Cringeworthy Overland: Life on the Road with Paul, Pt. 2
By Paul Nguyen
We’re going to cut right to the chase and continue where we left off from Part 1.
The Video Series: 2024 Highlights, Continued
The rest of the summer was all about staying cool by staying coastal. I’d had my fill of Washington by this point, and it was time to cross the imaginary line down to Oregon to see what the rugged coast of the Beaver State had to offer. Unfortunately, it was extremely difficult to visit Oregon’s seaside. The area had become so saturated with tourists that I was lucky to find a reservable campsite for even a single day at any campground, never mind stringing together two contiguous days in the same spot. I have become somewhat of a master at finding free or improvised camping in amazing and little known spots across the wildlands of the West, but all that went out the window in coastal Oregon. Crowded, developed areas like this always have a dearth of public land for camping. I was thus forced to frequently make my home in a dog park, parking lot, or highway pull-off. Blah!
But the one true highlight of my visit to Oregon was getting an off-road vehicle permit for my Jeep that granted me access to the dunes and beaches.
Next on the nomad agenda was a return to the redwood forests and Mount Lassen in Northern California. These spots are quite familiar to me, and the only thing that seems to change year to year is that these natural areas get more crowded and more expensive as more people discover them. I blame Covid.
It's so interesting to return to the same places, but with a Jeep and trailer, and see what incredible opportunities and challenges this setup creates. As many times as I’d been to Northern California in the past, this was the first visit with a truly capable off-road rig, and a whole new world of adventure opened up to me. And yes, that is, in fact, a banana slug.
After six months of life on the road with Miso, and with temperatures finally getting cool enough across the interior of the U.S. to make trailer life tolerable, I circled back through Flagstaff at the beginning of October to take stock of things, visit the storage unit, do some work and maintenance on the rig, and decide what to unload and what to bring with me for the next leg of the adventure.
No longer having a residence in Flagstaff, it was interesting to camp around the outskirts of my own town and find out how much more a person can see and experience in the same place when they aren't tied to a home or property there. It's quite astounding.
What’s also astounding is how pointless most of your worldly possessions can seem when you’ve been away from them for six months, as you’ll see in my visit to the storage unit.
Being back “home” again gave me a chance to make a few shorter videos without having to go too far. Flagstaff is a breathtaking place, and contrary to many people’s conceptions of Arizona, experiences all four seasons, including a fall foliage season in October. But, the extraordinarily hot summer led to a lackluster leaf-peeping season, and in this video I discuss some of my strategies for dealing with patchy fall foliage as a photographer. Yes: a video that’s actually focused on photography.
By the time November arrived, it was getting too cold to live in the trailer, so it was time to get the wheels rolling once again. At the time of this writing, it’s the Thanksgiving holiday, and I’ve been on the road for nearly 8 full months! My channel has been amassing views and subscribers, and I now have a respectable 19,000 people and counting across the world who actually appreciate my ridiculous takes on outdoor adventure. Perhaps even more impressively, numerous companies now see me as a viable business partner and have been reaching out with product sponsorships. I have started making videos featuring product installations, reviews, and real-world usage.
My growing list of channel sponsors include:
OpenRoad4wd off-road gear
Suparee Jeep lights and accessories
Veeniix drones
TCEK camping chairs
Hooke Road auto parts for off-road vehicles
San Hima camping and overlanding gear
OutfitR outdoor essentials
It’s very validating to see all this support for my YouTube endeavors both from individuals who enjoy the lighthearted portrayals of full-time adventure and from businesses who wish to join forces in mutual promotion and growth. So I guess this is confirmation that I have chosen my new life path correctly, and I won’t be settling down anytime soon.
I appreciate your support as I continue along this journey of storytelling. And rest assured, just because I am making videos does not mean that I am abandoning fine art photography or leading tours. I see the two paths as running side by side and complementing each other quite well. While I will never be as talented or influential as other dual threats and multi-disciplinarians like Bo Jackson, Leonardo da Vinci, or Maya Angelou, I remain inspired by the precedents they have set in not needing to identify themselves by just one skill. And, despite my efforts to delete all of my social media, I have, in a small way, become what I have always dreaded most: An influencer!