walkaround video featured on the Overland Bound YouTube channel<\/a>, you can see he\u2019s wearing a brace on his wrist. After healing from the heel fracture that left him without a job, Neil attended an Off the Grid rally. On the return trip from the rally, Neil fell from the ladder of his CVT rooftop tent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI fell half the height of the ladder, probably three or four feet. But I\u2019m 220 pounds, and I landed on my wrist, and it didn\u2019t like that very much,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\nThe rest of the trip home, Neil said instead of climbing into the RTT, he slept under the tailgate of his truck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAt first I thought, \u2018Oh I\u2019ll be fine,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201c\u2019I\u2019ll just put some ice on it.\u2019\u201d When he was home and could have a doctor look at the wrist, he was told it wasn\u2019t going to heal quickly. \u201cMy [physical therapist] told me I did one of the most destructive injuries you can do to a wrist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe healing process took over two years and required two surgeries. The doctor also told him if he has one more bad fall or a bend of the wrist the wrong way, he\u2019s going to have to get another surgery that will be a full fusion. \u201cYou won\u2019t like that,\u201d the doctor added.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0573-1-1024x756.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nHe now travels with a Gazelle Tent to keep low to the ground and avoid any further injuries to his wrist.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nNeil has been living off a budget that makes it difficult to keep a hobby like overlanding going, let alone doing any kind of build project on a rig.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIf I can wing a tank of gas, that\u2019s usually when I go,\u201d Neil said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNeil also has a creative mind that drives him. He finds ways to repurpose materials for his truck that can get him amenities he\u2019s looking for. Projects he\u2019s worked on in the past include a custom slider box made from a repurposed entertainment center he found at a Goodwill.<\/span><\/p>\nHis truck features a navigation Ram mount he got off a clearance shelf for $15. He also has one for his phone, which he bought for $5. The CVT tent\u2014Neil\u2019s biggest splurge that he sold for worry of another fall that would permanently cripple his wrist\u2014was protected from branches and other trail debris with an old snowboard he mounted to his truck\u2019s rack. And rather than paying for an expensive side awning, he used a custom rigged tarp cut to six-foot sections and held up with poles he bought from a hardware store.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI have a lot of ideas,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of them are good, some not so good. I wanted the fancy rigs I see in videos, but I just can\u2019t afford it.\u201d Rather than go without, Neil just finds ways to improvise.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0615-1024x778.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
You can now find Neil trekking through the PNW in his 4 Runner.<\/em><\/p>\nHis creativity, he said, has just always been there. \u201cI used to draw a lot, and I got pretty good,\u201d he said. \u201cI started taking photos and doing videos for YouTube and Instagram for that creative outlet. When I don\u2019t have what I need, I think about what I need to buy or what I could find to make it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIn addition to exercising his creative mind, Neil found the outdoors helped his state of mind as well. He was in a prolonged depressive state when he heard about an Overland Bound meetup nearby in August 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s when I first crashed the party,\u201d he said. Neil said he was hunting for a tent online when he came across an Overland Bound video, which led him to the meetup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI was too shy. I don\u2019t talk to people ever. But some kind of leap-of-faith pushed me to go, and I crashed the party, so to speak.\u201d Neil said he felt a bit like an outsider when he arrived, but soon met another Overland Bound member who greeted him with a hug.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cHe told me where to camp, told me not to worry about anything, and I signed up for Overland Bound the day I got home from the trip.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cOverland Bound helped me more than they will ever know,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t even say in words what Overland Bound did for this person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHe\u2019s been trying to keep the good tidings going, paying it forward by improving the world on each trip he\u2019s able to take. \u201cThe Trail Guardian program is a big deal to me. In the Pacific Northwest, homelessness is a big problem. Not only is it in the cities, but it\u2019s moved into the forest. Some of these people when they leave, they leave everything behind. A couple months later, the animals have gotten to it and taken stuff here and there. It gets to the point where no one wants to camp there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0594-1024x998.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nNeil said when he goes, if he sees a campsite that\u2019s obviously been deserted, he fills his truck with gear, garbage and anything left behind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s my goal when I go out. I try and leave it better than I found it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nA big thank you to Neil for sharing part of his story and for being such a postitive member of the Overland Bound community.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meet Neil. He’s an incredible human both on and off-road, a resourceful outdoorsman, and the Overland Bound member of the month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":39933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[56,89],"tags":[45,53,28,58,75,76,47,59,73,60],"class_list":["post-39928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-members","category-featured","tag-adventure","tag-camping","tag-expedition-2","tag-off-road","tag-offroad","tag-outdoors","tag-overland","tag-overland-bound","tag-overland-vehicle","tag-overlanding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/marketing-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/marketing-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/marketing-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/marketing-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/marketing-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/marketing-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/marketing-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/39933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/marketing-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/marketing-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/marketing-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.overlandbound.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Neil-Profile_1.3.1-576x1024.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\n