australia, toured the whole of South East Asia before making its way to China, Korea, and Japan before it made the huge leap across the massive pond.

Read More
Troopygondirtintoyota, land cruiser, troop carrier, troopyComment
10 TIPS to Know BEFORE Visiting Great Basin National Park
10 TIPS to Know BEFORE Visiting Great Basin National Park

Great Basin National Park doesn’t get the notoriety that it deserves. It is a national park that has its card stacked up against each other. It’s in the middle of nowhere with the closest decent sized town (Ely, NV) being an hour drive away. It’s a relatively small park (121 mi²) compared to its much more popular siblings like Yosemite (1,169 mi²), Yellowstone (3,471 mi²), and Death Valley (5,270 mi²)…

Read More
Tipsgondirtinnational parks, travel tipsComment
BEHIND THE SCENES with a Toyo Tires Commercial
BEHIND THE SCENES with a Toyo Tires Commercial

When someone asks you if you want to frolic around the arid deserts in the Southwestern United States in the middle of July, the answer is always a resounding “HELL. NO.” But, if that frolicking entails being chased around with big boy video cameras attached to big boy toys, the answer will always be a resounding “HELL. YES.”

Read More
gondirtintoyo tires, behind the scenes, production life, commercial photography, teamtoyotires, mitsubishi montero, mitsubishi pajero, Open Country ATIIIComment
On-the-Road Camera Storage
On-the-Road Camera Storage

We live and breathe camera storage. It is what we do. It’s how we pay the bills. It’s how we’re able to go on long extended trips across the continental United States. It is something that’s absolutely ingrained into our day-in and day-out. Next to our actual photographic equipment, the place cameras are taken out, and put away, see the same amount, if not more, day-to-day handling…

Read More
Geargondirtinpelican, camera storage, photography backpack, photo gear, photography gear Comment
Death Valley: A Place of a Billion Footsteps
Death Valley: A Place of a Billion Footsteps

Our memories are bookmarked by the ebb and flow of colors that mark the thousands of sunrises and sunsets that we’ve experienced. Each recollection of an arriving, or passing, of our nearest star brings with it a flood of snippets of that day. The conversations. The laughs. The meals. The afternoons we’ve spent in the front cab of the truck because it was freezing and pouring outside. The oohs and awws from stumbling upon a vista worth ooh-ing and aww-ing over…

Read More
gondirtindeath valley, death valley national park, national park, desert, californiaComment
A Man, His Microwaved Hamburger, and His Story
A Man, His Microwaved Hamburger, and His Story

He had a mouthful of gas station hamburger when he stepped out of his dust covered pickup. “WATRUPOWEFCCNGWITTATSOAR” “Excuse me, sir?” “What’re you powering with that solar panel of yours?” I proceeded to tell him that it powers a second battery, then powers our fridge, charges our gadgets, and how we’ve been on the road for two weeks…

Read More
gondirtin Comment