I am Joshua, from northern Virginia! I am a real novice. I have been an outdoorsmen for years: camping, hiking, mountain biking, boating, etc., so overlanding is the logical next step. I don't have a serious rig yet, but am doing some light overlanding in my stock 2015 Honda Civic; it's fine for general dirt and gravel roads in good weather, even some easy forest roads if I am careful. I pulled out the back seats and installed a sleeping platform from driver's seat into the trunk.
I am working on being able to get a better rig though; I am leaning towards a Nissan Frontier Pro-4X, previous generation, though I am also considering a Subaru Forester if I decide I don't want to do anything too extreme.