Chris here, along with Kayla, a 3 yr pit/shephard mix. She's my ride-or-die; comes to work with me everyday, travels everywhere I go, determines whether or not I attend an event, etc.
I drive a 2011 Toyota Tacoma. Pic attached.
I love the outdoors. My hobbies all revolve around being outside. Exploring and traveling are in my blood. Kayla, as a pup, was found abandoned in the middle of literally nowhere. Don't know anything else about the time she spent surviving in the woods other than she's the only dog I've ever had that goes into a foraging mode (it's actually entertaining to watch her pick and choose which flowers and leaves she's going to eat, or bugs she digs up and either devours or casts aside. She prefers staying outside vs. inside when I'm working, and on the patio or backyard when at home. Suffice it to say, she loves the outdoors as well.
I spent a lot of time in my younger years off-pavement. My parents are US State Dept. retired, so I grew up overseas in under-developed and usually classified as 'danger-posts' countries. Safaris in Africa, a lot of off-pavement travel when we lived in Yemen (before the first Gulf War), and trekking and mountain biking when we were in Nepal as well as some off-roading. Dad had a 1989 2nd gen right-hand drive 4Runner when we lived there, which was the vehicle I started learning how to drive in.
With all of that said, I am a beginner/novice overlander. When it comes to technical driving/operating, recovery, navigating, etc I basically know nothing. I was just a kid, those things were handled by the adults. My role then was not distracting whoever was driving, and keeping myself busy with whatever activities would earn me scout badges. My only real experience off-roading has been on hard-packed mixed surface in 2wd drive vehicles, usually while ripping it vs crawling it (dirt roads when we lived in Poland, limestone and shell in SW Florida where I'm originally from, and hard dry sand/clay out west in Southern Cali and Arizona).
So, even though I feel like i have been overlanding since my childhood years, this introduction post serves as a timestamp marking the actual starting point of a hobby/lifestyle that evidently is supposed to be a huge part of who I am.