Cross-Country RT w/ '17 OR [Photo Heavy]

Hey everyone,

I'm Chris from Madison, WI. Thought I'd do a quick intro thread and share some photos of my '17 TRD OR and a little info about my journey with the truck.

I lived in Los Angeles and with a move to Madison in my near future decided to purchase the truck new in Santa Monica and plan a fun cross-country trip to break it in. I'm new to Toyota but not new to cars as I've been lucky enough to have a professional career in the automotive space. When it came to choosing a new daily driver that could handle weekend camping adventures the choice was easy. I went with Double Cab / Long Bed option because I haul motorcycles and my dogs love the extra room the rear seat gives them.

Fast-forward 3 weeks later and I sold nearly everything I owned (TV, furniture, glassware, bedframe, etc), shipped a few bikes, and anything I had left fit neatly in the bed. I threw my mattress on top, covered it all in a tarp, and hit the road with my trusty pal, Benji.

IMG_7344[/url] by Christopher Bacarella, on Flickr[/IMG]



First stop was a little Oasis in Utah called Toquerville Falls. I read it was OHV 4x4 Vehicle access only so I thought it would be a great way to get used to the truck off road. It was unbelievable and totally to myself (except for a couple Jeeps that came in really late that night).









I decided to get a really cheap 2 person tent and pitch it ontop of my mattress on my journey. BEST. IDEA. EVER.



Awesome spot - highly recommend to drop by if anyone is close to that area every! Next stop was, of course, Moab! I took backroads as much as possible throughout the journey so from here (near St. George) I drove through Zion, Grand Staircase, Capitol Reef, Caineville, then over to Moab.





Shortly after it rained the entire way to Moab so I didn't snap many photos, but here I am at a big group campsite. I made it in too late to get any cool first-come first-serve sites but this wasn't too bad.



I felt pretty good about the trucks capabilities and my comfort level with it so the next morning I headed to Fins-N-Thingz as I thought that would be a great trail to tackle solo. Sorry, not many photos here as I was the only driver!









I didn't want to push my luck and besides a a few scratches and some exhaust dents I made it out perfect! I had about 1,000 miles on my truck at this point...

From here I took backroads into Colorado where I picked up my girlfriend in Denver (she couldn't join the first half of the trip due to work). I hit rain the entire journey but here are a couple photos heading out of Moab while it was still nice.






The rain I hit earlier turned into snow as I gained elevation in Colorado. We found a nice secluded backroad, did some exploring and ended up pulling off Hwy 24 (outside of Vail) at a little campspot called HornSilver in the White River Ntnl Forest.



While here, ran into some amazing locals who were camping with their kids. It was just me and them. My dog ran around with theirs all night, they offered me some beers and we swapped stories around their fire. Turns out one of the guys runs Vail Brewing Company - so YES we had amazing beer all night!!!

If ANY of you are on here thanks for the hospitality(I'm far right back wearing the hat)!!!




Headed out the next morning and from here on out my trip was pretty boring. Not much to see once you head East of Denver into Wisconsin.




We did ditch the camp one night and stayed at an amazing little Winery in the middle of no where named Sage Hill Vineyard in Parks, NE (population 23...yes, 23). Amazing couple who runs it - HIGHLY recommend if you're ever passing through.



That's about it! Now that I'm back in Wisconsin I'm trying to get out and explore as much as I can. I've done a couple trips up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and plan to explore a bit more.




I just recently bought a Tepui RTT and plan to use it all summer with a HUGE trip up to Banff, BC.


Oh yeah - this is my entire trip sped up into 2 minutes if anyone is curious! Otherwise that's about it!

Excited to join the forum and meet some awesome people.

Chris

 

Welcome to TW...Nice story,sounds like an amazing trip.I have a son who lives in Madison and it’s a beautiful place.

 

I really enjoy the sell-everything-and-send-it road trips (Mainly because I want to do the same thing). Besides the interest about the truck can you share your reasons for selling everything and hitting the road? Pardon if I mis-interpreted this but based off of the mattress it doesn't exactly seem like your trip was planned ahead of time

Everything paid off?

 

Thanks!!

Of course! A big reason for selling everything was due to the fact I didn't own much of anything with true value (being 27 years old - mostly used furniture, pretty minimal, etc). I moved to California after leaving Amazon to work for a new company - things were absolutely amazing there but I'd been working behind-the-scenes with a business partner and after a lot of planning decided to start my own Digital Marketing Agency. LA was pretty saturated, I had roots in the Midwest (Michigan born / raised) and even roots in Madison, WI (during my university years I was an intern at Trek Bikes here in WI). I thought the city would be a great place to launch my new business.

Funny thing is half of my clients are based in California! But at least i'm paying midwest rent. Long story short, 8 months into my new venture and couldn't be happier.


EDIT: I kept my mattress because it was the most expensive thing I owned and it's crazy comfortable. ha!


-Chris

 

wow. thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for sharing! Nice truck!
Welcome to TW!

 

Great pics, looks like a fun trip.

 

Cool road trip, thanks for share it. Welcome!